Memory card management on the day
Hi all - in the heat of battle it's not always possible to pre-empt when is best to change your memory card so it usually needs changing at the worst possible time!
Currently I have a pouch (a converted Tamrac belt filter pouch) on my belt with loose batteries and spare cards. I take a card out and replace it with the spent one, locking it in the process. The trouble is I'm worried that a card could fall out, plus when hunting for a new one I keep pulling out used ones that are locked, not good when the confetti shot is about to happen! What solutions are you good folk using? Pete |
Re: Memory card management on the day
I use these:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B004W2US...I29WU94MEZFZH0 It holds 8 of my 64GB cards which is usually enough for a wedding with my A (and only haha) cam. I don't like to use the locking function. They have a tendency to break and if they break whilst in the 'locked' mode you can't fix them! I place all my, pre-formatted, cards 'face up' in the case. When I remove one I place the full card face down so I know it's been used. Simples. As I start with blank pre-formatted cards and I never format cards at a wedding, I know that if somehow I accidentally place a used card back in the camera (never happened yet) and there is something on it then it is from the same wedding I'm shooting and it's not to be erased. |
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All my hamdycams and steadicam camera have 64gb cards which are enough for the day but I shoot xavc-s with my main camera and the files are whopping - i use 4 x 64gb cards in a full wedding day (i don't fill them completely up though)
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Re: Memory card management on the day
I change during cocktail hour, before the entrances. It gives me nice downtime where I can take my time, and be extremely careful, not doing it in a rush. It splits the day up evenly, bridal prep, ceremonies & photo session on 1 card, reception events on the 2nd card. Worse case scenario is I guess I'd still have the Ceremony on camera 2, if I somehow managed to lose the cam 1 card 1.
As to where, I keep them in a specific spot in my camera bag, a pouch. The cards sit in the little plastic cases. While I can be a bit all over the place at times, the cards are one thing I take great care of, and I'm pretty anal about where to keep them & putting them back to their exact location. |
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The case is placed inside a bag I always have on me, so always to hand if needed. As for card management, contrary to Nathan, I'm always using the lock card switch and not once had any issues with it breaking. |
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I'd probably give a massive discount, or more likely a full credit if that did happen. Again, something I try to be really careful with. My cams don' shoot 2 at a time anyway. On the flip side tho, one 128GB card & not changing it, you're not likely to lose it anyway, whereas switching cards increases your odds. So there's that. I think stick with whatever you're comfortable with. |
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Anyone recording to one card only takes a risk, no matter how many smaller cards you use. I minimize the risk by dual recording on the camera that records the most important footage, all other camera's is for b-roll, loosing any of those b-roll camera's would also have consequences but it would still enable me to show the most important parts of the day eventhough I also would give the couple a discount in such a case.
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Dual card recording I admit would be useful but I feel more essential if running only 1 or 2 cameras. As I'm running 4, manning 2 in most cases, such a risk is minimized. Its effectively running dual recording, just with 2 cameras instead of 1. I too like to limit the number of times I change cards, hence why I have moved to 128gb cards for my 2 GH4rs to run much of the day. Changing cards can be a pain in a hurry. However if you time it for certain points, there's no reason you should miss a shot.
All that talk of dual recording though, its not a fail safe. I know a Photographer who shot photos to dual cards and both files were corrupted, an issue of the camera rather than the cards and I had a camera with dual card recording just switch off during a conference - a problem with the battery. |
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Peter, I keep my full cards in my (zipped) jacket pocket and just change to an empty card when there is plenty of time to do so. |
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I keep them all in a little bag in my main camera bag. I just keep a close eye on the time and change pre-emotively if it's a segment that I know runs the risk of running long. Like if I have only 10 minutes left and it's the grand entrance, I'll change. That sort of thing. Same with speeches. I carry extra ones on me during the speeches, and I have my second cam to fall back on if one runs out.
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I use the following case:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Peli-0915-c.../dp/B00933489O Each slot has a memory card, and each memory card is colour coded by a sticker. That sticker corresponds to the sticker that is stuck onto the SD card flap of the camera it relates to. The day before each wedding, each card is formatted inside the camera that it corresponds to. When a card is 30 mins away from being full, I take the SD card, lock it, and place it into its slot. Then the card to the right or on the next line comes out and is placed into the camera. I think this isn't risky at all. The GH4R has a really favourable option now that we're able to see how many minutes are left. As soon as it gets close to the 30 minute mark, the SD card case comes out of the top of my bag, which has a zip lock, and the card is replaced. I could buy a 256GB card, but I run two 128GB for my GH4R and go down to a 64GB one for the end of the night. There's always four cards for my GH4R. The GH4 has 4 cards too, whilst the AX100 gets two cards capable of over 2 hours of 4K recording. Finally, the gimbal with the GH3 attached has a single SD card of 64GB which is plenty. |
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My belt and braces solution is I use two cams that have internal memory 96 Gb I think
The two 4Ks have 128 Gb and have never been removed from the cam since they were put in. and lastly I use 64 Gb SxS on my PMW200. Same goes for audio I have two or more going - thats my built in redundancy! |
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I use large cards that last the entire day. My partner uses multiple smaller cards for his cameras which he changes.
We've discussed the benefits of not "keeping all one's eggs in one basket". And I agree with this philosophy, but I think that shooting with at least 4 cameras means you are putting your eggs into different baskets. It's like RAID 5 - if you were to lose ALL footage from one of the cameras, you would be OK. If you lost two, maybe not. But now you're saving time not having to switch out cards during the day. For me, every second counts. And with every card or battery switch, you introduce some risk. I have a Think Tank soft case (http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/847371-REG/Think_Tank_209_Pixel_Pocket_Rocket_Memory.html) that I used when I had only 16 GB cards, but I leave it in my case now. |
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