So, why do I use Sandisk? I used to use Lexar. Unfortunately, on one of their very expensive cards that I purchased (about $450 if I recall), they had a problem with the embedded driver so that it dropped images, corrupted images and generally wrecked havoc on me. When I finally found out what the problem was, no thanks to Lexar, I also found out they were going to replace them. But, I had to pay to return the card and then wait while they then sent one back. So I was out shipping and without the card for a couple of weeks, without any compensation ... not even a credit toward the next card. So, there will never be another Lexar card in my cameras. I've never had any trouble with any Sandisk card. So, while I am sure there are zillions of folks without problems with Lexar, I think there are many fewer who use them in the very most expensive Pro line of DSLRs and utterly rely on them for their clients ... I simply can't afford that kind of arrogance.So, what are my "special purposes" for these 12 cards? I have two actually. The first has to do with the Supper Club shots I do at the casino. Normally this is just me wandering around the Samala Room at the Chumash Casino Resort where a dozen round tables with elegant place settings, a four diamond catered buffet for about 130 people and dinner music and then entertainment is served up for invited guests only. I have the marvelous job of asking people who have come to have dinner and enjoy a show if I can take their picture while they are trying to eat! Sounds awful ... but after the first three or four events I got the hang of it and now everyone really enjoys it. Sometimes when I walk into the room with my camera hands go up at tables. In fact, I now stand just ahead of the buffet line and capture the guests while they are waiting in the line ... no food in teeth and something to entertain them. Many couples have albums of my little refrigerator pictures ... they get them in 4x6 prints.
But from time to time, we setup a themed photobooth, bring in studio strobes and then shoot & print immediately, put the pictures in frames and give them back to the guests before they leave. And when we do this, I need to shoot a few, give the printer operator the CF card that they print from, and start a new card. Also, since I need to provide digital images to the casino of all these prints, I can't recycle the cards. Turns out that a dozen 1G cards works out really well. And interestingly, I normally have a 12G Sandisk Extreme III in my primary body, although I expect I will get a couple of Extreme IV's to use in my 1DsMIII which supports DMA, a higher speed transfer protocol.
And the other use ... shooting boxing with an assistant. This allows me to shoot one or two rounds, pass the card to my assistant with a laptop, who can download, cull and edit the RAW images while I am shooting subsequent rounds or bouts. The reason for this fast processing is that Showtime (for whom I do this on rare occasions) or other media want the images as soon after the fights as possible to go with the ringside commentary that their writers turn in. They'd like to have the images before the fights but that isn't yet possible! :-)
Hope this gives some of you some good ideas or a different perspective.
Be Safe!
Dwight
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