I took the plunge... Nikon Z8 and now I need help.

[David H. Hartman]

good brands include Delkin (Black, Power) and Prograde Digital (Cobalt in my case).

Thank you for this advice. I don't know if I can scratch together enough cash to buy a CFExpress at this time. I just read yesterday memory prices are going up.

I just bought a RRS L-Plate for the Z8. I should have waited.

I find SD more practical in the field but I would like to save images to both SD and CFExpress at the same time. That way if my SD card tanked I'd still have my images. Is that a good strategy?

Thank You,

Dave

[David H. Hartman]

I'm looking at a ProGrade Digital 240GB CFexpress 4.0 Type B Gold with speeds of Max 3100/1600 MB/s Read/Write (Min Sustained Write Speed: 700 MB/s). I think I can swing the price of this one. I've got to do some counting. At today's CC interest I can't afford to over spend.

Dave

[Les Olson]

What use do you need the high speeds for?  High speeds give you more buffer at high frame rates and are necessary for better video, but if you don't regularly fill the buffer and don't do video you may not need a fast card.

SD cards have a life expectancy. Quality and storage conditions affect life expectancy but you should get five years or 3,000 read/write cycles, whichever comes first. Failure is sudden, so if you keep using cards until they die, you are likely to be inconvenienced. A better strategy is to buy new SD cards every time you buy a new camera or every five years, so that the risk of failure is low.

[David H. Hartman]

I hope faster cards are less stressed, run cooler: maybe/maybe not? Transfers to a computer takes less time.

I dabble in video. I want clean, sharp video at 60hz. I have spent zero time exploring the Z8's video capabilities at this time.

Better cards have better warranties. The longer the warranty period the more confident the maker is of the quality of their product (or so I surmise).

I've never had an SD card fail but I've had a Crucial 0.5TB 2.5" Internal SSD fail. It gave slight warning. I managed to back it up to an HD then I tried macOS disk utility> firstaid> in recovery mode and then Diskpart in Win10 CMD and nothing helped. The backup to an HD was the last time I could read from the drive. I was surprised that the backup completed.

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Thanks for the advice on SD cards.

Dave

[David H. Hartman]

He who hesitates saves money.

I placed an order for a ProGrade Digital 240GB CFexpress 4.0 Type B Gold Memory Card ($25.00 off) and a ProGrade Digital CFexpress Type B & UHS-II SDXC Dual-Slot USB 3.2 Gen 2 Card Reader ($12.00 off). I think the sale started Saturday.

Oops! I did some cut and paste and accidentally deleted that the supplier was B&H Photo-Video, NY; my favorite supplier since Lee-Mac Camera in Pasadena closed I guess a couple of decades back.

Dave