memory card failures

just curious, have you had any memory card failures? and if so, how old was the card and how much was it used?

why am i asking? well, some of my cards are getting "old", like 4 or 5 years now. they are all sandisk CF (512Mb, 1,2,4 and 8Gb). up until now i have never had a failure.

wondering if i should just ditch the old ones, and replace them.


J.

If they're working fine for you, I'd just keep using them. Having said that, I've had numerous card failures, but I also shoot more than the average camera enthusiast.

There is a finite number of write/read cycles in the life of the CF card, but that number is so large that even a pro user would never come close to that lifetime with digital photography alone. 100,000 write cycles applies to each address block separately in the card, not to the card as a whole. The manufacturers of CF cards offer LIFETIME warranty, so not to worry.

Wilt wrote in post #10387061
The manufacturers of CF cards offer LIFETIME warranty, so not to worry.

i'm not worried about the card itself, i'm more worried about loosing a whole card worth of pictures when i'm on vacation.


J.

Only cards I've had fail were pretty new and it was a while ago, like 6-7 years. But then, as sensors get bigger, I've been upgrading cards to accommodate, so they get outgrown before they get old.

jurgenph wrote in post #10387215
i'm not worried about the card itself, i'm more worried about loosing a whole card worth of pictures when i'm on vacation.

J.

Understood...I was just pointing out the faith that the manufacturers have in their product, or else they would simply publish openly the number of write/read cycles to keep track of!

A few months ago I had my first card "failure." It's a 1GB Sandisk Ultra II. I have 3 different OS's and cannot get any computer to recognize that I have the card plugged in.

I thought I was going to have problems. I was shooting with my 20D. I had filled the card, took it out, and when I tried to put the new card in it jammed. I pushed it more than usual and the card went in, but since then I have not been able to read or write to that card. I looked on Sandisk's website about a warranty but I know I'll never be able to find my receipt.

I had a Transcend SDHC fail recently. I had just copied all of the photos from the card to my computer successfully, but when I put it back in my camera, it would not read it. Lifetime warranty, and painless and fast replacement from Transcend.

As long as your using a reputable manufacture, you should have a pretty reliable card. Given that even the reliable cards due fail. Thats why I try not to put all my fruits in the same basket.

Do higher quality cards i.e. Sandisk Professional or Lexar Professional cards tend to be better built, and use better quality materials compared to their lower end counter-parts of the same manufactures?

Halliday wrote in post #10388949
A few months ago I had my first card "failure." It's a 1GB Sandisk Ultra II. I have 3 different OS's and cannot get any computer to recognize that I have the card plugged in.

I thought I was going to have problems. I was shooting with my 20D. I had filled the card, took it out, and when I tried to put the new card in it jammed. I pushed it more than usual and the card went in, but since then I have not been able to read or write to that card. I looked on Sandisk's website about a warranty but I know I'll never be able to find my receipt.

With card prices these days it's almost not even worth it to bother calming warranty. While I was visiting Costco down in the states, I saw 2 4GB Sandisk Ultra on sale for like $25, and 2 8GB Sandisk Ultra for like $40. For all the time, effort, and postage, I would just replace older smaller cards.

I've been using CF cards fore nigh on 20 years and, in all that time, I've only ever had one failure - and that was my fault (I removed the card from a PDA as it was being written to).

Halliday wrote in post #10388949
A few months ago I had my first card "failure." It's a 1GB Sandisk Ultra II. I have 3 different OS's and cannot get any computer to recognize that I have the card plugged in.

I thought I was going to have problems. I was shooting with my 20D. I had filled the card, took it out, and when I tried to put the new card in it jammed. I pushed it more than usual and the card went in, but since then I have not been able to read or write to that card. I looked on Sandisk's website about a warranty but I know I'll never be able to find my receipt.

Only ever had 1 card fail, sandisk ultra2 1gb, old and rarely used, it luckily didnt fail after use, I was going to format it to sell with an old body and it wouldnt read. I actually blame a gepe cf card case for being too tight a fit and I think the card twisted just enough to make something inside it come loose, so it would no longer work. Sandisk replaced it under warranty even though it was very old and I had no reciept for it, could not even remember where I bought it, they were very good and just wanted a photo of the serial number, then sent me the returns info and shipped me a new one.

Overall i would trust sandisk extreme3 and up cards as they are padded out inside and a lot stiffer than ultra2 and below...

jurgenph wrote in post #10387215
i'm not worried about the card itself, i'm more worried about loosing a whole card worth of pictures when i'm on vacation.


J.

This is why you should backup the photos unprocessed on a disc and external hard drives (these things are minute compared to actual hard drives) per day

I have never had a CF failure, but I have only been doing photography seriously for 3 years

400dabuser wrote in post #10389346
This is why you should backup the photos unprocessed on a disc and external hard drives (these things are minute compared to actual hard drives) per day

I have never had a CF failure, but I have only been doing photography seriously for 3 years

i back up my photos on a RAID1, i have everything backed up.
the failure i'm referring to is one that happens while the card is still in the camera , with all your fresh shots on it, before you get home and are able to actually back them up onto another media. i do not lug a laptop around when i go on vacation.


J.

I've been using 3 different SanDisk cards for 3 years now and have never had a failure (knocking on wood)