My first SD card failure
Oct 19, 2018 18:50:55 #
MT Shooter wrote:
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.
XQD cards have also failed for both pros and amateur shooters. Just because you never saw it personally, means very little, sorry. I personally know two shooters that have had an XQD card failure . No memory card format or individual memory card is infallible. None. They can corrupt ,be damaged and/or wear out, none are totally immune.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SHHi4A7ZZaA
https://www.fredmiranda.com/forum/topic/1263933/
Oct 19, 2018 19:11:42 #
gwilliams6 wrote:
XQD cards have also failed for both pros and amateur shooters. Just because you never saw it personally, means very little, sorry. I personally know two shooters that have had an XQD card failure . No memory card format or individual memory card is infallible. None. They can corrupt ,be damaged and/or wear out, none are totally immune.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SHHi4A7ZZaA
https://www.fredmiranda.com/forum/topic/1263933/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SHHi4A7ZZaA
https://www.fredmiranda.com/forum/topic/1263933/
Good point. It’s all NAND flash - just with a different bus interface. I need to research further, but my opinion is that whether it’s CF, SD or QXD or..., they’re all susceptible to failure.
Oct 19, 2018 19:29:06 #
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! 😱😱😱😱
I simply slid the card lock to the unlock position and she wanted to have my children! 😱😱😱😱
Did ya help her out with that??
Oct 19, 2018 19:31:43 #
What's the brand?? Cheap cards fail much more frequently. The other question is, do you reformat your cards between uses??
Oct 19, 2018 19:55:23 #
It is best to have 2 slots. On several occasions I have had a card suddenly not want to be written to. "Card ERR" will throw you off your game. By quickly removing it I can continue shooting and the shots will search out and record to the remaining available card. Sometimes it is an odd fix such as merely blowing moisture across the card contacts and reinserting it but that takes time. Removing a card is much quicker than getting to and inserting another card.
Oct 19, 2018 20:43:46 #
mdpathjp wrote:
What's "chimping"?
Looking at the LCD display after you take a picture (and going Oooh, oooh, oooh.)
I'll look sometimes, but I don't go oooh, oooh,...
Oct 19, 2018 22:19:01 #
Oct 19, 2018 22:40:35 #
mdpathjp wrote:
What's "chimping"?
it’s checking the LCD screen after shooting an image. Usually done to make sure the shot looks good.
Oct 19, 2018 23:52:29 #
drumme wrote:
I have had only one SD failure years ago traveling... (show quote)
Last month I attended my nephew’s wedding out of town. Shot a lot of photos that nite and promptly downloaded them to my iPad and uploaded to the cloud when back at our hotel room. Put a fresh sd card in the camera the next day. Unfortunately my camera was stolen. I lost that day’s shooting but the important wedding pictures were safe. It’s always good to practice regular downloads daily if possible.
Oct 20, 2018 02:38:28 #
ronpier wrote:
Because of my travels actually that is a bigger worry versus an SD card not recording photos or unable to get them off. So per discussion and recommendations here assume we should all have two or more cameras with us, each with two SD slots, and double or triple take each picture by using each camera. This photography is getting complicated and expensive!!!Unfortunately my camera was stolen. I lost that day’s shooting
Oct 20, 2018 02:50:21 #
ronpier wrote:
Last month I attended my nephew’s wedding out of town. Shot a lot of photos that nite and promptly downloaded them to my iPad and uploaded to the cloud when back at our hotel room. Put a fresh sd card in the camera the next day. Unfortunately my camera was stolen. I lost that day’s shooting but the important wedding pictures were safe. It’s always good to practice regular downloads daily if possible.
Point well taken. I'm sorry about your camera being stolen. Several years ago, I was visiting an aquatic park in Hawaii. I was resting on a bench and there was an Asian family sitting on a bench across from me - about 30 feet away. I noticed that the gentleman of the group had a new Nikon DSLR. I looked away for some period of time and when I looked back, the family was gone but he had left the camera on the bench. I rushed over to pick it up hoping that he hadn't gotten too far away so that I could return it to him. They were nowhere in sight so I took it to the ticket sales booth and told them what happened. I spent several more hours at the aquatic park and I was constantly on the lookout for this family hoping to tell them that I had found their camera and they could pick it up at the ticket booth. I never saw them again and I have often wondered if they ever recovered their camera.
Oct 20, 2018 08:31:16 #
dcampbell52 wrote:
We thought that the wife had an SD card failure bu... (show quote)
Nope, but I have other really old cameras where they can only take small cards. I use 64GB and 32GB SD cards in my Pentax K-3, and 32GB and 16GB SD cards in my K-5. Since I don't go that large in cards, 128GB or 256GB, I'm not sure if my K-3 or K-5 can take them or not. I'm pretty sure my K-20D (2009) can't. Yes, the Nikon D7000 is a bit older and not surprisingly does not take state of the art cards as well.
Oct 20, 2018 08:56:10 #
cyclespeed wrote:
I wonder if the OP will check back with us to confirm the card was not in a lock position. I found one slightly physically mangled card that didn't work but that included the inability to be formatted. As already posted, chimp regularly. In my case all is well for the last 17 years with too many SD cards and numerous cameras.
I have already posted that the slide lock was no way involved and farther described the failure mode and event to help clarify what actually happened. As far a "Chimping" is concerned on my K3, you can look at either card, but have to select which one to view. I guess I do need to learn to switch back and forth between the two cards to keep proper tabs on what's going on, but looking at the good card gave me no indication that anything was wrong while shooting.
As previously posted the failed card started out the shoot in working order, then at some point recorded what was listed as a 0 MB JPEG file. After that, it recorded no further images. I was able to read and download the earlier images, but after doing a re-format I could no longer read or write to this card at all. I even tried this in several other cameras and on my Windows computer, re-formatting again on each, but with the same no read and write results afterwards. Strange failure, but it did convince me that SD card failures can and do happen and that the second card slot is a very desirable option that will be an important factor in any of my future purchases. Good luck and good shooting to all.
Oct 20, 2018 10:03:13 #
I can see an extra card slot is like insurance for your house and car. Something that's seems like a waste until you need it, then you're forever grateful you got it.
Oct 20, 2018 10:05:47 #
larryepage
Loc: North Texas area
All nonvolatile memory cards use a similar mechanism for data storage, regardless of format. While there are choices in the manufacturing process that can result in higher or lower reliability, none of the cards can provide any guarantee against failure or eventual wearout. Careful handling and proper storage can improve your odds, as well.
While these cards are not magnetic storage, the organization of data for storage, and the management of the stored data, is very similar to that on a magnetic (or optical) disk. As a result, failures can occur in several different ways. A "bad" area can develop in the space where file index information is stored. Many times, this renders the entire device unusable immediately. And reformatting will try to build a new index (or File Allocation Table) in the bad area. That format will usually fail and produce some sort of error message indicating that the device is not usable.
Alternatively, the bad area can develop in a part of the device where only data is stored. In this case, files in that area will be corrupted, and sometimes access even to files in the "good" area can be affected. Reformatting can usually fix this by creating a table that tells the system to map around the bad part and not use it. The long form format may be required to accomplish this. The device can continue to be used in this case. In fact, you are probably using memory cards right now on which this has happened, perhaps several times, and you aren't even aware of it. The only impact is a slight reduction in the capacity of the memory card.
Also...if your camera handles "big" memory cards, but not "really big" ones, you might check whether there has been a firmware update which has increased the size of cards recognized. I know that I have several older bodies that can now use cards that go far beyond those that were compatible when the cameras were originally delivered as a result of firmware updates that I have installed over the years.
When you consider the amount of data that we record, the failure rate is actually pretty low in terms of the number of bytes written and read. But it is not zero. The nature of non-volatile memory design and function is that the cards are born dying a slow death. They are not intended as archival storage devices and they do not necessarily provide warning of impending failure.
Oh...a couple of last things. Always format memory cards in the device that is going to be writing to them. You may want to occasionally do a long format and diagnostics on your computer, which is good (if done only occasionally). But if you do, reformat in the camera before using them again. And remember that formatting involves writing, so don't go overboard with this. I also suggest that if you use large capacity cards, download often by copying to your new destination, but don't continually delete or move files from partially filled cards. Doing so puts an excessive number of "write cycles" on the lower memory locations, and increasing numbers of cycles is what leads to wearout. So distribute wear across cards by leaving pictures in the lower locations until the card is nearly full. And if you never fill a card beyond half (or one quarter) full, you would be better served by buying smaller cards.
While these cards are not magnetic storage, the organization of data for storage, and the management of the stored data, is very similar to that on a magnetic (or optical) disk. As a result, failures can occur in several different ways. A "bad" area can develop in the space where file index information is stored. Many times, this renders the entire device unusable immediately. And reformatting will try to build a new index (or File Allocation Table) in the bad area. That format will usually fail and produce some sort of error message indicating that the device is not usable.
Alternatively, the bad area can develop in a part of the device where only data is stored. In this case, files in that area will be corrupted, and sometimes access even to files in the "good" area can be affected. Reformatting can usually fix this by creating a table that tells the system to map around the bad part and not use it. The long form format may be required to accomplish this. The device can continue to be used in this case. In fact, you are probably using memory cards right now on which this has happened, perhaps several times, and you aren't even aware of it. The only impact is a slight reduction in the capacity of the memory card.
Also...if your camera handles "big" memory cards, but not "really big" ones, you might check whether there has been a firmware update which has increased the size of cards recognized. I know that I have several older bodies that can now use cards that go far beyond those that were compatible when the cameras were originally delivered as a result of firmware updates that I have installed over the years.
When you consider the amount of data that we record, the failure rate is actually pretty low in terms of the number of bytes written and read. But it is not zero. The nature of non-volatile memory design and function is that the cards are born dying a slow death. They are not intended as archival storage devices and they do not necessarily provide warning of impending failure.
Oh...a couple of last things. Always format memory cards in the device that is going to be writing to them. You may want to occasionally do a long format and diagnostics on your computer, which is good (if done only occasionally). But if you do, reformat in the camera before using them again. And remember that formatting involves writing, so don't go overboard with this. I also suggest that if you use large capacity cards, download often by copying to your new destination, but don't continually delete or move files from partially filled cards. Doing so puts an excessive number of "write cycles" on the lower memory locations, and increasing numbers of cycles is what leads to wearout. So distribute wear across cards by leaving pictures in the lower locations until the card is nearly full. And if you never fill a card beyond half (or one quarter) full, you would be better served by buying smaller cards.
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