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Are two card slots really important?

glenerrolrd

Workshop Member
Many use a card reader, so handling is a must unless your camera is connected to a computer. For me, that's not always convenient. It's not just weddings that require b/u. it's anything that you value as a photographer. For me, it could be changing light, an expression or simply a flick of the hair during a portrait shoot. I've done shoots with professional skiers going down 60 degree pitches in two feet of snow. I did one showcasing a skier against a panorama for a popular Winter clothing company. I can't switch cameras very easily in those situations if an SD card is corrupt. Nor do I want to carry the extra weight. Does Nikon, Canon or Leica assume a professional will just buy two identical cameras because of only one card slot? I hope not, especially with Leica! The popular method of holding SD cards in place for most cameras is the spring loaded "push to click in/push to remove." The spring in the camera can sometimes be the cause of not reading properly and not the SD card at all, so what then? If one is just starting out as a photography business, sometimes only one camera is the only option considering lenses, lights and expendables. So, for me, any camera with only one slot is not a professional tool. (yes, I love the Sony A7RII, but won't buy the A7RIII) but there's no good reason to leave them out. Yeah, I'm taking to you Nikon and Canon! Shooting film requires much less investment for b/u too. Digital has mucked all this up:) I also don't care how "tough" XQD or SD cards are either. So, I guess I answered my own question. Yes, two card slots are important because it's better to have it and not need it, then to need it and not have it.
Everyone that shoots extensively has missed those great once in a blue moon opportunities . You have a 1000x more likely you will miss the peak action on the downhill skier ...than have a card failure . When I am not doing street photography ...I am shooting sports . Polo is the most challenging because you only get so many attacks on the goal and you have to guess when and where ..the establish focus on the eyes of the horse and hope that 10FPS is enough . Do I need to mention how critical AF “target acquisition “ and “tracking “ are to capturing a moment in sports ?

The risk of card failure is incredibly small and essentially irrelevant in the discussion of getting the once in a lifetime ,not to be repeated photo .

I track very carefully my hits and misses and I am constantly amazed at the consistency of my errors ...did I nail the focus point , did I catch the best moment , did I clip a body part , are the edges clean ..hows the composition , what about the context providing 2nd and 3rd tier elements ,did I stop enough movement ,hows the depth of field ,did I preserve adequate dynamic range and sharpness.

How much time do you spend practicing to avoid your demons that eliminate 1000 s of opportunities ?

The point about tough cards is simple .....lets say CF cards fail once every 1000 uses , Sd cards less so once every 2000, the new XQD adds fail once ever 10000 uses . Should be obvious . Now look at the equipment itself ..failure rates are way way more likely ..which is why most commissioned sports photographer have three not two cameras with them and redundant lenses .

Read up what diglloyd says about two cards ...a reviewer that gripes about virtually everything . He uses one card in cameras with two slots .

So in summary ...

....Of course two slots are better than a single slot .

...XQD is way better than CF or SD for reliability . This materially affects the potential for card failure .

...The photographers craft skills are the weakest point and account for the majority of the missed opportunities or LOST PICTURES.

.....Equipment failure (bodies and lenses ) is many times more likely than a card failure .

Two card slots are certainly a desirable feature and I want them whenever I can find a way but the insurance they provide is way way over rated .
 

Elderly

Well-known member
Putting the skills of the photographer aside - something can always go wrong (but rarely does).

Back in the day (film) when I worked as a pro, in the fields I worked in, almost nothing
could be re-shot if something had gone wrong.

I was paid to get a result and anything, and everything that I could do to ensure success
was employed - so yes if I were working today; two card slots would be essential to help me by offering a LITTLE peace of mind.

But sometimes things can be completely out of your control:
The amount of back-up I put together in order not to miss the shot below (taken some 33 years ago)
was something to behold ……… however - what I couldn't have bargained for was the fact that the person
at the other end of the radio failed to transmit to me the countdown to the truck being fired from the air-cannon
.

The first thing I knew was seeing the truck in the air
, but luckily I did capture the moment.

 

glenerrolrd

Workshop Member
Putting the skills of the photographer aside - something can always go wrong (but rarely does).

Back in the day (film) when I worked as a pro, in the fields I worked in, almost nothing
could be re-shot if something had gone wrong.

I was paid to get a result and anything, and everything that I could do to ensure success
was employed - so yes if I were working today; two card slots would be essential to help me by offering a LITTLE peace of mind.

But sometimes things can be completely out of your control:
The amount of back-up I put together in order not to miss the shot below (taken some 33 years ago)
was something to behold ……… however - what I couldn't have bargained for was the fact that the person
at the other end of the radio failed to transmit to me the countdown to the truck being fired from the air-cannon
.

The first thing I knew was seeing the truck in the air
, but luckily I did capture the moment.

Come on Ian ....two card slots are not ESSENTIAL . Look at the entire system when determining points where redundancy would improve the likely hood of success. Number One ....how many photographers are being assigned ..its 1000X more likely that you blew it ..than having a card failure . Number Two ....equipment ....100x more likely you would have an equipment failure than a card failure . Number Three ....in the film days I suppose the lab never blew it and ruined a shoot with bad chemicals or over processing .
 

glenerrolrd

Workshop Member
One additional point I might add .....the root cause of many card failures is inadequate battery power . When a battery runs downs and you are shooting a burst ...you may not have adequate power to complete writing the last frame to the card . When you create an incomplete write to a card you can destroy the index to the files it contains . That is why the recovery software can find files that seem to have been lost ..because it reads the card without relying on the index .

In my case 50% of my card failures were do to corrupt card indexes.
 

Elderly

Well-known member
Come on Ian ....two card slots are not ESSENTIAL . Look at the entire system when determining points where redundancy would improve the likely hood of success. Number One ....how many photographers are being assigned ..its 1000X more likely that you blew it ..than having a card failure . Number Two ....equipment ....100x more likely you would have an equipment failure than a card failure . Number Three ....in the film days I suppose the lab never blew it and ruined a shoot with bad chemicals or over processing .
I did say a LITTLE peace up mind .....

"how many photographers are being assigned?" : Just me in that instance, I was the Stills Photographer on that movie.

"equipment failure" : As far as I remember the only equipment failures I had were due to my own carelessness,
but I always carried a suitable back-up for everything, however 99.9% of the time it was never needed.

"I suppose the lab never blew it and ruined a shoot?" : Yes, problems on two or three occasions out of the huge number of times
that labs processed my film, but I guarded against that extremely remote possibility by always shooting twice the number of sheets/rolls of film needed and holding back from the lab the second sheet/roll until the first had been safely couriered back to me and I had checked it.
So once again all that paranoia was unnecessary for 99.9% of the jobs, but for the 0.1% .........

So if I were still working; a camera with twice as many card slots that I needed, would for ME be an essential 0.tiny% part of my back-up arsenal.

Thinking back - the only piece of equipment that I didn't duplicate when on a shoot somewhere, was a second step ladder :D.
 

glenerrolrd

Workshop Member
I did say a LITTLE peace up mind .....

"how many photographers are being assigned?" : Just me in that instance, I was the Stills Photographer on that movie.

"equipment failure" : As far as I remember the only equipment failures I had were due to my own carelessness,
but I always carried a suitable back-up for everything, however 99.9% of the time it was never needed.

"I suppose the lab never blew it and ruined a shoot?" : Yes, problems on two or three occasions out of the huge number of times
that labs processed my film, but I guarded against that extremely remote possibility by always shooting twice the number of sheets/rolls of film needed and holding back from the lab the second sheet/roll until the first had been safely couriered back to me and I had checked it.
So once again all that paranoia was unnecessary for 99.9% of the jobs, but for the 0.1% .........

So if I were still working; a camera with twice as many card slots that I needed, would for ME be an essential 0.tiny% part of my back-up arsenal.

Thinking back - the only piece of equipment that I didn't duplicate when on a shoot somewhere, was a second step ladder :D.
Sorry Ian its of course your decision .....my only point is that in the larger view of “risk of failure “ a bad card is extremely small . Understanding risk factors is critical to putting your effort, money etc into things that matter . As cards get better and more reliable (XQD verse CF) its questionable the risk of a card failure makes any meaningful difference .

These are of course personal decisions and its always nice to have redundancy in your system .
 
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jdphoto

Well-known member
One additional point I might add .....the root cause of many card failures is inadequate battery power . When a battery runs downs and you are shooting a burst ...you may not have adequate power to complete writing the last frame to the card . When you create an incomplete write to a card you can destroy the index to the files it contains . That is why the recovery software can find files that seem to have been lost ..because it reads the card without relying on the index .

In my case 50% of my card failures were do to corrupt card indexes.
Roger, I think this last sentence from your quote confirms the reason for two slots. Obviously, there's steps one can do to mitigate a potential card failure, charged battery, formatting and compatible cards, etc. But if you can approximate an average for card failures, then you certainly need two slots. I've had 2 Lexar cards that were unusable, but thankfully this wasn't while shooting. There's other factors that can fry a camera card and electronics and that's why I shoot film as a back up too.
 

glenerrolrd

Workshop Member
Roger, I think this last sentence from your quote confirms the reason for two slots. Obviously, there's steps one can do to mitigate a potential card failure, charged battery, formatting and compatible cards, etc. But if you can approximate an average for card failures, then you certainly need two slots. I've had 2 Lexar cards that were unusable, but thankfully this wasn't while shooting. There's other factors that can fry a camera card and electronics and that's why I shoot film as a back up too.
Ok ...not going to convince anyone here ....I have 170K images in my LR library taken with more than a dozen different cameras AND I HAVE NEVER MISSED An IMPORTANT SHOT OR LOST A FOLDER DUE TO CARD FAILURE . Wish I could say the same about my other points of failure !

I have had cards go bad ..about a dozen ....mostly CF cards and a few SD cards . In all cases I was not affected while shooting (or I identified it immediately ). 100% recovery was always possible for those frames captured .

I have on the other hand had numerous blown opportunities due to most likely ME and sometimes EQUIPMENT .

So my only point is that having dual cards maybe addressing a problem that is insignificant to most photographers. I am not sure that the performance of the XQD cards doesn t make it so unlikely that its no longer relevant . :banghead:
 

Don Libby

Well-known member
Seems to me we're over thinking this.

Did I pay more for a particular camera because it has more than one slot? Am I forced to use that extra slot when I didn't want it in the first place? Is it causing me sleepless nights worrying about it? Would I have brought the camera if it only had one card slot? What about the type of card the slot(s) use. It's enough to drive a person to drink - actually my truck took me to the bar not the camera.

I'm a belt and suspenders person. In short, I'd rather have "it" and not need 'it" than to need "it" and not have "it".

Personally I like the 2-card slot idea as it allows me extra storage. I've been shooting an interesting subject of late and have 2-64GB cards in both the slots. I filled the first card which in turn automatically switched over to the second allowing me to keep shooting without breaking my stride. Yes I could have used a larger card however that question can be asked by someone else "how large a card is too large?".

In short - or as short as I can be...

If you have 2-cards and only want to use 1 do so. If you have 2 and want to use 2 be my guest. If you only have 1 and want 2 then you might be SOL unless you want upgrade.

This is what I get for drinking my dinner :bugeyes: Actually now that I think about it - this is what you get for me drinking my dinner :ROTFL:

And to those who might not get "it" this was written partially with my tongue in cheek

Good night all :salute:
 

Tim

Active member
I've had one card go bad. Not a total failure of the controller but the flash storage developed "bad blocks". All images but one were recovered. The one was partially (mostly) lost.

ALL the cards ever made will fail, given enough usage, either the controller chip or the flash storage will cease to work in time. The only question is when... not if. Flash storage "wears" out.

There are many articles to google - https://havecamerawilltravel.com/photographer/memory-cards-wear-out/

If I were a Pro I would replace my cards regularly even if the cards are working, and thoroughly test the new replacements before putting them to use for client images. Pro-active replacement before failure rather than re-active replacement after failure (and loss of images and job). Consider the cost of a card against a series of payments for jobs done. Not much IMO. Use the working old cards for personal fun.

Sourcing cards from a reliable supplier is also essential, so many fakes out there. As an example a card may pretend to be 32Gb but if you copy 32Gb to them, you won't get back 32Gb as they have modded the controller to report a fake size. Beware.

An interesting question would be as to if video recording "works" the card harder. I suspect it does and shortens their lifespan.

Tim
 

Shashin

Well-known member
I am glad I am given the choice. One card slot is fine until the card fails. I have had a card fail. I like cameras with dual slots, but I also have a cameras with single slots. Would it be a deciding factors in a camera choice, hard to tell until the choice is presented. But my purchase motivations are more complex where the card slots are a nice feature if they are there.
 

GrahamWelland

Subscriber & Workshop Member
TBH it’s never bothered me. As mentioned by a few other folks, the quality of the cards are more important to me than the number of slots. With the price of cards these days I tend to only use them for a few cycles through the camera before I retire them anyway. I’ll typically mostly fill a card and then replace it and do the same thing - it’ll probably only end up in the camera again after five or six other cards have been used.

Now if I were shooting commercially, I’d go for smaller cards and make a point of swapping them out more often to limit any potential for loss of lots of images.
 
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