You don't need two card slots until you do. And when you do but you don't have them, it's too late.

@AshBashSneakers

Жыл бұрын

Literally

@nonsolorasatura9093

Жыл бұрын

With equals data between the two, just one with raw while another with jpg, it isn't exactly equals, since is possible a potential loose in quality, if the card that contain the raw break. A lot worse when in camera with two incompatible card slot, due performance reason, it isn't possible have the same content on both cards.

@snaphaan5049

7 ай бұрын

Weird. Everyone talks about buying camera with two SD cards if you want to shoot professionally. But then they say you don't need to start your photography career with a $2500 body. But... a $1000 body (like the R8) will not get you 2 slots. So what's the deal?

@Augnos

5 ай бұрын

​@@snaphaan5049 I think shooting redundant matters most when shooting once-in-a-lifetime moments, especially if you are being paid for it. I don't think there is anything wrong with single card slots, especially if you buy SD cards from reliable brands and back up your photos to your computer regularly. I don't even really like the idea of shooting to multiple smaller cards, because I've lost more SD cards than I've had fail on me. Backup regularly, and you'll be fine! If you're really worried of losing important moments from a card failure, I know for a fact that Canon can even backup your photos wirelessly to your phone/ipad while you're shooting. I'm sure the other brands have something similar.

I mirror between two CFexpress cards. Before I leave the venue, I take one copy and put it in my wallet, while the other stays in the camera bag. Never had to deal with a card failure or theft, but the extra 10 seconds of effort makes me feel better. I also format both cards before the next event.

@timd4524

Жыл бұрын

Aren't those the big cards? Like an inch by an inch and a half?

@PeteTaylorPTI

Жыл бұрын

I use two SD slots on the R6. I never have to keep spare cards because the capacities are large enough to handle two weddings redundantly. I never have to deal with card failure because I never take the card(s) out of the camera body. I transfer the photos directly from the camera within 5 minutes of getting home from an event/session. Always have, even since my first SLR (400D). I hear you on the extra extra extra layer of security (removing one card). No beef with that measure at all. 🙂 I tend to simply never make any stops on the way home. If some catastrophe happens beyond that, then it probably wouldn't matter if I had a spare in my pocket. LOL But yes, I don't format the cards until it's the last thing I do before leaving the house for the next session/event. By not removing card(s) from the camera, it also means I've never once left the house having left any card(s) at home accidentally.

First of all I only shoot as a hobbyist however, in the past I used to shoot weddings, sport leagues etc. on film, and there was no backup or guarantee the film would get processed correctly. Fast forward a couple or more decades... Every camera I own with two card slots has a card in both slots. I consistently use the second card only as an overflow when / if the primary card gets full. In the tens of thousands of images I have taken I have never had a card failure. With the XQD CF express cards I don't worry about damage. The other reason to keep the second card in the camera is to transfer the images from the primary card which is much faster than the SD in the second slot. For hiking and multi day outings it is also a cheep and convenient backup.

It’s crazy not to use a second slot as an instant backup. Back when I was shooting with a Canon EOS 5D Mark IV I had my SD card fail after a 4 hour portrait session. I was not aware of any problem until I tried to copy the images to my computer. I was so grateful for the backup I had on my CF card. So far, that is the only time I’ve experienced a card failing but it really hammered home the importance of multiple writing to both slots.

Thanks for taking my question. For a while, I was using slot 2 as overflow (that only happened once when I was on a trip and only had the cards in the camera). But since much of my shooting is photojournalism, I've gone to dual backup with a 128 gig card in the second slot, which I also use for video.

I use the two bodies you do. The SD is there for redundancy, but never leaves the body, so the durability is less of an issue. Both cards are formatted in body every time.

@PeteTaylorPTI

Жыл бұрын

Amen. I do a lot of second photography work where that's the only reason I ever have to open the card slot. But even then, and for my own work, slot one ALWAYS has my 128GB card in and it NEVER comes out. A card reader is a useless thing for me. I always transfer directly from the camera. A card reader can only introduce issues.

@busansanai

Жыл бұрын

So how do you extract the data to your computer for edits? USB? Is that slower or faster than taking the SD out and copying to PC via adaptor or do you see no difference? Curious

Hi David I have a Nikon D500 and Nikon D5, both have dual slots. The D500 has a XQD/CF Express type B and a SD slot, and the D5 has 2 XQD/CF Express Type B slots, I have always used mine as Back up, so everything writes to both cards. I like the idea of having 2 card slots. Thanks for the videos I love watching them. Mark from Australia

Shopping to upgrade my camera body, & this was one of the most helpful videos to understand my (new to me) choices in regard to this particular feature! THANKS!!!

Really good discussion. Thank you Dave.

Thanks David. My primary use cases were real estate and auto racing. In both, getting a second chance doesn't happen. So, I aways used "record to both", and captured bot RAW and JPEGs. Both my camera bodies have dual slots, and I wouldn't shoot for money without them.

Before watching through, I'll say YES - dual slots are a must-have when getting paid to cover non-repeatable events. At the very least / especially for paid jobs. It's bananas to me to fly without that safety net, when plenty of modern bodies offer dual slots. I always write RAW to my primary card (XQD or CF Express B card), and highest quality JPEG backup files to my SD card. Video also goes to the SD card.

@InfectedChris

Жыл бұрын

I'm pretty much the same! Highest quality JPGs to the SD card as well.

@snaphaan5049

7 ай бұрын

Weird. Everyone talks about buying camera with two SD cards if you want to shoot professionally. But then they say you don't need to start your photography career with a $2500 body. But... a $1000 body (like the R8) will not get you 2 slots. So what's the deal?

Dual slot should not be reserved for “pro” or paid job. If it’s your hobby and you travel to the other side of the planet, you expect also to have a copy of your files. I am using a Canon 6D with a single slot and it’s painful. On holidays, I am using a different SD card for each day. In my opinion, every camera above 1K USD should have 2 slots!

I record to multiple. I have never had a card failure but I have, more often than I care to admit, left the primary card in the computer. At least on my next outing I just get a warning about a missing card but I don't have to change any settings to start shooting. I can then pull them off the second card. It is very simple to format both cards and I don't think it costs me more than 10 seconds.

Even high quality cards can fail or have corrupted data. The one corrupted shot might be one that you really worked hard to get. I've had the experience of shooting with dual SanDisk Extreme UHS-II SD cards in a Sony A7R IV, mirroring the images to both cards. When I unloaded the files to my computer, one of the raw files had a streak of several rows that were all corrupted. Fortunately, the same image on the second SD card was fine. When I've traveled, I've also separated the two copies of each card after using them, so that if one copy gets lost or stolen, I still have the other copy.

I actually have the same 2 slots. And I agree on the fact that I will never fill one up with stills. But since the beginning I have always had two cards in there. And out of all my time shooting I was grateful I did. Not because I filled up one - Not because one failed. But because I forgot to put the card back into my camera twice after downloading them 🤣So I was happy I had the spare in there.

Sadly, I havent been able to evolve into the 2 card camera ranks. Hopefully someday soon as I am preparing for my Portrait/Event portion of my photography journey. A 2 card camera is ideal for paid work. I will earn my way there asap. Great video David! Thanks to you and Adorama!

@jpdj2715

Жыл бұрын

I have a 2-slot camera and agree with David - see my comment to the video, it has more nuances. In short: if you need a second slot, you need a second camera. Period. I did not upgrade from a 1-slot Nikon Z 7 to a 2-slot Nikon Z 7ii for the second slot, but now the second slot is there, I do use it - sloppily.

So informative! I don't have two slots, but I'd like to have the option if I ever upgrade my camera.

Great info. Thanks

Just an FYI for you. I was using 1 TB Angelbird cards. My card went bad. And locked up the R5. It did still record the shots I took on the SD card. I did get files on my SD. While my CF Express I lost everything. Nothing was recoverable. And Angelbird gives free recovery and is good at it. And I never had a Angelbird card fail ever. When I pulled the Angelbird card. The R5 worked fine by the way. And the R5 was acting a lil strange before it finally locked up. But like I said, the card was completely unrecoverable.

I use second slot as a back up. Back when my camera only had one SD slot, I had a failure and could not recover files. Since then I mirror everything with my CF express being the primary card

I shoot Nikon Z and have my CF express in slot 1 with an equal sized SD in slot 2. I set slot 2 to act as a the jpg. However, I don't shoot much burst and could switch slot 2 for buffering. Also, Nikon has the Snapbridge app to send jpg previews to my phone over bluetooth. I just get rid of them after I take off the photos but it's convenient to send a quick photo to a friend of what I'm working on.

Easy to understand

On my Canon 5D4 and 7D2 (both have a CF and SD slot) I shoot RAW to both cards. The second one solely for backup until I can get the images onto my computer and hard drives. Luckily I have enough of each card to run them side by side for a weekend of sport shooting and not run out. I don't format the cards (in camera) until it is time to use them again at the next event.

first slot is RAW and second slot is jpeg is the better option for wedding photography

Main question and feature that defines pro and consumer camera))

I use older equipment so SD are my only option. I shoot raw and jpeg to each card for my work flow.

I shoot Commercial Projects and most of my shoots are done tethered with C1 which doesn't allow for copying to cards and computer. As a result, I copy images over to an external drive as I shoot. If I'm not shooting tethered, I write to both cards (CF+SD) for redundancy. Nothing is perfect but I will do everything within my powers to not lose images. Since my transition to digital, I have two or three backups to all my shoots and feel like I'm covered.

I write to both slots simultaneously to minimize the risk of losing an image. I’m surprised that cameras don’t allow for simultaneous writing to an online backup service.

Hey David, consider the Sony TOUGH SD cards if you want metal SD cards and not the flimsy plastic cards that most are. I typically shoot RAWs to my CF Express B and JPGs as a backup to the SD card.

I write RAW to my CFExpress card and JPEG to my SD card. I only have the JPEG as a backup and have never needed it. I don’t write a second RAW file to the SD card because it is so much slower (300 vs 1400) and I’m worried I could fill my buffer at times.

Thanks for another useful video. I'm guessing that you may reconsider using two cards when the upgraded Canons (e.g., R1 or R5 II) come equipped with two CF card slots.

@DavidBergmanPhoto

Жыл бұрын

Yes, I might. :)

Just format your cards between each job. Cf cards are very reliable. Get good cards from a reputable source (not eBay) no issues. It’s nice to have a backup…

This video is very good, I also use 2 cards, an Angelbird CFexpress 512Gb for raw video and photographs and in the other slot SABRENT Rocket V60 SD UHS-II memory card (128GB) for jpeg photography and that way everything is simpler and faster if needed send some photos to social networks wish you a merry christmas and continuations of excellent videos hug

I shoot Sony and use two cards. Both SD’s. I duplicate onto both cards, as SD cards aren’t the most reliable. From there I back up to two drives when I get home. So far it’s a system which works for me

As other people, I just pull out only one card on my R6 (one month the first, one month the second, to have even consumption on spring mechanism and on the card contacts), and before the next work, first thing on set I will do is turn on camera and format both cards, it's a procedure I do from the first compact digital camera I had, and never failed me. Format before every shoot, it's just an automatic action for me. Having two slots and using just one is inexplicable for me 🤷🏼‍♂️

Better having than needing… having in the same camera body…🤪🤣😂🤣😂

Yes, two slots, use second for back up especially for events. Can't do a do over for events. Nice to have that in camera back up.

Writing to two cards as a redundancy thing needs more qualification. I have the questions, but not the answers. As my camera mentions "both cards" (or so) I don't know how it does that. With one extremely fast and expensive CFexpress Type B card, the total time needed to write a shot to card, however now is determined by the second card - an SD card. My camera supports UHS-II (where the SD card has additional contacts) and this can go at a much higher speed than UHS-I. Unfortunately SD UHS-II is about as expensive per capacity as CFexpress Type B, while much, much slower. In higher end data center targeted operating system implementations, in the case of configuring a volume as RAID 1 or mirroring, we may set the writes as sequential and read back. So a single file is written first to #1, then read back to verify correctness, and then this is repeated for #2 in the volume. You can imagine this to be very slow. No idea how cameras do this. Then there is the issue of the I/O controller and firmware. If a glitch happens in the camera (or server) at a higher level than the drive/slot, then a data corruption of an entire volumen (card) can happen for both members at the same time. No idea how cameras are designed and implemented in this respect. Theoretical? Read up on "spontaneous bitflips" or "how long can my data be stored on a memory card without power?" Cards are not straightforwardly simple. And this applies to "wear" too. In short: writing identical files to two cards does not mean there is any data consistency check at all. Also, writing the same shot to two cards does not necessarily happen concurrently. Personally, I use my camera's CFexpress Type B slot with the fastest and best type of that confection money can buy. The second slot, SD UHS-II, has a very fast and tough card in it that I write JPEG to. The JPEG is raw processed in camera and a relatively small file, because lossy data compression. The JPEG does not (likely) involve a lot of separate processing because my mirrorless camera does raw processing in real time all the time. For example for its eVF FPS. It means however that I have to consciously set things like white balance (with tint), ISO and exposure, because there is only little headroom for correction in the JPEG format. If/when I do that, I have a proper SOOC JPEG available ion the moment of the shoot that I might want to share. With physically different cards, it may also mean that some incredibly rare card corruption from camera/driver/controller glitches works out to one card rather than both. May. Like David, I feel that a second card is not really needed. If you really need a second card as mitigation of the risk of failure, then you really, really need two cameras. If both your cameras are at the same firmware level and used in about the same way, then running into a glitch may happen about at the same time, so you need to wonder if your second camera should be the same model and firmware combination - as long as the UI is identical I guess camera/firmware being different is not an issue. That's theory and such a thing may have never happened, you will think. I'd say, sort of. With the first card slot being CFexpress Type B, the second card being SD UHS-II is a very sub-optimal solution as these SD cards are equally expensive as the fast CFexpress and they are much slower, both in writing and reading. However they may be accessed through their own controller and driver. As to SD UHS-I versus SD UHS-II, note that cards and readers in general are cross-compatible. But there will likely be performance penalties. An SD UHS-II card in an SD UHS-I reader will result in much slower I/Os, even compared to SD UHS-I cards in that SD UHS-I reader. The controller in UHS-II is backward compatible, but not as fast as a very good UHS-I controller. You need UHS-II at all levels to benefit from the speed. Something similar will happen with your top notch (but slow by today's standards) SD UHS-I card in an SD UHS-II reader - this will not be as fast as in a top notch UHS-I reader. (Under "ceteris paribus" assumptions where the computer interface is not a performance bottleneck.) I don't shoot movie and if I were to pick that up again, I would have a dedicated camera for that (that is able to also use the excellent lenses that I now use on my "stills" camera that can do movie too).

Can you plug in a small ssd to your camera for redundancy in a single slot camera?

I sort of wish cameras will have the option to format BOTH cards at the SAME TIME or at least one click it.

@DavidBergmanPhoto

Жыл бұрын

Agreed!

I shoot macro and wildlife and I always run dual cards in backup mode.

I always shoot to two cards. Never a bad thing to have a backup. And if the cards are large enough you should never run out of space. I format both cards before each event so that i start with a clean slate. Sports JPG/JPG (faster workflow/less edits) & portrait Shoots RAW/JPG.

@blkscorpion01

Жыл бұрын

Additionally, if you're being paid for a job, better have have backup.... cant have something fail when you go to review later.

@jpdj2715

Жыл бұрын

Your corporate IT/data center backup administrator will inform you that a backup in the same location is not a backup. See my comment to the video for the nuances. I agree with David, but add that, if you need two cards for risk mitigation, then you need two cameras. On a paid job this also reduces lens swaps with the risk of introducing dirt on the sensor.

I also use one card on each cam... Prograde of course

I use dual SD cards in my Nikon D750. I shoot RAW and the second card mirrors the primary card. I did have a question though. One question, if you have a camera with dual slots (one CF Express and one SD), I heard that you should only use the CF Express card since the write speed to the cards will be limited to the slower SD card.

@DavidBergmanPhoto

Жыл бұрын

Yes, it will always default to the speed of the slower card because, obviously, it would't be able to keep up otherwise. But for still images, most cards are fast enough these days. Shooting 4K/60 video or similar might be another story.

I format my memory card before every event to reduce card errors. My XQD CARD is far superior to the SD cards.

As often it is a question of money. If you fill up your card every day with thousands of picutres, you probably just format (clear) and reuse it instead of putting a fresh one in. But if you are only filling up your card every month so, you might consider not to reuse you cards. They are not expensive anymore, and that a fresh card fails on you is extremely unlikely. Treat them as your digital negatives.

I think that Hassy has on board storage- no extra cards needed. Jpeg..... 🤣

Additional to two card slots I want also SIM card and internet connection to transfer RAWs in real-time to my VPN server. Two slots means redundancy but when camera is stolen you lose material anyway.

@DavidBergmanPhoto

Жыл бұрын

I pull me card at the end of a shoot and it goes into a card wallet in my pocket. At least until I’ve done a proper backup.

@nully.emptier

Жыл бұрын

@@DavidBergmanPhoto That's actually simple but great idea, thanks for the hint

At this point no. I don't contract with people so if I lost some images, it wouldn't be a killer. That being said, I'm sure the next camera upgrade will have it automatically. By the way, I've used SD cards since they've been around for many things, and they are extremely reliable so far. These are actually the predecessors to the SSD hard drives. Something actually Nintendo knew back with the first console. At the time though the read capability of the hardware was what made them impractical at the time. You just know though that in short time, all cameras will be mirrorless and have 2 slots. Not a big deal either way for me. I don't find them to be delicate in any way though. Either they're in the camera or a case. I also like the ultra super compatibility with SD cards, although my computer can read them all, except for one small one which you might have mentioned was dead at this time.

I could say a lot but I'll keep it short. CFExpress cards are OBSENELY expensive and I wouldn't buy one ever in life unless 10 years from now, it was the only type of card a camera would take. If you are using SD cards for stills, you are FINE! One of the main reasons I opted for the Canon R6 over the R5 was how Canon stupidly made one of their two slots a CFExpress slot. Uh no. Spend an additional $200+ before I can use the camera for events? Psht! Never that. That's money better used toward Glass... or Gas... or food... or anything else more useful than a CFExpress card. Thank goodness the R6II will stay with the dual SD slots.

Theres rtg

I bleed when I have to slide my card into a cashiers cardreader…