docsteve

Ok lots of discussion re: machinery and glass; what about the chips??
Do they go bad and how often?
Are they better the bigger they are ?
Are some brands better?
What should I look for in a deteriorating card?
Going on safari soon and do not want to miss the shot(s)!
Steve

CHG_CANON Loc: the Windy City

Go bad? Camera cards fail all the time and yet virtually never. In 15 years of digital photography, I've never had one fail.
The bigger the card, the more the risk of one going bad with all your images. The smaller they are, the more you need and the higher the risk losing / misplacing one. I've lost cards with images. Never one fail with images I couldn't obtain. People tell stories of pulling them out of their pants pockets after a trip through the laundry and still being able to offload the images.
Most swear by SanDisk. I do.
If the camera or computer won't read the card or reports an error, that's when you know you have a problem.

The most important question, more so than any of those you asked, is what is the best speed? Your camera writes at a finite maximum. Buying a card faster than the camera can write is just a waste of your money. If your camera manual doesn't give a write speed or reference to a recommended speed for the cards (check in the shooting video section), try this testing site for their results when testing: https://www.cameramemoryspeed.com

Strodav Loc: Houston, Tx

Mem card failures, like all electronics, follows the bathtub curve, i.e., they fail early or work well for a very long time (years) then fail at End Of Life. EOL depends on how hard they are used, handled and stored, but also on the quality of the components. High heat and humidity and rough handling are negative EOL factors. Mem cards, in general, are very, very reliable. Most will want to upgrade to faster and larger cards before their older cards fail. One survey I saw shows that many professionals (heavy users) see occasional failures, but enthusiasts rarely see failures.

So, buy brand names. Treat them well. Make sure you have plenty of backup cards, especially if you are using new cards. I recommend using a camera body with dual card slots and set them up for backup. Buy medium size cards so you don't have too many images on one card. For example, let's say you can fit all your images on one card, then if fails or you loose it. OUCH! If you put those same images on 4 different cards, it doesn't hurt as much if you loose one or it fails. If you set your camera up for backup, the chances of loosing an image due to failure are extremely small unless they are lost or stolen. So, keep them in a safe place.

Here's a good site on what to buy: https://www.cameramemoryspeed.com/

olemikey Loc: 6 mile creek, Spacecoast Florida

I would be more concerned about losing one than it going bad, or camera card slot (pins) messing up from backward jammin, etc.. The cards are pretty bullet proof, and I have never had one fail either (they have even survived wicked drone crashes, washings, etc). They are such a bargain now, high quality, high capacity, ultra fast for not much money at all. Anytime I purchase something electronic, I usually round out the order with one or two of any of the better brands, especially if at sale price. Not of the "all your eggs in one basket" ilk, I usually stay with cards of 64/32/16GB, fastest write/read speed I can get. The newer high capacity 128/256GB and larger are tempting, but losing a full card of images would/could be rough. For a special trip, I would buy new, try it, and if it works (as it should) enjoy the trip... why use an old card?

Enjoy the Safari!!!

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

Ok lots of discussion re: machinery and glass; what about the chips??

Do they go bad and how often?
... Yes, very rarely though. (Like any other electronic component, when you least want it to.) Be careful of static electricity when handling in dry climates.

Are they better the bigger they are ?
... Only for storing more information, if it does go bad, you loose more info on a larger card. Some older cameras cannot use all the space on larger cards. (My camera's limit is 16Gb.)

Are some brands better?
... Some are. (My favorite is Sandisk.)

What should I look for in a deteriorating card?
... errors in storing or retrieving information, "card not found" errors, failure to format.

Going on safari soon and do not want to miss the shot(s)!
... Take extra cards, change periodically to minimize any possible loss of images. (I have nine cards, I can do one a day for a week.)

speters Loc: Grangeville/Idaho

A lot of mine are a dozen or so years old (formatted thousands of times) and they perform as new, never had one go bad on me!

jeep_daddy Loc: Prescott AZ

The only card I had that was bad was because the plastic had been glued together poorly and it was coming apart. It was a cheap card that was one of those free cards you sometimes get when you buy something and they include it with your purchase. Luckily I saw that it was coming apart and tossed it in the bin before trying to jam it in my camera. You get what you paid for when it comes to most stuff that is cheap.....

CHG_CANON Loc: the Windy City

Thousands? If you reformatted a card once a week, every week, for the last 10 years ... you still wouldn't be to a thousand

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

(metaphorically)

olemikey Loc: 6 mile creek, Spacecoast Florida

Ah ha, Math - The great equalizer!!!

Bob Mevis Loc: Plymouth, Indiana

I use SanDisk. I've never had one fail in nearly 20 years of digital photography. Speed isn't that important. If I was going on safari, I would take at least two. Shut your camera off before inserting or removing the card.

Bob Mevis Loc: Plymouth, Indiana

lamiaceae Loc: San Luis Obispo County, CA

You mean Memory cards, not processors or sensors I would think. Unless you are shooting video. Get the best quality SanDisk SD or CF cards you can afford. How much do you shoot? I'm likely odd and shoot like in my film days. So the most shots of digital I've ever gotten is about 160 to 180 captures in a day. Depending on which camera and its MP resolution size (14, 16, 24 MP), I'll use high quality SanDisk 8, 16, 32, 64 GB SD cards in my cameras. I don't shoot video or spray and pray. I rarely shoot wildlife or sports so I don't need tons of shots. Now in your case if you are going on a photo safari you will likely need to shoot in burst mode (hold the shutter release down for several seconds) and need pretty large cards. Thus far I have not had any cards go bad or have lost any. They usually stay in my cameras for the day until I get back to my computer. I did once go on a shoot with no card in the camera and had to borrow one from a classmate.

Gene51 Loc: Yonkers, NY, now in LSD (LowerSlowerDelaware)

I've had two disintegrate. The plastic broke, the lock switch broke. Sandisk replaced them both at no charge. They have a lifetime warranty. I regularly deep format them using SD Formatter https://www.sdcard.org/downloads/formatter/

to keep the card clean and in "good health" -

I've never had an SD card go bad, but I did have a CF card bend a pin in a camera once.

docsteve

ADD-TO ORIGINAL:
Opinions on micro cards that have an adapter??