Safe CF card handling

[Randy Stout]

Good day all:

I am curious about how folks handle their empty and full cards, while out on a shoot. In the past, I have been a low volume shooter, so rarely had more than one or two cards in play at one time, but have found that with birds I may have four or more going on at once.

So, what foolproof, failsafe techniques do you use to prevent card mix ups, reinserting a full card, etc! What a nightmare, to reload a full card, format it, and lose all the great pictures.

I have some ideas, but want to hear what the group thinks.


As a related question, how large of cards do people prefer? I hate the idea of too large of cards, for fear of failure wiping out hundreds of images, vs. a smaller number. I currently use 4 GB Extreme IVs, with my D300 on Raw.

Thanks!!

[Robert O'Toole]

I am curious about how folks handle their empty and full cards, while out on a shoot. In the past, I have been a low volume shooter, so rarely had more than one or two cards in play at one time, but have found that with birds I may have four or more going on at once.

What ever you do, throw away the little clear plastic snap cases the cards ship with right now if you still use them, and buy a card case. I use the black Canon soft card cases.

Do yourself a huge favor and buy 8GB or larger so you will not have to worry about changing cards in the field. The prices are insanly low now. I think you should worry more about missing an opportunity when changing cards, or losing or dropping a card than any of the fears of losing data from a large capacity card.

So, what foolproof, failsafe techniques do you use to prevent card mix ups, reinserting a full card, etc! What a nightmare, to reload a full card, format it, and lose all the great pictures.

I have some ideas, but want to hear what the group thinks.

I used to use the white (back) up to indicate empty and formatted, and the top (cover) up to indicate full. I could look in my case and tell which are full and which are empty in a second.

As a related question, how large of cards do people prefer? I hate the idea of too large of cards, for fear of failure wiping out hundreds of images, vs. a smaller number. I currently use 4 GB Extreme IVs, with my D300 on Raw.

Would try not to worry about it. For the last year I have stopped using smaller than 8GB and I couldnt be happier. If the camera writes the files completely, the write light goes out, the image is there. There really isnt a way to "wipe" the image out. The only way to get rid of the image is to write over it. If you format the card or the card becomes corrupt you can extract the images.
Now that I have 8GB or larger I cant imagine having to use 4GB or smaller. Considering how little the 8GB card cost is over a 4GB card. it is a small price to pay for the freedom from missing opportunites fumbling changing cards and the dangers or dropping losing them in the change process.

I use Sandisk Extreme IV 8GB+.

Robert

[Rocky Sharwell]

Randy,

I use a variety of Sandisk Extreme cards which I keep in a Thinktank holder. When a card is full or otherwise taken out of a camera for downloading I put the card into the wallet reversed so that you see the white side. When I am done downloading the card it goes back into the holder with the red/black side up.

When I remove a card and insert it into the camera I take a quick look at the images to make sure I have seen them on the laptop screen.

If anything wierd happens to a card--such as an error message--or if I think I might have dones something such as change batteries or lenses while the camera is writing to the card it immediately goes into the bottom row of the holder white side out.

One rule that I have learned is that no matter how tired I am- is to download the cards to the lapop no matter how tired I am. Waiting until the next morning of the shoot just doesn't work for me.

[Jeff Hammond]

I'm with Rocky on this one (sorry Robert!)...I use a Gepe card safe, which hold four CF cards in a watertight case. I tend to place them in the card safe with the label up when they are formatted and then turn them over when they come put of the camera. Like Robert said, it is easy to know which are ready and which need to be downloaded.

I am a little partial to the waterproof case, but would recommend the 'flip' technique regardless of the carry case you choose.

[Roger Clark]

OK, I'll be different. I've never seen a card case I liked. I probably should pay attention to what card cases others are using. The ones I've seen seems to me like cards could fall out in the field, potentially in water/mud/dirt, which could be really bad. So I keep my cards in the little plastic cases. I use a golf tee pouch with 3 zippers. Each pocket zips along the top, which minimizes the chance of something falling out. Keep it in an inside pocket, but I can clip it on outside if needed. In the three pockets, I organize as follows:

1) Cards that are formatted and empty.
2) cards that are full and need to be downloaded.
3) cards that have been downloaded so could be re-used.

So when a card is close to filling, I grab one out of the formatted pouch, take it out of the case, then put the full card in the case and pop it into pouch 2. At the end of the session/day I take out how many cards I think I'll need the next day and format them and put them in pouch 1. I download the the cards from the day and put them in pouch 3. The next day, if I run out of formatted cards, I can go to pouch 3 if needed.

This method serves 2 purposes: 1) keeping the cards in the plastic cases minimizes the chance of damage by static electricity, plus more protection from dirt and water, and 2) I keep data on cards longer (pouch 3) as another backup.

I carry enough cards that I typically do not have to erase any cards during a couple of week trip. I currently have over 80 GBytes in 4-GB cards. When I back up, I back up to a minimum of 2 hard drives before erasing cards.

I switch cards a little before full. I find that on my 1D Mark II, as a card gets close to filling , the write rate drops fast:
http://www.clarkvision.com/imagedeta...ash_card_speed

Roger

[Chris Knight]

I been using the black soft cases that came with the sandisk cards. I do the same when a card is full it goes in white label up. I hold 4 CF cards in this case that fits well in the pocket or clip it to camera strap. Download through Nikon Transfer that removes it from the card on download. Always check just be sure before formatting.