Card Size/Capacity for the Nikon Z9

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Edward Cusick

Edward Cusick

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My Z9 will be arriving in a few days and I'm getting the accessories together that will be needed, including new CFExpress cards for this camera.

I've been using Delkin Black cards for the past couple of years in my D850 (since sold) and my D6 (currently run 150GB cards). My plan is to stay with Delkin Black cards (CFExpress Type B) for the Z9.

My question is regarding capacity. I've read a couple of comments about possible issues with running smaller cards (say 150) and maxing them out. Not sure if this is an issue but wanted to throw this out for comment. Having owned the D6 I'm familiar with filing a card quickly at high fps rates but the Z9 is a different game all together.

With that would two 325GB CFExpress Type B cards be a solid choice for the Z9 (slots 1 & 2) or would it be better to say have a 650GB card in slot 1 and use 325GB cards in slot 2?

Thanks.
 
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i don’t recall if the 325 size had the same performance specs as the 650. generally speaking smaller cards often aren’t as fast.

if you’re worried about needing to match cards for reliability, i don’t think it’s a problem. while i currently have matching cards, i’ve run with different cards and i don’t think i’ve seen any reports of issues.
 
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It all depends on your shooting style and whether you can import the images after a day of shooting or if you will be in the field and have to accumulate images over multiple days. It of course also depends on whether you shoot high frame rates a lot.

I once nearly filled a 165gb card in about three hours of shooting. I was doing a lot of bird tracking at 20 FPS RAW. I was new to the Z9 at the time and got carried away with the power of tracking birds at high frame rate.

I have two Z9's. I use dual 325's in one camera and have 650 and 325 in the other. I can import images daily. I have not come close to running out of room with either setup.

One problem that comes up is that it is easy to forget to put your card back in the camera after an import session. I have on more than one occasion discovered I left a card at home. The nice thing about the Z9 is you have two cards so you can still shoot.
 
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CFB cards are pretty inexpensive, especially if you buy them secondhand. With my Z9 usage and wildlife, I would always keep dual 512GB or 1TB cards in, and I could easily fill those in a day if I was on a vacation and shooting heavily.

If you're not doing wildlife, you may be able to get away with smaller capacity. All depends on how long you'll shoot for, and how much access you'll have to other storage (IE a laptop, extra cards, or storage drive).
 
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wotan1 said:
It all depends on your shooting style and whether you can import the images after a day of shooting or if you will be in the field and have to accumulate images over multiple days. It of course also depends on whether you shoot high frame rates a lot.

I once nearly filled a 165gb card in about three hours of shooting. I was doing a lot of bird tracking at 20 FPS RAW. I was new to the Z9 at the time and got carried away with the power of tracking birds at high frame rate.

I have two Z9's. I use dual 325's in one camera and have 650 and 325 in the other. I can import images daily. I have not come close to running out of room with either setup.

One problem that comes up is that it is easy to forget to put your card back in the camera after an import session. I have on more than one occasion discovered I left a card at home. The nice thing about the Z9 is you have two cards so you can still shoot.
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Thanks for the reply.

Dumping of images has never been an issue though as you've pointed out one has to be aware of the accumulation rate at higher fps. I learned that a few years ago with the D6 at 14 fps. Cards can fill fast.

My concern was if it were better (to loosely use that term) to have larger cards not necessarily to have more room for images but to allow that cushion of unused space in the card. I'm feeling like that isn't an issue (that is to have more "unused space" on the card for a gain in performance).
 
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John Navitsky said:
i don’t recall if the 325 size had the same performance specs as the 650. generally speaking smaller cards often aren’t as fast.

if you’re worried about needing to match cards for reliability, i don’t think it’s a problem. while i currently have matching cards, i’ve run with different cards and i don’t think i’ve seen any reports of issues.
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Thanks for the reply. I'll check the specs on the two.

Not really worried about matching cards (size-wise). Was more a concern about performance with the Z9 and "filling cards" versus having one (two) that allow extra unfilled space. I'm probably overthinking this.

I run two 150GB cards on a D6, slot 1 fills then slot 2 takes over, and in certain situations running 12-14 fps RAW I will fill cards fast and just put in another until I can dump images.

May just go with a 650GB + 325GB as backup (slot 2).
 
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One thing I learned is to control my enthusiasm with fast frame rates. I shoot a lot with the 800mm pf and it does an excellent job of tracking birds in flight. Often these birds are too small in the frame for anything I would want to keep. I now shoot in shorter bursts and don't attempt to track birds that are too distant.

When new to 20 fps frame rate and bird subject ID when using an excellent long telephoto prime it is easy to get drunk with the power at your fingertips. Enjoy the feeling, dealing with having to cull through hundreds and thousands of rapid fire images will teach you to get things under better control.

This is such a different world from the film days when your bursts could never involve more than the 36 frames in a roll of film.
 
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Keep in mind for any of you who don't want to mess with card readers and forgetting cards the wireless transfer via home router works pretty well. It'll be at your home network speed of AC rates if you have a router that supports that or alternately ethernet. Transfer speeds per 100GB should be up to 1300Mbps on AC (It will be lower due to real world, but still fast. Pllace the camera right next to the router if you can) or 1000Mbps on Ethernet. That would be about 10-15 minutes per 100GB of files.

I personally never transfer a whole card over but will scroll my shots at high speed on the back LCD and flag any potential keepers then upload those so for me it's typically an under 10 minute process for transfer and happens as I flag the shots while I sit on the couch. I'm just looking for compositions rapidly and check critical focus on the 4k monitor or I'll use a bound key to 200% on the back LCD sometimes.

This way the CF cards never leave the camera and I never worry about forgetting them. Once I'm done I just reformat the card for the next shooting session.

Directions are here, it's way easier to setup and much more reliable than snap bridge. You can do this in the field as well with a portable router (they make them the size of a pack of cards) and a power pack for it with your laptop. So you could shooting a blind and have everything being transferred as you shoot if you wished.

You'll need Wireless Transfer Utility then follow the steps. It's much easier than snapbridge as there's no bluetooth involved. Make sure the camera is a reasonable distance from the router as it has weaker antenna than a typical laptop.


Computers: Connecting via Ethernet or Wireless LAN

onlinemanual.nikonimglib.com onlinemanual.nikonimglib.com
 
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ecycled said:
Thanks.
Click to expand...
I should have noted, that's the only single day I've come even close to filling one card (of the two, since I use the second slot as overflow).

Eventually I'll get a few 1tb cards or larger for video, but for stills 512 gig plus high efficiency raws seem to be more than enough for pretty much anything, outside of once in a life time trips/etc.
 
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Cameron T said:
I should have noted, that's the only single day I've come even close to filling one card (of the two, since I use the second slot as overflow).

Eventually I'll get a few 1tb cards or larger for video, but for stills 512 gig plus high efficiency raws seem to be more than enough for pretty much anything, outside of once in a life time trips/etc.
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I run. 512 in one and (It's a Z8) a 1 TB in the other which I use as a hard drive for storage. I never shoot to both always in overflow. End of the day I just copy the contents to the second card for storage. I have multiple 1TB SD cards that are much slower rates as this can happen later in the hotel or wherever and speeds not of the essence.

I do the same with the Z9 and just run a slower much less expensive 1TB card as storage.

HE RAW is a LOT of shots on a 512 that's for sure. About 40 minutes strait at 20FPS lol.
 
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ecycled said:
Thanks for the reply.

Dumping of images has never been an issue though as you've pointed out one has to be aware of the accumulation rate at higher fps. I learned that a few years ago with the D6 at 14 fps. Cards can fill fast.

My concern was if it were better (to loosely use that term) to have larger cards not necessarily to have more room for images but to allow that cushion of unused space in the card. I'm feeling like that isn't an issue (that is to have more "unused space" on the card for a gain in performance).
Click to expand...

As far as I know, there's no benefit to "unused space" as far as performance goes. Anything like that would likely be extra miniscule to the point of being unable to be measured without top equipment - far out of the needs/capability of a casual hobbyist.

Memory card size nowadays is far more about what and how long you will be shooting between periods of being able to dump the cards onto another storage drive.
 
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The added cost of a larger card is relatively small - and sometimes it comes with improved performance. For example the Delkin Power cards at 650 GB and larger are probably as fast as your Delkin Black card - and much cheaper of similar size. The 512 GB and smaller cards carry a lower price, but are slower cards and less appropriate for video and burst shooting. If you want a smaller card, you are left with the Delkin Black - a premium card that is very fast and well built.

ProGrade is similar. The smaller cards are slower than the 512 GB and larger cards in the ProGrade Gold line, but with ProGrade Cobalt they are all reasonably fast.

If you are going to start shooting video, you need a much larger card. For stills - especially wildlife - it's hard to have enough activity to need extensive bursts and really large cards. I don't need a fast burst of a subject perched on a branch or standing in a field - only when there is activity such as flight, feeding, or courtship.
 
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EricBowles said:
The added cost of a larger card is relatively small - and sometimes it comes with improved performance. For example the Delkin Power cards at 650 GB and larger are probably as fast as your Delkin Black card - and much cheaper of similar size. The 512 GB and smaller cards carry a lower price, but are slower cards and less appropriate for video and burst shooting. If you want a smaller card, you are left with the Delkin Black - a premium card that is very fast and well built.

ProGrade is similar. The smaller cards are slower than the 512 GB and larger cards in the ProGrade Gold line, but with ProGrade Cobalt they are all reasonably fast.

If you are going to start shooting video, you need a much larger card. For stills - especially wildlife - it's hard to have enough activity to need extensive bursts and really large cards. I don't need a fast burst of a subject perched on a branch or standing in a field - only when there is activity such as flight, feeding, or courtship.
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Thank you Eric.

I'm leaning toward a 650/325 set (Delkin Black) which will serve my needs extremely well in just about any scenario I personally shoot in. I've had really good reliability from these in past.

No video (planned as of yet). Agree when I'm in field I'm typically not doing too much in regards to high frame rate work. The only time I really fill cards is when I shoot dog shows (all for fun) and can end up with 7k to 10k+ shots at the end of the day but that is the most and typically only a few times a year at large events.
 
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When I format my 325 GB card in my Z9 it shows 8.4k for picture capacity. Yes I know that is an estimate but I wanted to give you that number to help you decide which card size is right for your shooting. I shoot in High Efficiency * Raw which is the medium setting. I typically use 325 and 256 as over flow and rarely need to get to that (although a few airshows I did). After the first couple of times you have 10,000 images to go through you, if you are like me, learn to change how you shoot. I used to over shoot a lot when I used DSLR, especially for capturing action. The hit rate got to be so much better with the Z9 that I ended up being more selective on when I slam that shutter. Delkin often has some pretty good deals around the holidays so might be good time to pick some up. My two main cards are Delkin Blacks but I also have a few Delkin Power cards and I tell you I never run into buffering issues with them.
You are going to love shooting with the Z9. Totally different world than DSLR. It took me like 2 months to set everything up where I wanted it and I've still made changes a few times since then as new features were released. It is a fun camera to use.
 
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Darrellhar said:
When I format my 325 GB card in my Z9 it shows 8.4k for picture capacity. Yes I know that is an estimate but I wanted to give you that number to help you decide which card size is right for your shooting. I shoot in High Efficiency * Raw which is the medium setting. I typically use 325 and 256 as over flow and rarely need to get to that (although a few airshows I did). After the first couple of times you have 10,000 images to go through you, if you are like me, learn to change how you shoot. I used to over shoot a lot when I used DSLR, especially for capturing action. The hit rate got to be so much better with the Z9 that I ended up being more selective on when I slam that shutter. Delkin often has some pretty good deals around the holidays so might be good time to pick some up. My two main cards are Delkin Blacks but I also have a few Delkin Power cards and I tell you I never run into buffering issues with them.
You are going to love shooting with the Z9. Totally different world than DSLR. It took me like 2 months to set everything up where I wanted it and I've still made changes a few times since then as new features were released. It is a fun camera to use.
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Thank you for the informative reply.

And yes, a few days of culling through what was sometimes nearing/exceeding 10k shots (with my D6) teaches one very quickly to manage the fps fetish. But I sure do like the fact that the D6 can do what it does. Super excited about the potential/possibilities of the Z9.
 
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ecycled said:
My Z9 will be arriving in a few days and I'm getting the accessories together that will be needed, including new CFExpress cards for this camera.

I've been using Delkin Black cards for the past couple of years in my D850 (since sold) and my D6 (currently run 150GB cards). My plan is to stay with Delkin Black cards (CFExpress Type B) for the Z9.

My question is regarding capacity. I've read a couple of comments about possible issues with running smaller cards (say 150) and maxing them out. Not sure if this is an issue but wanted to throw this out for comment. Having owned the D6 I'm familiar with filing a card quickly at high fps rates but the Z9 is a different game all together.

With that would two 325GB CFExpress Type B cards be a solid choice for the Z9 (slots 1 & 2) or would it be better to say have a 650GB card in slot 1 and use 325GB cards in slot 2?

Thanks.
Click to expand...
I started with some 180-200 sized cards and carried spares when I was shooting both a Z9 and Z8 but before doing Africa with Steve in April I bought 2 Delkin Black 1.3TB cards. I had 33,000 images from the trip about split between the two cards and neither card was over half full. I copied the images every night at the lodge to a couple of Samsung T7s but did not erase any images until I got back and imported into LR and then made sure that my local backups on the Studio desktop and BackBlaze and all the originals…and in fact didn't erase either card until just before leaving for CR in August…and have only erased one of them since then for the trip Connie and I did to Scottsdale last weekend. I took a total of 6 or 8 smaller cards on both trips just in case but they never came out of the bag. I shoot lossless compressed RAW only…might have a few jpegs if I need the faster frame rates or if I need pre-capture.
 
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I have a mixture of cards Delkin Black 325, ProGrade Cobalt 325 and 165, Delkin Power 512, 256 and 128. A Z9 capturing HE* can put about 3,200 images on a card or 6,400 images using slot B as overflow. A 512 card can record a little over 13,000 images. Even on a 10 day trip it is hard to fill up all of my cards. I carry a CF Express reader which allows me to save to my laptop but also doubles as additional off-line storage using a 2 TB and two 1 TB cards. I have rarely filled a 325 card, even when shooting up to 7 hrs/day is a wildlife rich location. Like always, your mileage may vary.
 
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