XQD failure, has this ever happened? I was reading Thom Hogan's take of the Nikon Z cameras and he brought up a good point that I had been thinking about. The failure rate of XDQ...

Pegasus Loc: Texas Gulf Coast

I was reading Thom Hogan's take of the Nikon Z cameras and he brought up a good point that I had been thinking about. The failure rate of XDQ cards.

He was saying that since the SD card slot in his 850 was slowing down the camera when it has a card in it, he usually runs his 850 with just an XQD card. He further stated he had never heard of an XQD card failure.

I was also wondering the same thing about the XQD cards as I do not recall ever reading about an XDQ card failure ay this site. A search revealed nothing.

So, I'm asking straight out. Has anyone ever had an XQD card fail?

My D7500 has an SD card slot, but in 18 years of digital photography and over 10 with SD cards, I have never lost a picture to an SD card failure. I have had one card fail and that was after I had copied the pictures to my laptop and I was reinserting it back in my D5200.

DaveO Loc: Northeast CT

Never even heard of them until I got the D500. Relatively new for many of us. Thousands of shots on six cards with no issues. From April until now that means one or two per day in a card reader and a few formats a week.

Bill_de Loc: US

I have used them for a while now, first in a D4s, then in a D500. Never a hiccup.

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MT Shooter Loc: Montana

Pegasus wrote:

I was reading Thom Hogan's take of the Nikon Z cam... (show quote)

6 XQD cards in 4 cameras, probably 200,000 shots, never the slightest hint of a failure. I do not use an SD card in my D500 or D850 for the same reason, they are slower than XQD, even the UHS II 1900X cards. XQD only for me for both dependability AND speed.

andiamo236

I have never had a XQD card failure in my D5.

I have had several SD card failures in my D300 and D800.

mborn Loc: Massachusetts

No XQD card failure so far. I like the cards. Decking is going to sell their version along with a 48 hour replacement

Drdale55 Loc: Prescott, AZ

MT Shooter wrote:

6 XQD cards in 4 cameras, probably 200,000 shots, never the slightest hint of a failure. I do not use an SD card in my D500 or D850 for the same reason, they are slower than XQD, even the UHS II 1900X cards. XQD only for me for both dependability AND speed.

I know the SD cards are slower, but just wanted some clarification. Are you saying that if you have an SD card in the camera (just as backup for overflow) that it's presence slows the camera? Thanks,
Dale

MT Shooter Loc: Montana

Drdale55 wrote:

I know the SD cards are slower, but just wanted some clarification. Are you saying that if you have an SD card in the camera (just as backup for overflow) that it's presence slows the camera? Thanks,
Dale

Yes, provided you are writing to both bards at once. Such as jpegs to one and RAWs to the other. Not for overflow provided you are designating the faster XQD as the primary card.

Drdale55 Loc: Prescott, AZ

MT Shooter wrote:

Yes, provided you are writing to both bards at once. Such as jpegs to one and RAWs to the other. Not for overflow provided you are designating the faster XQD as the primary card.

Thanks. I keep at Lexar 2000x 300MB/s in both the 500 and 850 but only in case I fill the primary XQD card and forgot to bring extra XQDs.

clemente21

I once purchased two XQD Sony 32 Gb R:440mb/s W:80 Mb/s M series for my D500. One worked fine, while the other failed right out of the package with an "Error" message. That did not give me a good feeling, but after I formatted the card a couple times never again had an issue. However, I make sure I don't use it for something important. But if it happens again, out it goes.

MT Shooter Loc: Montana

clemente21 wrote:

I once purchased two XQD Sony 32 Gb R:440mb/s W:80 Mb/s M series for my D500. One worked fine, while the other failed right out of the package with an "Error" message. That did not give me a good feeling, but after I formatted the card a couple times never again had an issue. However, I make sure I don't use it for something important. But if it happens again, out it goes.

Sony's first generation cards were not known for their build quality. All my XQDs are Lexar 2933X except for my oldest 2 which are 1333X. I should have sold them with my D4 but XQD was too expensive at the time to let them go, I only use those in my D500 now.

BebuLamar

Anything that can fail will. But 2 cards can fail at the same time too.

JeffDavidson Loc: Originally Detroit Now Los Angeles

I have never had the speed of the camera's operations slow down because I was using an SD card along with an XQD as long as the SD is a backup for the XQD and not JPEG while the XQD is RAW.

PhotoDerek Loc: County Durham, UK.

Shoot with a Nikon D5 (from launch) using XQD cards, never a problem to date used in cold / snow, rain and hot / humid conditions, the photographer has more of a problem than the camera, lenses and cards. The write speed to the card is fast and shoot RAW.
Initial purchase of 8 XQD cards (Lexar 32g 2933x professional) a big expense but capacity of the cards is huge. It should be a caveat when you buy a new camera you need to upgrade you memory cards and computer, this should be factored into the overall cost. Bought some of my cards in a shop with two letters in NY when on holiday. Do not understand why Nikon did not have 2 XQD cards slots in the D850?

PeterBergh

BebuLamar wrote:

Anything that can fail will. But 2 cards can fail at the same time too.

Two cards can fail at the same time but the odds are very small. In fact, if the cards fail independently, the probability of both failing is the product of the probability of card A failing and the probability of card B failing.