Compact flash cards....

[ajosteve]

This might have been covered before, but I was wondering if Compact flash cards get old and effect the quality of the photograph. I don't know anything about memory cards, so fill me in on the details. I've used mine thousands of times...do they have a lifespan?

[Jon]

Yep. Over time you'll upgrade cameras to the point that the old cards don't hold more than 1-2 frames any more. Seriously, I'm abandoning cards because they're too small for my cameras. 1 GB in a 5D Classic or 1D3 is an emergency solution any more. And for any newer/larger sensor, forget it.

[rklepper]

I think it is like hard drives. You will outgrow them long before they reach the end of their lifespan.

[Tumeg]

Yep. Over time you'll upgrade cameras to the point that the old cards don't hold more than 1-2 frames any more. Seriously, I'm abandoning cards because they're too small for my cameras. 1 GB in a 5D Classic or 1D3 is an emergency solution any more. And for any newer/larger sensor, forget it.

Same here.
Back in the day, I use to use 4GB cf cards with my Rebel and now my 40D, but now I'm upgrading them (and adding more cards) to 8GB cards and a 16GB or two, in preparation for a 5D Mk II.

I could really only hold around 156 RAW, or 668 large JPG files on a 4gb card with the 5D2 sized files. And for events\weddings (which I shoot, most of the time) I need much more than that.

[JackLiu]

As the new DSLRs get bigger sensors, ie, 15MP plus, you need to upgrade your memory cards accordingly. With my 50D where I shoot RAW+JPEG, my cards are 8 & 16 GB.

[Tumeg]

Back to the OP's ORIGINAL question.
No, I don't believe that memory cards will die\slow-down over time. But I could be wrong.

[Jon]

I doubt we'll ever know; ratings are 100,000 write cycle MTBF; we'll outgrow them first.

[Tdragone]

Technically; they DO slow down; but it's not really noticeable.

The cards are solid state. A chip inside has an algorithm to 'level' the number of read/write cycles for a specific bit. (This is why you NEVER defrag solid state storage) In the cards I deal with daily; there are algorithms that will mark an entire "area" bad if too many individual sites are bad in close proximity to each other.
When a Write command hits this bad area; it must ask for another site to save the data to...

It all happens so fast you'd probably never know.. but it IS there.

[jianghai_ho]

This might have been covered before, but I was wondering if Compact flash cards get old and effect the quality of the photograph. I don't know anything about memory cards, so fill me in on the details. I've used mine thousands of times...do they have a lifespan?

Memory cards do get 'old', many have a MTF of 100,000 writes per cell (or something like that). I'm not sure if the controllers of CF cards do this, but better solid state drives (SSD) will keep track of these 'bad sectors' and stop writing to them

[ajosteve]

Thanks all for the info....appreciate it! steve

[JohnJ80]

They do wear out, but not in your lifetime of use.

Buy your cards now. FLASH prices are going to shoot up towards the end of the year because of the iPod introductions. OEM prices are already on the way up and supply is tight.

J.