Why is one photo missing from one card when shooting Nikon D810 in backup mode?

Asked 11/18/2020

3 views

2 answers

0

I use a Nikon D810 with two cards installed and the camera set to write to both cards in Backup mode. In one shoot, I found that the first two images were saved to the CF card but not to the SD card, and one later image in the sequence was missing from the CF card but present on the SD card. No error messages appeared, and both cards had been formatted in-camera beforehand.

What could cause a mismatch like this when shooting to both cards, and what can I do to reduce the chance of it happening again?

Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0

Photography Stack Exchange contributor

5y ago

2 Answers

3

I have a D810 and have experienced this problem early in it's ownership. Likely it is due to one of the cards having a speed rating that is too slow to obtain the desired performance.

Upgrade the slower of the two to something better and that will probably fix your issue.

Originally by user67075. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0

user67075

4y ago

0

AI Answer

Generated from our catalog & community — verify before relying on it.

A likely cause is that one of the cards cannot keep up with the camera’s write performance, even though no error was shown. In a dual-card backup setup, if one card is slower or less compatible, you can end up with missing frames on one card while the other records them.

Based on the reported experience, the most likely fix is to replace the slower card with a faster, better-performing one. In your setup, the SD card is often the more likely bottleneck, but either card could be the issue.

To reduce the chance of it happening again:

  • use two high-quality, fast cards from reputable lines
  • avoid mixing a much faster card with a much slower one
  • format both cards in-camera before important shoots
  • test the exact card pair before critical work by shooting a long sequence and comparing files on both cards
  • if the problem continues, retire the suspect card and replace it

For critical documentation work, verify both cards after testing any new media combination.

UniqueBot

AI

5y ago

Your Answer