Storage space

After owning my camera for a week, I'm going to take the plunge into RAW. Also I'm off on holiday/vacation for 11 days at the end of this week. I have 32gb CF, 32gb SD & 16gb SD cards. I am taking my laptop which only has about 16gb of storage available. Cloud storage is not viable as I will be International roaming on a 3G mobile network.

Taking my total card storage space of 80gb, which RAW format should I use & how many RAW shots can I store?

Why not buy an external disk?


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

Yep, I'd go with Geoff's suggestion and get an external drive. You can get 1TB for cheap now, or even better, I'd consider 2 x 500GB... Plenty of room for a trips worth of pictures, and you can back one up onto the other in case of failure.

Thanks, I will consider an external disk, but this trip would be the only purpose for one.

Can I copy photos directly to a USB3 external drive from the camera, or must I go via the laptop?

Gorf said:

Thanks, I will consider an external disk, but this trip would be the only purpose for one.

Can I copy photos directly to a USB3 external drive from the camera, or must I go via the laptop?

Click to expand...

You would have to go via a laptop typically - The camera and drives are seen as USB storage, not hosts. There are some devices that you put your SD card in and it has a display to copy files to the drive from card or vice-versa, but they are much more expensive.

What do you mean "which Raw format should I use"?

FastGlass said:

What do you mean "which Raw format should I use"?

Click to expand...

12 or 14-bit, compressed or uncompressed. Makes a big difference in file size.

BackdoorHippie said:

12 or 14-bit, compressed or uncompressed. Makes a big difference in file size.

Click to expand...

Oh...Dumb ass. I was thinking along the lines of J-peg fine and new Raw had no such thing. Lol. Never even thought about the bit or compression.

Thanks everyone, I have ordered a USB3 drive. It may get here by Friday, but may not.

So I can't connect the drive directly to the camera I understand, so I will do that via the laptop.

About the RAW file type, any suggestions as to which one I should use? It is a little confusing.

My take has always been that if you're going to bother shoot RAW why not get everything you can out of it, so I shoot 14-bit lossless compressed on my cameras (the D810 has an uncompressed setting as well, but from everything I've read it doesn't buy you anything but bigger files).

The only reason I could ever see using something else would be storage and/or the need to fill the buffer less quickly (i.e. needing to shoot for 2-3 seconds on a D7100 would require 12-bit compressed). Given that you have a 54 image buffer on the D810 the latter should never be an issue for you. If you get your USB3 drive in time then shoot the biggest files you can. If not and you find yourself filling up your cards too quickly then I would stick with 14-bit (more colors) and go form lossless to regular compression.

Before you go, if you're concerned with space, shoot the same exact photo (important) in every mode and compare sizes and see what your savings will be.

Great advice Jake, thanks.

I'd like to be able to review some RAW shots on the laptop. I have a spare Photoshop Elements licence or ViewNX2 on the CD that came with my camera. Which would be better for viewing & possible mild editing?

1. Shoot RAW 14 bit. If there is an option for lossless compressed use that (it just reduces disk space, quality is same).
2. Use View NX2 for viewing, or else install NX-D for full RAW processing.
3. External HDD is a must have thing, if for nothing else to archive your images.

In case your disk does not arrive in time, get a 64GB SD card for backup. If you do not shoot in long bursts a 45MBPS card would be sufficient. Just remember that at least with D800, the burst speed is limited by the speed of the slowest card, so it is no use buying a very fast CF card and a slow SD card. If your CF is much faster than SD, use only CF for shooting, and then insert the SD card to copy the images to it.

aroy said:

1. Shoot RAW 14 bit. If there is an option for lossless compressed use that (it just reduces disk space, quality is same).
2. Use View NX2 for viewing, or else install NX-D for full RAW processing.
3. External HDD is a must have thing, if for nothing else to archive your images.

In case your disk does not arrive in time, get a 64GB SD card for backup. If you do not shoot in long bursts a 45MBPS card would be sufficient. Just remember that at least with D800, the burst speed is limited by the speed of the slowest card, so it is no use buying a very fast CF card and a slow SD card. If your CF is much faster than SD, use only CF for shooting, and then insert the SD card to copy the images to it.

Click to expand...

Good info. Thanks. I wasn't aware of the correlation between slowest card and fps.

Phillydog1958 said:

Good info. Thanks. I wasn't aware of the correlation between slowest card and fps.

Click to expand...

Here are some links
Rob Galbraith DPI: Nikon D800/D800E
Write speeds of D800 (or any other camera with two slots) - Nikon DSLR cameras Discussions on Nikon Rumors Forum
Memory Card Speed - How much does the camera need?

I'm now on vacation in Ireland, writing this from our boat. The external hard disk arrived in time & I have it here with me. We got out on the water later than expected, so I only managed to get some low light shots. I am up early this morning, hoping to see a sunrise, but not much luck today.

please let us know what you think of the 810. I am considering the 810 or the 750 as upgrades and/or additional to my 610 (depends if my wife wants to use 610). Held the 810 and it felt incredibly comfortable and i liked the position of the AF-On button. not so sure how the 750 felt, but certainly not as comfortable.

eal1 said:

please let us know what you think of the 810. I am considering the 810 or the 750 as upgrades and/or additional to my 610 (depends if my wife wants to use 610). Held the 810 and it felt incredibly comfortable and i liked the position of the AF-On button. not so sure how the 750 felt, but certainly not as comfortable.

Click to expand...

I've now had my D810 for 3 weeks & I'm very pleased with it. The camera gives me everything I could want & the design leaves me with no annoyances at all. Every button & option is exactly where I would want it to be. The camera is a joy to use & gives me confidence. Coming from 35mm, the weight takes some getting past & for about 2 weeks I did struggle with how heavy it was. I am now more comfortable with the weight, although I may get a Blackrapid sport to complement the wrist strap for longer walks.

If I lost the camera today & had my money back, I would go out & buy exactly the same thing.