Shooting To Dual Cards On A Canon 5D Mark III Has Its Advantages – File Error Backup

I shot nearly 1,000 images on this commercial shoot and this single image was the only one that had issues in RAW. The JPG file was fine.

I love having dual card slots in my Canon 5D MarkIII. The RAW image to the left did not show properly in Lightroom or Photoshop. It was not usable. However, as I do with all on location commercial photoshoots or corporate events these days, I set my 5D3 to shoot to both the Compact Flash and SD card at the same time. I also shoot a smaller JPG along with RAW to both cards. Dual cards is a feature that I don't know of any consumer cameras having the ability to do.

There may have been a recovery solution that would have worked from the RAW file, but thanks to having dual card slots and shooting to both cards, I didn't have to jump through hoops to attempt recovery. I'm still baffled as to why this ONE single RAW file out of nearly 1,000 images was not usable on just one of the cards. Logic tells me that it must have been a card issue since the other card worked fine.

Not every professional will agree with this next statement, but if you shoot professionally, you should consider owning a professional camera with dual card slots. This is just one example of when it could come in handy. My primary reason for shooting to two cards at once is to have a backup of my images on another card. In some cases, I may keep the images on the second card for several weeks. I did that when I shot a 5 day event in Canada with over 5,000 images. It was nice to have a second card to hang on to until the images were delivered to the client.

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David Williams

Owner at RTP Photo And Video, Inc.

About The Author: David Williams is a professional still photographer and videographer focusing on corporate and commercial work. His love for still photography began in 1982 while still in High School. David started making money at photography in 1982. David and his wife Brenda started working together in photography in 1988 when they met and were married in 1989. Brenda is the photo editor for the business. David and Brenda have two daughters in their 20's. Please be sure to get a quote for services if needed: our goal is to respond as promptly as possible. You may also call David direct at 919.628.2902. You may share this content using the larger social icons above this bio section. You may find David on various social platforms by clicking the smaller icons to the left of this paragraph under David's headshot. Please visit our home page as well.

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