Weekly Poll: How much memory do you carry?

[Nicole]

Last week we found out that more people like to "take" photos than "make" photos.

This week, I'm taking a slightly different approach to the poll because after a conversation with one of our other mods, I was curious about how much memory people carry when they go out shooting.

So, tell us, how much memory do you carry when you go out? How many memory cards do you carry? Why do you carry so much, or so little, or so many or so few? And of course, if you want to share, do you have a favourite brand of memory card that you use or is it just the one that's on sale?

[a.saliga]

I carry one 4GB SanDisk Extreme IV.

On second thought, I wish I would have two 2GB cards in case of card failure, but it's a bit too late for that now. I've always used SanDisk CF and SD cards, and never had a problem. Regarding sales and unknown brands...I've seen some amazing deals, but I've always passed them up. I wouldn't want to risk losing photos. They say that "if something seems too good go be true, it probably is." I'd rather invest a bit more in a card I know I can trust.

Storage capacity always seems to be the topic of discussion when it comes to memory cards, but one thing that should also be mentioned is read/write speeds. I'll admit that the Extreme IV is overkill for my XTi, but I'd rather invest in something that will last me awhile and that I can grow into, than have to buy new gear.

[daylebo5]

well i carry around my 1 gb memory card ... got it with the cam.. its a tosibha SD card..

[ike]

I have an Olympus (toshiba) 2gb XD card Type M, i am thinking about getting another one because i want to start shooting in RAW, and 170 pictures is not enough for me to take on a day out, which is why i normally shoot in JPEG as i can get 600+ pics, The reason why i only have 1 is because thats all i got when i got my camera.

A good thing to remember about the cheaper memory cards, is some of them are made by sandisk, just make sure you have a look on the packaging.

ike,

[Nicole]

Thanks for the answers so far

Personally, I carry around 6 memory cards:
1x 128mb (I had this for storage on my PDA)
2x 512mb
1x 1gb
2x 2gb

None of them came with my camera, so I started with the 512mb and 1gb cards, and since then have found great deals. I have mostly Sandisk, but also a Toshiba and PNY (I'd be shocked if at least one wasn't a rebranded Sandisk).

[Joe Hoetzl]

1 - 8GB Lexar Pro
2 - 4GB Extreme III's
2 - 2GB Ultra II's
4 - 1GB Ultra II's

All purchase to coincide with sales...

Those plus a hyperdrive "Space" with 120GB in it and I am fine...

Plus, current estimates of brain capacity range from 1 to 1000 terabytes...

[Sime]

More is best, offers redundancy if a card fails, move onto another - dont try fix it on the road...

I carry 3 x 4gb transcend pro cf cards and a kingston 4gb 133x card... a usb stick (4gb - never know when you might need it!) and an ipod adaptor (60gb)

but then, I am a geek...

[Carol]

I carry around three 2GB cards (one Lexar, two SanDisk Extreme III). I often take photos at motor racing events and shoot hundreds over a weekend so I need plenty of card space. I mostly buy SanDisk cards because last season SanDisk provided sponsorship for the car that my favourite driver races!

I recently had a bad experience with a couple of cards purchased from an Amazon Marketplace seller. Both cards turned out to be faulty - one of them failed during a motor race, so I would have been stuck if I hadn't had another card. Fortunately a technically minded friend managed to recover most of the photos. Far worse, although sold and packaged as SanDisk cards (with authentic-looking packaging and labels), the cards also tunred out to be fakes. SanDisk has confirmed that they are not genuine products because they don't have any numbers printed on the side of the cards. I've put in a refund claim via Amazon, but it shows that you have to be careful.

[thenimirra]

I carry 4 2G and one 1G.

I also have an image trunk with me to dump my images into if I need more space on a card. Better safe than sorry is how I feel,

[epeyton@tampabay.rr.com]

I carry 4-2GB, 3-1GB, I shot almost every thing in RAW and that takes up a lot of memory. There have been times on a good day when I used every bit of it up. However I always carry a couple of point and shots that always have 1GB each. To me the worst thing that could happen is to have that great shot and no memory.