little complain about the dual card system on 5D III

[Turbocharged]

i was really  when i hear i can store RAW & JPG files separately into different cards on 5D3, so i can have RAW on CF, and JPG on SD, really convenient, but decided not to use this function after all.

Reason 1: number of continuous shooting dropped significantly from RAW+JPG on one card
Reason 2: I can't manage the photos effectively, yes the files are named the same and write to separate cards at the same time, but I can't link the RAW and JPG while i try to delete them, if i want to delete an image, I'll have to press playback, find the photo, delete from one card, go to setting, set playback to another card, press playback again, find that same photo in different format and delete that one. if i have 30 photos i want to delete while reviewing... that's not practical at all...

and canon has confirmed that it can't be link while delete files...

[samueljay]

The obvious solution would be to not delete images in camera, but yeah if that's your style, it would be quite annoying!

[AG]

I still don't understand why you need to shoot RAW+JPEG anymore?

Unless you are planning on chin ping your photos and using the tiny LCD to make your final decision on the quality of your shot. It would make more sense to use the RAW only format (whatever size you wanted) then set the camera to use the "Auto Switch Card" Recording Method.

That way you can use a large capacity CF card and a smaller capacity SD (or Eye-Fi SD) as a fallback card and once the CF is full have it switch over to the SD, as soon as you get a break between shoots, pull out the CF card and either replace it or Dump it to an external drive such as a PC/Mac and then stick it back in once empty. All the while shooting to the SD. That way you don't lose too many shots.

Would be handy if it was hot swappable and you could choose that whenever you insert a CF card it instantly gets capture  priority, but that would be too much to ask.

[unkbob]

For pro use, shoot RAW + jpeg, put the CF cards in your pocket and leave the sd card in your camera. So when your camera gets stolen, or your pocket explodes, at least there's another copy somewhere.

Exploding pockets are uncommon, however

[scottk]

Don't ever, ever, ever delete files in camera. That is the number one cause of corrupt unreadable memory cards.

[The_Arsonist]

Don't ever, ever, ever delete files in camera. That is the number one cause of corrupt unreadable memory cards.

Where's the study on that? I've always heard that not formatting regularly was one of the root causes of memory card corruption

[Arkarch]

Well for one thing deleting files is going to fragment your memory card.   And for another, I cant believe a camera-based embedded memory storage system is going to be robust enough to reliably handle it. 

Especially for the SD Card.  With my experience with them in high volume, I dont trust them.  But as a backup, or as a platform for Eye-Fi - its a nice feature.  Even for event photography where I want to keep the raws but the client wants to post the JPEGs immediately - could be nice.
 

[Turbocharged]

I still don't understand why you need to shoot RAW+JPEG anymore?

well, i'm not a pro user, i used to shoot RAW only with 5D2, and convert them to JPEG to store after some editing in DPP/PS, and i only edit less than maybe 10% of them, Shooting RAW+JPEG can save me a lot time since i dont need to convert that 90% of photos into JPG, and the ability of storing jpeg on SD-card-only make sense to me because i can take the card out, put it into pretty much any computer/HDTV nowadays without needing a card reader or RAW file plugin (especially with 5D3 RAW format).

i often delete photos from camera after review them on the LCD. taking 12 continuous picture in 2 seconds of my kid running, i m not gonna keep all of them, out of which 1/3 or more are bad ones i can easily tell on the LCD screen. and i cant afford those high speed high capacity cards ...

[wickidwombat]

I still don't understand why you need to shoot RAW+JPEG anymore?

well, i'm not a pro user, i used to shoot RAW only with 5D2, and convert them to JPEG to store after some editing in DPP/PS, and i only edit less than maybe 10% of them, Shooting RAW+JPEG can save me a lot time since i dont need to convert that 90% of photos into JPG, and the ability of storing jpeg on SD-card-only make sense to me because i can take the card out, put it into pretty much any computer/HDTV nowadays without needing a card reader or RAW file plugin (especially with 5D3 RAW format).

i often delete photos from camera after review them on the LCD. taking 12 continuous picture in 2 seconds of my kid running, i m not gonna keep all of them, out of which 1/3 or more are bad ones i can easily tell on the LCD screen. and i cant afford those high speed high capacity cards ...

solid thinking its strange as I am pretty sure my 1D3 deletes from both cards when i delete a photo i'll have to check perhaps its a setting?

[ecka]

I still don't understand why you need to shoot RAW+JPEG anymore?

well, i'm not a pro user, i used to shoot RAW only with 5D2, and convert them to JPEG to store after some editing in DPP/PS, and i only edit less than maybe 10% of them, Shooting RAW+JPEG can save me a lot time since i dont need to convert that 90% of photos into JPG, and the ability of storing jpeg on SD-card-only make sense to me because i can take the card out, put it into pretty much any computer/HDTV nowadays without needing a card reader or RAW file plugin (especially with 5D3 RAW format).

i often delete photos from camera after review them on the LCD. taking 12 continuous picture in 2 seconds of my kid running, i m not gonna keep all of them, out of which 1/3 or more are bad ones i can easily tell on the LCD screen. and i cant afford those high speed high capacity cards ...

You are still getting higher quality JPGs from converting unedited RAW files, than those SOOC JPGs. For me, it's worth the extra time, not that there is a lot of it anyway. 5sec/file? 300 RAW = 25 minutes

[pwp]

If you HAVE to shoot JPEG files along with your RAW files select RAW+JPEG(small). Fill your CF card and then move on to the SD. Personally I have not shot JPEG files for years. I can't see the point. With a RAW workflow it is unnecessary. It slows down your write speed, bloats your buffer and fills your cards faster.

Programs like PhotoMechanic or BreezeBrowserPro have an option to extract embedded JPEGs from the RAW files. Occasionally this is useful. BB in particular does this very quickly, racing through a big folder of RAWS in a heartbeat.

In the end it's whatever floats your boat. This just happens to work fine for me.

Paul Wright

[FunPhotons]

The only good reason I heard for storing RAW + JPG is for a pro who has a client that wants to walk away from the shoot with a picture in hand.

For me, dual slots aren't particularly useful (serious non professional), and dual/different format even less. If I was a pro I would do backups of every shot, even though that isn't a panacea either.

I don't understand the post about not deleting in-camera, even though this is DOS filesystem which is dog-stupid and easy. Given that I don't use it unless the frame is totally black, much preferring to edit on the computer. I wish they didn't have a dedicated button for it.

[briansquibb]

Dual slots are useful in that you can have two cheaper lower capacity cards

[P_R]

Hi,
This is a little off topic, but why did Canon choose to have different card types for the 5d3? Two cards - fine.  CF or SD, fine too.  But why one and the other?

I'm guessing the feature sets don't overlap and so having both allows you to pick a little of each?

Cheers,

P_R.
(By the way, glad the smite system has gone (even if briefly). Hoping members now use words to describe their disagreement, it is a *discussion* forum!)

[unkbob]

I actually like the idea of two different formats. Means I always know which card I'm removing, and an assistant / second shooter won't screw up so easily.