Good Evening to All:
I was getting ready to purchase another 4GB San Disk Extreme 111 cf memory card when I noticed the increased storage capacity in some of the cards (8GB, 12GB and 16GB). I remember reading a while ago that some people were against buying larger than 4GB, reasoning that corruption of anything larger than 4GB was not a risk to be taken. Are the larger cards currently more reliable than a couple of years ago? Should I purchase a larger card? Are they as reliable as the smaller ones now? I realize nothing is guaranteed but 8GB would go perfect with my 5D. Thanks for any recommendations.

Frank:

This same discussion took place many hundreds of times a couple of years ago only the "increased storage capacity" cards they were talking about were 4gb cards (which you now consider safe); a couple of years before that they were 1gb cards, and on and on. If you need a larger card and your camera will support it they are as safe as 4gb cards or 1gb cards. The technology is getting better and better (and cheaper and cheaper)...

One potential downside is that you don't minimize losses with a larger card. If I go on an assignment and one card gets destroyed, (an unlikely occurance), I would rather lose 1 gig of data than 8 gigs.

I feel I'm at the least risk of losing or damaging a card when the card is in the camera. That means if I never have to take the card out of the camera in the field, I've minimized my risk (not mention maximizing convenience and minimizing missed shots). So I keep 12GB in my Mark II's, in the form of a Ridata 150x 8GB CF and 4GB SD in each. They've been perfectly reliable so far. (Knock wood...)

Nill
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www.toulme.net

That is a good point. My motives are a little different. While climbing in isolated areas I fear that all will be lost the day my camera dives off of a cliff. At least I will have some cards back at camp or in my pack that will survive. The same would hold true for any high-risk shooting.

Phillip

Thanks to all for your input. Nill makes a good point and I'll probably go with the 8GB. Thanks again.
Frank

Chances are that even though your camera would be very broken, the memory card would survive. I've seen cards that have been run over, fallen in rivers etc and still worked fine.