The Villages Loc: The Villages, Florida

I'm told one of the advantages of having 2 card slots is as a safeguard against one of the cards becoming corrupted.

I've never had one, but was wondering how one can tell if a card "in use" has become corrupted? Do you only know when downloading to the computer, or can you see something when viewing the pictures on the LCD screen?

Jim Bob

If your camera is unable to write on the card or you are unable to retrieve what was written, assuming the card is properly formatted, there's a good possibility that baby is corrupted or defective.

Kuzano

Not directly responding to your query about two slots. But I do have a story for you about "How you Know" when a card is corrupted.

I knew a wedding/event photographer in town who switched some years ago from a pair of Mamiya film camera's to a Digital Canon (don't remember the model). He thought it was great that he could get a whole wedding on a 32Gb Sandisk Memory card.

He did not have a backup digital system, so he shot the wedding on his relatively new Canon/32Gb memory card.

He had his assistant use one of the Mamiya's and back him up. (I know this story because I purchased his two Mamiya's and some lenses at a later date, when he was ready to let them go.)

He shot the wedding and the receptions. Later at his office, he downloaded the Sandisk into his computer....or so he intended. Whoops...no images. Corrupt memory card, which he purchased for this wedding. His film camera and assistant saved his bacon, as he scurried to get the film processed and proofs made for the wedding couple and parents.

That's how you know when a memory card is corrupt.

Now, he has duplicate digital systems, lenses and still pays his assistant to duplicate his work. I also think to this day his #1 ROT is 8 GB max memory cards on weddings. Then rotate, rotate, rotate. (BTW No recourse regarding the memory card companies for the value of his professional work....I presume that's true of all of the mfrs of memory cards.)

I think he sold me his mamiya's too soon because he also bought more film gear and does some of his work on film. The work he prints big and hangs. Shot on LF. film.

I sold his two mamiya's about four years ago, and a young lady here in town is shooting infant and birth events..... and an occasional wedding.

mas24 Loc: Southern CA

I've never had one to corrupt. I stay with quality cards such as SanDisk, Lexar, and Sony. Format the card in the camera. There is that lone ranger that will fail. SD cards can withstand a lot of abuse before a failure.

lamiaceae Loc: San Luis Obispo County, CA

SanDisk!

lamiaceae Loc: San Luis Obispo County, CA

I found a Canon 32GB SD Card someone lost on the ground. Perhaps it was not by accident. It seems to work but it is rather slow for today. I keep it for a back-up back-up. Otherwise all my SD cards and Thumb drives are SanDisk brand!

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

I had a Lexar card in my phone go bad, replaced it with a Sandisk.
(My nine camera cards are all Sandisk.)

The Villages Loc: The Villages, Florida

Thanks for responding directly to the question. Its what I wanted to know.

CamB Loc: Juneau, Alaska

I've had hi quality cards fail. If, when downloading, I start to get corrupted files, even just one of two out of 700 shots, that card is history. Two bad files today is 12 next week.

Pegasus Loc: Texas Gulf Coast

If you are able to see the images on the LCD screen, you're good. It's when the camera is unable to store a picture or won't show you your pictures, then you may have an issue. It is still possible that the PC will be able to read the SD card that the camera can't but I would not put too much money on that. Usually when one device can't read the SD card, others won't either, but you never know. When you place the card in the laptop/PC or other and you don't see the pictures, that's a sign of a possibly corrupted card.

And yes, it is still best to format the card in the device which will be used to write to the card.

I use a Lexar Professional dual slot card reader connected via USB to my laptop, rather than the SD-card slot in the laptop. My current PC is 4 years old and its SD card slot is a little slow.

Any card can fail. It's rare, but it happens.

SharpShooter Loc: NorCal

I've had several cards corrupt.
BUT, while in the camera, they behaved completely normal.
It wasn't till I put them into the computer card reader that they misbehaved. Nor was I ever able to retrieve the images with software.
I can't help thinking that if I loaded from the camera directly, with the cards in the camera maybe I would have not lost the shots.
For the last few years all my cameras have duel slots and interestingly, though I do shoot duel cards as a backup, I've not had a problem since.
I've always used Sandisk, including the corrupted cards.
Though Sandisk has always replaced the cards with upgraded cards! Hey, better than nothing!!! LoL
SS

Pegasus Loc: Texas Gulf Coast

Your card slots fight each other? (duel: fight; dual: two)

SharpShooter Loc: NorCal

Maybe they have stopped fighting....., is THAT why they no longer corrupt?! LoL
SS

Pegasus Loc: Texas Gulf Coast

That is a good hypothesis. You'll have to confirm or infirm it at some point.

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

Right, and the card will give you an error message. More likely, however, is finding that you can't get good images off the card - with no warning ahead of time. With all the posts here of messed up images on cards, I don't recall even one poster saying the camera gave him a warning. All cameras should have two slots, with each one recording the same image.