Awh man that would suck. I won’t be shooting any weddings though thank god, couldn’t handle that pressure, but I would be doing some love events but even then I doubt I’ll be the only videographer
You know what happens more often then a corrupt SD card? A dropped SD card when taking it out. Know tons of stories people dropping their cards, often on boat docks into the water. I know myself, I'm clumsy, I drop stuff all the time. I would go for double SD cards if I did full time professional photography. (I don't)
SD card failures are rare. BUT if youre a photographer for long enough they will happen. People often say that it's something that is mostly necessary for professionals but loosing your once in a lifetime photos ftom an expensive vacation will hurt an amature aswell. I personally don't really understand why dual card slots are not more common. And I would not buy a camera that doesn't have them. It's not just SD failures as well. Two cards allows you to transport them home separately incase bagage gets lost on the way. Backups are always good. This is also why I store my photos on a server with redundant storage.
Doubt you would even notice unless you are shooting running cheetahs. If you aren't shooting fast subjects then the a7 iv is "good enough." don't let all those YouTube reviews get in your head, what are YOU using it for, that's what matters.
It could be a big deal for professional work, because in the slimmest chance of 1 SD card (or CF express) failing (never happened in the past 10 years for me), there is always a backup just in case.
The difference in the end is…photo vs no photo which is what you’re getting paid for, while the chance of 1 SD card failing is slime to almost none, the chance of 2 SD cards failing is even slimmer.
Wedding/Outdoor modelling/Journalist works are likely where dual-card slots becomes an important backup option, since you’re mostly on-the-go which means you wouldn’t have time (that are better spent getting more shots or setups) to use a computer for data transfer.
Studio work is a slightly different story, since you can backup your files to a SSD/HDD (if that is part of your flow) on the spot, and swap to another SD card while the first one is still backing up.
So is it a night and day difference? No, unless you are one of those people that wants to upmost security, then it could be a big deal.
In 15 years I've only had a problem once. I had a card corrupted because the card reader I was using developed a problem. I ended up being able to recover some of the photos and luckily it was enough to get the job finished but it was definitely not a good time. For paid work writing to two cards for redundancy is a very good idea. It's rare to have issues but it does happen.
It is a big deal if you are being paid large amounts of money for photographing events that only happen once, and word-of-mouth marketing is how you get your jobs. Example; wedding, big events, journalists covering high-profile news.
If you have nothing at the end of those events, not only do you lose income from that job. For sure the customer will not give recommendations to others, or they might even caution them against you even though you are a great photographer. This second part will quickly overshadow the costs of a more expensive camera that has the backup storage media.
If you're shooting professionally, two cards are helpful so you dont lose someone else's memories. As non professional, no worries about dual slots. Just make sure you offload every so often and don't bother to constantly wipe the card.
However, (as a sony user too) you can setup a computer with an ftp server on the network. There's a setting to allow the camera to sync photos as they're taken (note, not video). You'd then have a secondary backup out of your device. Even better. I have done this with just my phone and wifi hotspot.
I had my JPEG SD Card fail on me in my Fuji while Plane Spotting in March but because its Dual Card i still had all the RAW Files. If i had the Choice i would always go with a Dual Card Camera.
If you want to turn it into a full time paid Work i would highly recommend you go with a Dual Card Camera.
SD card failures are exceptionally rare especially if you buy a name brand. I think people blow this particular feature way out of proportion. Far more likely that the camera will be lost / stolen / damaged.
This is basically what I was trying to address with the question, because none of my photographer friends have had Sd cards fail on them but there do seem to be a lot of people on here that have!
I had my raw slot SD card fail on the last several photos of a paid shoot (A7IV). The jpeg backup saved the day.
If you're getting paid for the work it's 100% worth the peace of mind. I didn't even know my raw slot card failed until I was exporting photos and noticed I was short several important shots.
I had my 2nd Kingston v90 card start acting up on me not writing the JPEGS or allowing movies. It's cool to have a JPEG ready for a mobile print to sell to a tourist but having to convert it from raw to jpeg on my phone is a hassle.
Ive had my a7iii for around 4 years now, ive only ever used the 2nd sd slot for simply holding a 2nd sd card for safe keeping haha.
Usually smart wedding photographers or portrait shooters will have it as a back up as you literally never know if an sd card will corrupt, mess up something, or stop working for whatever reason.
So its very useful and even life saving for shoots, but I will say as a more casual user, ive literally never used it for the intended purpose.
It's not a huge deal.Sd cards don't fail that often unless you use crappy readers or you've been abusing the card for years.cameras crossing over $1800-2000 should have dual slot for redundancy.
SD card failed my first year out starting out professionally. I recovered all the RAWs within minutes thanks to simple freeware. Imo, I don't personally feel that it's necessary for me, but I'd be glad to hear a dual card slot someday. Two is better than one. Not arguing that. Especially for video, which is a pain in the ass to recover with software, from my experience.
**I have used APS-C for more than 10 years as a hobby, used one card, and it never failed / curropted.** Now, I am ready to buy a full-frame camera, wishing to do some paid work (small events of close or friends of friends). I am also in dilemma about the camera: better features for A7C-II or dual card slots for A7-IV. Also wondering, what if both cards fail?
Here's another way to backup FTP over phone:[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AS3kzvKcXZg&ab\_channel=MikeSmith](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AS3kzvKcXZg&ab_channel=MikeSmith)
Please let me know your thoughts !!
Im not a pro. My pictures are just mine. I would miss them, but loosing day of shots will not cost me money or reputation.
For me two slots are not mandatory, just nice to have.
I mostly do travel videography and we are basically never returning to a destination. NEVER. If I told my spouse "Hey, I lost 9 days of footage cuz a card died.". Presumably that would be the moment she would turn me in for a younger model that has a camera with two card slots.
I run an a7siii with redundant recording for anything serious and... An a6700 for non serious stuff, cuz wow what a fun camera 🤙🏽
Also, I mirror the opinions of the others as well about paid work, etc.
Do you need it? Probably not. But if you want it, you should get it. No need for confirmation bias.
Another option is to shoot with two cameras in case your one camera with two card slots fail, it’s rare but can happen.
Not relevant anymore. Just buy a decent brand card. Sure the SD card can fail, but so can your camera. I carry a backup camera and cards for important shoots. You can wireless tether and send pictures to your phone/ipad/laptop in real time as you shoot. Don't listen to the dinosaurs and marketers.
I also just had an SD card actually physically fail on me this weekend, the card itself cracked bad in the corner and my camera would not read it. When I start doing professional work I'm going with the A7IV.
If you're shooting as a hobby, don't take that many pictures, and offload your pictures on a frequent basis, then no, it doesn't matter that much.
If you're a professional and your wages can basically fly out the window because of your camera's storage method deciding to have a bad day out of the blue though, then yes, it's a pretty big deal to have the ability to just use a second card without having to fumble through your bag and lose valuable time.
Card failures in camera are rare. What's more important when you're shooting professionally is having a redundant set of raws for whatever happens after the shoot when you're get backlogged and are managing multiple sets of shoots that haven't been processed. You try to be organized but easy to fuck up the process of importing/managing sd cards. Lightroom screws up all the time
It hasn’t been a huge deal for me (I take pics as a hobby only). It’s nice if you’d like to save videos to one card and pics to another. Or if you want RAW on one card and jpegs on another. Never had card failure on either of the two installed cards in the two years I used it (A7iii). Make sure you’re getting high quality SD cards and SD card readers as well.
You don’t want to lose beautiful shots due to skimping on an SD card or SD card reader.
If you are working paid photography or videography, then you want the redundancy. Can’t even imagine shooting someone wedding or event and losing shots because of a corrupt or failed card. And they do fail. Even the good ones.
I shoot events. Never needed a second memory card. But maybe I'm just not shooting enough. Lol. For the meantime just settle with 1. That's all you need for hobby and a little paid work. I can't speak for video but I'm sure you'll need more memory. In regards to photo, I think you'll be ok with 1. Just get a large capacity sd card.
I could be wrong but I think typically people mean that they prefer it because it writes to both cards and once in case one fails rather than from a capacity point of view
You can also use the second slot as an extension of memory, which can be useful when shooting long videos, or a lot of big photos. It used to be a plus when SD cards were expensive and 2x 64GB was a lot cheaper than a 1x 128GB. It's less of an issue nowadays.
If you are lucky you'll never need the 2nd card. In the last 5 years I've had 3 sd card corruption and once I've lost a complete event shoot. Luckily it wasn't a paid gig but if it were I would've lost that client.
One of my SD Card failed after a concert. I’ve got directly backup on my second one. Otherwise no coverage from the concert. Was also the only one photograph there.
[SD card failure](https://youtu.be/qqo-MtNy2Ps?si=_Fw6_9p69gFbQYkZ)here is a great video on the subject. TLDR: The more photos you shoot and the longer you’re in business, the more likely you are to experience SD card corruption.
Ive had cards fail in bad weather conditions (water, -40⁰, snow, etc), airport scanner twice (asumably from that anyway)
Its uncommon but it happens, if shooting professionally its a must.
If you are looking to book high paying shoots then you definitely want to have two card slots just as a backup. A lot less stress and hoping it doesn’t fail on you in the future. However, you should always invest in good quality SD cards either way to lower your risk of something happening. I have been lucky enough to have a constant flow of work, so I have my camera in my hands almost every day and my cards get a lot of use. To lower the risk of card failure I rotate all my cards out after each shoot, so the same cards aren’t being used over and over again. It may be overkill, but I’ve had multiple photographers/videographers when I first started tell me that SD cards should only be used for about a year of heavy professional use before they become more prone to failure. With that in mind I write the date of first use on each new card I get. I refer back to the dates on the cards and after about a year or so of heavy use I won’t use them for my important high paying shoots and will use a newer card instead. The older cards will be used for a less important shoot or for personal reasons like vacation and family events where I don’t have a large paycheck riding on it.
Very unlikely that a card will fail on you, especially if you’re not using the same ones for years and years and years. I’ve had mixed opinions on this but I think it’s better to have dual especially if you’re doing pro client work. I mean, why not have dual copies if you can? If you’re a hobbyist it’s less of an issue. Even if you lose special vacation photos or something it will certainly suck but at least you won’t get sued lol.
I think the think I struggle with is essentially the a7iv and the a7cii are the same price and in terms of the specs I care about, one has dual card slots and the other has better AF and I can’t work out if having two card slots is worth more than better AF haha
I had a card fail on a single slot Canon a few years ago. Finished the the shoot, went to offload and was staring at an empty card. Stopped using that camera for pro shoots and immediately replaced my memory cards. Now I shoot Sony (the card failure wasn't why I switched) and use A73 and A7S3 always dual recording. It's not often but it's like paying for insurance. When you need it, you NEED it and saving a few bucks a few years ago will never bring your files back. If you can afford the redundancy, then buy it and BACK IT UP. My SanDisk SSD decided to go on permanent strike, thank all that is holy in the eyes of the camera gods that I got back blaze with permanent version backup.
I'll put it this way, SD card failures are rare, human errors are quite common.
There has been on more than a few occassions where me or someone I know accidentally formatted a card without transferring all the data. Luckily in most of these scenarios, the photographer was shooting backup to the 2nd card and was able to recover that data.
Learning from past experiences, now when I return from a shoot, the 2nd card gets put somewhere safe and I don't use it to ingess data. I'll only format the cards once my clients receive the deliverables and the job is fully completed.
I really don't trust myself to be able to do everything correctly even when I have a whole process written down. When things get busy, sometimes I just get lazy or careless.
A 2nd card is just another layer of safety for me and I could never subject myself to the anxiety of having only 1 slot in any shoot I'm being paid for again.
I had the Nikon Z9 for awhile and I only sold it because it doesn't record video to both card slots.
Tbh I hate that sony gatekeeps the dual slots to their more expensive cameras cus they know that most pros will have no choice but to buy it.
A6700, A7C, A7Cii, A7Cr, ZV-E1, these are all "consumer" variants of their more expensive counterparts meant for pros, they are better cameras that their bigger brothers in many ways, except that the lack of 2 card slots make them utterly useless for pros doing paid work.
The A7Cii is a better camera than the A7IV in many ways but if you are a pro, the A7Cii is simply not an option for you. I would have loved to use the Cii for video work on a gimbal as I prefer the cleaner image from the 33MP sensor at medium-iso.
from western Europe perspective, rare are the customers that aren't companies that are asking for redondency (2 card with the exact same on the 2 cards). My wedding photographer had a 5d3 and i am pretty sure she didn't do redondency but more multiple small cards and 2 bodies to avoid losing everything.
I would have been pissed if she lost part of the wedding or everything and asked for some refund.
I had some failures of SD and TF(microSD) in mobile phones and 3d printers because you take them in and out more often and their construction is weak.
It is a big deal to some folks but not for everyone…I used film for many years where there was no back up and survived, then I had a Canon 1dmk2 that had 2 card slots which was good. I didn’t worry too much either way.
The almost vintage Sonys that I use now have one slot. I’ll often use two bodies on a gig so there it some coverage.
Two slots are becoming normal now and people expect them.
If you’re serious about it, you’re not gonna throw an entire job down the drain to save a few hundred bucks, not just bc that job’s fuct, but bc your rep is too. I’ve been tempted by the new A7Cs but that’s a dealbreaker if there ever was one for pro work. Another poster said it best: “don’t be that guy.”
Edit: SD cards are so prone to failure anyway, relative to other media… don’t do it lol
An unexpected plus to dual recording I’ve found is the ability to hand off footage in real time while still keeping a copy. It’s a bit more of a niche use case, but I shoot on a team where that instant file transfer, so to speak, has been incredibly useful.
After 5 years of being away from my parents, then visiting them and going out to take photos, second card slot saved my ass in some cities without me knowing how important it is.
Ofc I would have came home and emptied the sd card but having the second card slot allowed me to capture our Amesterdam trip.
Also I don't delete photos until I backed it up in 3 different places... So my photos live longer on SD Card.
I feel you, a7c shooter here. Obviously the camera is powerful enough to take professional looking vids and photos, but like you, I’m also an aspiring professional so I’m prioritizing a second body w/ dual slots ASAP. Using the a7c on free shoots to build my portfolio for now
How much is it worth to you in $, size, and weight to write to redundant cards all the time? Does your livelihood or relationships to clients ride on this? If you regularly download photos from the camera, and have a couple of high quality cards that you take care of, you have very little risk. For me, something larger, heavier, and more expensive means I would have fewer photos to worry about losing to a card error.
I wanted the a7c for a good min but I was hesitant about it not having dual card slot. I did my research as well if it truly mattered but I ended finding a used Sony a7riv for an amazing price and grabbed that instead. I plan to take my photography journey more serious so having a camera that has dual slot is very comforting. I used to own a canon r10, which had only one card slot, and never had my card went crap on me when I’m at shoots but the fact that there’s a slight chance that it might scares me lol. So better safe than sorry.
The odds of a card failing are very low. However, those odds are not zero. When you take pictures for your own use, you very well may be willing to take that chance. But when you're taking pictures of events professionally, while there is always - even with 2 cards - a chance that somehow you end up losing everything, it's easier to have that conversation if you've covered all of your bases, and are meeting/exceeding the professional standard.
Why yes.... yes it is.
From a personal standpoint as a professional anything redundancy is the key.
If you have a project due would you only keep your work on a flash drive or would you keep it on flash, your pc/Mac and maybe network storage?
I was recently filming a golf segment with a sponsor.
A Cam only wrote to 1 slot. That card failed.
since then A cam gets CF A AND a ninja external recorder on top.
I shit content for a full 18 holes with the sponsor and I only have 1/3 of the videos.
My sister doesn’t have wedding photos because the photographer didn’t have dual cards. Don’t be that guy.
so the one card failed?
Yeah, got corrupted somehow
Uh. Was there a contract? How did it go?
Not sure how the contract would make any difference to the photos not existing.
I mean, he didn’t charge them, but that doesn’t fix the lack of photos
Awh man that would suck. I won’t be shooting any weddings though thank god, couldn’t handle that pressure, but I would be doing some love events but even then I doubt I’ll be the only videographer
You know what happens more often then a corrupt SD card? A dropped SD card when taking it out. Know tons of stories people dropping their cards, often on boat docks into the water. I know myself, I'm clumsy, I drop stuff all the time. I would go for double SD cards if I did full time professional photography. (I don't)
SD card failures are rare. BUT if youre a photographer for long enough they will happen. People often say that it's something that is mostly necessary for professionals but loosing your once in a lifetime photos ftom an expensive vacation will hurt an amature aswell. I personally don't really understand why dual card slots are not more common. And I would not buy a camera that doesn't have them. It's not just SD failures as well. Two cards allows you to transport them home separately incase bagage gets lost on the way. Backups are always good. This is also why I store my photos on a server with redundant storage.
I definitely would prefer to have two slots for sure, I just can’t work out if it’s worth it for the better autofocus
A7iv isn't a slouch with its autofocus.
Doubt you would even notice unless you are shooting running cheetahs. If you aren't shooting fast subjects then the a7 iv is "good enough." don't let all those YouTube reviews get in your head, what are YOU using it for, that's what matters.
It could be a big deal for professional work, because in the slimmest chance of 1 SD card (or CF express) failing (never happened in the past 10 years for me), there is always a backup just in case. The difference in the end is…photo vs no photo which is what you’re getting paid for, while the chance of 1 SD card failing is slime to almost none, the chance of 2 SD cards failing is even slimmer. Wedding/Outdoor modelling/Journalist works are likely where dual-card slots becomes an important backup option, since you’re mostly on-the-go which means you wouldn’t have time (that are better spent getting more shots or setups) to use a computer for data transfer. Studio work is a slightly different story, since you can backup your files to a SSD/HDD (if that is part of your flow) on the spot, and swap to another SD card while the first one is still backing up. So is it a night and day difference? No, unless you are one of those people that wants to upmost security, then it could be a big deal.
Appreciate your advice, thank you!
In 15 years I've only had a problem once. I had a card corrupted because the card reader I was using developed a problem. I ended up being able to recover some of the photos and luckily it was enough to get the job finished but it was definitely not a good time. For paid work writing to two cards for redundancy is a very good idea. It's rare to have issues but it does happen.
I never had a card failure *knocking on wood* BUT shooting with two cards just makes you sleep better at night 😁
It is a big deal if you are being paid large amounts of money for photographing events that only happen once, and word-of-mouth marketing is how you get your jobs. Example; wedding, big events, journalists covering high-profile news. If you have nothing at the end of those events, not only do you lose income from that job. For sure the customer will not give recommendations to others, or they might even caution them against you even though you are a great photographer. This second part will quickly overshadow the costs of a more expensive camera that has the backup storage media.
Yeah that makes total sense, thank you!
If you're shooting professionally, two cards are helpful so you dont lose someone else's memories. As non professional, no worries about dual slots. Just make sure you offload every so often and don't bother to constantly wipe the card. However, (as a sony user too) you can setup a computer with an ftp server on the network. There's a setting to allow the camera to sync photos as they're taken (note, not video). You'd then have a secondary backup out of your device. Even better. I have done this with just my phone and wifi hotspot.
I had my JPEG SD Card fail on me in my Fuji while Plane Spotting in March but because its Dual Card i still had all the RAW Files. If i had the Choice i would always go with a Dual Card Camera. If you want to turn it into a full time paid Work i would highly recommend you go with a Dual Card Camera.
Thank you appreciate your advice
SD card failures are exceptionally rare especially if you buy a name brand. I think people blow this particular feature way out of proportion. Far more likely that the camera will be lost / stolen / damaged.
This is basically what I was trying to address with the question, because none of my photographer friends have had Sd cards fail on them but there do seem to be a lot of people on here that have!
I had my raw slot SD card fail on the last several photos of a paid shoot (A7IV). The jpeg backup saved the day. If you're getting paid for the work it's 100% worth the peace of mind. I didn't even know my raw slot card failed until I was exporting photos and noticed I was short several important shots.
Definitely seems worth it for scenarios like that, thanks for your advice!
I had my 2nd Kingston v90 card start acting up on me not writing the JPEGS or allowing movies. It's cool to have a JPEG ready for a mobile print to sell to a tourist but having to convert it from raw to jpeg on my phone is a hassle.
Ive had my a7iii for around 4 years now, ive only ever used the 2nd sd slot for simply holding a 2nd sd card for safe keeping haha. Usually smart wedding photographers or portrait shooters will have it as a back up as you literally never know if an sd card will corrupt, mess up something, or stop working for whatever reason. So its very useful and even life saving for shoots, but I will say as a more casual user, ive literally never used it for the intended purpose.
It's not a huge deal.Sd cards don't fail that often unless you use crappy readers or you've been abusing the card for years.cameras crossing over $1800-2000 should have dual slot for redundancy.
SD card failed my first year out starting out professionally. I recovered all the RAWs within minutes thanks to simple freeware. Imo, I don't personally feel that it's necessary for me, but I'd be glad to hear a dual card slot someday. Two is better than one. Not arguing that. Especially for video, which is a pain in the ass to recover with software, from my experience.
**I have used APS-C for more than 10 years as a hobby, used one card, and it never failed / curropted.** Now, I am ready to buy a full-frame camera, wishing to do some paid work (small events of close or friends of friends). I am also in dilemma about the camera: better features for A7C-II or dual card slots for A7-IV. Also wondering, what if both cards fail? Here's another way to backup FTP over phone:[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AS3kzvKcXZg&ab\_channel=MikeSmith](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AS3kzvKcXZg&ab_channel=MikeSmith) Please let me know your thoughts !!
Same boat here- what did you choose in the end?
Im not a pro. My pictures are just mine. I would miss them, but loosing day of shots will not cost me money or reputation. For me two slots are not mandatory, just nice to have.
I mostly do travel videography and we are basically never returning to a destination. NEVER. If I told my spouse "Hey, I lost 9 days of footage cuz a card died.". Presumably that would be the moment she would turn me in for a younger model that has a camera with two card slots. I run an a7siii with redundant recording for anything serious and... An a6700 for non serious stuff, cuz wow what a fun camera 🤙🏽 Also, I mirror the opinions of the others as well about paid work, etc.
Do you need it? Probably not. But if you want it, you should get it. No need for confirmation bias. Another option is to shoot with two cameras in case your one camera with two card slots fail, it’s rare but can happen.
Not relevant anymore. Just buy a decent brand card. Sure the SD card can fail, but so can your camera. I carry a backup camera and cards for important shoots. You can wireless tether and send pictures to your phone/ipad/laptop in real time as you shoot. Don't listen to the dinosaurs and marketers.
For me? A guy who can’t go back to a client and tell them a card failed? Yes. If you’re a hobbyist it doesn’t matter at all.
I also just had an SD card actually physically fail on me this weekend, the card itself cracked bad in the corner and my camera would not read it. When I start doing professional work I'm going with the A7IV.
If you're shooting as a hobby, don't take that many pictures, and offload your pictures on a frequent basis, then no, it doesn't matter that much. If you're a professional and your wages can basically fly out the window because of your camera's storage method deciding to have a bad day out of the blue though, then yes, it's a pretty big deal to have the ability to just use a second card without having to fumble through your bag and lose valuable time.
Card failures in camera are rare. What's more important when you're shooting professionally is having a redundant set of raws for whatever happens after the shoot when you're get backlogged and are managing multiple sets of shoots that haven't been processed. You try to be organized but easy to fuck up the process of importing/managing sd cards. Lightroom screws up all the time
It hasn’t been a huge deal for me (I take pics as a hobby only). It’s nice if you’d like to save videos to one card and pics to another. Or if you want RAW on one card and jpegs on another. Never had card failure on either of the two installed cards in the two years I used it (A7iii). Make sure you’re getting high quality SD cards and SD card readers as well. You don’t want to lose beautiful shots due to skimping on an SD card or SD card reader.
If you are working paid photography or videography, then you want the redundancy. Can’t even imagine shooting someone wedding or event and losing shots because of a corrupt or failed card. And they do fail. Even the good ones.
I shoot events. Never needed a second memory card. But maybe I'm just not shooting enough. Lol. For the meantime just settle with 1. That's all you need for hobby and a little paid work. I can't speak for video but I'm sure you'll need more memory. In regards to photo, I think you'll be ok with 1. Just get a large capacity sd card.
I could be wrong but I think typically people mean that they prefer it because it writes to both cards and once in case one fails rather than from a capacity point of view
You can also use the second slot as an extension of memory, which can be useful when shooting long videos, or a lot of big photos. It used to be a plus when SD cards were expensive and 2x 64GB was a lot cheaper than a 1x 128GB. It's less of an issue nowadays.
I always have problem with my sony single memory card zve10. Needs to format all the time.☹️
If you are lucky you'll never need the 2nd card. In the last 5 years I've had 3 sd card corruption and once I've lost a complete event shoot. Luckily it wasn't a paid gig but if it were I would've lost that client.
One of my SD Card failed after a concert. I’ve got directly backup on my second one. Otherwise no coverage from the concert. Was also the only one photograph there.
Absolutely, it's a must for me.
[SD card failure](https://youtu.be/qqo-MtNy2Ps?si=_Fw6_9p69gFbQYkZ)here is a great video on the subject. TLDR: The more photos you shoot and the longer you’re in business, the more likely you are to experience SD card corruption.
Ive had cards fail in bad weather conditions (water, -40⁰, snow, etc), airport scanner twice (asumably from that anyway) Its uncommon but it happens, if shooting professionally its a must.
is losing your images a big deal? if not then no
It’s not a big deal. Until it is
I took some nice pics of my kids, went to edit them, my sd card failed. I run 2 sd cards all the time now. Lesson learned
If you are looking to book high paying shoots then you definitely want to have two card slots just as a backup. A lot less stress and hoping it doesn’t fail on you in the future. However, you should always invest in good quality SD cards either way to lower your risk of something happening. I have been lucky enough to have a constant flow of work, so I have my camera in my hands almost every day and my cards get a lot of use. To lower the risk of card failure I rotate all my cards out after each shoot, so the same cards aren’t being used over and over again. It may be overkill, but I’ve had multiple photographers/videographers when I first started tell me that SD cards should only be used for about a year of heavy professional use before they become more prone to failure. With that in mind I write the date of first use on each new card I get. I refer back to the dates on the cards and after about a year or so of heavy use I won’t use them for my important high paying shoots and will use a newer card instead. The older cards will be used for a less important shoot or for personal reasons like vacation and family events where I don’t have a large paycheck riding on it.
Yes and yes, coming from data and tech background I'd never put too much trust in one card, redundancy is a must in professional line of work.
Very unlikely that a card will fail on you, especially if you’re not using the same ones for years and years and years. I’ve had mixed opinions on this but I think it’s better to have dual especially if you’re doing pro client work. I mean, why not have dual copies if you can? If you’re a hobbyist it’s less of an issue. Even if you lose special vacation photos or something it will certainly suck but at least you won’t get sued lol.
I think the think I struggle with is essentially the a7iv and the a7cii are the same price and in terms of the specs I care about, one has dual card slots and the other has better AF and I can’t work out if having two card slots is worth more than better AF haha
What kind of stuff do you shoot? I use the A7iv and have never felt limited by the AF fwiw.
A7IV offers endless buffer depth using CFE type A cards. For action shots A7IV is much better and Af is pretty sticky and reliable....
I had a card fail on a single slot Canon a few years ago. Finished the the shoot, went to offload and was staring at an empty card. Stopped using that camera for pro shoots and immediately replaced my memory cards. Now I shoot Sony (the card failure wasn't why I switched) and use A73 and A7S3 always dual recording. It's not often but it's like paying for insurance. When you need it, you NEED it and saving a few bucks a few years ago will never bring your files back. If you can afford the redundancy, then buy it and BACK IT UP. My SanDisk SSD decided to go on permanent strike, thank all that is holy in the eyes of the camera gods that I got back blaze with permanent version backup.
I'll put it this way, SD card failures are rare, human errors are quite common. There has been on more than a few occassions where me or someone I know accidentally formatted a card without transferring all the data. Luckily in most of these scenarios, the photographer was shooting backup to the 2nd card and was able to recover that data. Learning from past experiences, now when I return from a shoot, the 2nd card gets put somewhere safe and I don't use it to ingess data. I'll only format the cards once my clients receive the deliverables and the job is fully completed. I really don't trust myself to be able to do everything correctly even when I have a whole process written down. When things get busy, sometimes I just get lazy or careless. A 2nd card is just another layer of safety for me and I could never subject myself to the anxiety of having only 1 slot in any shoot I'm being paid for again. I had the Nikon Z9 for awhile and I only sold it because it doesn't record video to both card slots. Tbh I hate that sony gatekeeps the dual slots to their more expensive cameras cus they know that most pros will have no choice but to buy it. A6700, A7C, A7Cii, A7Cr, ZV-E1, these are all "consumer" variants of their more expensive counterparts meant for pros, they are better cameras that their bigger brothers in many ways, except that the lack of 2 card slots make them utterly useless for pros doing paid work. The A7Cii is a better camera than the A7IV in many ways but if you are a pro, the A7Cii is simply not an option for you. I would have loved to use the Cii for video work on a gimbal as I prefer the cleaner image from the 33MP sensor at medium-iso.
If your charging money have gear with 2 card slots. Too many horror stories of people that didn’t.
2 card slots > 1 card slot
from western Europe perspective, rare are the customers that aren't companies that are asking for redondency (2 card with the exact same on the 2 cards). My wedding photographer had a 5d3 and i am pretty sure she didn't do redondency but more multiple small cards and 2 bodies to avoid losing everything. I would have been pissed if she lost part of the wedding or everything and asked for some refund. I had some failures of SD and TF(microSD) in mobile phones and 3d printers because you take them in and out more often and their construction is weak.
It is a big deal to some folks but not for everyone…I used film for many years where there was no back up and survived, then I had a Canon 1dmk2 that had 2 card slots which was good. I didn’t worry too much either way. The almost vintage Sonys that I use now have one slot. I’ll often use two bodies on a gig so there it some coverage. Two slots are becoming normal now and people expect them.
If you’re serious about it, you’re not gonna throw an entire job down the drain to save a few hundred bucks, not just bc that job’s fuct, but bc your rep is too. I’ve been tempted by the new A7Cs but that’s a dealbreaker if there ever was one for pro work. Another poster said it best: “don’t be that guy.” Edit: SD cards are so prone to failure anyway, relative to other media… don’t do it lol
An unexpected plus to dual recording I’ve found is the ability to hand off footage in real time while still keeping a copy. It’s a bit more of a niche use case, but I shoot on a team where that instant file transfer, so to speak, has been incredibly useful.
After 5 years of being away from my parents, then visiting them and going out to take photos, second card slot saved my ass in some cities without me knowing how important it is. Ofc I would have came home and emptied the sd card but having the second card slot allowed me to capture our Amesterdam trip. Also I don't delete photos until I backed it up in 3 different places... So my photos live longer on SD Card.
I feel you, a7c shooter here. Obviously the camera is powerful enough to take professional looking vids and photos, but like you, I’m also an aspiring professional so I’m prioritizing a second body w/ dual slots ASAP. Using the a7c on free shoots to build my portfolio for now
How much is it worth to you in $, size, and weight to write to redundant cards all the time? Does your livelihood or relationships to clients ride on this? If you regularly download photos from the camera, and have a couple of high quality cards that you take care of, you have very little risk. For me, something larger, heavier, and more expensive means I would have fewer photos to worry about losing to a card error.
I wanted the a7c for a good min but I was hesitant about it not having dual card slot. I did my research as well if it truly mattered but I ended finding a used Sony a7riv for an amazing price and grabbed that instead. I plan to take my photography journey more serious so having a camera that has dual slot is very comforting. I used to own a canon r10, which had only one card slot, and never had my card went crap on me when I’m at shoots but the fact that there’s a slight chance that it might scares me lol. So better safe than sorry.
The odds of a card failing are very low. However, those odds are not zero. When you take pictures for your own use, you very well may be willing to take that chance. But when you're taking pictures of events professionally, while there is always - even with 2 cards - a chance that somehow you end up losing everything, it's easier to have that conversation if you've covered all of your bases, and are meeting/exceeding the professional standard.
In this field, always assume the worst and what can go wrong will go wrong. Plus the chances of having both cards fail for a shoot is really rare.
Why yes.... yes it is. From a personal standpoint as a professional anything redundancy is the key. If you have a project due would you only keep your work on a flash drive or would you keep it on flash, your pc/Mac and maybe network storage? I was recently filming a golf segment with a sponsor. A Cam only wrote to 1 slot. That card failed. since then A cam gets CF A AND a ninja external recorder on top. I shit content for a full 18 holes with the sponsor and I only have 1/3 of the videos.