Memory cards ... how many pics ???

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shark_tamer

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Location
Montreal, Canada
# of dives
100 - 199
I have 25 years experience in photography, and has been reluctant to convert to digital. :wink:

Started diving about 6 months ago, and everybody told me that underwater sceneries would freak me out and have me running to the store to buy an underwater camera …

:lol: Well. they were right … and what else can you buy but digital ???

Bought a SeaLife 5.0 mégapixels camera …. With accessories !!!

My question is : I have to buy memory cards, and I have no clue whatsoever how many pictures can you save on a memory card. :confused: :confused:

I will be saving those prize winning shots at high resolution ( RAW format ) because the best ones will be printed on 11 x 14 paper. :14:

I don’t want to run out of memory space half way during my trip, and next dive is a shark dive !!!! If I have to buy five 2.0G memory cards, then I will !!! :no :no :no

And yes, I have no way to empty those memory cards … I’m not taking my laptop with me !!!!

Thank you in advance.
 
My camera documentation show approx number of pics at different res I can save on a given size card.

I think I'm pretty much in the area of 1000 pics on my 2Gig at a better than normal res but I can't recall the specifics.
 
shark_tamer:
My question is : I have to buy memory cards, and I have no clue whatsoever how many pictures can you save on a memory card. :confused: :confused:

And yes, I have no way to empty those memory cards … I’m not taking my laptop with me !!!!

Thank you in advance.

You can do the math, or don't bother as I assume you CAMERA will tell you how many shots it can store on a given memory card. Shooting RAW if you camera stores 6mb per shot, on a 1 gig cards you would get maybe 166 shots, but I'm not sure how big your RAW files are, and there is no Right answer as to calculating filesizes RAW, it's whatever the camera uses, but I bet 6mb is close! :D

You may choose a solution to *empty those cards*, as Flash memory is a LOT more expensive than a portable HD or DVD burner solution.

Another problem. Say your card holds 100 images, and you shoot 70. Now you have 30 images left on your card, but you certainly may not want to start a dive with just 30 images of space available. So you change cards, and now you are loosing 30% of your storage capacity if you proceed down that path, as changing cards UW is generally NOT recommended! :lol:
 
My C5050 is also 5mp. In raw mode I can get around 136 photos on a 1GB card. Before buying any cards make sure how large a card your camera will accept. My 5050 will take 1GB compact flash but can only handle 512mb if I install an XD card. How many you need is up to you. I shoot in SHQ which gives my around 260 per GB which is plenty for seveal dives but I try to compose my shots rather than machine gun the whole dive. Also remember you can delete on the fly so if that great shark shot comes, just delete a few. I always save 3 or 4 just in case. With film it was a waste but not so with digital.
 
Hope that SeaLife works out for you. I've heard mixed reports.

Buy the biggest card your camera can take, preferably two or more of them. Put in an empty card between dives. If you do more than two dives, be sure to bring a laptop or other way to clear the pics off the card, or buy enough cards to cover all your day's dives.

Shooting raw is not worth it for me... files are huge, not many pics on even large cards, and most of all, the delay time between shots is too much, while the camera writes the big files. Be sure to buy the fastest available cards to minimize the wait, such as the SanDisk Extreme III series.

You might want to try a few shots at the max res in jpg format, IMO, and see how the 11x14 prints look, before committing to raw. Raw is great, but there are definitely drawbacks to live with, at this stage of the technology.
 
CompuDude:
Shooting raw is not worth it for me... files are huge, not many pics on even large cards, and most of all, the delay time between shots is too much, while the camera writes the big files. Be sure to buy the fastest available cards to minimize the wait, such as the SanDisk Extreme III series.

Raw is great, but there are definitely drawbacks to live with, at this stage of the technology.

Delay time between shots is your camera, not the format you shoot with. I can do a 22 image burst at 6fps RAW, but that is the D200.

With the camera he has, a fast card is likely not going to help. Anything new on the market is going to be faster than the camera can write to the card.

I have no drawbacks with RAW other than filesize. Hardly anything that stops me from shooting RAW, and I make it worst by shooting RAW w/JPG.
 
I agree with Ron here.

I love my Nexto card reader. Downloads a full 2 gig card in 2 minutes. It's about the size of a large deck of cards and fits very nicely into a Pelican 1020 case.

I have a pair of these Nexto's and use them for professional shooting in Marine environments. I've put around 25,000 images through both of them. They have worked flawlessly.
 
CompuDude:
Buy the biggest card your camera can take, preferably two or more of them. Put in an empty card between dives. If you do more than two dives, be sure to bring a laptop or other way to clear the pics off the card, or buy enough cards to cover all your day's dives.

Shooting raw is not worth it for me... files are huge, not many pics on even large cards, and most of all, the delay time between shots is too much, while the camera writes the big files. Be sure to buy the fastest available cards to minimize the wait, such as the SanDisk Extreme III series.

:wink: Thanks for the input your guys !!

As I can see, everybody has his/her idea about memory space, file format and other problems digital photography creates. :confused: :confused: :confused:

My main concern was bringing with me enough memory space to cover my entire diving trip .... file format was not an issue .

As I stated, I have been a photographer for 25 years now, and the majority of my fellow photographers have converted to digital, and the accessory of choice for most of them to " dump " their memory cards is an Epson Photo Storage Viewer.

http://www.epson.ca/cgi-bin/ceStore/consumer/consDetail.jsp?BV_UseBVCookie=yes&oid=60033652

So I guess I'm off to the store, getting three 1G memory cards ( 1 for each dive on a 3 consecutive dives boat excursion ) and 1 Storage Viewer !!! :huh: :wink:
 
You know I looked long and hard at the Epson and others that you can view your photos on.

I decided against all of them because they are horrifically slow at downloading images and eat up battery power really fast.

I like being able to download my cards quickly - particularly when I'm not working with an assistant. Since you are a photographer then I think you will ultimately feel as I do. Especially if you start shooting digitally on a professional level. I have read some very favorable reviews on this card reader the PDX70 as well.
http://www.eastgear.com/shop/index.php?cPath=17_66

Either of these is a lot less expensive than the Epson.
 

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