Best? Biggest CF Card for a D200?

[Argent]

Looking to see what the best option out there is for the D200

whats the max size a D200 can handle? (4GB?)
Would it be worth it to get a microdrive instead of a CF card?

 

[rrx3]

Well I have a 4gb compact flash in my D200. Its the sandisk III extreme. Microdrives are ok, but not as tough if you drop them. CF cards are cheap hhttp://www.7dayshop.com/catalog/default.php?cPath=777ere (prices in Sterling)

 

[Walter Rowe]

Visit the CF Card Database on Rob Galbraith's website.

 

[RaceTripper]

I won't use anything bigger than 4 GB in my D200 even though it'll take larger sizes.

When I was shooting the 12 Hours of Sebring this year, I ended up with a CF card that was bad. I lost all those pictures (a good part of race day afternoon). But thankfully I didn't lose the entire day by using a 16 GB card or something like that.

It takes a few seconds to swap a card. Why put all your eggs in one basket?

There is no advantage to using a MicroDrive, unless you like having less battery life and lower durability.

 

[vinman]

I swap between a 4 and an 8GB Sandisk ExtremeIII. No issues whatsoever. I have no reason to think a 16 or even a 32 wouldn't work, although I see no advantage to using anything bigger than 8 (really even 4 is big enough for a LONG day of shooting).

 

[Walter Rowe]

I won't use anything bigger than 4 GB in my D200 even though it'll take larger sizes.

...

It takes a few seconds to swap a card. Why put all your eggs in one basket?

I completely agree. I used 2GB SanDisk Extreme III cards. Larger size cards are just asking for trouble in my opinion unless you are in a situation where carrying extra cards and swapping simply isn't feasible. You are taking a risk by putting so much data on a single card. Spend the money on one of those storage devices like an Epson P-3000 or P-5000 and offload your cards when they are full. I run with three cards all the time. One is in the camera, one is offloading into the storage device, and one is empty and ready to swap out into the camera. If the card in the camera fills before the card in the storage device is finished offloading, the third card comes to the rescue.

I have an older Epson P-2000 storage device. The card reader in it is very slow. The Epson P-3000/5000 models supposedly have significantly faster card readers in them.

 

[Argent]

How many shots does one get with a 2GB or a 4GB card?

my D50 with a 2GB SD on Fine JPG will take 568 shots....

 

[Walter Rowe]

I only shoot lossless compressed raw on my D300, and uncompressed raw on my D200. I get well over 100 images on each 2GB card for both.

 

[Argent]

I'm not a big fan of shooting raw mainly because its more of a pain (to me) to do PP on them in photoshop CS2

but for comparison my D50 will take 270 when set to RAW on a 2GB SD card

 

[Alan]

Using D200 with an 8gb Sandisk III Extreme. I am currently shooting RAW & Fine JPG. I'm getting about 325 shots. Have not had any problems with the card so far.

 

[RaceTripper]

I only shoot compressed RAW. I get about 500 images on a 4 GB card. I think that translates to about 800-900 JPEG Fine.

BTW: The card I had that went bad is a Lexar Professional 133x. They are being a complete PITA about honoring the warranty. They gave me a hard time about even issuing an RMA, they have had my defective card now for a couple months, and after telling me a month ago it a replacement was nearly ready to ship I've received nothing and they ignore my emails asking for status.

I will never buy from anything from Lexar again.

 

[vinman]

I get about 115 RAW D200 files on a 2GB card. I get about 425 on my 8GB. My 2GBs are old and slow, so I don't use them with any regularity. I also find that I get lazy even with the 4GB card. With 2s, I'm pretty much forced to offoad them every evening. With 4s, I can (and do) tend to let them go a little longer, which makes keywording and editing more of a pain, plus it takes longer since there are invariably more files to transfer. I'll get more use out of the 8 when the D700 gets here. I think the 4 probably is the perfect size for the 200 now that prices have dropped so much. Also, if I'm not mistaken, the ExtremeIII is the fastest card the D200 can truly exploit. The computer is obviously not limited, so downloads can continue to get faster and faster, but the camera write speed is never going to change, so jumping to an ExtremeIV or a Ducati version won't help at all in the field...

 

[hotrod4x5]

115 RAW with D200 on 2GB? They must be uncompressed. I can get 100+ on a 1gb card RAW compressed. It has never been proven that compressed raws are any lower in quality vs. uncompressed.

 

[vulturetec]

While I generally agree with the philosophy behind using smaller cards, I have to admit I use a 12gb sandisk extreme III in mine. I've used it heavily for over a year with no problems at all. I also have a couple of 4gb cards (sandisk and ritech), they've also been perfect over the years.

When I'm on a trip I usually dump my card(s) into my laptop when I get to the hotel as a back-up.

 

[PuglisiDigital]

I use a 16 mb card on my d200 and d300 i shoot raw

 

[Micky]

4Gb & 8Gb

Normally I use an 8Gb Sandisk Extreme IV, if it is a smaller shoot with a few photos I may use a Sandisk 4Gb Extreme IV in my D300 as well as the D200...

 

[Cleanimage]

Racetripper - I had a 2 GB professional Lexar go bad shortly after I bought my D200 (Feb. 06). I never even sent it in. I've been using 2 Extreme III 4 GB Sandisks with no problem since then. I get 240 compressed RAW images which is plenty per card.

 

[pforsell]

It has never been proven that compressed raws are any lower in quality vs. uncompressed.

Proven? You are not familiar with mathematics or Shannon's information theory, are you? The proof is solid and indisputable. It has been proven decades ago.

The other aspect is that whether you can actually "see" the difference. The inability to see is different from scientific proof.

Take a myopic person for example. If he cannot read a newspaper from 3 feet away without glasses that doesn't mean he just proved there is nothing printed on the paper. It just proves his lack of eyesight.

 

[Markb]

Paul,

I shoot compressed RAW on my 4GB cards and get about 450 shots per card.

 

[Argent]

Cool thanks everyone - this gives me a good idea of what I should shop for (looks like a 4GB should keep me happy)