Have you ever had a memory card fail?

Yes, a brand new Kingston 16GB that failed after the first 100 or so shots and a few videos. Wasnt too impressed with that.

Over the last 10 years, and around 1.5 mil images (shot motorsport professionally for a while) I have never had a card (I only use CF) fail while in use. I did have one Kingston Pro fail right out of the packaging (would not even format) but never any CF cards in use.

No failed memory cards that I can think of but I had a thumb drive fail. Based on the same tech and that was a 256MB, so you can tell that was a while ago. Sandisk replaced it.

I currently use fourteen 8GB CF (mix of Sandisk & Lexar), a couple 16GB CF (sandisk)... also have several SD (PNY, Sandisk, ?), plus probably a dozen or more older, slower 2GB CF (Sony, Lexar, Sandisk), and a half dozen older 1GB and smaller CF (Lexar, Sandisk)....

Used to use some other mem cards... Some half dozen or so 8MB, 16MB & 32MB SmartMedia (yes, that's MB, not GB) cards with an Oly digicam bought around 1997. Gave the camera and all it's accessories to my sister and brother-in-law years ago... They still use it with the same memory cards. The original SmartMedia card reader crapped out earlier this year and they had some trouble, but eventually found one compatible with their more recent Windows OS. They use the camera for eBay items and inventory photos for their business.

Never had a card fail, in fifteen or more years shooting digital (9 years shooting DSLRs, probably close to a half million images with those).

I have screwed up and removed a CF card too quickly (from a 30D), corrupting files on it. Was able to recover about 2/3 of the images (using Lexar Image Rescue).

I also had some files corrupted during download, transfering via a card reader that was plugged into a USB hub... Plugged the reader directly into the computer and that solved the problem completely.

I had a Lexar die on me.. It was a 512 Megabyte CF card (shows how long ago it was)

Only those knockoff-brand microSD cards from eBay. I figure I must have bent them with my sausage fingers - though they're flimsy enough to begin with.

not yet. about 20 cards over 10 years or so, all off-brands.

Its pretty standard practice to not let cards get old as they will fail, its not a question of 'if', its just a matter of time. Camera manufacturers will tell you to use new and fresh cards in the cameras, not just for reliability but for speed. I've had a handful of CF cards fail over the years as they have aged. I have always been able to use image recovery software to get most of the images back, and then the card goes in the trash. I use and abuse my equipment though and shoot well over 100,000 images per year.

11 years of digital photography, 5 cameras (1 at a time), all Sandisk cards (15 or so, I'd guess), never a failure. That's why I use nothing but Sandisk. Sandisk for all my USB thumb drives, too!

No, I am not a Sandisk employee/salesman/repr​esentative.

I've had a CF card fail right out of the 'box' - a Fujifilm 1Gb x20 card bought in desperation on a distillery photography trip. I ran out of memory (yeah, yeah . . . I know) and bought the only card available in a small Highland pharmacy. I formatted before use but still lost important images. I binned the card.

I have a touching faith in Sandisk; never had a single failure in 10 years.

I had the weirdest thing happen to a Sandisk 512 card once...
I dropped it and somehow everything changed to MS Dos files.
There wasn't any thing of any consequence on it so I just reformatted the card and it was fine.
I have no idea what happened, how or why.

Every SD card I have had has failed within 6 months. I still have the original CF card I got with my 300D plus 4 or 5 others. I did have one (Fuji 8Gb) CF card fail right out of the box. It formatted OK but had problems writing and then reading. Fortunatly I got the data back off it as I had no choice but to use it at the time. Got a refund for it no problem.

Alan

I had a CF card fail several years ago with a 40D while on a Hawaiian vacation. It was either a Transcend or Kingston (cannot remember that far back), but I was able to cover all the files. I've never had an issue with any other CF card on my numerous dSLR's.

I've never had a dSLR that uses SD cards. My wife's p&s does, but that is not a high use camera.

this is a great thread and hopefully it will help a few people save a TON of stress.
However, the topic isn't going to help enough people, so I may create a thread based on: "dual slot body users", so it gets to the masses.

I shoot events (including weddings) but mostly portrait sessions. I feel that it's very important to assign all images to both cards, using dual slots.

If someone is shooting sporting events and fps is critical, it's up to them, b/c apparently (on the Canon 5DmarkIII at least) shooting to the extra slot (with an SD) could slow down your camera.

For people who are NOT shooting sports:
1. if you're passionate about your photos USE BOTH CARD SLOTS.
2. if you're a professional (and all that really means is, are you getting paid for your work), USE BOTH CARD SLOTS or you're stupid.

#2 sounds harsh but think about it this way....
It's like not locking your car doors. You come out of the restaurant, someone has gone inside your car and stole your laptop.

You have two slots. Even if it's unlikely a card will fail, who cares, use them both. It's unlikely someone is going to try to open your car door, right, so why lock your car doors? Because it's easy. Wouldn't you feel STUPID if your card failed, and you hadn't spend the $50 on a card?

I shot a wedding last month, I was a second shooter for this gig. At the end of the reception, I gave the girl my 64gb extreme sandisk card.
She called me the next day with the horrifying news that the computer told her that my card was corrupt.
I told her that I'd meet her halfway with my backup card - there was 5 seconds of silence, then she told me that she loved me. We've never held hands before.

I met her, gave her my sd card, went home and put the cf in my personal card reader, no issues. It may have been a hiccup with her reader or computer.
But who cares. Imagine if it wasn't a hiccup?

Buy the cheap insurance

I had a Transcend 16 Gb card fail after about 1 year in my 5D2. They replaced the card fast however. Would love to have two memory card slots just in case.