How much does a dual-card slot matter?

[Pixel_crab]

Or let's put it more simply:

If you do not have enough space, a card failure... What would be the widest card to be found in stores?

SD cards.

It is a common consumer good, which you can find in virtually any large shop or mall. A CF card is quite specific.
You may go to a music shop and find a SD card, but you're not sure to find a CF, ditto for a supermarket or any non-camera-specific area.
Many people use SD card in point & shoot or other cameras.

If you travel a lot and need to be operationnal easily therefore a dual SD/ CF card is the right option.

[Marsu42]

And truthfully, being a wedding photographer... it takes years to get established in any meaningful way. If you're lucky, only a year or two. But you should really be taking a year or two to 2nd shoot weddings to really get your style developed and sharpen your skills.

Thanks for the warning, I do realize that and am calculating at least 1.5 years before I can see how much potential there is for me in the wedding biz and if I could generate my income from this. Still, everybody has to start somewhere...

As for being 2nd shooter, this is hardly my choice but more the matter of potential 1st shooters: There will be many applicants, and as far as I read it people aren't very excited about educating their future competition in the first place. So it might just be I'll have to try this on my own, might take a friend as a backup shooter along for the first contracts.

Concerning "style": I appreciate the idea and am rather particular about my pictures, but as far as I understand it for your average lower-paid wedding "style" hasn't got anything to do with it, but rather taking shots of happy people and the critical moments. That might be different if you want to try to get away earning $1000+ from a shot...

You have to have dual card slots OR a backup photographer.  I have been out just shooting whatever when I was bored and my CF card failed for no reason.

Hargnnnnn... I'd really hate to pay $3500 for a camera body, but still "better safe than sorry". Were you able to recover the files from the failed cf card?

[briansquibb]

And truthfully, being a wedding photographer... it takes years to get established in any meaningful way. If you're lucky, only a year or two. But you should really be taking a year or two to 2nd shoot weddings to really get your style developed and sharpen your skills.

Thanks for the warning, I do realize that and am calculating at least 1.5 years before I can see how much potential there is for me in the wedding biz and if I could generate my income from this. Still, everybody has to start somewhere...

As for being 2nd shooter, this is hardly my choice but more the matter of potential 1st shooters: There will be many applicants, and as far as I read it people aren't very excited about educating their future competition in the first place. So it might just be I'll have to try this on my own, might take a friend as a backup shooter along for the first contracts.

Concerning "style": I appreciate the idea and am rather particular about my pictures, but as far as I understand it for your average lower-paid wedding "style" hasn't got anything to do with it, but rather taking shots of happy people and the critical moments. That might be different if you want to try to get away earning $1000+ from a shot...

You could adopt a PJ style which is the way I do it for most of the reception photos. I always get a 'formal' pose with the B&G and the top groups where I know the lighting will be good, the focus will the perfect . Once these are in the bag I then change cards ....

It is so easy to get carried away with the artistic image when the clients just want the content perfect.

[Marsu42]

You could adopt a PJ style which is the way I do it for most of the reception photos. I always get a 'formal' pose with the B&G and the top groups where I know the lighting will be good, the focus will the perfect . Once these are in the bag I then change cards ....

It is so easy to get carried away with the artistic image when the clients just want the content perfect.

I've been advised to do the same to be on the safe side concerning "important" shots - but changing the cards is an additional safety factor for sure.

Concerning "artistic": I recon there have to be at least one or two of this kind to be posted on the website, so the photog can make everybody else believe that all shots are like this :-)

[bdunbar79]

And truthfully, being a wedding photographer... it takes years to get established in any meaningful way. If you're lucky, only a year or two. But you should really be taking a year or two to 2nd shoot weddings to really get your style developed and sharpen your skills.

Thanks for the warning, I do realize that and am calculating at least 1.5 years before I can see how much potential there is for me in the wedding biz and if I could generate my income from this. Still, everybody has to start somewhere...

As for being 2nd shooter, this is hardly my choice but more the matter of potential 1st shooters: There will be many applicants, and as far as I read it people aren't very excited about educating their future competition in the first place. So it might just be I'll have to try this on my own, might take a friend as a backup shooter along for the first contracts.

Concerning "style": I appreciate the idea and am rather particular about my pictures, but as far as I understand it for your average lower-paid wedding "style" hasn't got anything to do with it, but rather taking shots of happy people and the critical moments. That might be different if you want to try to get away earning $1000+ from a shot...

You have to have dual card slots OR a backup photographer.  I have been out just shooting whatever when I was bored and my CF card failed for no reason.

Hargnnnnn... I'd really hate to pay $3500 for a camera body, but still "better safe than sorry". Were you able to recover the files from the failed cf card?

It will tell you if it fails.  If it fails, then switch cards quickly.  That's what I did with my 5D Mark II.  It will give you an error.  When the error pops up, switch cards.

[Marsu42]

It will tell you if it fails.  If it fails, then switch cards quickly.  That's what I did with my 5D Mark II.  It will give you an error.  When the error pops up, switch cards.

So all previous shots on the failed card were ok except the one when the error occurred? I imagined if the cf fails, then it's really gone and wouldn't be recognized anymore (just happened to an usb stick of mine).

[bdunbar79]

No, my card reader at home was able to recover the files for some reason.  It just wouldn't continue on writing to the card.  The part of the card that recorded images is ok, it's the capacity beyond that that will not work.  You could format a bad card and still shoot, say 56 photos, and then it fails again.  At least that's what all of my failed cards did.  Then I got smart and buy all SanDisk Pro 32GB CF cards, UDMA 7, 90 Mb/s and haven't had much trouble since.

[Philco]

From a wedding photography perspective, having never had the second card slot option on my previous 5D's and 5DII's, I see more value in affording two bodies going into your career than I do in spending the same money on the 5DIII  alone. Now that I've gotten used to the 5DIII, I definitely prefer it for the way it handles and the color it produces, but I literally had to sell two 5DII's to get one. That being said, I've always shot with a body on each shoulder and I've never missed a shot due to card errors anyway. In a sudden 'oh-crap' moment I could always swap a card from the other body much faster than swapping lenses. Paying attention to how many shots are on your card leading up to important moments is part of the job anyway.

Someone mentioned shooting the whole day on a pair of 128GB cards, which I think is smart in terms of redundancy,
but there can also be drawbacks to not spreading the day out over several cards, if for instance your body is stolen at  the end of the night ( It happened to one of my colleagues at a high-end venue...1DmkIII) then all of your pictures are gone. Odds are low, so I guess it all comes down to what we perceive to be the bigger risks.

[briansquibb]

Paying attention to how many shots are on your card leading up to important moments is part of the job anyway.

I change cards on both at fixed, planning points through the day - like after the ceremony, after the cake cutting.

I get away with 16gb cards that way - high speed aren't really needed most of the time, it isn't as if you are sitting on the shutter much.

[Marsu42]

I get away with 16gb cards that way - high speed aren't really needed most of the time, it isn't as if you are sitting on the shutter much.

Good advice, I'll try that, too - for an amateur, a larger card might be more convenient, but with fixed points to change smaller card's I'd feel a lot safer.

From a wedding photography perspective, having never had the second card slot option on my previous 5D's and 5DII's, I see more value in affording two bodies going into your career than I do in spending the same money on the 5DIII  alone.

I've got my 60d camera and am going to buy some 5d - does that count as "two bodies" for you, tough not both are ff? I've gotten really used to the 60d and Magic Lantern, and as a second body with a faster lens even the crop sensor should do ok, or at least that's what I hope.

But shooting with two single-card bodies (60d+5d2) doesn't help for data redundancy if I shoot with the 5d2 most of the time and this card crashes. I've a Sandisc 32gb in my 60d, have shot 80k shots & video and it hasn't failed me yet - but still I'm getting a little paranoid reading other photog's experiences, and Murphy's Law dictates that it'll at the worst possible moment.

[bdunbar79]

If those two cameras were available when I began photography, that would have been my setup.  My main would have been a 5D Mark II and my backup a 60D.  No second thoughts.

[RGomezPhotos]

The BIG reason I'm getting the 5DMKIII over the 5DMKII is because of the SD slot.

I am a professional and largely shoot beauty work in well let conditions using manual focus lenses.  So all the tech. advances of the MKIII don't mean much to me.  Picture quality isn't any better in the MKII in the ISO range I shoot in.

But being able to shoot and view images on another device wirelessly in real-time without using that overpriced MKII WiFi option would be super. Once you buy that option you're almost at the cost of the MKIII.  And now that the SD Standards organization is going to have wireless as part of their standard, prices will come down and options/performance will go up for these accessories.  PQI is coming out with a SD-WIFI card WITH a microSD card slot! So now you can have your backup AND another backup if you send it to an iPad and not tax your system.

Now that prices are coming down for the MKIII, I'm okay with the premium of the MKIII. I think it's the best all-around camera out there without spending double for a 1Dx.  Certainly capable of any professional requirements I'll throw at it for the next 3 - 4 years.

[Philco]

I've got my 60d camera and am going to buy some 5d - does that count as "two bodies" for you, tough not both are ff? I've gotten really used to the 60d and Magic Lantern, and as a second body with a faster lens even the crop sensor should do ok, or at least that's what I hope.

I shot for almost a year with a 5D+30D combo and it worked out fine, though I usually had a gap in focal length between the two bodies that was just another thing to deal with. Plus, looking through the 30D felt like shooting through a keyhole compared to the FF viewfinder. I think the crop+FF has advantages though, at least in terms of reach. My point was really more about the SD slot being worth the extra money if the other features ( already well enumerated in this post) aren't your main concern. I personally have yet to buy any SD cards to use in that slot, though I've shot 4 or 5 weddings, which I realize is foolish considering I have that option.