Maximum SD storage of a Nikon D5000 DSLR camera?

I currently have an 8gb micro SD card that I'm using with my Nikon D5000 and was considering upgrading to a 64gb. I heard somebody say that the D5000 might not be able to read the 64gb card, and has a maximum limit of reading cards. Is this true?

The largest card you can use in that camera is the 32GB SDHC.

Any card over 32GB is SDXC and your camera is not compatible with those.

The D5000 only takes SD and SDHC cards. You can't use an SDXC. So if you can find a 32GB SDHC card, it will work.

It really does not matter if it is true or not.

Why?

Memory cards are only for temporarily storage

Add more memory cards to your collection

And what do you think happens when a huge memory card becomes corrupt? You either lose all of the your image files or you will have to spend hours attempting to recover what you can.

Here is the workflow used by the pros and it works just as well for a beginner, novice or amateur photographer

At the beginning of the shooting day, start with a freshly formatted memory card. If you fill one of the cards (highly doubtful when shooting in RAW using a 8 gb memory card), insert the next one,

At the end of the shooting day, copy all the images to your computer to a new file folder named for the subject/location and date so you can find those photos later. Copy the image files using a card reader. They are more dependable and faster.

Once all the images are safely on your computer, replace the memory card into your camera and use the format feature on the camera to format the card.

Do this routinely and you should never have a card failure.

There are only a few reasons you might need to use a larger memory card is if you are on an assignment where you can't take the time to copy the image files to a computer or if you are shooting in dusty or muddy conditions and changing cards might damage the camera.

On page 224 in your user manual, you will see that your camera uses SD (up to 4 gb) and SDHC (up to 32 gb). It does not mention SDXC cards so the answer no, your camera can't use the horribly expensive 64 gb, SDXC memory cards

EDIT: From time to time, backup your images to DVD or BD discs so when your computers hard drive dies, you will not lose your images

Personally I prefer 16GB cards. I always buy Sandisk Extreme cards and I've never had one go bad on me.

I use my cards like I used to use film - just fill it up and then replace it with another one.

Some of my cards are nearly 10 years old. They still read fine. They work fine as long term secondary backup. I back up onto external disk as well, but that's because I've seen too many people lose all their photos when the hard drive goes bang!

Back in film days I would keep the negatives. Now I keep the SD cards. The films used to cost about £10 including processing and only held 36 shots. A 16GB SD card holds thousand+ shots for about £10.
Each photograph costs less than a penny in storage costs. Why bother re-using/over-writing at that sort of cost?

It is the multiple write/read/erase cycles which eventually make SD cards fail. All this nonsense about "workflows" of re-formatting cards just isn't necessary. SD cards are so cheap you may as well just use them once and keep them for backup!

If you really can't afford a new memory card every few thousand pictures then make sure you buy a decent brand like Sandisk. The difference in price between a good brand and cheap rubbish just isn't worth the risk of lost data.

Why bother?

Just buy a couple more 4- or 8GB cards - you can NEVER have too many.

You don't need anything bigger than 8GB.
I have the D5000. I upload any photos at the end of the day.
With such a high GB of memory, there's always the chance of losing it all.

One your instruction book tells you what memory cards can be used. Two, on top of that if you connect your camera to your computer for a softwar update say twice a year, there may be an update that will allow faster memory cards. That was my experience with my Pentax Kx DSLR.

Just to recap:

The Nikon D5000 only accepts SD and SDHC cards-SDHC cards are only available with 32GB max capacity.

32GB is overkill for still photos, but should be plenty for video. Get in the habit of transferring your shots and clips as soon as possible to more durable storage. A corrupted card is as good as trash, and typically can't be saved by recovery software.