Do NOT try this at home! Well I accidentally did the "wash and wear" test on a couple of 32GB Lexar professional 633x 95MB/s cards. I shoot with a Nikon D7100 and have slot one set to...

RF-4 Phantom Flyer Loc: Gilbert, Arizona USA

Well I accidentally did the "wash and wear" test on a couple of 32GB Lexar professional 633x 95MB/s cards. I shoot with a Nikon D7100 and have slot one set to Raw and slot 2 set to Large JPG Fine. The Raw card filled up while shooting grandkids and waterfalls yesterday so I swapped both cards out and kept on going. I should have put the removed SD cards back in my photo gear backpack BUT slid them into my shirt pocket instead. Came home from work today and saw the cards sitting on a napkin on the kitchen counter. Asked my wife where she had found them - "in the washer" was the reply.

Good news. Using my Transcend USB 3.0 card reader BOTH cards read just fine and I was able to transfer all photos to the PC. What a relief. Both cards then formatted just fine. My lucky day. As we used to say when flying for the Air Force "rather be lucky than good any day."

Haydon

Memory cards are considerably more durable than many think. From having them run over to washing them in a machine they keep on ticking.

You might like this video from DigitalRev several years ago.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zr6YwI8JUvI

RF-4 Phantom Flyer Loc: Gilbert, Arizona USA

Haydon wrote:

Memory cards are considerably more durable than many think. From having them run over to washing them in a machine they keep on ticking.

You might like this video from DigitalRev several years ago.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zr6YwI8JUvI

That video makes my once thru the washer seem like a walk in the park.

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

Passatpete wrote:

Well I accidentally did the "wash and wear&qu... (show quote)

Yes, they are waterproof. Cameras have been found floating in oceans after being lost for several years, and they still had their pictures.

markngolf Loc: Bridgewater, NJ

Memory cards are much more resilient than expected. I have two CF cards that I originally purchased with my Canon 20d in 2005. They still work perfectly in my Canon 7D MII and 5D MIII. I've washed cards, left them outside in the rain and a few other dumb moves. Never had an issue with SD or CF cards.
Mark

Passatpete wrote:

Well I accidentally did the "wash and wear&qu... (show quote)

truckster Loc: Tampa Bay Area

markngolf wrote:

Memory cards are much more resilient than expected. I have two CF cards that I originally purchased with my Canon 20d in 2005. They still work perfectly in my Canon 7D MII and 5D MIII. I've washed cards, left them outside in the rain and a few other dumb moves. Never had an issue with SD or CF cards.
Mark

Good to know even though I don't plan on driving over, washing or leaving them out in the rain ... ever.

But you never know!

JD750 Loc: SoCal

Passatpete wrote:

Well I accidentally did the "wash and wear&qu... (show quote)

They might be working for now. But water moisture and caustic detergents are now inside the card and slowly "eating" the circuitry. It will only be a matter of time before they fail. You would be wise to replace them to prevent loss of images. If you can't stand that idea or refuse to believe it, then the best you could do is bake them out for 24 hours at 90 degrees F or so, to drive out the remaining water.

PhotonHog Loc: Annapolis

Interesting topic. I have a few SanDisk CF cards that have been through the weather and they are just fine. No problems. Ditto for PSP UMD disks which get into the laundry and still work. Not much to go wrong with these.

Is that an F4 Phantom???? (Drop tail and slatted wings)

jpgto Loc: North East Tennessee

JD750 Loc: SoCal

PhotonHog wrote:

Interesting topic. I have a few SanDisk CF cards that have been through the weather and they are just fine. No problems. Ditto for PSP UMD disks which get into the laundry and still work. Not much to go wrong with these.

Is that an F4 Phantom???? (Drop tail and slatted wings)

I ran my car out of oil and it went for 10 miles before I could put oil in it but it's just fine now. Not much can for wrong with these (engines).

And yes, it is an F4.

mwsilvers Loc: Central New Jersey

Passatpete wrote:

Well I accidentally did the "wash and wear&qu... (show quote)

Must have taken a lot of grand kid and waterfall pics. You should be able to get around 800 raw files on a 32gb card.

RF-4 Phantom Flyer Loc: Gilbert, Arizona USA

PhotonHog wrote:

Is that an F4 Phantom???? (Drop tail and slatted wings)

That is an RF-4C Phantom II. I flew those for the first 7 years I was in the U.S. Air Force. It is the photo reconnaissance version of the F-4.

RF-4 Phantom Flyer Loc: Gilbert, Arizona USA

mwsilvers wrote:

Must have taken a lot of grand kid and waterfall pics. You should be able to get around 800 raw files on a 32gb card.

The truth is I am very bad about clearing off photos from my cards. The couple of dozen or so photos I took that day brought the total raw files up to 999. That is when I got the FULL message in the view finder. I just removed the "raw" card from slot one and kept on taking Jpegs in slot 2 until I got back to the car and my spare cards.