mizzee Loc: Boston,Ma

Living on the edge! I carry three 32 cards. On a trip, I download every night to my computer and external hard drive, check to make sure that everything is OK, and then reformat the card in camera. If I have a set itinerary, I will have set up folders for each stop in advance.

gwilliams6

That is what I do also. I download to my laptop and/or external drive every night PLUS keep the shots on the SD crds until I get home. that way I have two copies with me at all times, until i get home. This has been a tried and true formula for me for years as a pro. Carry extra cards, 128gb or 64gb or so, and change them. Cards do go bad and can get lost. I dont use 256 gb cards even though my A7RIII is 42 megapixels. Just dont want to risk too much on one card. Cheers

Kuzano

I carry two extra 32 Gb cards in a slot in my wallet. I may not have a camera with me at all times, but I always have those two SD cards. I shoot with a 32 Gb in camera.

There is a wedding photographer in the next town over. I bought his film camera's when he switched to digital. His personal digital horror story is shooting a wedding on one card. Got home and the card failed. No recovery. Not a total loss, because he still had the two film camera's I purchased later, and his assistant backed him up on film. By the time I purchased his film gear he had a second digital camera and rotates smaller cards at all shoots. That was about ten years ago.

How many of those trips you take do you want to have to do over to get the same or similar shots again due to card failure.

Elsiss Loc: Bayside, NY, Boynton Beach, Fl.

My D750 uses two cards in 2 slots. I prefer to use 32 gb cards and change them as they fill up. I usually have 6 to use on a trip.

Nikon1201

I have 2 32gb in my 7100 but I always download all my photos daily but I carry extra cards just in case . I also have a service that backs up to the cloud.

tboro

I know it is exhausting, both mentally and physically, to change a memory card and/or battery. It must take between 30/60 seconds to accomplish the task. So why stop at the 128GB ? Go for the max.

jwest Loc: South Dakota

I use mostly 16GB and some 32GB cards (if doing a high-volume shoot) so I can change them frequently. This prevents a failure, loss, or other catastrophic situation. Changing a card takes seconds and provides you with security from losing ALL of your shots.

gwilliams6

The reason not to go for the max is well known by pros, you dont want all your shots on the same card just in case one card goes down or gets corrupted and you lose your whole take. I know your comment tboro was tongue-in-cheek. lol

lsimpkins Loc: SE Pennsylvania

I have to agree. Although I have never had a card failure, I hesitate to put too much of my images on any one card. I use nothing bigger than 32GB cards. Once a card is more than half full, I consider changing it in the morning before heading out for a new day. In the OP's case, using a different card for each park or site would be a compromise that would minimize the loss if a card failed.

woodworkerman Loc: PA to FL

In my 50 years experience on computers, I have seen hundreds of failures of computers, hard drives and many versions of memory storage. When I travel and shoot, I have many memory cards. After all, when you consider the cost of the trip, the expense of multiple memory cards is insignificant. I also don't use large storage cards so that I have to have more cards. Losing a "small" amount of data from a bad card is much preferrable to losing a lot of data.

At the end of each day, I copy the days photos to my laptop computer and then to an attached external hard drive. A full card (or one with lots of, or special pictures) goes in a separate compartment of my camera bag not to be used again, and then I load my camera with a different card taken from a different compartment in my bag. I do this after each day's shoot. Therefore, I have 3 copies of all my pictures.

When I return home, I have multiple large terabyte drives attached to my desktop computer (I like G-Drives) and ALL trip pictures are copied to at least two of those drives.

Only AFTER I have confirmed that all my trip pictures have been saved successfully at home, do I erase my memory cards, laptop and traveling external drive for use on my next trip. And my backups to multiple HD locations has given me the security I want.

I use labeled folders on my computers identifying what's stored there. That makes it easy to locate what I am looking for.

jaycoffman Loc: San Diego

My point too. It takes about 10 seconds to swap cards and because it's fast and very small it can't get dust into the sensor like changing lenses does on a dslr (I know you're not using a dslr). Like others said, my practice is to take about six 32 gb cards and switch them out and store them securely as soon as they are full. And I'm not far off you--I generally take 6000 to 8000 pics on a three week trip. The one time I miscalculated was in South America and i was able to purchase several more cards in the middle of nowhere quite easily.

bthomas42 Loc: North Ridgeville Ohio

I use a different 16GB card for each day of the trip and also carry a couple of spare cards for occasional time that I fill the card that I started the day with. On a recent 10 day trip I took 15 cards

Kuzano

Not quite the same, but I know a lady who went to Italy. When she got back she put her memory card in her computer. Big card on a point and shoot, with a tiny viewfinder. Hated the LCD.

She found she had cut the heads off of every person she shot for the whole trip. Is NOT contemplating another trip to Italy, but did start using the LCD.

OK, not a memory card problem (?) but as I said, how many of your trips would you take over after losing over 20,000 images due to card failure.

tboro

bthomas42: I basically do the same. However, I’m afraid the 16GB may soon follow the 8 into oblivion (or at least hard to find). Better stock up now. B&H now has the Lexar 2 pack back in stock.

bpulv Loc: Buena Park, CA

I use 256GB cards (SDHC and CF) in my D800, but one card is backing up the other so I have a copy of every exposure made when I take each picture. Your camera only has one card slot, so I would heed the advice of those that are telling you to either backup to another device every day or use several smaller cards.