burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

Truth told, my GH4 has one slot. My kid's GH5 has two. Neither of us cares.

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

bikinkawboy Loc: north central Missouri

Sounds like I’ll get me one new high capacity SD card. Thanks everyone!

rmorrison1116 Loc: Near Valley Forge, Pennsylvania

I have been using CF cards for years and have never had a single issue with them. Never once damaged a card or a camera, not once. Not forcing a memory card into a card slot is simple common sense.

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

Quick reply -

"SD cards tend to be much cheaper than CF cards, but CF cards tend to be faster and more durable than the smaller fragile SD cards. SD cards are easier to misplace or damage, but if you keep your memory cards in a memory card wallet (as you should) it shouldn't be an issue."

https://www.partitionwizard.com/partitionmagic/cf-card-vs-sd.html
https://www.kevinpepperphotography.com/blog/2016/5/1/which-memory-card-is-better-a-compact-flash-or-an-sd-card
https://www.nachnet.com/sd-or-cf-which-memory-card/
https://www.photolisticlife.com/2013/07/16/sd-cards-vs-compact-flash/

Jack47 Loc: Ontario

Use the SD slot

Jack 13088 Loc: Central NY

You can store a second SD card in the CF slot but I wouldn’t recommend it. If you were to put the card in upside down the connector would not make contact and cause trouble. True, but just kidding if you haven’t figured it out .

bluezzzzz Loc: Stamping Ground, KY

I use a Canon 5Dmk4 which has one CF slot and one SD slot. I strongly second what TriX says about being careful about the camera pins for the CF card. I bent one once and was lucky enough to be able to straighten it without damage.

This led me to the following strategy: Setting the camera to shoot RAW simultaneously to both cards and using the CF card as a backup to the SD card. In normal circumstances the CF card never leaves the camera, and the SD card is read and ingested via the SD slot on my computer. When all is safely on the computer and backed up, then I put the SD card back in the camera and do a format on both cards, ready for another outing.

There have been a few times out in the field when I ran out of card space and had neglected to carry spares. In these rare cases I was able to remove the SD card, put it in my pocket, reformat the CF card in the camera and carry on shooting. A bit risky, but no more than only shooting on one card to begin with.

I can get about 600 RAW files on a 32GB SanDisk Extreme Pro card. I've settled on 32GB cards as my standard size.

Marshall

Fotoserj Loc: St calixte Qc Ca

As my mentor recommend, i do not remove the card, i transfer via a cable

Retired CPO Loc: Travel full time in an RV

My first DSLR was a Nikon D200. One CF card slot. Since I was new to digital, I didn't think twice about it. Just bought a couple extra CF cards and went about my business. And never had a problem with any of them. My current cameras have two slots. I didn't even consider buying two different kinds of cards. I have accumulated about a dozen SD cards and ignore the CF slot. That's just me tho. The easiest, most direct way to get the job done is the best way to get the job done, and no worries!

chasgroh Loc: Buena Park, CA

...me, too. Lots of "...the sky is falling" advice re. CF cards in my opinion. They are made to fit one way and that's it, but that's the same for *all* cards of all types, eh?

elee950021 Loc: New York, NY

My 2 Nikon D810s are my latest go-to camera as well and I use the CF cards that I've had for years starting with my D700, D3s, etc. CF cards tend to be more expensive and not available everywhere.

On the other hand, SD cards are less expensive and ubiquitous, available just about everywhere! In terms of pricing, 64 GB (170MB/s) Sandisk cards are currently going for 17 bucks at Amazon and B&H while 128 GBs are about $30. I personally think they're a steal considering what I've paid in the past for lesser cards!

For the hell of it, I once downloaded 40 MB NEF images via the D810 and a USB cord and the times were not that bad but I have laptops with Win 10, i7 6th Generation processors and that probably makes a difference.

Be well! Ed

DirtFarmer Loc: Escaped from the NYC area, back to MA

All my cameras use 2 cards. And one of them is CF+SD. It's not either/or, I use them both in backup mode. I take one card out and use a reader for download. The other card never leaves the camera unless the first card gets toasted somehow (which hasn't happened yet). When the files are downloaded, edited, and backed up, I format both cards in the camera. Ready for the next shoot.

So I want both cards to be the same size. And I don't really care for humongous size cards (in terms of storage). I used to use 16 Gig cards. Then the sensors got bigger and the files got bigger so I went to 32 Gig cards and the 16 Gig cards became spares. It happened again so I'm now using 64 Gig cards in the big cameras and 32 in the lesser used cameras. 32s are spares. I exceed the 64 Gig card size maybe once every 3 years so it's big enough for me.

TriX Loc: Raleigh, NC

I would agree except that I’ve seen it happen so many times. One issue is that there have been two thicknesses of CF cards, so guides tend to be wide enough to allow either type, leading to some slop, and you don’t have to push very hard to bend a pin - ther are lots of them and if even one is slightly misaligned, it will be bent flat. Now if you’re really lucky as I was on the one I bent, it’s pin 1, which is a ground and duplicated and it didn’t short another pin. BTW, I’m a skilled electronic tech and have been for at least 60 years and I don’t force delicate things, so if I can bend one, it’s not surprising that others have had this unpleasant experience.

tgreenhaw

Get two and a camera strap with a holder for the extra and spare battery :-)