Photographers- a question about memory cards? ?

Question

Do you have one memory card and use it over and over? Or do you use large memory cards and buy new ones when you have used them?

I have a dSLR and take a lot of pictures. I have a few memory cards(dont remember the size) that hold about 2,500 images each. But I used those and my family is telling me to erase the pictures (there already uploaded to the computer) and reuse the memory card. But I'm afraid that I will lose all my pictures if my computer crashes. Then if I chose to buy memory cards whenever I run out of image space, I'll have a lot of memory cards!

What should I do?

I'm sorry if this question is confusing!

Answer 1

You could download them to your PC and then back them up by burning them onto a CD/DVD. Store the CD/DVD in a safe place you'll have a backup set just incase. I know people who make two copies of backups.

Then, erase your card and use them over again.

I have about 5 cards I use over and over.

Answer 2

Let me see if I understand what you are saying.  You have a DSLR and yet you are getting over 2,000 images per card?  Is that right?

If so, STOP

You are wasting all the potential of your camera's large sensor and high quality resolution ... Set your camera for its highest resolution.  This will include not only the resolution (called fine or super fine), but the size of the image as well (usually Large).

The number of images you are able to put on your card will be much smaller.  If you want more room, buy some 2GB or 4GB cards (they are very inexpensive when on sale ... 2GB cards for under $11)

Now ... you can backup all your images on a CD or DVD and put them in a safe place, well labeled and in a jewel case.

As far as your memory cards are concerned, they are designed to go through 20,000 format cycles without failure ... if you formatted them every day, you would still have working cards after over 50 years.

Answer 3

Your method is okay, but not perfect. As a matter of fact, there was talk last year of a company, thinking much as you do, making memory cards that could be written to only once. Not sure whatever came of that as the idea had merit. The cards would be less expensive and archival.

That said, you may be better off with a couple of external hard drives for backup rather than relying on the cards. The prices are so low now that it'll probably be less expensive than purchasing new flash drives for the camera. An added benefit is that you can store these external drives in different locations (even different states/provinces/counties) to protect against regional disasters. As it now stands, you only have two copies of each photo. One on the cards, one on the computer. You really need more than that. External HD's are great, especially when paired with DVD's. There are also online storage services that will further protect you from disasters, be they local, regional, or worse.

If you're worried about losing images, and you will (we all do), then redundancy is the key, with a helpful heaping of diversity (hd, dvd, etc).

Keep doing what your doing if that makes you happy, as there is no harm in your method. Just don't rely on that alone.

Answer 4

Well you could get like a external hard drive to store your pictures on so they would be safe if your computer crashed. I keep my important pictures on my flickr!!

Answer 5

What if that memory card fails? You'll lose all those photos as easily as if your HD fails. You can upload them to a site that stores pictures. You can burn them to CD/DVD. You can buy an external Harddrive and transfer the files on that. You shouldn't keep all of those pics on the memory card. They are meant to be reusable and not a permanent storage solution.

I have many memory cards and reuse them. The files get transfer to the hard drive and then a copy is made to DVD or the original. The memory card gets deleted for future use.  

Answer 6

Burn your images to cd's.

Start an online photo account (such as flickr or photobucket)

Make as many copies as you feel comfortable with.

Only then erase your memory card.

If you still don't want to take a chance of losing your images, just keep buying memory cards. They are a lot cheaper than they used to be.