Nikon D100 file sizes?

[FishMan473]

I'm actually hoping to get a D70, but I'm hoping some D100 users could help me figure something out.

I'm trying to decide how much memory to get. One chart I read seemed to suggest I could get 80, 6 megapixel images on a 512 MB memory card. But then I created a 3008x2000 RAW image file in Photoshop and it turned out to be 17.3MB, which would mean only 29 images would fit on the card. How big are the images being produced by a 6 megapixel Nikon?

Thanks,
FishMan

[Sebastian]

First, NEVER shoot TIFF, only JPEG or RAW.

With the D100 only RAW gives you the best quality in terms of sharpness and detail. I assume the D70 would be similar. JPEGS tend to be soft, only god knows why since the 10D outputs JPEGS that are identical to RAW files.

Anyway, 512 meg cards, best price/performance ratio, and they keep you from putting all your eggs in one basket.

512 meg cards with my D100s:
150 Jpegs, highest quality
50 RAW
1,500 JPEGS lowest quality, lowest resolution

Can you imagine losing more images than that if a card or reader fail? I use 5 512 meg cards.

[ustein]

With the D100 the compressed raw was barely useable (write speed). This seems to be solved with the D70 and I would use it all the time.

Read here to understand raw:

http://www.jirvana.com/shutterbug/Aug_002_raw_deal.pdf

and why these files are very compact for a lossless format.

Uwe