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My first SD card failure
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Oct 18, 2018 08:36:08   #
Bison Bud
 
I've been using SD memory cards since they first came out and for more than just photography. Frankly, I had heard of failures, but considered these cards to be nearly bullet proof since I had never had a problem. That all changed last weekend after coming home from a local event and finding out that I could not read or write from one of the two cards in my Pentax K3. Thankfully, the K3 has the dual card system and the other card was fine, but I had no idea that there was any sort of problem while shooting and there were several shots that I considered to be rather important from this shoot.

Anyway, my reason for posting this is to point out how important that second slot can be as a backup, as I would have been really upset if I had lost the photos from this shoot. It really makes me wonder why any manufacturer would bring out a new camera body or system without a dual slot available. I personally will never own another one without the backup slot, lesson learned! By the way, the defective SD card appears to format normally, but will not otherwise read or write in either my camera or on my computer system and I have no idea what might have caused this failure. Good luck and good shooting to all.

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Oct 18, 2018 08:59:47   #
howardberliner
 
I agree with the dual card slot. It saved my bacon twice as of yesterday.

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Oct 18, 2018 09:11:50   #
MT Shooter Loc: Montana
 
Bison Bud wrote:
I've been using SD memory cards since they first came out and for more than just photography. Frankly, I had heard of failures, but considered these cards to be nearly bullet proof since I had never had a problem. That all changed last weekend after coming home from a local event and finding out that I could not read or write from one of the two cards in my Pentax K3. Thankfully, the K3 has the dual card system and the other card was fine, but I had no idea that there was any sort of problem while shooting and there were several shots that I considered to be rather important from this shoot.

Anyway, my reason for posting this is to point out how important that second slot can be as a backup, as I would have been really upset if I had lost the photos from this shoot. It really makes me wonder why any manufacturer would bring out a new camera body or system without a dual slot available. I personally will never own another one without the backup slot, lesson learned! By the way, the defective SD card appears to format normally, but will not otherwise read or write in either my camera or on my computer system and I have no idea what might have caused this failure. Good luck and good shooting to all.
I've been using SD memory cards since they first c... (show quote)


The only memory cards I have ever seen fail are SD type cards. Thats why I never use them for anything critical, they are only secondary backups to my XQD cards.

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Oct 18, 2018 10:39:57   #
rook2c4 Loc: Philadelphia, PA USA
 
I absolutely do not want a camera with a second memory card slot.
First, the camera needs to be bigger to accommodate the second slot. This also adds to the cost of the camera. And for the second slot to be useful, I'd need to have two cards in the camera at all times, requiring more elaborate card management on my part. Losing a few images now and then is not the end of the world. How often do SD cards fail anyway?

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Oct 18, 2018 12:02:21   #
TriX Loc: Raleigh, NC
 
rook2c4 wrote:
I absolutely do not want a camera with a second memory card slot.
First, the camera needs to be bigger to accommodate the second slot. This also adds to the cost of the camera. And for the second slot to be useful, I'd need to have two cards in the camera at all times, requiring more elaborate card management on my part. Losing a few images now and then is not the end of the world. How often do SD cards fail anyway?


I dunno. Not much extra “card management” except inserting the 2nd card. If you’re an amateur, then losing a card full of shots may be merely inconvenient, but if you’re a working pro shooting one-time events like a wedding, it can be a catastrophe, both financially and in lost business when your reputation suffers...

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Oct 18, 2018 21:17:50   #
Stardust Loc: Central Illinois
 
Use high quality cards and if important, it takes me about 5-10 seconds to check Preview of the last couple shots before moving on. Have not had any type of failure in a decade or more.

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Oct 18, 2018 21:41:42   #
TriX Loc: Raleigh, NC
 
Stardust wrote:
Use high quality cards and if important, it takes me about 5-10 seconds to check Preview of the last couple shots before moving on. Have not had any type of failure in a decade or more.


I completely agree on the high quality cards, and I can’t remember one of mine failing in the last 10 years either. “Chimping” will insure that the card is being recorded, but I think the real potential issue (and I agree it’s unlikely) is that the card records during the shoot, but there’s a failure when you try to download the images at a later time. Hardly a week goes by when we don’t have a post by someone (like this one) who thought they had recorded a trip or an event, and for some reason, the images are unavailable when they try to read the card later. Sometimes it’s user error, sometimes file system incompatibility, sometimes bad card reader or cable, or as in this post, an actual card failure. Those are the occasions when the extra card is worth its weight in gold.

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Oct 18, 2018 21:46:14   #
MT Shooter Loc: Montana
 
TriX wrote:
I completely agree on the high quality cards, and I can’t remember one of mine failing in the last 10 years either. “Chimping” will insure that the card is being recorded, but I think the real potential issue (and I agree it’s unlikely) is that the card records during the shoot, but there’s a failure when you try to download the images at a later time. Hardly a week goes by when we don’t have a post by someone (like this one) who thought they had recorded a trip or an event, and for some reason, the images are unavailable when they try to read the card later. Sometimes it’s user error, sometimes file system incompatibility, sometimes bad card reader or cable, or as in this post, an actual card failure. Those are the occasions when the extra card is worth its weight in gold.
I completely agree on the high quality cards, and ... (show quote)


Absolutely! Just today I had a customer in the store in a major panic because she couldn't download her images from her SD to her computer, using a Canon 6D that only has one card slot!
I simply slid the card lock to the unlock position and she wanted to have my children! 😱😱😱😱

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Oct 18, 2018 22:08:55   #
TriX Loc: Raleigh, NC
 
MT Shooter wrote:
Absolutely! Just today I had a customer in the store in a major panic because she couldn't download her images from her SD to her computer, using a Canon 6D that only has one card slot!
I simply slid the card lock to the unlock position and she wanted to have my children! 😱😱😱😱


That’s cool MT (and I wish you all the best with your offspring 😺), but the card lock prevents writing, not reading, right?

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Oct 18, 2018 22:09:30   #
Stardust Loc: Central Illinois
 
MT Shooter wrote:
...she wanted to have my children! 😱😱😱😱

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Oct 18, 2018 22:26:25   #
Stardust Loc: Central Illinois
 
TriX wrote:
Sometimes it’s user error, sometimes file system incompatibility, sometimes bad card reader or cable, or as in this post, an actual card failure. Those are the occasions when the extra card is worth its weight in gold.
I understand and great if camera has dual system but many of the smaller models don't. Many panic here when they really need to learn more about their cameras and other equipment (not meaning this case) because referencing all those posts usually end with "thanks, I tried that and the pictures are there". I was just mentioning there are other ways to take responsibility - learn how to use camera and file system so they are compatible, know limits of card reader's life cycle, cables, double check if important photos, etc. This sounds to be a true, very, very rare failure... but still wondering if the photos were there and capable of being transferred trying a few tricks.

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Oct 18, 2018 22:34:07   #
MT Shooter Loc: Montana
 
TriX wrote:
That’s cool MT (and I wish you all the best with your offspring 😺), but the card lock prevents writing, not reading, right?


Most systems will let you read, but not transfer from, a locked card.

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Oct 18, 2018 22:37:06   #
TriX Loc: Raleigh, NC
 
Stardust wrote:
I understand and great if camera has dual system but many of the smaller models don't. Many panic here when they really need to learn more about their cameras and other equipment - not meaning this case. I was just mentioning there are other ways to take responsibility - learn how to use camera and file system so they are compatible, know limits of card reader's life cycle, cables, etc. Double check if important photos, etc. This sounds to be a true, very, very rare failure... or maybe not.


I completely agree with you - it is a rarity. I’m coming from 25+ years specializing in data storage where the very worst crime you could ever commit was to lose a customer’s data. Not only would that cost you the client, but news of the failure would be propagated across the industry, not only by the user, but especially by your competition (in a very competitive business) so I believe in redundant EVERYTHING.

Cheers,
Chris

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Oct 18, 2018 22:46:11   #
TriX Loc: Raleigh, NC
 
MT Shooter wrote:
Most systems will let you read, but not transfer from, a locked card.


Maybe yours, not any of mine. The card lock prevents writing to or deleting data (it disables the write enable line - nothing else), not reading. The whole purpose of the switch is to allow you to read data from the card without overwriting it, and there is no need for the file system to write anything to the card when reading. Come on MT - you know that.

If you want to defend single card slots because the newest Nikons have a single slot and/or you contend that failures are rare (which they are), then that’s fine.

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Oct 18, 2018 22:51:32   #
MT Shooter Loc: Montana
 
TriX wrote:
Maybe yours, not any of mine. The card lock prevents writing to or deleting data (it disables the write enable line - nothing else), not reading. The whole purpose of the switch is to allow you to read data from the card without overwriting it, and there is no need for the file system to write anything to the card when reading. Come on MT - you know that.


I cannot transfer from on my laptop, but can from my desktop when locked. Can read the files on either system though.
But I haven't even used SD cards for over a year now. Only XQD

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