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S2 Storage question SD or CF - both?

atanabe

Member
With the option of SD or CF cards, which do you use? Just curious as I have both and wondered what users have found to work the best.

Thanks,
Al
 

David K

Workshop Member
I use the CF cards exclusively for captures. While the SD card will take overflow captures I use it for saving my custom settings. If you need more details pm me.
 

dfarkas

Workshop Member
Al,

First, congrats on getting into the S system. We (the old Germany gang) knew you'd succumb eventually. :D

I'd suggest using CF cards. They have such a drastic speed advantage that the camera will feel much faster. Best to use UDMA 6 cards with a read/write speed of 60 or 90 MB/s (400 or 600x). With a 90 MB/s card and shooting compressed DNG, you'll be able to shoot more than 60 shots/minute and you won't hit the buffer until about 17 shots. Also, image playback/zooming will be more responsive. And, perhaps the biggest difference, even if you don't shoot rapidly, is that the faster card will save you A LOT of time downloading images to your computer. For now, either a FireWire 800 or ExpressCard reader will be the fastest options for transfer. Perhaps we'll start to see options based on USB3 and/or Thunderbolt soon.

Even the fastest SD cards only transfer 20-30 MB/s on a good day. I don't know about you, but I don't want to wait 3-4x as long to transfer my images. The only plus side is that most computers (MBP, iMac, PCs) have built-in SD readers. So, for maximum download options, SD is convenient, if somewhat slow.

Also, CF cards offer greater storage capacity. I stick with 64 and 32GB cards. With a 64GB card, you can store about 1600 compressed DNGs. And, you can reasonably expect that a single battery charge will last at least this long. In other words, you can go out to shoot A LOT of images without ever thinking to change either battery or memory card. Very liberating to shoot for a long weekend without need for a second memory card or a battery change. :thumbs: Yes, I'm serious. :)

David
 

dfarkas

Workshop Member
I use the CF cards exclusively for captures. While the SD card will take overflow captures I use it for saving my custom settings. If you need more details pm me.
Oh, and +1 for saving User Profile to small SD card. If you save your profile to the SD card and leave it in the camera, you'll be able to quickly recall those settings if they get messed up, or if the camera "forgets" them.

We consider this best practice and recommend dedicating your smallest SD card to this task.

David
 

atanabe

Member
David,
Thanks for the heads up on saving settings on the SD card. Interesting note about the battery life 1000 exposures? Wow!
 

dfarkas

Workshop Member
David,
Thanks for the heads up on saving settings on the SD card. Interesting note about the battery life 1000 exposures? Wow!
No, you can get about 2000 exposures on average. ;)

Just like any other MFD camera, right? :D

David
 

KurtKamka

Subscriber Member
Any idea of why my S2 display doesn't show a difference in the number of images remaining if it is switched between compressed and uncompressed DNG files?
 

ashwinrao1

Active member
Congrats, Al. It was great to see you yesterday, and I am very happy that you got the S2 instead of leaving me tempted by it (especially at the stated price)....

Enjoy!
 

GMB

Active member
And I bought a second battery... why :)
Good question. I am currelty wondering whether I should get a second one. David F, what's your best practice recommendation? Does battery life suffer if you reload even though it is only partially empty?

Georg
 

dfarkas

Workshop Member
Good question. I am currelty wondering whether I should get a second one. David F, what's your best practice recommendation? Does battery life suffer if you reload even though it is only partially empty?

Georg
No. The battery can be charged fine without having to drain it all the way first. Over the course of a year, I've not seen my battery capacity diminish at all doing this. I also leave partially charged batteries in the camera and they hold their charge, so no camera vampirism going on either.

On most casual day outings with the S2, I don't bother to a take a second battery. But, if I was trekking in the field with little access to electricity, I'd opt for a second one. Two batteries (maybe three if really cold or doing a lot of night shooting) would cover a full week's worth of shooting with no recharging. And likewise, three 64GB CF cards would cover all your storage needs as well. Nothing like traveling unencumbered and with the confidence to get the job done. I remember chatting with Michael Reichmann about batteries and he told me he will take a minimum of 12 batteries and two or three twin chargers on photo trips to get him through one or two days!!

David
 

Paratom

Well-known member
It happened my S2 started to do funny things when the battery got closer to empty (even though the display showed that it was not totally empty).
I feel saver if I have a full second battery with me plus I dont have to load all the time.
 
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