Lexar CF cards FAIL - Sandisk?

[willhunt]

The reason I purchased all professional gear, is so things like this CANNOT happen.

Stuff like this can ALWAYS happen, that's why "professional gear" has two memory card slots.

Yes, you are absolutely correct. And I had a Sandisk Extreme Pro SD card resting comfortably in my bag. Not in the cam where it should have been. I am wondering if the cam would have shut down like it did, if I would have had that card in? I mean, the cam was dead. No functions, nothing in the viewfinder, nothing. The first time this has ever happened.

 

[acoll123]

The reason I purchased all professional gear, is so things like this CANNOT happen.

Stuff like this can ALWAYS happen, that's why "professional gear" has two memory card slots.

I bought two 32gb 1,000x Sandisk Cards around Christmas from B&H. I shoot sports and had something similar happen to me a few times while shooting basketball games. At the time I had a 1DIV and a 5DIII. Happened with both cameras when I got close to filling the buffers. Luckily I kept the original packing and B&H agreed to take them back in exchange for 2 similar Sandisk cards - the Sandisk cards were almost twice as much but I have never had a similar problems to the one I had with the Lexar cards and my Canon Cameras. I will say the Lexar cards were super fast downloading from my card reader and I did have more buffer head room but it still wasn't worth worrying about camera lock up . . .

I should also point out that the cards didn't fail i.e. I didn't lose any data while I had the cards, they just didn't play well with my cameras . . .

 

[Simon_X_George]

Ive had exactly the opposite experience with my 7D. I was a conformed Sandisk user but experienced a issue with 60mb/s SanDisk extremes. Basically the image would save to the card but the 7D refused to let you see it on the camera and I "think" would overwrite it. Take the card out the camera and stick it in a reader or my 40D and you could see the image fine.

I swapped to Lexar x600's and have never seen the issue.

I should say that since I went to Firmware 2.0.x on the 7D the Sandisk do now seem to be behaving themselves but I just don't trust them in that body.

 

[AriesPhoto]

Just had my second Lexar 800x 8gb cf card fail this year!! Bought brand new from Calumet Photo in May. The first time was after formatting the card. Card showed it was only 32mb. Last night I had one fail while shooting a wedding. Right in the middle of the father daughter dance! I refuse to use cards larger than 8gb for this exact reason! Fortunately, I didn't lose a ton of stuff. But it was important stuff none the less. I think because this problem is being reported be several people, there is a definite issue here. I will not shoot with Lexar cards anymore EVER!! I can't afford to continue losing files like this. My clients pay too much money for my services to continue playing russian roulette with their cards!!

 

[alexanderferdinand]

Both brands have an excellent reputation.
Never had a failure with now around 20 cards together from both brands over the years.

 

[wickidwombat]

i have 14 Transcend CF cards in 400x 600x and the new 1000x all bought off ebay from hong kong and never had an issue with any of them even had 100% recovery when i accidentally formatted a camera on a wedding shoot just after the ceremony.

so maybe give transcend a try

 

[CarlTN]

i have 14 Transcend CF cards in 400x 600x and the new 1000x all bought off ebay from hong kong and never had an issue with any of them even had 100% recovery when i accidentally formatted a camera on a wedding shoot just after the ceremony.

so maybe give transcend a try

I bet that was terrifying!

 

[wickidwombat]

i have 14 Transcend CF cards in 400x 600x and the new 1000x all bought off ebay from hong kong and never had an issue with any of them even had 100% recovery when i accidentally formatted a camera on a wedding shoot just after the ceremony.

so maybe give transcend a try

I bet that was terrifying!

oh yeah it was a sphincter twitching moment thats for sure!

 

[CarlTN]

i have 14 Transcend CF cards in 400x 600x and the new 1000x all bought off ebay from hong kong and never had an issue with any of them even had 100% recovery when i accidentally formatted a camera on a wedding shoot just after the ceremony.

so maybe give transcend a try

I bet that was terrifying!

oh yeah it was a sphincter twitching moment thats for sure!

Haha...I've had a few moments like that, where my heart was literally in my throat. None from photography yet...hopefully never happen for me!

 

[Mt Spokane Photography]

I just had a shocking incident yesterday with a Lexar 16GB 1000X card. I'm shooting my daughters Varsity dance team at the University of Michigan's basketball venue. Great lighting, everything is going super smooth. Her team is walking onto the court for their final Pom routine of the season. This is IT. All of the practices and hard work have come down to this minute and a half. I snap a few as they're walking out, and BAM. My 1DMKIV turns to a brick. Cannot write to card.... blah,blah blah. I furiously power down the cam, pull and re-install the card, pull the the battery, and nothing works. My pro body, lens, and CF card is a BRICK! Nothing will work. I grab a SANDISK Exteme Pro card, and everything is back to normal, AS THE TEAM IS WALKING OFF THE COURT! To say the least, I am fu***ing pissed! The reason I purchased all professional gear, is so things like this CANNOT happen. When the decisive moment is there, I am ready.
Sorry to the forum for my rant, but i just had to vent somewhere. I am going to contact Lexar, but truly what can they do. The moment is gone. I not only didn't get any photos, I didn't even get to watch my daughters final dance routine, as I was fumbling to get the cam to work.
Sorry, Lexar. But it will be Sandisk for me from now on when the shots are critical.
Anyone on the forum ever hear of any problems with Lexar 1000X CF cards, and the Canon 1D Mk IV?
Sorry again for my rant. Great forum, and I plan on sticking around. Thanks.
And I must add, I bought two of these cards together from Adorama, so I'm pretty darn sure they aren't fakes.

Isn't that why the 1D MK IV has dual card slots? Cards fail. There are tons of complainers about Sandisk too, but the fact is that card failures while rare, happen to all brands, and having a backup in a camera that has provision for one is a extremely good idea, not having one is the fault of the user.

 

[CarlTN]

I just had a shocking incident yesterday with a Lexar 16GB 1000X card. I'm shooting my daughters Varsity dance team at the University of Michigan's basketball venue. Great lighting, everything is going super smooth. Her team is walking onto the court for their final Pom routine of the season. This is IT. All of the practices and hard work have come down to this minute and a half. I snap a few as they're walking out, and BAM. My 1DMKIV turns to a brick. Cannot write to card.... blah,blah blah. I furiously power down the cam, pull and re-install the card, pull the the battery, and nothing works. My pro body, lens, and CF card is a BRICK! Nothing will work. I grab a SANDISK Exteme Pro card, and everything is back to normal, AS THE TEAM IS WALKING OFF THE COURT! To say the least, I am fu***ing pissed! The reason I purchased all professional gear, is so things like this CANNOT happen. When the decisive moment is there, I am ready.
Sorry to the forum for my rant, but i just had to vent somewhere. I am going to contact Lexar, but truly what can they do. The moment is gone. I not only didn't get any photos, I didn't even get to watch my daughters final dance routine, as I was fumbling to get the cam to work.
Sorry, Lexar. But it will be Sandisk for me from now on when the shots are critical.
Anyone on the forum ever hear of any problems with Lexar 1000X CF cards, and the Canon 1D Mk IV?
Sorry again for my rant. Great forum, and I plan on sticking around. Thanks.
And I must add, I bought two of these cards together from Adorama, so I'm pretty darn sure they aren't fakes.

Isn't that why the 1D MK IV has dual card slots? Cards fail. There are tons of complainers about Sandisk too, but the fact is that card failures while rare, happen to all brands, and having a backup in a camera that has provision for one is a extremely good idea, not having one is the fault of the user.

Maybe other people took photos and video of it?

 

[Auscrox]

I often read comments like; “used CF cards for more than 10 years and never had a failure”. Unfortunately if you have a closer look at the technology for memory today, you would quickly come to the conclusion that the older technology was more reliable than it is today, and why is that so?

The frequency of card failures is increasing and the reason is that Consumer Grade Memory is no longer as robust as you would hope or expect.

Manufacturers of consumer grade memory have been on a quest to increase capacity, reduce cost and increase speed. One thing they have done is shrink the geometries, from 40nm down to 19nm, and next is 15nm (changes about every 18months). So by example a CF card today, using MLC NAND Flash only has a write endurance spec of < 3,000 writes. When it goes to 15nm, endurance write will be down to 2,000. Now if you purchased a cheap card, very likely it is TLC Flash and only has < 1,000 writes.

With smaller geometries there are many downsides which requires modifying of firmware and circuitry. The manufacturers are not open about the endurance write spec on their products. However they comfort you with an offer of Lifetime Warranties, and for a product that has a Limited Life. Small comfort when you lose 100s of photos on shoot, who cares about the replacement card – where are my valuable images! NAND Flash has a limited number of writes and ultimately will fail with extended use.

Only advice I can give is look at Industrial Grade Products which use SLC NAND Flash. These products have Endurance Write Specs >2 million. They cost more, but extremely reliable, slower performance, but not an issue for the majority of serious photographers.

 

[markwilliams279]

Is anyone else having massive failures with their Lexar CF cards. I've had a few cards have complete corruptions that lose all data and is not recoverable by any software, tekserve or even Lexars 8-12 week in house recovery. The card only shows 33MB in recovery. They have a great warranty program so everything is replaceable except for the lost work. I've been shooting small jpegs to second card slot, but still not satisfied with that solution.

Is anyone else having this error? Does it happen with Sandisk? Has anyone used the Raw Steel cards?

I think I'm going to switch completely this week. I've been slow to as I know sandisk have a worse warranty program. But if they don't fail then I won't need it.

Anyone else have the 33MB card failure? Could you recover anything? Does this happen with Sandisk?

I never used Lexar but it never happened with my Sandisk card. You can try more photo recovery software try some which could show you preview before purchase. One you can download from http://www.retrievephotos.com/ . If your data is very important and software could not help you can go for data recovery services but your card warranty will no longer be available after that.

 

[CarlTN]

How many of us have done anywhere near 1000 writes on one card? That's roughly 1 million shutter cycles...if you get 1000 images per card.

The most I have ever overwritten a card is probably 40 times (might be more like 35). I admit I don't shoot as many images as a pro sports photographer or something. I've shot getting close to 14,000 images with my 6D in a year, and 25,000 on my 50D over a 4 year period...and 6000 on my Sigma DP2...and a few thousand on other various compacts.

I would think just the grime buildup and wear on the contacts of a card that is overwritten even a couple of hundred times, would hinder its conductivity, let alone what's inside.

 

[EricFiskCGD]

I often read comments like; “used CF cards for more than 10 years and never had a failure”. Unfortunately if you have a closer look at the technology for memory today, you would quickly come to the conclusion that the older technology was more reliable than it is today, and why is that so?

The frequency of card failures is increasing and the reason is that Consumer Grade Memory is no longer as robust as you would hope or expect.

Manufacturers of consumer grade memory have been on a quest to increase capacity, reduce cost and increase speed. One thing they have done is shrink the geometries, from 40nm down to 19nm, and next is 15nm (changes about every 18months). So by example a CF card today, using MLC NAND Flash only has a write endurance spec of < 3,000 writes. When it goes to 15nm, endurance write will be down to 2,000. Now if you purchased a cheap card, very likely it is TLC Flash and only has < 1,000 writes.

With smaller geometries there are many downsides which requires modifying of firmware and circuitry. The manufacturers are not open about the endurance write spec on their products. However they comfort you with an offer of Lifetime Warranties, and for a product that has a Limited Life. Small comfort when you lose 100s of photos on shoot, who cares about the replacement card – where are my valuable images! NAND Flash has a limited number of writes and ultimately will fail with extended use.

Only advice I can give is look at Industrial Grade Products which use SLC NAND Flash. These products have Endurance Write Specs >2 million. They cost more, but extremely reliable, slower performance, but not an issue for the majority of serious photographers.

+1

I hate to put the caveat out there because it seems so obvious - never leave home without at least TWO professional grade memory cards.

Now the question remains... what are professional grade memory cards and where do we find them?

 

[AcutancePhotography]

Really sucks that this happened to you, but I would not immediately condem an entire companies product line because of this. All data disks have failed and will continue to fail. That is one of the risks of photography. We had the same issues with film.

All we can do is take care of our mediums the best we can. Always format them in camera. Keep them clean and isolated from EMR fields. This also why huge cards may not always be a good idea. Many photographers choose to use multiple smaller cards. If you put all your photographic eggs in one CF/SD basket, when (not if) you have a problem with the card, you have lost a lot more data. Using smaller cards reduces the chances of losing all your photographs. Sure it is a little more hassle having to switch out cards..... but at least you are not switching film out after 24/36 shots. ;D

My free and worthless opinion: The more important the photoshoot, the more smaller cards I use. It is all about playing the odds.

I am sorry to hear that this happened to you. But this problem could have happened with any manufacture.

 

[tron]

I often read comments like; “used CF cards for more than 10 years and never had a failure”. Unfortunately if you have a closer look at the technology for memory today, you would quickly come to the conclusion that the older technology was more reliable than it is today, and why is that so?

The frequency of card failures is increasing and the reason is that Consumer Grade Memory is no longer as robust as you would hope or expect.

Manufacturers of consumer grade memory have been on a quest to increase capacity, reduce cost and increase speed. One thing they have done is shrink the geometries, from 40nm down to 19nm, and next is 15nm (changes about every 18months). So by example a CF card today, using MLC NAND Flash only has a write endurance spec of < 3,000 writes. When it goes to 15nm, endurance write will be down to 2,000. Now if you purchased a cheap card, very likely it is TLC Flash and only has < 1,000 writes.

With smaller geometries there are many downsides which requires modifying of firmware and circuitry. The manufacturers are not open about the endurance write spec on their products. However they comfort you with an offer of Lifetime Warranties, and for a product that has a Limited Life. Small comfort when you lose 100s of photos on shoot, who cares about the replacement card – where are my valuable images! NAND Flash has a limited number of writes and ultimately will fail with extended use.

Only advice I can give is look at Industrial Grade Products which use SLC NAND Flash. These products have Endurance Write Specs >2 million. They cost more, but extremely reliable, slower performance, but not an issue for the majority of serious photographers.

+1

I hate to put the caveat out there because it seems so obvious - never leave home without at least TWO professional grade memory cards.

Now the question remains... what are professional grade memory cards and where do we find them?

1. I do not think that SLC memory is being sold today either in form of camera cards or usb flash disks or ssd disks. But I cannot be sure 100% so please feel free to correct me...

2 The reduction in cycles can be dealt with an increase in capacity. Only then the reuse count will be smaller (just like ssd disks)

3. Since I have 5D3 cameras I use double cards (with raw for both slots) for important shooting.

4. I also have a hyperdrive to backup cards after the shot but this does not negate the need for double cards...

 

[RustyTheGeek]

I agree that all cards can fail. It's like hard drives, they have a mind of their own. And there is definitely a strong possibility that some cameras are going to favor (or not favor) certain cards.

I also agree that as the industry strives for more profit and capacity, the quality of the chips and consistency goes down.

Over the years I have purchased a LOT of cards in CF, SD, MicroSD, etc. In the last couple years, I started testing them with verify programs before I used them for pictures in the cameras. This at least gives me the knowledge that they aren't totally bad. Can they become bad later? Sure. But at least I know they are starting out good.

So I don't worry much about the brand. (I've had Lexar, Sandisk, Transcend, WinTec, PNY, Kingston, PreTec, HP, SCT, and a few others I can't remember ATM.) I read the recent reviews, purchase when I find a good price and then I TEST THE LIVING SH*T OUT OF THE CARDS before I use them.

Here's more info on counterfeit cards and also test programs....
http://petapixel.com/2012/12/09/beware-counterfeit-memory-cards-being-shipped-from-amazon-warehouses/
http://flashfakecentral.wordpress.com/testing-flash-memory-chips/h2testw-english/

 

[LookingThroughMyLens81]

I often read comments like; “used CF cards for more than 10 years and never had a failure”. Unfortunately if you have a closer look at the technology for memory today, you would quickly come to the conclusion that the older technology was more reliable than it is today, and why is that so?

The frequency of card failures is increasing and the reason is that Consumer Grade Memory is no longer as robust as you would hope or expect.

Manufacturers of consumer grade memory have been on a quest to increase capacity, reduce cost and increase speed. One thing they have done is shrink the geometries, from 40nm down to 19nm, and next is 15nm (changes about every 18months). So by example a CF card today, using MLC NAND Flash only has a write endurance spec of < 3,000 writes. When it goes to 15nm, endurance write will be down to 2,000. Now if you purchased a cheap card, very likely it is TLC Flash and only has < 1,000 writes.

With smaller geometries there are many downsides which requires modifying of firmware and circuitry. The manufacturers are not open about the endurance write spec on their products. However they comfort you with an offer of Lifetime Warranties, and for a product that has a Limited Life. Small comfort when you lose 100s of photos on shoot, who cares about the replacement card – where are my valuable images! NAND Flash has a limited number of writes and ultimately will fail with extended use.

Only advice I can give is look at Industrial Grade Products which use SLC NAND Flash. These products have Endurance Write Specs >2 million. They cost more, but extremely reliable, slower performance, but not an issue for the majority of serious photographers.

You are correct but SLC NAND is simply not an option these days as nobody is really making that type of memory any more. It's all MLC with few exceptions and the handful of SLC cards available now only do good in low-end point and shoot cameras due to their slow performance. With the controller tech currently used in cards, card failure due to "too many writes" is pretty difficult to achieve as the memory controllers spread writes around to achieve long-term sustainability.

 

[EricFiskCGD]

This also why huge cards may not always be a good idea. Many photographers choose to use multiple smaller cards. If you put all your photographic eggs in one CF/SD basket, when (not if) you have a problem with the card, you have lost a lot more data. Using smaller cards reduces the chances of losing all your photographs. Sure it is a little more hassle having to switch out cards..... but at least you are not switching film out after 24/36 shots. ;D

My free and worthless opinion: The more important the photoshoot, the more smaller cards I use. It is all about playing the odds.

I'll echo what's been said before - They don't make'em the way they used to. I would rather cover my bases with two 16GB SD than a 32GB SD card. I'm just a cautious fellow sometimes.