Lexar failure

I'm not one to knock tech products when they fail, because everything does, no matter the maker. But this is a cautionary tale: don't assume because you spend a lot of money that tech is failure proof.

I bought a 32GB Lexar 1000x CF card, used it about a dozen times or so. I had it loaded with photos, and found that I could not upload them to my computer. Rescue software worked, and Lexar replaced the card free of charge. Good on them.

But the replacement card failed in the exact same way today, after about the same number of uses.

You pays your money and you takes yer choice. I will give Sandisk a try, but will remember the caution of my tale at the same time.

I got the 1000x because it was fast, not because I had any illusion of it being failure proof. I just hope mine fares better than yours.

Could be your camera...I keep hearing a lot of 5D3+Lexars failing...

thedcmule2 wrote in post #16603530
Could be your camera...I keep hearing a lot of 5D3+Lexars failing...

No. I have a bunch of older Lexar's and they're all fine in all my bodies.

must have been a bad batch?

Lexar 1000x CF uses UDMA7 controller from SMI. As far as I know, this controller does NOT handle write failure in NAND. They are counting on the robustness of MLC NAND in SLC that won't fail, which is more or less a good assumption, but things do happen.

I will recommend the older 100MB/s SanDisk ExtremePro. Up to 128GB, they are also in SLC mode. That controller and firmware is very robust. I haven't study the newer 160MB/s CF, so cant comment them

You have to use a UDMA 7 card reader with the Lexar 1000x cards. If you aren't you are asking for trouble. I highly recommend the new Lexar single slot CF reader LRWCFR1RBNA.

This is worrisome as I recently bought 2 16gb Lexar 1000x CF cards. Before this purchase, I have always used Sandisk and their "Extreme" products. I hope the OP's unfortunate experience is just due to a bad batch.
To be safe, I guess I just have to get one of thoise UDMA readers as well.

tvphotog wrote in post #16604188
No. I have a bunch of older Lexar's and they're all fine in all my bodies.

But older Lexar cards have a very small similarity with newer cards. For newer cards (larger or faster) there is newer memory chips and newer memory controllers. So history can't be used as a reliable tool to predict the future.

Zoiks. I have two of the 32GB 1000x cards at home and two at the office. I have a UDMA 7 Lexar reader at home, but my office reader is a Kingston. Might be time to replace that one.

I had two Lexar Cards on 64gb and the other 32gb, the 64gb can't be read by neither the computer nor the camera. The 32gb one failed when shooting burst mode on an important event, which I am afraid to use since its unreliable. All of them using on a 5D3. Can't take the risk anymore, keeping with SanDisk.

I use the 64GB 1000x with the Lexar 3.0 card reader...im kind of nervous now lol but its been working fine (extremely well actually)

Jay,
Did you contact Jeff Cable? He's the man to go to for Lexar, since he's their director of marketing. He's also an outstanding photographer.

My Scandisk CF card got corrupted after not too much use, so I switched over to Lexar... based on their reputation. Guess I need to upgrade the card reader as well.

After my 2nd Lexar Professional failed in the middle of a shoot I have switched to SanDisc Extreme and have not had any issues. Not much to add to the discussion but selfishly very happy it was not just me.

Kf