Nikon d80 - 512 mg enough for 100 pics at least?

Question

Nikon d80 - 512 mg enough for 100 pics at least?

Answer 1

Not if you want to use all the resolution the D80 can produce.  At the cost of memory cards today with 1GB cards selling in 4-packs for under $25, 512 mb cards are really good backup cards to carry around with you as a spare.

You purchased a high-end DSLR.  If you shoot with the camera set for Large/Fine resolution setting, you can get 56 JPEG images .. if you shoot like most of us, RAW + JPEG Basic, then the 512 MB card will give you a whopping 13 images.

This is why you see photographers with DSLR's as good as yours, carrying around a number of 2GB cards and in some cases (like me) carry a couple of 8GB cards and at least four or five 4GB cards at all times.

Answer 2

Yeah I agree with the answer given above I started out with a 1 gb card and then bought a 2 and then another 2 and then a 4 and honestly I should have just saved some money and started out with the 4's to begin with a 1 gig card will give you 79 shots shooting in RAW format which is what you really need to shoot in to optimize you cameras performance, JPEGS will lose info overtime but RAW is lossless.  The only problem with buying a bigger card is if they fail your going to lose a lot more info than if you use a 2 meg card, if you spent the money on the D80 though you should take full advantage of what it can do for you.

Answer 3

Yes, if you're shooting in JPEG, even at highest quality you should be fine (and at higher compression levels even more so)

It also depends on subject matter - if you're shooting something that has a lot of contrasts, varying colors etc, the files will be larger. If shooting plain things with many alike colors - files will be much smaller.

My D80 usually takes about 3 to 4.5 MB per JPEG at lowest compression level (largest file). But I've seen files as small as 2MB and I think a few 5mb+ ones too. But that should be a plenty for you anyway.

Note that when you insert card the camera may say it has room for fewer pictures, because it will assume that every photo you take will take the maximum amount of space. Just ignore it and start shooting!

Of course in RAW you need a lot more than that for 100 pictures.....

LEM.