Memory cards ... how many pics ???

[D_B]

I agree, do not open camera between dives
.. get a large, high speed card .. price is good on high speed cards right now .. the 4Gb one I have has 22MB read/15MB write speed and is $63 .. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820211319

 

[RonFrank]

All that to say, I believe there's a "Sweet Spot" in there somewhere. Thinking the 2gig card would be the ticket, but maybe the 1 gig would do it to. Probably not much less than that... don't know what a raw + jpg pic size would be. when I Photo shop my current Hi-quality from my Oly 4040 they average around 9-11mb in .psd format...

On the D200 a 2 gig card using RAW+JPG low will provide 110 images, and RAW only is 120 images, so I like the jpg basic for viewing as one may not have a RAW converter handy depending on what system you use to backup. That is generally enough to get through 2 longish dives, but not a full day (which I would consider to be 4 dives).

I'd say the bigger the better for the newer high mpix cameras as they REALLY eat up space.

 

[fpoole]

Yah, I just played with the camera settings at RAW + .jpg Fine, it gives around 40+ per 1gig.. which is about right for what I'm coming up with now per dive. Averaging 46 or so per dive...
Figure RAW for Exceptional use, .jpg Fine for just web, messing around with.

So I'm figuring a 4 gig per day (4x40=160 pics) to keep things happy... and uncomplicated.. I'm seeing them, scandisk, for around $159 or so... 3 cards would keep things rolling...

..and the ablility to switch UW to Just .jpg Fine opens up more memory if I need more photos for whatever reason...

So all is good in Mem-land..

 

[alcina]

- I Don't want the largest card as that will tempt me to keep all photos on one card. If the card goes Ka-putt... lost all.

This never did make sense to me. My theory is use the biggest card I can afford - I never want to be in a situation where I want more memory underwater!

Download anything I am not prepared to risk. Doesn't matter if it's a 128mb or a 4gb card - if I lose it, I lose it...and presumably all the images on it were important to me. If I'm not prepared to lose the images, I download.

I download after every day of diving - to the hard drive & backup hard drive. On the road it's to a hard drive and DVD. After a few day's diving I download my home computer to DVD, too. Cards are not for storing images, imho.

For me, most days, acceptable risk is leaving a single card in the camera for all dives and not opening the housing. Bigger & faster is better here

 

[fpoole]

Yeah, I've lost a few cards, as I mentioned earlier, as all of a sudden it's trying to record the current image and it corrupts the whole card. If it was just the one image, no problem-o... but the whole card?? Yikes.... so typically, since I had to swap batteries and the 128mb limit on the 4040, swapping cards worked out fine after each dive. If on trips, I would, of course, download each night to the wallet, allowing 2 immediate copies. If I ran out of cards, I'll delete the oldest ones and use them.

With the new setup.... loosing a days worth is bad, but loosing the whole trip, not wanting to do that. At the end of the day, swapping cards AND downloading each day will be the procedure.

We're probably saying the same thing. You use the largest, and download at the end of the day.. saving it and reusing the card again for the next day... same thing here.. but I pretty much average 40-50 pics per dive... don't take 5 shots of each subject.. I might in the future, but for now, not... and if the location is "HOT"... I'll swap out a new card or dump the RAW...heheh and risk the opening during the day...

Anyway, that's the current thinking, will more than likely change once I get to using it eh?? Sigh....
It's a continuing saga eh??

 

[Yellowtail Damselfish]

I've been following this thread with regard to the storage issue. I'll be in Indonesia for a month, don't have a laptop, can't afford to buy one after paying for the trip to Indonesia, and probably wouldn't want to carry one anyway. The Epson looks nice, but I'm thinking the NextoCF will suit my needs and certainly be less expensive. But it seems not to be available in the States. Where have those of you who have them bought them?

Joan

 

[alcina]

Joan - I can't help with your question, but I would seriously look at an low-end laptop if you can't afford a beast of one.

One of digitals greatest benefits is the ability to review our images immediately. Unfortunately the lcds on most cameras aren't adequate for serious image review and we need to view on a larger screen. Even with digital it is easy to take 100s of photos and then get back and see that the focus was off or something else was wrong. Without looking at the images after each day of diving, you could be making the same mistakes over and over.

No way would I do a trip and not take something that I could review images on - even if it didn't have the processing power to work on the images in PS, I still want to see to make sure that I am getting images I will be happy with later.

 

[OE2X]

Joan,
Not sure what camera you are using. I can tell you that with my Nikon D2X's and D200 I can more than adequetely zoom in and check my focus on my cameras. Also if you are using a DSLR and something made by Canon or Nikon the likelyhood of getting an element in your lens to shift without being able to notice is unlikely.

As to the Nexto - you have to order them from a distrubuter in either Australia or I believe it is in South Korea. I've done both and had no issues. They Fedex them to you and it takes less than a week.

I installed my own Toshiba 100 gig drives and had zero problems doing so. I hate anything to technical and even so, it was a no brainer.

I would advise getting an external battery or two for your Nexto. They are pretty inexpensive. That said you may not be shooting nearly as much I am. I find that the internal batttery lasts only for about 20 gigs of downloading before it needs a charge.

 

[RonFrank]

Yeah, I've lost a few cards, as I mentioned earlier, as all of a sudden it's trying to record the current image and it corrupts the whole card. If it was just the one image, no problem-o... but the whole card??

You have lost a FEW cards? There have been tests where they have run over all sorts of media with 16 wheelers, and the outcome, no loss of data ONCE they bent the cards into the shape that was required to get them into a card reader. These things are TOUGH, and Flash memory is rather bulletproof.

You have a camera issue, but I seriously doubt you LOST more than one image. You just did not understand how to recover the other images.

Lexar cards come with recovery software, You can recover images EVEN if the card was reformatted as formatting really does not wipe the card.

If you LOOSE a card, first do NOT assume it's dead, reformat, or especially shoot over it. It is MUCH easier to recover flash memory vs. a hard drive for example as once the bits are set, they stay that way fixed, and there is nothing required to spin (most HD failures), and no head or optical device doing the reading. All one has to do is to rescue the card using a reader, and software.

Most cards have a lifetime warranty. I have not attempted to collect on that, but I'm betting companies like Lexar, and Scandisk will honer those warranties.

 

[fpoole]

...You have a camera issue, but I seriously doubt you LOST more than one image. You just did not understand how to recover the other images. ....

Correct, I'm assuming it is a camera issue too, as the cards don't have any movable parts but bad sectors?. That said, It's only happened a few times over several years and it was while recording a image.... just kept recording (right recording light on for several minutes).

No choice but to try to shut camera down, doesn't turn off, had to pull the batteries... which of course will corrupt the last image, but using a card reader on the computer, shows something to the effect "Images not correct format.." or something like that. So the whole card is 'Lost'... - unless???

Luckily, I've been through this before (and with a computer hard drive) and had a "recovery" program to Rescue the Majority - not all - photos on the Sandisk. That's why my footnote in the original message -

ps. You might look around for a Memory card recovery program too... they're great. When a full card comes back, unreadable, just run the software and you just "MIGHT??" be able to recover them, except the 1 or 2 photos that corrupted the card for whatever reason. I've saved several full cards that way.

So while it's nice and fun to blame the user, sometimes it is the equipment.. It's an older camera, Oly 4040, when they were they were considered the high end PNS. And yes, I understand you can recover, with the proper software and $$$ up to 9 times from a reformatted hard drive, so would assume recovering from a card would be up there too. But to a newbie or someone without the advise from those that have experienced it, it is a card lost... for all intense and purposes... ie. can't see the photos... next step??? how far do you want to go and what do you have to get to recover them.

My point being simply, cards/camera do mess up, be prepared and figure out how to deal with it. By using multiple cards and downloading, I feel I lessen my exposure....

IMHO that is...

Hope that clears it up....