Poll request: compact flash failures

I would be interested to know how many have had problem with memory cards. Personally I have never had it happen.

Also another reason to buy multiple smaller card vs 1 big one, is cost. Generally it is easier to find cheap deals (cost/GB) in smaller memory densities.

Never happend to me... I use a Sandisk Extreme III one gigabyte and a Sandisk Extreme III two gigabyte. I bought the one gb first, and the two gb when it was the same price as the one gb was half a year before :)

I recently had a 4gb transcend card fail. Newegg sent a new one no questions asked. I tend to carry a couple of 4gb cards when I travel and a couple of slower 2gb as backup. 1gb just fills up to quickly.

DS

I have one 4 and one 8GB compact flash micro-drive, which I no longer use because of poor performance - these cards are slow.

I have a Snadisk Extreme III 4GB card and a Lexar 133x 4GB card - I have found the Sandisk a little fast than the Lexar.

I have never had a card go bad in any of my Minolta/Sony cameras, however. I do have a 256GB Dane-elec card that went bad a few years ago and a 16meg card from many years ago that went bad as well.

I have no plans on getting cards that are too large and will most likely stick with 4GB cards or possibly 8GB when I get a new camera if I need it - don't want the card to be too small or two big.

I always use a card reader to load my pics to my PC as I see no reason to use my cameras battery power to handle this operation. Also, sometimes I perform a delete all of my pics on my card if there are not many, otherwise, I format the cards. If the card is full it takes a very long time to delete all the pics and uses to much battery power, whereas. If I format the cards, it's done in seconds.

Edited by camelriders - 12 November 2007 at 03:36

I think the concerns over card failure aren't very valid. The issues causing card failure are preventable.

I have card from 4meg to 4gig, never an issue. Including my micro drives.

Thing is, you should be practicing "safe flash card usage".

1) Only by the best stuff. The only MDs I would by are Hatachi, but they are no longer of use as flash is so cheap now. Any issues I have ever seen people have with MDs is non Hatachi units, or very early units, or ones people yanked out of portable devices. Other issues were caused by user that would be the same for CF.   For flash. I now only buy Sandisk. I'd be fine with buying a Lexar too, and now probably wouldn't be an issue to buy a Sony card. But all the cheaper brands, no thanks. It's not like buying the best cards cost you much more. Why risk it. So many times when someone has a real problem, it's an off brand.

2) Never by cards from ebay or similar. I still do not understand why folks buy from ebay, of course this isn't just cards, but about anything. Ebay is not a store. It's an action site, it's for used things. If it's new, and it's on ebay, don't buy it. And besides we all know most the cards on ebay now are fake. By them from real place, reputable places like BH, newegg, or best buy.

3) Format in the camera every time. No exceptions. Do not use delete, do not delete or format in the computer.

4) Don't switch around between devices. Dedicate cards for a single device.


Most CF failures aren't failures, they are corruption's. Mainly caused by people not formating, or formatting in their computers. Also people yanking them out not powered down.

I've never heard of an actual real failure of a top brand card from the card just dying without anything being done that would cause issues.

To me having a lot of cards laying around in your bag and loosing one is more of an issue. Or putting a filled card back in and formating over it by mistake.

David_S wrote: I recently had a 4gb transcend card fail.

That's not what I wanted to hear! My current card is a 4GB Transcend too! Only problem I've ever had has been file corruption after using a dodgy card reader.

MojoRick wrote: I put one though the washing machine AND the dryer. That was almost two years ago, and it is still working. It is a 1 Gig SanDisk Ultra II.

LOL

My friend has had a 100% failure rate on his cards, no matter what brand.

Though I do think it’s him. He’s the kind of guy who will pull it from the camera with the camera running, plug it back in with the camera on, etc.