Sony a700 Memory Limitation?

[Funky1]

After many years and many Minolta cameras, I finally moved to the digital age and purchased a used Sony a700 with VG. Man, do I love this camera!

Okay, here is the issue, when I purchased the camera I bought a Lexar 16 GB CF memory card as I could not find any information on memory limitations for the camera. Once I got everything and started shooting, everything worked great!

But then came the day that I was out getting some great shots of bald eagles and while taking some shots of an eagle getting ready to land in a tree, I had an internal card error. I shut the camera off and turned it back on and the camera told me the card needed to be formatted! YIKES! Being in the hard disk drive industry has taught me that while things like this happens, it is best not to be rambunctious so I shut the camera off and once I got home, I pulled out my data recovery software.

After doing a scan and pulling down 342 images, I noticed that I had used 4 GB of the 16 GB of the memory card. I contacted Sony and was told the limitation for the a700 is 8 GB. Because the 16 GB card I was using only recorded 4 GB of data before the crash I am a little leery of the 8 GB figure.

Does anyone know the real answer as to what the memory limitation of the a700 is?

Just to be on the safe side, I did purchase two 4 GB cards.

Thanks and regards!

Randy

[OldClicker]

I just transferred arw files onto a 16MB card (Sandisk) until it wouldn't take any more using the USB port on the A700. It gave a Disc Full error at 15.2 MB. I then dumped about 25 files down to 14.9MB and took a photo with no problems. This doesn't completely answer the question, but would indicate that the A700 can at least go up to 15.2MB. - TF

[DonSchap]

I just transferred arw files onto a 16MB card (Sandisk) until it wouldn't take any more using the USB port on the A700. It gave a Disc Full error at 15.2 MB. I then dumped about 25 files down to 14.9MB and took a photo with no problems. This doesn't completely answer the question, but would indicate that the A700 can at least go up to 15.2MB. - TF

I think you mean 15.2 GB, not MB, Clicker. Most images in "Large" JPEG are nearly 12 MP (8-9.5 MB per image).

Anyway, I use a 32GB 133x card in my a700, made by Transcend. I also have a 16 GB Transcend 133x card.

Now, they absolutely will not work with the SONY a850 ... but, in the a700, I have not encountered any memory problems.

I have not put a lot of shots on the a700, of late, because of the a850 taking up all my time. LOL

But the 32 GB CF card has nearly 2000 images on it ... of the possible 3000. It says 17.3 GB of the 32 GB card has been used. That tells me that some one is quite wrong about what the a700 can do. I have not hit the top stop, yet.

I suppose I could run a test, though .. see if I can run it up ... on the AC cord. Batteries would never last that long. :mad2: A waste of shutter clicks, for sure.

I would say, first of all, that you need to change out that CF card ... and use something compatible. It could be that it is just not fast enough for the processor in the camera. Again, in the a700 ... no problem with the 133x Transcend CF cards or the SanDisk Extreme III or IV CF cards.

In the a850, I use a Calumet ProSpec 32GB UDMA CF 420x or a 16GB version, which is 305x. Using the Transcend CFs in the a850 gave me the result you are getting with that other card in your a700.

[OldClicker]

I think you mean 15.2 GB, not MB, Clicker. Most images in "Large" JPEG are nearly 12 MP (8-9.5 MB per image).

Anyway, I use a 32GB 133x card in my a700, made by Transcend. I also have a 16 GB Transcend 133x card.

Now, they absolutely will not work with the SONY a850 ... but, in the a700, I have not encountered any memory problems.

I have not put a lot of shots on the a700, of late, because of the a850 taking up all my time. LOL

But the 32 GB CF card has nearly 2000 images on it ... of the possible 3000. It says 17.3 GB of the 32 GB card has been used. That tells me that some one is quite wrong about what the a700 can do. I have not hit the top stop, yet.

I suppose I could run a test, though .. see if I can run it up ... on the AC cord. Batteries would never last that long. :mad2: A waste of shutter clicks, for sure.

I would say, first of all, that you need to change out that CF card ... and use something compatible. It could be that it is just not fast enough for the processor in the camera. Again, in the a700 ... no problem with the 133x Transcend CF cards or the SanDisk Extreme III or IV CF cards.

In the a850, I use a Calumet ProSpec 32GB UDMA CF 420x or a 16GB version, which is 305x. Using the Transcend CFs in the a850 gave me the result you are getting with that other card in your a700.

My battery went from about 95% to 1% uploading the 15.2 GB TF

[DonSchap]

Get yourself an AC-VQ900AM dual battery recharger and AC supply. It is perfect for long process operations or studio work, where the camera is not moving around very much. It also saves wear and tear on your battery recharge cycles, when you can defer to it.

I also found this replacement NP-FM500H battery (<- click here). Could save some money.

You really should have a USB/CF card reader, for that kind of transfer, anyway. They do not cost all that much and solve having to tote the USB/mini-USB cord.

I am constantly flipping my batteries in an out of the charger, running all the flashes, lenses and extra stuff. Call me cautious, but I have seven FM-500H batteries between the a700 & a850, because you just never know ... and frankly, I do not want to find out when I have no choice in the matter.

[OldClicker]

You really should have a USB/CF card reader, for that kind of transfer, anyway. They do not cost all that much and solve having to tote the USB/mini-USB cord.

But that was part of the test to see when/if the A700 would refuse more. - TF

[DennisT]

I have the Sandisk extreme iv 8gb for my new a700 (just replaced the one that I sold over a year ago - cant do without it) and also in the a900 together with a sony 8gb memory stick. The sandisk imagemate all in one card reader is usb driven and ideal in the field for downloading to the pc. Its fast and handy saving battery power and facilitates use of memory cards that are easily within the camera's spec.

[Funky1]

I plan on doing a test on ma a700 with my 16GB card to see if I can get past what I think might be the 4GB limit. I will admit that when the card/camera had the error when I was shooting, it was when I was rapping off a series of shots. For my test I will let each image complete processing prior to taking the next shot until I fill the card or get the error (thanks to the vertical grip I have 2 batteries!) As a second test, I will just rap off a lot of shots. I will let you know what happens. By the way, the 16 GB card is a Lexar 80X.

[DonSchap]

It sure sounds like the CF Memory card may be too slow for the camera, at that increased buffer input rate. 80x just does not seem fast enough. Look, 133x speed cards are not that expensive. I would suggest getting one and going from there. He honest with yourself, you certainly do not want this kind of problem out in the field, when you are shooting, and there is not much you can go to get your economy card to keep up with the camera, other than change it ... or slow down your image rate (use single shot only). That kind of kills the power of the high-speed shutter, doesn't it?

Anyway, here's a 16GB 133x link

It seems pretty obvious, after listening to a lot of this anecdotal information that its the speed of the card that is creating the problem, not the size. 133x CFs do not appear to work well, if at all, in the FULL Frame (a850/a900) cameras ... and speeds less than 133x have problems in the APS-C a700 camera. Let's face it, these cards are writing a lot of information in huge bursts. When you get to the high speed frame rate (3fps or 5 fps) ... it is incredible how much data is being streamed through the buffer and memory.

The card's "write speed" would appear to be the bottle neck and higher speed would appear to be the solution. Transcend also makes 400x and 600x CF cards (these are recent innovations), but if you are not using an a850/a900 ... I think it may be OVERKILL ... spending money you do not have to.

[Anbesol]

lol, I have a 4GB Pro duo and a 4GB CF, never needed any more then that. Rarely go to the pro duo.

[Funky1]

Based on some great information that I received on this thread, I will definitely being purchasing some new faster CF cards this week! Thanks for all of the information and advice!

Just for anyone who is interested, Tom's Hardware website and a decent review of CF cards and testing from March 2009, so the info is a little dated but useful:

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/...mory,2166.html

Also, for more up to date info, especially for Canon and Nikon users, though they do test the Sony a900, another good site which was updated March of 2010 is:

http://www.robgalbraith.com/bins/mul...e.asp?cid=6007

[NoKnees]

I've had no issues with 16gb cards, although I've only tested one brand, RiData... Cheap 133x/266x cards too... Nothing fancy... No issues...

And surprised to hear about that fast of battery drain dumping a card's worth of data. I've dumped three 8gb cards at a time directly from the camera without loosing more than 25% of the battery... However, I use a dedicated USB 2.0 card reader most of the time now to save wear and tear on the USB port on the camera, and skip any battery issues..

[Anbesol]

I've had no issues with 16gb cards, although I've only tested one brand, RiData... Cheap 133x/266x cards too... Nothing fancy... No issues...

And surprised to hear about that fast of battery drain dumping a card's worth of data. I've dumped three 8gb cards at a time directly from the camera without loosing more than 25% of the battery... However, I use a dedicated USB 2.0 card reader most of the time now to save wear and tear on the USB port on the camera, and skip any battery issues..

Actually the CF pins are more sensitive to wear and tear than the usb port. The cameras also high speed USB, rather than full speed (which is faster, despite the confusion of phrases)

[NoKnees]

Well, I trust my ability to insert the cards on the a700 (don't need to rehash the a100 bent pin issues there) than my perception of how easy it seems to stress the camera's USB port sideways when the cable is inserted.

Speed, yah, no real difference between the camera and a decent UDMA compatable CF card reader like the newer Lexar ones.. If you don't have a good card reader, the camera blows away the generic ones..

I just like to cycle the usage of my cards as well, so it just make sense for me to pull the card from my camera and insert a new one when I offload pics... Comes down to preference, no right or wrong

- G

[Funky1]

Just a quick update. I decided not to do any speed tests, just went out and bought 2 new cf cards that are much faster and have had no issues since. I will still use the slow card for some studio type work.