[FarmerJim]

Odd question.

Years ago I was using a Nikon camera with a compact flash memory card recording and documenting a live event, when I noticed that my image count went from the 200's to 12. I pulled the card and put another one in and kept shooting. Data recovery software was needed to extract and save (thankfully) all of the photographs.

Since then, I have been hyper-aware of the images on my memory cards.

I tend to buy nothing larger than 16 GB. If one fills up, I change to another one. If I am shooting over multiple days, the new day always gets a new empty card. I may come home with images scattered over half a dozen cards, but I know that all of them are safe. In the event of something happening similar to the CF incident, I have reduced my risk of overwriting a prized image with another one.

I would hate to have a card issue with 40 or 100 gigs of images on a card and lose some or all (perhaps once in a lifetime) images.

Am I being paranoid, overly cautious, or shooting smart?
What do you do?

[VoiceOfReason]

I keep a pair of 64gb in the K3 and a pair of 128 in the K1. If one fails I have backup on the other even if there is a chance those would only be jpgs. I use a 32 in the K-01.

[jpzk]

Am I being paranoid, overly cautious, or shooting smart?
What do you do?

I have used 8 and 16 GB cards for all my Pentax cameras for a number of years now.
Eventually, I went with 16 BG cards most of the time, the 8GB were just not enough storage, and finally tried a couple of 32 GB cards for my K3.

To make a long story a short one:
16 GB is plenty ... I'd hate to loose that much ! Cheaper too.
32 GB is risky ... but "handy".

I find that the larger the storage, the more you risk loosing a whole lot more! (personal opinion).

[jatrax]

I used 8 or 16gb cards on the K-5, 16 or 32gb with the K-3 and now have a pair of 64gb cards in the K-1. The amount of images per card has stayed roughly the same but the size of the card has increased because of the file size.

While I agree it is good to minimize the number of images at risk on one card, I have changed my mind somewhat as just because you limit the number of images per card does not mean that the image you really want will still not be on the card that goes bad. I rarely shoot more than a single card on any trip or shoot so for me it is not really an issue. I find myself being far more selective in what I shoot with the K-1 as the file size is much larger and as I get older I find I have less time to process multiple images of the same thing. So, I've slowed down and try to shoot it right with less images.

I only buy Sandisk Extreme Pro and have never had a card error with any of them dating back to the k-5. Which makes me worry even less about card failure.

[RGlasel]

Am I being paranoid, overly cautious, or shooting smart?

Flash memory cards have a built-in disk checker that avoids storing data in bad sectors. As the card gets close to being full, it becomes harder to avoid bad sectors, the risk of problems goes up fast and the card slows down in direct proportion. As long as you keep your 16 GB cards from getting full, you should be fine. If you are shooting 1000 images with your K-5 before you have a chance to download them to another device, you will fill up at least one card and if you don't want to switch cards while you are shooting, you should use cards with a bigger capacity. Another consideration is that flash memory can only be written on so many times and larger capacity cards have to be erased less often to keep from getting filled up, so 16 GB cards might not be such a good idea after all.

Once you get into 64 GB cards and larger, they use multi-level cells to store data which apparently is less reliable than single-level cells and something can go wrong with any memory card at any time, so I don't see the point of using 64 or 128 GB cards, but that's my opinion, not a fact. Personally, I started using 32 GB Sandisk cards, because I've had better luck with Sandisk and I can go months without filling up a 32 GB card. I download to my computer daily after using my camera so I haven't lost any images, but in the past 4 years I've had to replace a couple of 8 GB cards that started giving me problems. As they say, your mileage may vary.

[BrianR]

I just go by cost and every 3 years or so buy whatever SD card is $20 or under and isn't bottom of the barrel for reputation. My last purchase was a pair of 32GB 633x Lexars. They each hold more photos than I'll typically take in a month or two*, and I upload to the computer (and a backup) at the end of each day. I only wipe the card when it's getting close to full and after I've updated to an off-site backup.

SD cards are reliable enough, I'm shooting for myself, and uploading to my computer frequently, that I'm not concerned with failure.


*I do have occasional intense periods of use, stacking star trail images or now timelapses that fill them up quickly. This is why I upped the ante to 32GB cards instead of sticking with my lone 16gb card, which now lives permanently in a side pocket of my camera bag as a backup-backup.

[FarmerJim]

Wow, thanks for the great feedback. I guess I should clarify, when I said "If one fills up", I didn't mean to the capacity of the card. When there are enough images for me to warrant it, I simply call it "full". Might be 1/3 or 3/4 full to capacity.

Great info on the multi-level cell storage. I replace the cards periodically, so maybe next time I'll get a pack of 32 GB cards.

I usually use the high-end Lexar and Sandisk cards. None of the generic/no-name cards.

[Tas]

I think you're very conservative in how you handle cards and captures, but if it gives you confidence then who am I to argue?

My approach is literally identical to Jatrax including capacity increased with the file size of a new camera (for the K5 a 16GB card in camera and 8GB card stored in the grip to 2 x 64GB in the K-1). I only use Sandisk Extreme Pro cards too, these haven't let me down yet and sometimes it is what you pay for that makes the difference. Another benefit of these cards is through registration of the product you have access to Rescue Pro to recover files from your card should something go amiss.

I will also look at rotating the cards between slots later this year by writing a marker on them so I can swap cards between slots in order to share the load whilst maintaining slot 1 as the primary. This should provide enough separation between two cards commenced at the same time that if one fails in the future it should still leave me with another in the camera (or another two if I have the battery grip fitted). However I should be able to write to a card for about 10 years before failure so I think I'd have picked up new cards before they got to expected end of life.

What is the service life of an SD memory card?

This depends on how your product in (sic) manufactured. SD standards-based memory cards, like most semiconductor cards, store information in flash memory. The current technology along with normal usage typically gives the card a lifespan of 10 years or more, allowing consumers to upgrade their devices for many years and reduce consumer electronic waste.
FAQs - SD Association

Tas

[C_Jones]

I carry 16 GB and 32 GB cards usually. The 32 GB are nice to have in case of a travel situation, where they give you more file storage and are easy to keep track of. I am careful with any size card, and always make sure they have been formatted in the camera I am using prior to use and that they are clean. I never have had an SD card failure. Most of my SD cards are Transcend.

[E-man]

I have a couple of 8GB cards that I seldom use anymore. They were for my K100D, which I sold recently. I think all of my cameras have a 32GB Sandisk Ultra card with either a 16GB or another 32GB as a spare. The only data loss I've ever had with a card was a couple of months ago when I was shooting with my Samsung GX-20 and nothing saved. The 32GB card was brand new but I had neglected to format it in the camera. That had never been an issue with any other camera but apparently the Samsung can be pretty persnickety. I formatted the card in the camera and have had no more issues with it.

[jatrax]

sometimes it is what you pay for that makes the difference.

Agree, I figure I just spent several thousand dollars on a camera and lenses to take pictures why would I cheap out on the media those images are actually recorded on? Always seemed foolish to me try to save $20 on what goes into a $2,000 camera setup.

My procedure with both the k-5 & k-3 cameras was to shoot on one card:
1) At the end of each shoot or day remove card from camera and load pictures into Lightroom
2) Put card on the bottom of the pile of 4 identical cards on my desk
3) Take the top card off the pile and put it into the camera
4) Format the card in the camera

This let me rotate through 4 cards, and also kept a temporary backup of the images in case something went wrong in Lightroom or I deleted an image I needed. Depending on demand the rotation could be a few days or a few months.

With the K-1 I just bought two 64gb cards and put them in the camera. The card in slot 1 is just for emergencies, I use the card in slot 2 as the primary. I take it out, load the images, put it back and format in camera. We will see if this different process has any issues but in almost a year now it has worked fine. I probably should rotate the cards though.