Canisdirus

That's because your camera is not asking much of it...mine does.

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

Curious - In what manner?

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

Large capacity memory cards primarily are used for VIDEO. Pro video capture uses enormous amounts of data. The larger the format, the more data is required. 4K uses four times as much storage as 1080P. 8K uses four times as much storage as 4K!

Then the "bit rate" — how accurately fine details and color are recorded — steps up the demand even further. SDXC UHS II cards are good up to 600Mbps.

800Mbps and higher speeds require something faster and larger. Some cameras record at 1.9 Gigabits per second. They are practical only with CF Express 'B' Cards or external SSD drives of 512GB or larger.

I would never use a flash memory device for LONG TERM storage. By long term, I mean longer than a few months. That data belongs on a conventional spinning platter hard drive, which is much more reliable over the long term, and much less costly per GB.

If I'm recording stills only, I'll use 64GB cards. I carry 8 of them. When recording video, I'll use 128GB or 256GB cards. I have four of them.

After transferring data from card to local storage, I check to be sure everything copied properly, with no corruption! Then I back it up, *before* reformatting the card in the exact camera where it will be used next. That's important — while the formatting is done to a universal standard, the data structures used by different camera models differs. Cameras write hidden files and directory structures on a card during the formatting process. You want the correct ones for each camera body.

steve49 Loc: massachusetts

The only time I have killed a 32 was in Iceland when the terns were mating.
I filled the card in under an hour. It was amazing.
I pretty much always have a half a dozen spares and a few batteries waiting.

daledo Loc: Billings, MT

For primary camera I use a 160gb in slot 1 for raw photos and 512gb for video in slot 2. Format every month or so depending on usage. Since starting this routine, I have never had a storage problem. However, if I wait too long to reformat, I end up bogging down the postprocessing workflow with too many files to search through to find the ones I want to edit.

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

Great advice...

Cards are CHEAP compared to film and processing. A decent SanDisk 64GB Extreme PRO UHS-I SDXC card costs $14.50, less than a roll of Ektachrome 100 film ($22 at B&H) OR processing that film ($21 at The Darkroom Dot Com)!

User ID

I use the biggest card that each camera can handle. I try to be as far from "Card Full" as possible, at all times. If all of my cards are nevervbeyond half full, then theyre all about the right size.

WHY ? Learn how solid state memory works. Im not about to do that much typing. Learn that and youll know the "why" of it.

I often hear of Hawgsters carrying multiple spare 32gb cards for traveling, and that they routinely reformat cards. Thaz all a result of UHH mythology.

I use "huge"(?) cards, no spares, and NEVER reformat a card to return it to its camera. All cameras have a "Delete All" menu command, as well as a "Format" command. The two are NOT interchangeable.

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

I stay away from "full" also.

I do carry spares, only because the camera can't work with anything over 16GB.
I haven't re-formatted a card in 12 years.
And I delete card files via the computer, sometimes in-camera if checking the shot and I don't like it.

CHG_CANON Loc: the Windy City

Use what works for you. I think I have 6 x 32GB cards (CF), not on purpose, but just grew over time. Probably, I used to have multiple cameras that used these cards, now consolidated to two bodies that share these cards. I too get around 1000 RAW files to this size card. I almost always fill a card when shooting an airshow, or BIF, or insects on flowers. I'm not going to go buy larger cards just to have larger cards. I just assure all the cards are Delete-All before heading out to a situation where I'll need more than 1.

If I had a green field, I'd probably have 64GB or 128GB cards, depending on what brand-new camera I'd buy, with no current equipment. But, I don't have a green field, nor a winning lottery ticket they announced last night.

Basil Loc: New Mexico

I typically use SD cards that are 32.0×24.0×2.1 mm. But seriously, I have a mix of cards. For my SD cards, I have a couple 512GB and a few 128GB. For the CFExpress slot I have 512GB and a 256GB as a backup (these I use for video).

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

Jack 13088 Loc: Central NY

I guess you don’t struggle with this question.

I use the ones in my bag which the camera estimates are 1.1K. Since many are years old I bet they are much cheaper now.

R.G. Loc: Scotland

If a card fails you lose everything on it. The smaller the capacity the smaller the loss when they fail. Leaving stuff on a card long term is tempting fate. Some might say the risk is small but others will tell you they've learned the hard way and now play safe. There's something to be said for downloading at the end of every day if possible, and if you're doing that you probably don't need large capacity cards.

If you use your camera to shoot video then large capacity cards have an obvious advantage. If it's stills only and you can download at the end of every day, the chances are that 32GB is plenty. For most people it would be, even when using multi-shot techniques. And for the few that might shoot more than 1000 frames in a single day, changing the card isn't that big a deal. 32GB cards aren't expensive - even the fast ones - so having a spare or two isn't prohibitively expensive (and it's also a good idea).

JBRIII

Mostly 64GB, have used 256 for solar eclipses where I use bracketing and take as many as 7 images every 15secs for several hours, overkill even here, but don't want to change a card. 256 in action cams used during Snorkeling.

Never reuse vacation chips, third backup, at least two hard drives plus the chips. Why worry about the cost if a few chips compared to the trip.

Chips can become useless after many uses, residual charge build up? Takes a lot, but possible.

Jack 13088 Loc: Central NY

I’m a rebel so I reformat the card in the computer right after import and a copy has been backed up off site via DropBox. I increment a a count in the volume label so if one ever fails I’ll know how many times it was formatted. Unless the label is also unreadable. DUH