WanderingBob 2 Posted August 21, 2009 Just thought of this tid bit and found nothing on a search. I always carry 2-4 extra 4GB CF cards when shooting wildlife. But, they are of no use when U/W and your card fills up. What do you guys use in your U/W rigs? 4, 8, or 16 GB CF cards? I will be shooting a D300, 12.3 MP camera. Starting out shooting humpies while snorkeling, then doing some diving as well. Thanks Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
PRC 2 Posted August 21, 2009 Currently a 16GB which is 455 raw shots on my D300 - just purchased a 32GB 49GBP (83USD). When away I do not open the housing during the day and prefer to process later. As a side effect I saw the price of a 4GB card that I purchased in 2006 ( from the same company - they had this 'look at previous orders' thing ), well, in 2006 I paid 145GBP (250USD) for a 4GB card. Prices have dropped! Paul C Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Beach Bum 0 Posted August 21, 2009 I'm using a 16GB Sandisk Extreme IV in my D300 and I get about 600 shots on it. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
jeremypayne 0 Posted August 21, 2009 I'm using a 16GB Sandisk Extreme IV in my D300 and I get about 600 shots on it. I think you may be able to actually get more ... This is an issue that confuses me and seems like a bug ... I have a D700 and use a 16GB card. I shoot 14-bit, lossless compressed RAW. When the card is empty, it reads '620' left ... but I actually can shoot 1,000+ images on the card. Anyone know what I'm talking about? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
BigJeff 11 Posted August 21, 2009 Oh yes, my Sony does the same. The newer formats of RAW vary in size according to how much detail is in each shot - most cameras just divide the amount of free space by the maximum RAW size to calculate how many shots remain. In a lot of cases you can almost fit double the "empty" amount on the card. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
DavidScubadiver 0 Posted August 21, 2009 Oh yes, my Sony does the same. The newer formats of RAW vary in size according to how much detail is in each shot - most cameras just divide the amount of free space by the maximum RAW size to calculate how many shots remain. In a lot of cases you can almost fit double the "empty" amount on the card. I sue a 16 gig card without any trouble. I guess it depends on the kind of photographer you are - if you keep the camera in continuous shoot and use it a lot, you may need bigger! In any case, since the battery lasts a good long time, I too seldom take the card out of the camera while on a dive trip. I like very much having only 1 card to import as I'm not very organized. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Vettediver 0 Posted August 21, 2009 I use a 16 gig card in my D 300. one needs to match the capacity of the camera battery and the data card. The card I use holds about 600 raw images and the camera battery has always lasted at least five dives, even thought I use the camera flash to optically fire my strobes. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Beach Bum 0 Posted August 21, 2009 Jeremy and Jeff are correct in that it depends on the actual photos that your taking as to how much space they will take up on the card. When you install the cf card it gives you a aproximate number based on an average size photo, I can't remember off the top of my head how many mb it considers average though. Mike Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
bmyates 3 Posted August 21, 2009 Another nod to the Sandisk Extreme IV 16gb card - it's a great card and a good value currently. Although also I have an off-brand 32gb that I occasionally use, it's not as fast as the Extreme IV, and probably not worth the extra cost for your purposes. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
WanderingBob 2 Posted August 23, 2009 Another nod to the Sandisk Extreme IV 16gb card - it's a great card and a good value currently. Although also I have an off-brand 32gb that I occasionally use, it's not as fast as the Extreme IV, and probably not worth the extra cost for your purposes. THanks to all. It looks like a 16GB is the way to go. The Extreme III are selling with rebates. Is the really that much difference in the speed b/t the III and IV? The III's seem to serve me well ... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
TheRealDrew 0 Posted August 23, 2009 THanks to all. It looks like a 16GB is the way to go. The Extreme III are selling with rebates. Is the really that much difference in the speed b/t the III and IV? The III's seem to serve me well ... Take a look here Testing Cameras and Cards to see how cards/camera combinations stack up. I really like the IVs myself, but do carry other cards (meaning less expesnive) also for times when I do not think I will need every bit of speed and to have some back up cards. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Drew 0 Posted August 24, 2009 My motto is to get as much memory as you can. If you are shooting high fps and filling the buffer, a faster card can clear the buffer a bit faster. If you are going to be in the water for a long time and shooting a lot (esp without strobes which would be your limiting factor), then more capacity. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Hani Amir 0 Posted August 25, 2009 I think you may be able to actually get more ... This is an issue that confuses me and seems like a bug ... I have a D700 and use a 16GB card. I shoot 14-bit, lossless compressed RAW. When the card is empty, it reads '620' left ... but I actually can shoot 1,000+ images on the card. Anyone know what I'm talking about? I notice that a lot on my D70s as well. Sometimes it'll be 300 shots left, I'd take another and it'd go back to 300 again for the next 3 shots or so. I think the cameras are designed to give the most conservative average measurement of how many shots are left. As more shots are taken, some of them tend to be smaller than what the camera thought they'd be; so you end up being able to take more images than originally predicted. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
tdpriest 115 Posted August 28, 2009 A card that is bigger than your battery is a waste: I can run the battery of my D200 dry in 450 frames, and fit them onto an 8Gb card, so that's what I use. I'm a bit unhappy about losing data, so I won't use a bigger card: I download each card when it comes out of the camera. I guess that a full-frame camera would justify a 16Gb card, but I currently split my memory between 4 8Gb SanDisk cards, a couple of old 4Gb cards for surface photography, a laptop and a back-up drive. Tim Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
simonmittag 0 Posted September 6, 2009 A card that is bigger than your battery is a waste: I can run the battery of my D200 dry in 450 frames, and fit them onto an 8Gb card, so that's what I use. I'm a bit unhappy about losing data, so I won't use a bigger card: I download each card when it comes out of the camera. I guess that a full-frame camera would justify a 16Gb card, but I currently split my memory between 4 8Gb SanDisk cards, a couple of old 4Gb cards for surface photography, a laptop and a back-up drive. Tim Big cards are good when you can't/don't want to download inbetween dives. I love the new Sandisk 32GB Extreme III cards, they work well with the D300. Flash memory these days is getting cheap enough to favor it over external drives really. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
fireted 0 Posted September 23, 2009 I too choose to limit the size of my memory cards to the shots fired from my battery, that works out to about 8 Gb as well. But I always have a few extras 4 gb's sitting in my camera bag topside ready to quickly swap if need be ! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
