dcampbell52 Loc: Clearwater Fl

I've had older Nikon's with Compaq Flash cards that failed and you just bit the bullet because it was you're only option. Everything is lost and HOPEFULLY it was the card and not the camera. I now have two cameras (Nikon D7100 and Nikon D610) with 2 SD Slots. In the years and thousands of shots that I've taken with these 2 cameras (and now with the wife's D7000) I've only had 3 SD card failures.. BUT, if I hadn't had the second card backup in each of the 3 cameras it could have been really bad. Fortunately, everything was backed up to the second card... (These were 64gb Lexar or Sandisk Cards (and not some third tier sale priced wannabe's) and fortunately had the warranty. BUT the warranty ONLY replaces the card and not the photos that were on it. My point is that many of us worry about backing up our catalogs etc. in Lightroom or what ever program that we are working on processing our photos but forget that the weakest link is the card in the camera... and it takes the most wear and tear. I generally have 8 name brand 128k cards for each the D7100 and D610 and 10 64k cards for the D7000 (it won't take or recognize the larger capacity 128k cards. I keep 2 cards in each camera all of the time and I reformat after every photoshoot upload to Lightroom and back up the cards to a separate usb external drive until I am sure that everything is okay. Yes, this is overkill, but it is also safety.

Rogers

I have no proof, but it seems the reliability of a single card system is best if you have wireless transfer to a tablet and use it without removing the card from the camera. This eliminates extra hardware (cables, card readers, and hard drive).

Jeffcs Loc: Myrtle Beach South Carolina

Never will I use a camera with just one card slot
It’s same reason my backup hard drive lives
Backup is a cheep insurance policy

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

I agree about the importance of two slots, although I've never experienced a card failure. When you think how small these cards are and how much they can hold, it's amazing that they work at all.

martinfisherphoto Loc: Lake Placid Florida

My first camera a Nikon D7000 had a card failure out in the field in Costa Rica. I had to return to motel to grab a spare which resulted in a four hour loss in shooting time.. Once back to the motel I figured out it was the Number one card slot card, had I switched the card from slot two to slot one it would continue to shoot and record. My lessons: reverse card order and Always carry a spare card along with my spare battery every time I go out to shoot..

cameraf4 Loc: Delaware

One very good reason to have a camera that has 2 storage card slots. Love my Df, but I cringe a little when I use it on a "once in a lifetime trip."

Silverman Loc: Michigan

Did you contact "SanDisk" regarding this defective SD card? Or if another Brand they should be made aware. Most of these cards come from foriegn countries, their quality control is questionable. It has been suggested to me, sometimes the cheapest price is not always the reliable Quality card, maybe we all should strive to purchase our memory cards from a reputable Photography store, ex. B&H, Adorama, etc. Sometimes, " You Get What You Pay For."🤔🙄

aflundi Loc: Albuquerque, NM

I like having two slots too, but to be fair though, if you'd only had one card slot and that card failed, you almost certainly would have known. The dual slot setup was probably the reason you were unaware of the failure of one of the cards.

billnikon Loc: Pennsylvania/Ohio/Florida/Maui/Oregon/Vermont

That's good to know. I have been thinking about a XQD card for my D500. I already use them in the D850 and D5. And I have had SD cards fail in the past. So, from now on, it is XQD or nothing. Good advice.

Bison Bud

Just wanted to check back in and assure everyone that this failure had nothing to do with the slide lock on the card. My primary intent of the original post was to make note that the two card system did indeed save my bacon. However, I guess I could have been a bit more specific about the failure mode, as the card apparently worked fine for awhile during the shoot and I could recover some of the early photos from it. However, at some point during the shoot, it recorded what appeared to be a zero MB, JPEG file and then quit working altogether from that point forward. After confirming that it was indeed the SD card with the problem, rather than the camera, and after downloading all the photos I actually shot from the other card, I figured it was probably a format issue and ran the format routine in my camera on it. The format routine seemed to work normally, but afterwards I could not write or read to and from the card at all. I also tried to reformat the card in my windows computer, but got the same disappointing result. Once again, I have no idea what might have caused this failure, but I'm not much worried about losing the card, I have quite a few anyway. My primary intention was to point out that the built in backup of the two slot system was deeply appreciated and will be a desired feature on any future camera system that I own. Take what you will from that and thanks for participating in this thread. Good luck and good shooting to all.

lamiaceae Loc: San Luis Obispo County, CA

I've never had a card failure yet, since 2009. But coincidentally I happen to have that same camera, a Pentax K-3 (and K-5, K-20, K-100D), and have had some confusion using its card slots settings and seating. Are you positive your card is at fault? Have you tried it since in another camera or just tried re-seating that one. Does a different (third) card work in the questioned first slot?

NCMtnMan Loc: N. Fork New River, Ashe Co., NC

For the extra cost of the XQD card, I'll take a second slot all day long. If you buy quality SD cards, the failure rate is minuscule.

gvarner Loc: Central Oregon Coast

Don't know how many shots I took with my film camera without a roll of film in it, or I loaded a roll and it didn't feed. Hate it when that happens. 😜😜

dcampbell52 Loc: Clearwater Fl

We thought that the wife had an SD card failure but it turned out to be operator error (or something). She has the Nikon D7000 and had put a Sandisk 128gb card in slot one and an 8gb card in slot 2.. ( I have 128 and 256gb cards for the D7100 and D610). The D7000 would not recognize slot 1.. the reason? The SD card was too big. I put a 56gb card in and it started working fine.. ALL of her photos had been dumped to the 8gb card so fortunately she didn't lose anything. The 128gb card worked flawlessly in my D7100 and D610 so the issue was incompatibility on the D7000. Sometimes the failures are the operator and not the camera... Not saying that is your case... but I've always learned to look for the simplest (least expensive) solution first.

Bison Bud

Yes, another card works just fine in the K3 and the failed one doesn't work anywhere, including other cameras.