21

I have noticed that some cameras such as the Nikon D300s, Canon EOS 1D Mark IV, or Pentax 645D have dual memory card slots.

What is the purpose of having multiple memory card slots and why would you want them?

dpollitt
  • 46,525
  • 20
  • 136
  • 266
  • Does it also.have anything to do with backing up the shot on 2 cards.....? If that is not possible, is there an acessorie you can get to back up as the photo is taken on site.... Like for weddings... I have a canon 60d –  Sep 10 '12 at 02:31
  • Hi kelli, welcome to the site. If you have a question (on backing up pics while on site?) you should check if it has already been asked and eventually ask it yourself :-) – Francesco Sep 10 '12 at 04:23

4 Answers4

28

Professional cameras such as the Canon 1D Mark IV have dual memory card slots for a variety of professional use cases. I will break them down into three main groupings:

  • Mirroring of the image across multiple cards for redundancy
  • Automatic switching to a second card after the first one reaches capacity
  • Ability to write different file formats to different memory cards

Speed, Redundancy, and Buffers

A theme across the three groupings can be realized, where you will find speed, redundancy and the cameras use of the buffer all play a role. It comes down to what is the most important aspect of your photography, and where do you place your priorities.

If you consider speed to be your number one goal(which it may be if you chose a high end body that has the dual memory card slot feature) then you may want to choose the ability to write different formats. This will prevent the camera from doubling the data going through it on every shot as in the case of mirroring the image. If redundancy and near 100% image preservation is your highest priority, you likely want to mirror the image to both memory cards. If you are more casual about your redundancy and or speed is not the highest priority, you may choose the convenience of having the camera switch to the second memory card when the first fills up.

Other points to consider

If your camera only uses compact flash cards, it will not currently allow use of an Eye-Fi adapter for wireless transmission of images. If the dual memory card support adds an SD card slot, this may be an additional advantage.

There was a time when some cameras came with dual memory card slots to help consumers switch between competing formats, such as xD, Memory Stick(Sony), Compact Flash, etc. These early implementations were not designed in the same way as today's professional dual memory card slots, they were simply to ease the transition for consumers between formats.

Some manufacturers have additional features specific to them, such as Nikon's ability to write video to one memory type and photos to another, or Canon's ability to accept both Compact Flash Type I and II cards.

Conclusion

Overall the dual memory card slots add professional level options that further enhance the photographic possibilities. If you are interested in the fastest possible speed, data redundancy or work in poor weather conditions - these features will provide enhanced opportunties. They do add an amount of additional size to the camera bodies, but for most professionals using these bodies, the features are welcomed or even necessary.

dpollitt
  • 46,525
  • 20
  • 136
  • 266
  • 1
    This feature is also filtering down to enthusiast level cameras like the Nikon D7000. – ElendilTheTall Oct 18 '11 at 19:36
  • For what it's worth (probably nothing, basically, but whatever) my old Olympus C-5060 "bridge" camera — basically a fancy point & shoot — had dual CF and xD slots. – mattdm Oct 18 '11 at 20:17
  • 1
    Another reason is for greater flexibility - the ability to use either compact flash or SD cards in the Canon 1 series can be handy. – Matt Grum Oct 18 '11 at 21:24
  • @mattdm - That is what I was talking about with "There was a time when some cameras came with dual memory card slots to help consumers switch between competing formats, such as xD..." I actually was specifically thinking of those old Olympus cameras. They also used to use "SmartMedia" cards, which I always thought were awesome because they were so thin! Ah memories.. – dpollitt Oct 18 '11 at 21:50
  • not just flexibility, but the capability to upgrade to a professional class body without instantly having to buy all new memory cards at the same time (while giving existing users of CF cards the capability to keep using those). – jwenting Oct 19 '11 at 07:24
  • Thank you for the comments and additions, I think this rounds off this answer nicely. Much appreciated folks. – dpollitt Oct 21 '11 at 13:19
  • Another option, by writing a JPEG to one card, and the RAW to another, you can hand out the JPEGs to the client right after the shoot. – Pete Nov 26 '12 at 16:36
  • Some of these reasons apply to low-end cameras as well -- an SD card may get corrupt, in which case I will at least want to continue shooting to the other SD card. Or I may want to shoot a burst faster than any one SD card can handle. Or I may have multiple SD cards that are each too small... – Kartick Vaddadi Dec 31 '13 at 04:29
  • @KartickVaddadi - I don't disagree with you. The question was "what professional cameras..." so that is what was answered :) – dpollitt Dec 31 '13 at 14:20
  • Sure, to be clear, I wasn't challenging your answer :) – Kartick Vaddadi Dec 31 '13 at 15:32
  • One other reason why new high-end camera bodies have both CF + SD dual memory cards is the ability for the current photographer to upgrade to newer body - for example - if I'm upgrading to Nikon D800 from D700 then my old CF cards will work - if I'm upgrading from Nikon D7000 then my old SD cards will work - yes, the old cards might be with lesser speed, but that would at-least save me some cash initially while upgrading. – yadunandan Feb 21 '14 at 17:01
0

Also, there might be a more ... almost sinister use case - that still might be justified in journalism, OR to preserve unrelated images (IMHO, in no other case!), at times:

Someone asking you to "hand me the card, OR ELSE..." might be perfectly well too ignorant to understand there are two cards.

rackandboneman
  • 7,212
  • 19
  • 32
0

It's for redundancy, in case one card corrupts. Never EVER want that to happen in the middle of a wedding and you lose half the day!! Some photographers use it to store JPEGs on if the bride and groom want a slide show in the evening (tacky but some people love it!) while keeping the RAW files on a different card for editing later.

MikeW
  • 33,408
  • 10
  • 88
  • 123
HKiefer
  • 1
-1

I would also say it's redundancy thing.

In fact, the concept of two memory card slots in a digital cameras is artificially defined as a "luxury". Technically it's a very cheap option. Hopefully these companies will soon "run out" of marketing tricks which are available for now and will feel forced to induce broad adoption of two-SD digital cameras. In such a case this option would become common even in entry-level DSLR and compact cameras and not a luxury - just like two-SIM smartphones aren't considered a luxury even right now.

200 moving objects
  • 1
  • 1
  • The first point of the accepted answer is "Mirroring of the image across multiple cards for redundancy". Whether it is a luxury or not doesn't answer the OP question ad should probably be a comment. – Olivier Nov 15 '16 at 19:12