How Do You Manage Your SD Card Library?

txmadman writes "Like a lot of my colleagues and all of my three children, I have several SD , mini-SD, and micro-SD cards for various purposes: cameras, cell phones, my laptop, etc. These things are handy to have around, offer easy and significant storage, but are very easily lost. We have also have run into some instances where it wasn't clear whose SD card was whose, and have also started to see a need for a storage mechanism. I have seen SD card 'wallets' and such, but have never seen anyone actually use one. So: How do you manage and keep track of your SD cards?"

Comments

Labels

[FluffyWithTeeth]

Put labels on them and keep them in a credit card pocket of your wallet.

This is seriously not a difficult enough problem to warrant a /. story..

Re:Labels

[rm999]

Having 100s of memory cards around makes about as much sense as having 100s of rolls of used, unlabeled film laying around. Even if your uncle is taking 20 megapixel RAW pictures, he can fit 800 pictures on eight 2-gig cards. In this extreme example, he shouldn't need more than eight cards if he takes 800 pictures a shoot, because the first thing he should do when his shoot is over is empty the pictures onto a hard drive with an automatic backup, then format the cards.

If you are having trouble organizing your memory cards, you can probably simplify some other aspect of your life to fix the problem.

Re:Labels

[hairyfeet]

Actually I have a customer who does those jobs, and you do actually need them to be in high res. Why? Because it makes it easier for him to photoshop out all those zits, whiteheads, scars, etc. And from talking to him he has gotten a lot of business on the side from parents who look at the nice school photos and who are happy to pay the cash to have nice photos of their kid without giant blemishes.

Re:Labels

[theheadlessrabbit]

no, you would need at least 16 cards, but likely more. much more.

800 shots per job is not an overestimate, it is actually a very reasonable number.

I use one set of cards for each particular job. each set of cards is numbered and lettered. (1a, 1b, 1c, 1d, 2a, 2b, 2c ...etc.)
for one job, i use my '1x' set, while the next job, i use my '2x' set.

use a sharpie, never pencil, to label your cards. different colours can help, too.

I copy the images to a properly named folder on a hard drive at the end of the night, and put those memory cards into a clearly labeled box. (I use an Altoids tin with some padding material thrown in)
at the start of the next day, I insert the next set of cards into my camera bag for the next job.

you ONLY format those cards and re-use them after the job is complete. before then, a minimum of 2 copies of the data must be kept. even after the job is complete, i keep the data on the cards until i need to format them for another job.

A professional has no excuse for lost data. but even at the amateur level, you don't want to lose your data. those photos could become treasured memories for generations to come.

Re:Labels

[jocknerd]

If one 16GB card fails, you've lost 16GB's of photos. If one 2GB or 4GB card fails, you've lost 2GB or 4GB of photos. Better to have multiple cards around 4GB's than a single 16GB card in my opinion.

Wipe them

[dargaud]

Plug them in a PC, move everything over to the PC, reformat the card. Now they are all identical and it doesn't matter who they belong to or if you lose them. Why do you ask ? Incidentaly I use the following Linux/Cygwin script to sort out the files.

Seriously

[tknd]

I had this problem and realized that the amount of time I spent sorting socks was ridiculous. The solution? Flatten your socks down to 1 or 2 types (white and black) and now the sorting problem goes away. Anytime your socks start developing holes or you feel you need to replace them, throw out the entire batch and buy all identical ones. By now you don't even have to pair up the socks when sorting the laundry. Just throw them in the drawer/basket and you're done.