[Erictator]

OK, I suppose I could try and test this myself, but I know there are valid/invalid tests, so if someone has already done this, it would be good to know.

My question is this: When using both card slots, I have been using Slot 1 for RAW and Slot 2 for Jpg... but it occurs to me that while JPG is smaller, that the camera CPU might be working harder and longer to do the conversion than to just write the larger RAW file also to Slot 2.

So... what is the truth of that situation?

Also... what is the consensus for slot use and what are your most common habits?

I have been using 2 same size cards, and format both cards every time. It occurred to me that I could probably get away with one of my older smaller cards in slot 2 for JPG, so when I go on a long shoot, I could use my 64GB's in slot 1 and my old 32GB's in slot 2 for jpg, hence getting some use out of the older cards and a higher total capacity out for a few days of shooting.

Of course, if you tell me shooting RAW + RAW is way faster write speed, then I'll forget about that idea, heh.

Thanks in advance for your experiences,
Eric

[CarlJF]

FWIW, on my K-3 I use a 64GB in Slot 1 for DNG and 16GB in slot 2 for JPG resized to 14MP. This gives me a bit more than 1000 shots.

[victormeldrew]

I've not done any tests, valid or otherwise, mainly because I can't for the life of me see the point of RAW+JPEG. But what I do know is that it writes to the two cards sequentially, so the easy answer to the questions is simply whether writing a RAW or a JPEG is quicker.

[kjphilippona]

My K3 has two 64gb cards set Raw/Sequential, My K-1 has 128gb in slot one and 64gb in slot two also set Raw/Sequential. I only shoot JPG if i'm backing my daughter at a wedding and cant afford to loose any pictures. I also put the odds in my favor by purchasing only top quality SDHC and SDXC crads.

[Adam]

JPEGs take less time to write since they're smaller, but unless you're shooting bursts you probably won't notice. Using both slots roughly doubles the total write time.

[Erictator]

JPEGs take less time to write since they're smaller, but unless you're shooting bursts you probably won't notice. Using both slots roughly doubles the total write time.

Thanks Adam. I just tried setting to sequential with freshly formatted cards, and for some reason it wants to write to card 2 only or first? (I didn't feel like putting a thousand shots on my shutter to find out if it would roll over back to slot 1) II tried hitting the card selection button and that only works during playback, otherwise brings up the 4 way menu options... oh yeah...Augh!

I know I shouldn't complain... I've looked at other camera's where everything you want to change is a total PITA deep menu dive, but still, a just a hair more intuition would make this really nice. What makes it more confusing is in the menu, the sequential option shows card slot 1 dark out and card slot 2 bright, so if I didn't know better, it looks more like an option to select only writing to slot 2, which is exactly what it looks like mine is doing.

I hate anything that makes me feel dumb... heh.
Eric

[kjphilippona]

You can remove the card from slot # 2, turn your camera on, then off, insert card into slot #2. When you turn your camera back on, it will then write to card #1 first

[Erictator]

You can remove the card from slot # 2, turn your camera on, then off, insert card into slot #2. When you turn your camera back on, it will then write to card #1 first

Thanks! Yup, that does it... not a great workflow, but it does the trick. I have a feeling we won't be seeing too many more FW updates for K1, but it sure would be nice to see a few more tweaks, like this card thing, and maybe AFc. Nothing earth shaking, just some polish on what is there.
Eric

[victormeldrew]

Thanks! Yup, that does it... not a great workflow, but it does the trick.

It's not workflow, it's a workaround. Basically, once a card is selected for writing, it doesn't change if you add a second card to another slot...this is sensible behaviour. When you were changing cards, you maybe put a card into slot 2 first, then formatted it, then added card 1? Or some other sequence where at some point you switched on the camera with only a card in slot 2. The camera then selected this as the primary card, before you added the second. This workaround just corrects the earlier 'mistake', where if you had added a card in slot 1 first it would have worked as you expected.

Another way to look at it - in sequential mode, it is logically irrelevant which card is written first. The camera doesn't care, because neither should you.

[Adam]

Thanks! Yup, that does it... not a great workflow, but it does the trick. I have a feeling we won't be seeing too many more FW updates for K1, but it sure would be nice to see a few more tweaks, like this card thing, and maybe AFc. Nothing earth shaking, just some polish on what is there.
Eric

The card selection quirk is due to patent restrictions. Hopefully they're able to come up with a workaround at some point!

[leekil]

Someone has a patent on selecting a card slot? How does the playback card selection not fall afoul of that same thing?

[timw4mail]

The card selection quirk is due to patent restrictions. Hopefully they're able to come up with a workaround at some point!

Someone has a patent on selecting a card slot? How does the playback card selection not fall afoul of that same thing?

Seriously? Sounds like patent abuse to me.

[victormeldrew]

Someone has a patent on selecting a card slot?

It is not possible to patent an outcome or a concept, only a specific solution or technique, so no this can't be the case. Obviously nobody can own the very idea of selecting a drive to save to, or no computers could exist without their permission...certainly DOS predates multi-slot DSLRs and so the cd command predates any other solution!

Maybe Pentax attempted to reuse someone else's proprietary technology and were prevented, or they are unable or unwilling to create a new solution for achieving the same thing. Or maybe this is their best effort...

[Adam]

Seriously? Sounds like patent abuse to me.

That's what ricoh reps told me, at least- specifically, the options that are presented in the menu. They said they'd implement it right away otherwise, but are working on some other approach.

Clearly it's not a technical limitation since you can specify the card slot in video mode

Maybe Pentax attempted to reuse someone else's proprietary technology and were prevented, or they are unable or unwilling to create a new solution for achieving the same thing. Or maybe this is their best effort...

Sounds like this could certainly be the case...clearly they're not re-implementing everything themselves.