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How big an SD card is best for a big trip?
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Jun 22, 2018 17:09:01   #
BobIn
 
I use a 128GB SD card for my Nikon Coolpix P900, Sandisk Extreme sdxc with 90mb speed.
I go on 3 week trips and shoot around 8000 pictures plus video at National Parks.
Next week is Badlands, Glacier, Yellowstone and Theodore National.
On a 10 mile hike, I don't want to stop to change my memory card.
Any comments or expert advice on this strategy?

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Jun 22, 2018 17:12:46   #
Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States
 
I would never put all my eggs in one basket.
I have eight cards that change out every day/every other day, depending on how much is on them.
I have no problem with changing one in the middle of the day if necessary. There is always some kind of "break" at some point.

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Jun 22, 2018 17:20:24   #
PhotoKurtz Loc: Carterville, IL
 
Good thought to carry extras. Who knows what might happen. I once dropped a micro SD card from a Canon Elf while camping. The next day I discovered it in my shoelaces... I carry a laptop on my trips and download to an external HD every evening. I try not to erase SD cards until I have gotten home and done an additional backup.

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Jun 22, 2018 17:31:36   #
harlequin2
 
You can get a portable, battery powered hard drive with an SD card slot that will back up your stuff. Just plug your SD card into it and it transfers at about 30 MB/sec. Do a back-up every night and you are good to go!
Here's a typical one:
https://www.hypershop.com/products/hyperdrive-colorspace-udma3

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Jun 22, 2018 17:36:23   #
dirtpusher Loc: tulsa oklahoma
 
Depends how many files your willing to loose if card crashes

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Jun 22, 2018 17:39:29   #
dcampbell52 Loc: Clearwater Fl
 
BobIn wrote:
I use a 128GB SD card for my Nikon Coolpix P900, Sandisk Extreme sdxc with 90mb speed.
I go on 3 week trips and shoot around 8000 pictures plus video at National Parks.
Next week is Badlands, Glacier, Yellowstone and Theodore National.
On a 10 mile hike, I don't want to stop to change my memory card.
Any comments or expert advice on this strategy?


Like Longshadow.. I never put all of my eggs in one basket or all of my pictures on one card. I carry it further.. I have a Nikon D610, a Nikon D7100 and my wife's Nikon D7000.. I have 64gb cards in both slots on all 3 cameras.. I also carry 6 extra cards 32gb (all are either Lexar or Sandisk SD cards). I also carry my laptop to the hotel with a 4tb external USB hard drive and Wi-Fi. I have a WD Cloud drive at home so I get the hotel/motel Wi-Fi or go to a restaurant or other location that offers free Wi-Fi and import ALL of my images from the cards in the cameras to my laptop/external drive. I also transfer all of the images from there to my WD Cloud back home and once I have verified that all did as planned I format the cards for the next day. This means that I have fresh cards in the cameras.. fresh backup cards and not only have the images in my hotel/motel room but have a good backup of them back in Clearwater Florida. Having the 2 cards (64gb) in each camera, I have NEVER used all of one card much less the second internal or had to go to my backup 32gb cards.. But, I have the spares in my camera bag and available if needed. I do rotate the 64gb cards to make sure that they are all working correctly and I do take my spare 32gb cards and shoot/reformat them occasionally to verify them. BUT (and this is important) I never ever start out a day's shooting with the images from the day before. If I have a card go bad or get lost, I am assured that I am only losing that day's work on one camera.

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Jun 22, 2018 17:49:11   #
appealnow Loc: Dallas, Texas
 
I travel frequently. I take 32gb cards usually for my Nikon D5300, because I am afraid of having a card go bad and don't want to lose many shots. For my DX camera, shooting jpeg and RAW simultaneously, I have never started with a fresh card and filled it in one day of shooting. I take lots of shots, multiples because I never know what will turn out to be a keeper. I also take along one of those little fabric card carry things that I buy at the camera store that will store up to 9 cards. I use the hook to my belt buckle and the thing is in my pocket. I carry two extra cards that way at all times just in case I need to change cards.

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Jun 22, 2018 17:51:34   #
Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States
 
dirtpusher wrote:
Depends how many files your willing to loose if card crashes



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Jun 22, 2018 18:01:17   #
Jesu S
 
BobIn wrote:
I use a 128GB SD card for my Nikon Coolpix P900, Sandisk Extreme sdxc with 90mb speed.
I go on 3 week trips and shoot around 8000 pictures plus video at National Parks.
Next week is Badlands, Glacier, Yellowstone and Theodore National.
On a 10 mile hike, I don't want to stop to change my memory card.
Any comments or expert advice on this strategy?



If your camera has dual card slots, and you are using the second card as a back-up, I see no problem with using a 128GB card.

However, it takes less than a minute to swap cards. Unless you are hiking as part of a race, you should be able to spare that amount of time to change cards.

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Jun 22, 2018 18:19:59   #
rgrenaderphoto Loc: Hollywood, CA
 
BobIn wrote:
I use a 128GB SD card for my Nikon Coolpix P900, Sandisk Extreme sdxc with 90mb speed.
I go on 3 week trips and shoot around 8000 pictures plus video at National Parks.
Next week is Badlands, Glacier, Yellowstone and Theodore National.
On a 10 mile hike, I don't want to stop to change my memory card.
Any comments or expert advice on this strategy?


Your Coolpix is 16 Mp, so a 128 Gb SD could conservatively hold 22,888 JPEG or 2,288 uncompressed RAW images (per SanDisk). So for 8000 potential images, you would have to carry 4 ea 128 Gb cards. I think, for your use, a larger number of 64 Gb cards makes more sense. That gives you almost 1200 shots. Unless you take a picture of every Tom, Dick and Harry Squirrel it should be enough for a 10 mile hike.

Like harlequin2 said, a portable hard disk with an SD card reader for backing up the day's shots when you get back to your base of operations at night, is a godsend. I have a Western Digital Passport Pro 2 Tb drive with an SD slot that will back up inserted SD cards or XQD cards from a card reader. It has the added benefit of being able to view your images on an iPad without having to copy them over as JPEG files. Or, on a recent 12 hr flight to France, stream movies as MP4 files for entertainment. WD's My Cloud app allows you to administer the drive.

LaCie is about to release the Boss, a similar drive with a built in LCD screen for controlling the device.

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Jun 22, 2018 18:22:32   #
kskarma Loc: Topeka, KS
 
The size of SD card I use is 7/8" X 1 1/4"...these fit just perfectly...!

Wait....maybe I did not understand the question.....sorry..!

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Jun 22, 2018 19:14:45   #
Bill_de Loc: US
 
Longshadow wrote:
I would never put all my eggs in one basket.
I have eight cards that change out every day/every other day, depending on how much is on them.
I have no problem with changing one in the middle of the day if necessary. There is always some kind of "break" at some point.






How long can it take to swap cards?

---

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Jun 22, 2018 19:17:59   #
harlequin2
 
Although I suggested a portable hard drive, I use an old netbook computer, an eMachines e350 which is quite worthless these days, but makes an excellent portable hard drive. It has Windows 10 installed (cut down version) and I upgraded it to a 300 GB hard drive. It has a SD card reader.
I use 32GB SD cards in my camera which hold about 1400 images and I copy each to the netbook each day, plus keep the originals on the cards. The netbook battery is good for several hours and can be plugged in to charge anywhere. Comes in handy for checking emails (where there's WiFi) too!
Of course, if you're wealthy, just buy a Hyperdrive.

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Jun 22, 2018 19:20:43   #
BobIn
 
Thanks for doing the math for the number of pictures that a 128GB SD card holds at 16MB per pic. The Coolpix900 does not do raw so 22,000+ capacity is overkill.
A 64GB SD card would be perfect, BUT I will also be shooting some video as well so 128MB would offer the extra capacity. Two 64GB cards would offer me some insurance on not losing all my work.

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Jun 22, 2018 19:28:26   #
linsee69
 
Just remember the bigger the card that went bad the more you louse

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