SD cards
Dec 11, 2017 09:21:53 #
I'm not a Pro, but have used my oldest SD cards for 10+ years and they are (still) "perfect".
Mark
Mark
baileygiz1 wrote:
I have a question for all the professionals out there, after some time should you replace SD cards?
Do they go bad after a period of time?
Do they go bad after a period of time?
Dec 11, 2017 09:50:31 #
TriX wrote:
Short of the magnetic field of an MRI, I don’t believe NAND flash memory, which includes SD cards, is degraded by magnetic fields, but if you have different information, please post the reference.
Ding, ding, ding. A wise man has spoken.
Dec 11, 2017 10:59:20 #
Dec 11, 2017 11:16:36 #
baileygiz1 wrote:
I have a question for all the professionals out there, after some time should you replace SD cards?
Do they go bad after a period of time?
Do they go bad after a period of time?
I have found that electronics, memory cards and things like that work fine. If they work the first month, they work many years. *(Electronics like computer motherboards do tend to have problems with capacitors and batteries after about five to ten years.) As mentioned earlier, memory cards often don't need to be replaced but I think you should get a Pink Pearl, (pencil erasor), and about once a year or two and clean off the contacts of an SD card. Not too often though. You'd think that by just removing and inserting the card in the camera would self-clean but finger sweat and ??? tend to add up. If you clean half of the problem it helps, camera contacts are the other half and I don't know a good cleaning method for in the camera other than sending it in. (That ain't gonna happen!) Many times other photographers have bad mouthed their SD card and then found it worked fine after I told them to clean the contacts, not all the time but often. Not too much cleaning because you don't want to wipe out the plating.
Dec 11, 2017 11:56:05 #
Dec 11, 2017 12:43:35 #
BillyP
Loc: Cedar Point, NC
I have a Canon branded SD card that must be close to 20 years old. Grabbed it the other day and put it in my 5DM4 only to get a card full error. Pulled it out and put it in one of my OLD cameras and it worked fine. Finally realized that the big 16 on the card stood for 16MB instead of 16GB. So how long will they [SD cards] last?... I don't know, but it's a long time.
Dec 11, 2017 13:03:19 #
TheShoe
Loc: Lacey, WA
mas24 wrote:
This has been discussed previously on this forum. SD cards, if stored properly will last many years. I own one Lexar 4gb SD card I bought in 2009. Occasionally, you may get one to go bad. And you have to take measures to retrieve your lost photos. I have not experienced a bad SD card yet. I buy only SanDisk and Lexar, for quality assurance. Mostly 16gb and 32 gb.
I, too, have always used SanDisk and Lexar and have never had a card fail (as long as you do not count cards not having enough capacity when you upgrade to a higher resolution camera
) I usually carry my camera with a 64GB card and 1 spare 64GB card. That gives me enough capacity for several days as I only shoot stills and only RAW format. At the end of a day on the road, I copy the new pictures to the HD of my laptop and to an external HD. When I return home, I make a third copy of all the pictures to the HD of my desktop.Dec 11, 2017 13:09:50 #
James Slick
Loc: Pittsburgh,PA
GENorkus wrote:
I have found that electronics, memory cards and th... (show quote)
Agreed, SD cards have no moving parts, so once it's working, it'll probably work fine for decades. There is a write cycle life, but this is really only a major issue on flash storage like SSDs that are being written to constantly when use for OS and software. For an SD card in photography, The card will likely out last the camera body (again moving parts!) I have LOST SD cards, but I mean physically lost them, I've never had a card fail
(I've had computer/software screw up files on them, but reformatting saved the actual card).
Dec 11, 2017 14:59:48 #
Some professionals use each SD card only once, which I personally think is rather wasteful and not necessary. Others use SD cards multiple times before discarding. As a non-professional, I use my SD cards until they begin to malfunction, which usually doesn't occur for several years!
Dec 11, 2017 17:00:48 #
I shoot a 7D MKII and it has SD and CF....If shooting something that I want to keep I shoot both cards just in case one should go bad, you never know.
Dec 11, 2017 17:16:05 #
TriX wrote:
Short of the magnetic field of an MRI, I don’t believe NAND flash memory, which includes SD cards, is degraded by magnetic fields, but if you have different information, please post the reference.
You are correct. SD cards do not use magnetism to store information. An MRI will mess it up, just like any other electronic device you bring in with you in the MRI because of the fast changing magnetic fields.
Dec 11, 2017 17:29:44 #
TheShoe
Loc: Lacey, WA
Bugfan wrote:
Avoid magnetic fields when you are carrying a card.
Flash memory is non-magnetic so this may be jut an urban legend.
Dec 11, 2017 17:36:57 #
I shoot the same 7D MII and a 5D MIII. Before that I had a 20D - purchased in 2005. I have never had a card malfunction or become corrupted. I'm still able to use the 2 GB CF card I bought with the 20D, but I don't because of its small capcity.
Mark
Mark
brooklyn-camera I wrote:
I shoot a 7D MKII and it has SD and CF....If shooting something that I want to keep I shoot both cards just in case one should go bad, you never know.
Dec 11, 2017 18:06:10 #
aphelps
Loc: Central Ohio
TheShoe wrote:
Flash memory is non-magnetic so this may be jut an urban legend.
While flash memory is non- magnetic it is possible (in theory) to induce stray electric currents in the card from strong magnetic fields. It would be a good idea to keep cards away from wireless phone charging pads. Power transformers operate on this principle.
Dec 11, 2017 20:55:05 #
TriX wrote:
Short of the magnetic field of an MRI, I don’t believe NAND flash memory, which includes SD cards, is degraded by magnetic fields, but if you have different information, please post the reference.
When this came up here a couple of years ago, I tested it. I have a magnetic "nail sweeper", used to pick up stray hardware. I put an SD card on the magnet and left it for 10 minutes. No loss, no corrupted files, and that card still works!
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