XQD card

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LBGuil

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I am new to the forum and a very amateur photgrapher.SO the ? : How can I know when my XQD card is full? I have a D500. does this prove how much of a novice I am? :)
 
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First up @LBGuil, welcome to the forum. As a novice you have certainly found the right way to getting help. @Steve is why we are all here. His fantastic tutorials, both free and paid are second to none. The members here range from novice, through amateur and professional and doing what you have just done is the best first step. Asking questions will get you answers. Taking note of those answers and getting out and putting them in practise will help you improve quickly. And remember, there is usually more than one answer to a question and you have to take into equation, your own personal considerations and apply the answer that suits you best.

Full XQD - I use the D500 with a 32GB XQD and a 64GB SD card. I have never worried about it as any extras immediately go to the SD card. I also always carry spare SD cards just in case but have never had to change on the fly. If I was shooting professionally that may be different, but I am just a hobbyist. I am also in the habit of transferring all images to a PC at the end of the day so always starting with empty cards. This website gives a bit of a breakdown for you with the different formats you can use and roughly how many shots will fill your card.

Memory Card Capacity

onlinemanual.nikonimglib.com onlinemanual.nikonimglib.com

.
 
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I have had a D500 since release and I am not sure that I know the answer to this question! So here is just what I know and I am going to watch the forum to see what others will say.

In the Photo Shooting Menu you can assign a Primary slot selection (probably your XQD card) and also define what you want the Secondary Slot Function to be (probably the SD card), Overflow, Backup, or RAW primary - JPEG secondary. If you have the secondary slot set at Overflow, if the XQD fills then the images will be saved onto the SD card. If it is set to one of the other two options the camera will stop capturing images when the card is full. I don't know that I have ever filled my XQD card, I swap it when it starts to get full.

You can also set the destination for movie storage (XQD or SD) in the Movie Shooting Menu. It will show the remaining video storage available on each card. I usually store my videos on my SD card because SD is cheaper and I can purchase a larger SD card for less money.

In the custom setting menu, setting d3 can be set to ISO display or show frame count, frame count will show ISO display OFF in the menu setting. If d3 is set to OFF, the D500 will show approximate remaining frames available in the D500 top LCD display. This value will change based on what image quality you are shooting and it is only an approximation.

I usually have d3 set to ISO display because I like to shoot in manual with auto ISO but I know pretty close how many images I can shoot before worrying about storage being full. I will switch d3 periodically if I want to check how much storage is remaining. I will also switch cards when I want to be certain that I won't run out of storage at a critical time.

I like to set my XQD as my primary, the SD as secondary Backup, and record my movies to the SD.

I don't know if I answered your question, but I hope that helps.

and what AlexY says below as well!!! (and it is a much better answer!)
 
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Hi and welcome. I have a D500 as well which I'm very happy with. If you look in the top display window when the camera is turned off, you will see a number displayed in square brackets, bottom right side....mine is showing [648] for example. This is Nikon's estimate of the number of remaining photos that can be stored on the card. I know that it's the XQD card because directly above this number are 2 other pieces of info: XQD and SD and the XQD has an arrowhead to its right.
Another way you would know is that the camera would stop taking pictures if you only had one card in it. If you had a secondary or backup SD card, the SD icon would now have the arrowhead associated.
The number of images remaining display also is shown when the camera is turned on, but the meter is off.
cheers,
Alex
 
What Alex said ^^^
Or put the disk in the mac and get info in "finder"

Screen Shot 2020-09-18.jpg
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Manuals!!! You mean those things that have been translated from gobbledygook to worse gobbledygook by someone who has no technical background. No, that's what forums are for. Get it straight from the 🐴 mouth, the end user. They always know best. :)
 
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@MartyD. I never listened to my teachers with the exception of one and only because she was DDG. See thesaurus, last listing under D.

Thesaurus

@Callie @Kathy G @gordon_g I couldn't help myself. In need of a good word to describe peoples images. Look no further. Information "stolen" from: https://boompositive.com/blogs/positivethesaurus/words-to-describe-beauty-synonyms BEAUTY SYNONYMS AND WORDS Are you looking a way to describe...
bcgforums.com bcgforums.com
 
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LBGuil said:
I am new to the forum and a very amateur photgrapher.SO the ? : How can I know when my XQD card is full? I have a D500. does this prove how much of a novice I am? :)
Click to expand...

While I can't answer your question it is good practice not to fill up any memory device, whether it be a hard drive, USB drive or any memory card. I've seen leave 10-20% free to ensure that access by any system is reliable, and maybe more importantly, to cover yourself against card failure/corruption. I'd rather change the card than use a bigger one, then you will have at least some images. I've had 2 or 3 cards fail on me so learnt the hard way. Consequenty I never fill cards up and now they are cheap as chips for all but the highest end cards there is no need to squeeze the most images you can onto them. When I was using CF and SD cards I used to carry about 420GB of storage space in a small card wallet.
 
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dabhand16 said:
While I can't answer your question it is good practice not to fill up any memory device, whether it be a hard drive, USB drive or any memory card. I've seen leave 10-20% free to ensure that access by any system is reliable, and maybe more importantly, to cover yourself against card failure/corruption. I'd rather change the card than use a bigger one, then you will have at least some images. I've had 2 or 3 cards fail on me so learnt the hard way. Consequenty I never fill cards up and now they are cheap as chips for all but the highest end cards there is no need to squeeze the most images you can onto them. When I was using CF and SD cards I used to carry about 420GB of storage space in a small card wallet.
Click to expand...
I have a 32 and 120 xqd card would like to find some cheaper prices. Could you suggest where to find some cheaper prices on 32gb xqd. MY thinking was to use the 120gb on video
 
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Oztours said:
First up @LBGuil, welcome to the forum. As a novice you have certainly found the right way to getting help. @Steve is why we are all here. His fantastic tutorials, both free and paid are second to none. The members here range from novice, through amateur and professional and doing what you have just done is the best first step. Asking questions will get you answers. Taking note of those answers and getting out and putting them in practise will help you improve quickly. And remember, there is usually more than one answer to a question and you have to take into equation, your own personal considerations and apply the answer that suits you best.

Full XQD - I use the D500 with a 32GB XQD and a 64GB SD card. I have never worried about it as any extras immediately go to the SD card. I also always carry spare SD cards just in case but have never had to change on the fly. If I was shooting professionally that may be different, but I am just a hobbyist. I am also in the habit of transferring all images to a PC at the end of the day so always starting with empty cards. This website gives a bit of a breakdown for you with the different formats you can use and roughly how many shots will fill your card.

Memory Card Capacity

onlinemanual.nikonimglib.com onlinemanual.nikonimglib.com

.
Click to expand...
That is sort of what I am doing now .I have a 32gb and 120gb xqd . I thought I may need the 120 for video but have not gotten into trying video yet. One thing at a Time. I fully appreciate your and everyone's help.
 
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I would suggest you have it well covered. From here on in its a matter of working out your usage patterns and always remember, if you run into a space problem such as you forgot spare cards, you can always go back through a couple of thousand images and delete the mistakes. ;) Last trip I did before Covid, I forgot my spare battery, but at least I remembered my charger that works on the car lighter. The spare was sitting in the house charger when I got home. :)
 
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LBGuil said:
I have a 32 and 120 xqd card would like to find some cheaper prices. Could you suggest where to find some cheaper prices on 32gb xqd. MY thinking was to use the 120gb on video
Click to expand...

That depends on where you are. In the UK XQD cards are not cheap and it is unlikely that anyone will join the market now CF Express is here. The more makers there are, the cheaper the products they make get.
The place I got the cheapest I could find no longer list XQD cards.
You might find that fast SD cards will suffice for you and they can be got at reasonable prices in comparison, but are not as fast as the last versions of XQD.
 
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All I've been able to find in Canada are Sony XQD cards, which are fine, but expensive. There's no other manufacturer as far as I can see, unfortunately. I think that I should buy a spare sooner rather than later in case they become extinct.
 
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dabhand16 said:
That depends on where you are. In the UK XQD cards are not cheap and it is unlikely that anyone will join the market now CF Express is here. The more makers there are, the cheaper the products they make get.
The place I got the cheapest I could find no longer list XQD cards.
You might find that fast SD cards will suffice for you and they can be got at reasonable prices in comparison, but are not as fast as the last versions of XQD.
Click to expand...
thanks for the info
 
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AlexY said:
All I've been able to find in Canada are Sony XQD cards, which are fine, but expensive. There's no other manufacturer as far as I can see, unfortunately. I think that I should buy a spare sooner rather than later in case they become extinct.
Click to expand...
My thoughts also but what happens if xqd are no longer available?
 
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LBGuil said:
My thoughts also but what happens if xqd are no longer available?
Click to expand...
In a word, trouble!
I have 2 slots in my D500, one of which takes a SD card and I have a 128GB SDXC card in it, so I could always use that...but, it is not nearly the speed of my XQD card and I would fill up the camera's buffer pretty quickly if I did a long burst, so not the best solution. Or, I could buy a new camera with a different card format that is fast and looks likely to persist for a while, but this is a costly solution.
So what I'm going to do for now is purchase a spare XQD card.
hth,
Alex
 
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AlexY said:
In a word, trouble!
I have 2 slots in my D500, one of which takes a SD card and I have a 128GB SDXC card in it, so I could always use that...but, it is not nearly the speed of my XQD card and I would fill up the camera's buffer pretty quickly if I did a long burst, so not the best solution. Or, I could buy a new camera with a different card format that is fast and looks likely to persist for a while, but this is a costly solution.
So what I'm going to do for now is purchase a spare XQD card.
hth,
Alex
Click to expand...
My thinking too. Looking now on Amazon 32gb Sony G -$88.96 oh well 😭
 
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XQD has never been inexpensive, and I've not noticed much change price wise during it's entire life cycle. CFexpress likely won't change much price wise either. Part of the issue is that fast flash memory found in XQD and CFexpress requires a more powerful controller than what is found in SD/SDHC/SDXC cards, and that means it costs more to design, and make. Higher capacities also drives up price. XQD starts at 32GB, and I don't think there there is a CFexpress card smaller than 64GB on the market. Another reason the price is high is licensing fees. XQD uses the SATAIII standard (3.5' & 2.5' HDD & SSDs use this), which is licensed on a per device basis, and CFexpress is based on PCI-E (like NVMe SSDs), which is also licensed similarly. CF was less expensive since it was based on the first and later second generation IDE standard (tech from the 1980s/1990s), so the license fees were low or maybe even nonexistent. Another is build quality, the XQD and CFexpress cards use metal cases, for toughness and more importantly heat dissipation, since fast memory generates a lot of heat while writing data, and the faster it gets the more it creates.

I currently have 2 64GB XQD cards, which if they are anything like my CF cards, will last me many trouble free years. I will likely get one or two more, unless Nikon finally gets around to that promised firmware update for our XQD equipped devices. I'm not holding my breath on that one though.
 
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