A question on SD cards

[katie11]

I have bought a 32gb Sandisk Extreme card for our forthcoming cruise in 5 weeks.

I have a Canon 650D.

Can anyone tell me, if this size will be sufficient for the approx. 2000 or more photos and also some videos I may take, or would I be better to have another one for back up.

Also, we will be in Japan. Are these memory cards cheaper there?

Many thanks

[Turtles06]

How many images will fit on a memory card depends on several factors (besides the capacity of the card), including whether you are shooting in RAW or jpeg, and, if the latter, the image size and the image quality. Many owner's manuals will give you the specs on how many images you will be able to record on specific size memory cards, given these variables. (And perhaps someone with your camera will be able to give you this info too.)

 

I will say, though, that I take more than one memory card on a trip (nothing as large as 32GB) and swap them out during the trip. This way, if a card should become corrupted, or the camera lost or stolen, I haven't lost all my photographs. If you are planning to take only one card, at the very least back it up each night so you don't have all of your trip's images only on that one card.

 

Have a great trip.

Edited July 25, 2014 by Turtles06

[CGYCruisingFamily]

I always travel with more than one card for the same reasons Turtles06 says - if your camera takes a walk, a card goes corrupt etc. I was teaching a photo class a couple of months ago and one of my students told me that she got back from her trip and sometime en route home, her disk corrupted. She lost all her photos from a 3 week European trip. Now there is software you are use to rescue the card however you cant keep shooting or format the card. You might not be able to rescue everything but you can get some stuff back usually.

 

I like switching them up. You might want to take an extra card.

 

On our trip next week I am taking 2-32Gb cards, 1-16Gb card and an 8-Gb card. I will be using a Canon 70D which has wifi and will be transferring some photos as I go to my iPad for backup storage. I am likely going to take our small underwater point and shoot too which has a 32 Gb card too.

 

I usually shoot jpeg (PERSONAL PREFERENCE -- I prefer more images as my quality is good) but with the amount of card space I am taking I might switch to raw. We will see.

[katie11]

Thank you very much for your replies.

I usually shoot in jpeg, but wasn't sure how much space shooting video's took on the card, so I will purchase some new cards just in case.

On our last cruise last year to China, I backed up to my ipad, and will do that again.

[Turtles06]

The space taken up by videos depends on how long the videos are (and, I imagine, the image quality; I'm not that much of a video shooter). If you do some research on the internet, I'll bet you can find some data on this.

 

BTW, I don't know why I didn't think of this when I posted earlier, but if you insert your empty memory card into your camera, with the image size and quality set for what you'll be shooting, the camera should show you the number of still images the card will hold.

[katie11]

The space taken up by videos depends on how long the videos are (and, I imagine, the image quality; I'm not that much of a video shooter). If you do some research on the internet, I'll bet you can find some data on this.

 

BTW, I don't know why I didn't think of this when I posted earlier, but if you insert your empty memory card into your camera, with the image size and quality set for what you'll be shooting, the camera should show you the number of still images the card will hold.

 

Thanks for that, Turtles06. Much appreciated.

[woody73]

 

I have bought a 32gb Sandisk Extreme card

 

. . . I have a Canon 650D.

 

. . . Can anyone tell me, if this size will be sufficient for the approx. 2000 or more photos and also some videos I may take, or would I be better to have another one for back up.

You've received plenty of good advice so far. Here's a chart that might help further. SanDisk chart.

 

Woody

[katie11]

You've received plenty of good advice so far. Here's a chart that might help further. SanDisk chart.

 

Woody

 

That's great, Woody. Thanks for that.:)

[snc_cam]

Katie,

 

I also back up my pics on a daily basis to at least one of the tablets wife/I carry on vacations. So, worst case, I may lose a day's worth of pics.

 

In regards to how many pics you can take, your user manual for the camera should have the settings to show how many pics per SD card size. I tend to shoot in a 4 Mpixel setting which for a 16Gb card, gives me about 6000 pictures (not including video).

 

Steve

[dltvermont]

On our first ever cruise this past spring, I used a tip I saw on another post on CC. Probably overkill and since you back up probably not needed for you but I had one card for day before and sailaway, one for each island and one for the sea days. But I was able to just snap away and not worry about loading up my cards and as said above, if something got stolen or lost I still had the rest.

 

SD cards arent that expensive, especially at online retailers and after the cruise I had/have them for whatever else!

[Turtles06]

On our first ever cruise this past spring, I used a tip I saw on another post on CC. Probably overkill and since you back up probably not needed for you but I had one card for day before and sailaway, one for each island and one for the sea days. But I was able to just snap away and not worry about loading up my cards and as said above, if something got stolen or lost I still had the rest.

 

SD cards arent that expensive, especially at online retailers and after the cruise I had/have them for whatever else!

 

See posts 2 and 3 above. :)

[katie11]

Katie,

 

I also back up my pics on a daily basis to at least one of the tablets wife/I carry on vacations. So, worst case, I may lose a day's worth of pics.

 

In regards to how many pics you can take, your user manual for the camera should have the settings to show how many pics per SD card size. I tend to shoot in a 4 Mpixel setting which for a 16Gb card, gives me about 6000 pictures (not including video).

 

Steve

 

Hi Steve,

I have ordered 1 x 32gb and 2 x 16gb cards as an extra to the 32gb already on order.

I haven't had a problem with cards corrupting before, and "touch wood", have never had a theft and hopefully won't, but I'm sure I won't run out with these.:eek::eek:

Talk about differences in price re buying in Australia and overseas.

We really get hit big time here, if we buy at local retail stores or online.

[snc_cam]

Hi Katie,

 

You will "definitely" have enough cards and space for all of your pictures. How long of a trip are you doing? The most I ever took on a single vacation (up to this point) was ~4500 for a 8-day trip to 3 national parks. I actually had one card go bad, one of the wire prongs got twisted but I was able to get it back into shape, got all the files off it, and then tossed the card.

 

You definitely have a VERY GOOD camera and I am sure it isn't your first DSLR. Me, I have the Canon 50SX which is close to a DSLR but I don't have to carry all the extra weight with the additional lenses.

 

Steve

[pierces]

In response to many questions like this posted over the years, I wrote an article that answers not only the "how much memory" question but includes some basic info on resolution and quality as it relates to file size.

 

http://www.pptphoto.com/articles/resolution.html

 

Hope ths is helpful.

 

Dave

[snc_cam]

Dave,

 

VERY nice article explaining the items associated to pictures. I agree that the "quality" setting should be set to the highest amount. However, in regards to the MP, I am not sure I totally agree. Yes, the higher the MP value, the more discrete pixels you get. But I've blown up a 2MP JPG image to 13x19 and if you get right on top of it, you can see some pixelization. However, from 12" away, it looks like a great picture.

 

For now, with my current camera, I have it set "down" to 4MP and regularly blow up the images to 11x14 with no pixelization. I also just printed a 12x36 panorama picture which looks fantastic. And especially if you are just printing a 4x6 or 5x7, large MP rates are extreme. It is more efficient to lower the MP rating on the camera and get more images per card.

 

Yes, cards are cheap and agree that "counterfeit" cards are out there. I always travel with at least 3-4 so if one goes bad, I have others ready. That also includes a spare set of batteries.

 

Steve

[dileep]

The cards will not be cheaper in Japan.

 

A high speed 32 GB card goes for about $35 at Costco. A vanilla Class 10 is sold at many places online for under $20. Or you can buy two 16 GB Class 10 cards for about $20.

 

Videos will fill up you cards faster than any photos you might take. Use MPEG4 instead of the other format. A 7 sec 1080P video is about 20 MB on my camera. Shoot a short video on yours and check the size. It should be similar.

[pierces]

Dave,

 

VERY nice article explaining the items associated to pictures. I agree that the "quality" setting should be set to the highest amount. However, in regards to the MP, I am not sure I totally agree. Yes, the higher the MP value, the more discrete pixels you get. But I've blown up a 2MP JPG image to 13x19 and if you get right on top of it, you can see some pixelization. However, from 12" away, it looks like a great picture.

 

For now, with my current camera, I have it set "down" to 4MP and regularly blow up the images to 11x14 with no pixelization. I also just printed a 12x36 panorama picture which looks fantastic. And especially if you are just printing a 4x6 or 5x7, large MP rates are extreme. It is more efficient to lower the MP rating on the camera and get more images per card.

 

Yes, cards are cheap and agree that "counterfeit" cards are out there. I always travel with at least 3-4 so if one goes bad, I have others ready. That also includes a spare set of batteries.

 

Steve

 

When you set the MP down, the camera still takes the full resolution image and has to add an extra step to save to the size you requested. It is certainly allows for a more compact file but to me, any storage efficiency gained is offset by the degradation of the image data. To each their own but I prefer to start with all the data I can get so cropped images and large prints retain as much detail as possible. I agree that large prints can be made out of fairly small image files and I have some from my 2MP Dimage X that uprezzed well but why uprezz when it's not necessary? With the capacity of cards, hard drives and online storage growing huge and so widely available, I really don't see any downside of keeping full size copies of my images.

 

I'm not really disagreeing with your methodology. It just isn't for me. ;)

 

Dave

[dileep]

but why uprezz when it's not necessary? With the capacity of cards, hard drives and online storage growing huge and so widely available, I really don't see any downside of keeping full size copies of my images.

 

I'm not really disagreeing with your methodology. It just isn't for me. ;)

 

Dave

 

I agree :D!

[snc_cam]

Dave,

 

Just wanted to toss out another option. Like I said, I truly liked your article.

 

Steve

[dileep]

Hi Steve,

Talk about differences in price re buying in Australia and overseas.

We really get hit big time here, if we buy at local retail stores or online.

 

Did not notice that you live in Australia. The $35 price is in the U.S. but for Extreme Plus which is faster than what most of us need! The Extreme is much less.

[katie11]

Did not notice that you live in Australia. The $35 price is in the U.S. but for Extreme Plus which is faster than what most of us need! The Extreme is much less.

 

That's ok!

I have priced SD Extreme and the cheapest I can get it here is AU$58.99 with $10.00 postage. One of our local Tech stores have it for AU$79.95.

I have purchased from Amazon and another Asian online store.

How do I know if the cards are good quality and genuine or not?

Also, I'll never use all these cards on one trip, but as the [Amazon] price was so good, decided to have some in reserve.

I don't like deleting my photo's off the cards in case of a computer crash.

[pierces]

Dave,

 

Just wanted to toss out another option. Like I said, I truly liked your article.

 

Steve

 

That's one of the things I like about this forum, we tend to exchange ideas rather than beat each other over the head with them. :)

 

Happy shooting!

 

Dave

[snc_cam]

darn, and I was hoping for a good "flame war"... :)

 

Same to you too Dave.

[snc_cam]

Katie,

 

I tend to put my pics on multiple computers/tablets. And also upload the ones I print to photo-print sites (I mostly use winkflash). But flickr also has a lot of storage space for pics and videos. And you can easily share from both sites.

 

Lastly, usually once a year, I save my pics to a DVD so I have them on an external medium.

 

Also, can you purchase from the US Amazon and have them shipped to NSW? Is the cost about the same?

 

Steve

[donaldsc]

On our first ever cruise this past spring, I used a tip I saw on another post on CC. Probably overkill and since you back up probably not needed for you but I had one card for day before and sailaway, one for each island and one for the sea days. But I was able to just snap away and not worry about loading up my cards and as said above, if something got stolen or lost I still had the rest.

 

SD cards arent that expensive, especially at online retailers and after the cruise I had/have them for whatever else!

 

Excellent idea except that your pictures still are not backed up. If your camera has dual card slots, put 2 cards in and write to both of them.

 

DON