I officially will never use RiDATA CF cards again...

I thought this would never happen to me, but it did.

The day before the wedding I ran to Fry's and got 2 RiDATA memory cards to increase by total capacity to 30GB. 4GB each, 233X, CF type. So last night after the wedding, I came home and started downloading form the cards. One was ok, but the other one was half ok. I used it on two bodies, the 30D files survived but the 5D files are not even there... and I got some of the best shots there, although it was towards the end of the wedding, I still will never go back to RiDATA cards ever ever ever again.

I think you run that potential risk with any brand. I've had nothing but good luck with Ridata cards.

I personally would never use the same card in TWO different cameras, whilst expecting to store images from BOTH cameras at the same time.

I would always recommend that a card is formatted in the camera in which it is to be used, prior to use.

I think this might not be an error the CF cards themselves, but more an error in the way they were used?

TJ

TeeJay wrote in post #6076889
I personally would never use the same card in TWO different cameras, whilst expecting to store images from BOTH cameras at the same time.

I would always recommend that a card is formatted in the camera in which it is to be used, prior to use.

I think this might not be an error the CF cards themselves, but more an error in the way they were used?

TJ

i've done it many times with sandisk cards without a problem.

ed rader

It sucks that the card failed. That is the reason for pro bodies to have two cards duplicating the files. No one (who wants to retain their sanity or job) would run a computer in a mission critical situation without having a raid 1/5/10/x system with that off chance the hard drive may fail (you can even have duplicated memory in a server) and a digital camera is just a computer.

Now you can blame the card (and it was at fault) but you could also blame the camera body for not having the proper safety net. If you never want it to happen again you actually need to change both and then it could still happen but you have cut your chances down a fair bit.

Recovery software under consideration? Was the card put back in the 5D to see if the images show up on in camera review? There are a ton of options to consider before writing the images off as lost.

I would definitely try Woolburr's suggestion before tossing/returning them. Sorry to hear about the RiDATA cards giving you a problem. I'll be more cautious if I ever pick up a RiDATA CF card, although in general I've read good reviews about their products.

Woolburr wrote in post #6079605
Recovery software under consideration? Was the card put back in the 5D to see if the images show up on in camera review? There are a ton of options to consider before writing the images off as lost.

Just recovered the images, to my surprise there were only couple dozen images, and all got recovered. I did try the card on both cameras, didn't show anything...

From now on I will try to use one card in one body only...

Congrats on recovering the images...that is the important part...

Whew!!!

Glad you were able to recover the images okay! FWIW I personally never use a CF card in more than one camera unless they have been formatted by that camera.

My camera misfocused once*. I don't think I'll ever use Canon again.

*Actual experience is more than once, but making a point requires dramatics.

cdifoto wrote in post #6086770
My camera misfocused once*. I don't think I'll ever use Canon again.

*Actual experience is more than once, but making a point requires dramatics.

i agree. just because you had one Ridata fail doesn't mean that they all suck. as a matter of fact, i had a 8gig extreme III Sandisk go dead on me last month but that still does not mean that Sandisk is crap (btw, Sandisk sent me a new card and were great about the whole thing!!!) .

What concerns me is that Ridata 233x CF cards (or at least the 16GB) performs badly in cameras (including the newer cameras D3, D700, 5D Mark II) according to www.robgalbraith.com CF tests.

They are fast in card reader -> computer (around 30MB/s) but slow in cameras (5-10MB/s). That is very strange...

If the cards had been Sandisk... which does happen, too... would you have sworn off Sandisk forever?