Poll request: compact flash failures

Never had an SD card failure. They just get smaller and smaller (I think I have an 8M SD card somewhere).

OTOH I am inclined to think that *every* USB stick fails eventually. I have a large stack of them somewhere that have either failed completely or have become intermittant or unreliable.

Maybe that says something about the relative reliability of memory chips and microprocessors.

Two 16 GB Patroit brand cards bad right out of the new package. The company replaced them promptly.

Really was not a big problem, I always test new gear in my backyard, just to be sure it works.

Phil

Azurael wrote: Unless you're buying a Samsung/Toshiba/Sandisk card, it's a bit of a random bet as to who made the flash memory inside it anyway.

... and one should also mention Lexar which is owned by Micron.

Anyway, I once had a Lexar CF 300x 32GB card with a problem (I did not have any data loss but could not access the images on the camera display, only on the computer). Lexar exchanged it without fuss to the newest generation card, and I am happy since then...

I've worked in photographic retail for a number of years now and certain things do seem to stand out - XD cards (remember those?) are like timebombs - they always seem to fail eventually (I'm guessing that's down to the controllerless cards depending upon the camera to do wear levelling) but aside from cheapo eBay jobs, I've not seen many SD/CF cards actually fail over the years - as others have said, corruption is a different issue and seems to be largely preventable by reformatting the cards after each use. Unless you're buying a Samsung/Toshiba/Sandisk card, it's a bit of a random bet as to who made the flash memory inside it anyway.

Now the casings of SD cards breaking, and bent pins in CF slots - are a different story. For some reason I've had several Sandisk SDs disintegrate on me within the last few years, lucky they've got a lifetime warranty! Perhaps it's just coincidence and there's nothing wrong with the shells of Sandisk cards, but these cards were all far newer than the much abused PNY 16GB card which has been in and out of cameras so much in the ~5 years I've owned it that all the writing on the label has worn away!

I use 16 and 32 Gb Patriot LX class 10; CF and SDHC cards, which I always
download with a card reader and delete after downloading.
I only reformat the card occasionally.
I have never had any sort of problem with these cards used this way.
As an aside I have always been told to use this method in case there is a power surge
or power failure or lightning strike etc, with the camera connected to the computer.
Better to blow a card rather than the camera.
I have actually had a lightning strike on my computer.
Fortunately it blew the first link in the chain which was the modem.
It literally blew the modem chip apart.

stiuskr wrote: 1-Have you ever had a card failure? 2-What size card resides in the camera? 3-Do you download with a card reader or the camera tethered? 4-Do you delete all pics or reformat after downloading? 5-How many frames has the card seen? From these choices here I'd be most interested in the first two.

1 - no
2 - 32Gb class 10
3 - card reader
4 - reformat always
5 - aprox 1200 raw, 1700 jpg

I have always Bought Patriot LX 32gb 10x cards. I have never had problems with them on the a77 but the a99 will not use them.