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I finally broke down and ordered a pair of new memory cards (SDHC). Some of mine are ten years old and still going strong, but I figured that I'm pushing my luck even though I'm not exactly a prolific photographer, especially these days. How often do you replace memory cards? Do you get rid of the old ones?

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My Canons took CF cards, still do in fact, they've always seemed indestructible to me, I really like them but I can see that you can't really fit one, let alone two, into a small camera like the Fujis or your Sony A6xxx. SD cards on the other hand are flimsy little things and I've had a couple fall apart, then you see that there's not much holding them together. I was probably a little careless putting them into the card reader one time but they could be made a little more rugged even so, mine are all Sandisk Extreme Pro. I've stayed away from the Micro versions and an adapter.

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2 minutes ago, Harry Harrison said:

My Canons took CF cards, still do in fact, they've always seemed indestructible to me, I really like them but I can see that you can't really fit one, let alone two, into a small camera like the Fujis or your Sony A6xxx. SD cards on the other hand are flimsy little things and I've had a couple fall apart, then you see that there's not much holding them together. I was probably a little careless putting them into the card reader one time but they could be made a little more rugged even so, mine are all Sandisk Extreme Pro. I've stayed away from the Micro versions and an adapter.

 

Yes, SD cards are flimsy but I've never had one fall apart or fail. Mine are all Kingston cheapies. Some online pundits claim that SD cards should last ten years, others say only a couple of years. The new ones I ordered are SanDisk. I used to use SanDisk CF cards with my Sony DSLR. They were also very reliable.

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I had a Transcend SD go bad a few years ago in Germany and lost a couple of images, but it was refunded under the lifetime guarantee. Getting a replacement from Micro Markt in Trier was very good for my German. The case on that one split after a couple of years and threatened to jam so I replaced it this year- it's a use-with-care spare now. Sandisk, like Harry's.

But it's not the memory as such, it's the mechanical aspects. They wear out.

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Funny you should ask, John. I recently bought a couple of 128GB San Disk Extreme Pro (whatever that means). They were on sale. Are they better than Ultra? I have about five or six 64GB Extreme Pro and I've never run out of space with those. 

 

I can order a beer in German, Mark, but I have more than enough trouble with this digital stuff in English. 

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Edo, I prefer smaller capacity cards. The ones I ordered were regular types and "only" 32GB. Guess I'm superstitious.

 

I have no idea what "Extreme Pro" means, except to say that I ain't one. 🤓

 

 

Edited by John Mitchell
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I had one SanDisk card go bad and the company was wonderful about replacing it and getting the images from it for me. So I have only bought that brand since then. As I remember, the problem was that it wouldn't format in my camera or in the camera of a friend. So I would have already downloaded the images.

 

Paulette

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I use SanDisc cards and when transferring the data, I use the built-in adapter of my laptop. A few months back I got the card out of the camera and put it into the laptop's slot, as usual. Done deal, but when I put the card back into the camera, I was unable to shoot... After a quick investigation, I found out that the lock switch plastic pin on the card is missing and the card was locked. At this very moment, I recall that at the time of putting the card into the slot, I found a small grey plastic bit on the floor and binned it. Funnily enough, I found it and, despite my large fingers, somehow put the thing back into the card. It is still in use, even though it's 10 years old, but now I use a CF card in the second camera slot as a backup, just in case... Lesson learned!

Edited by Ognyan Yosifov
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Yes,  I forgot to mention that pathetic little lock slide, I'm tempted to glue them all in the 'off' position as they keep catching the side of the card reader in the computer and locking themselves, I've also lost one on the floor. I see Sony make a 'tough' version, maybe that's what I need.

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10 hours ago, John Mitchell said:

I have no idea what "Extreme Pro" means

Marketing hyperbole but they are considerably faster than the ordinary Extreme by quite a number of seconds for each RAW file. As far as I can see from the only one that I have 'Ultra' is short for Ultra Slow.

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4 minutes ago, Harry Harrison said:

Marketing hyperbole but they are considerably faster than the ordinary Extreme by quite a number of seconds for each RAW file. As far as I can see from the only one that I have 'Ultra' is short for Ultra Slow.

I think Ultra is just the older version of Extreme/Extreme Pro

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Just now, Ognyan Yosifov said:

I think Ultra is just the older version of Extreme/Extreme Pro

Ah, that will explain it then, I'll dig it out and have a look. The figures printed on the cards are notoriously difficult to comprehend  and the headline figures in bold or larger print are particularly misleading as they will refer to the Read speed rather than the Write speed. This site seems quite handy:

 

https://www.cameramemoryspeed.com/

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10 minutes ago, Harry Harrison said:

Ah, that will explain it then, I'll dig it out and have a look. The figures printed on the cards are notoriously difficult to comprehend  and the headline figures in bold or larger print are particularly misleading as they will refer to the Read speed rather than the Write speed. This site seems quite handy:

 

https://www.cameramemoryspeed.com/

Yes, Extreme Pro ones are the fastest in the SanDisc line 😉 

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39 minutes ago, Harry Harrison said:

Yes,  I forgot to mention that pathetic little lock slide, I'm tempted to glue them all in the 'off' position as they keep catching the side of the card reader in the computer and locking themselves, I've also lost one on the floor. I see Sony make a 'tough' version, maybe that's what I need.

I cut a thin strip of sticky label and wrapped it round under the slide.

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11 hours ago, John Mitchell said:

Edo, I prefer smaller capacity cards. The ones I ordered were regular types and "only" 32GB. Guess I'm superstitious.

 

 

 

I don't even have any 32GB cards. I've used a pair of 16GB SanDisk Ultra CFs in my 5D2 for at least 8 years, plus an 8GB standby which I've probably had since the camera was new 13 years ago. I also have two 16GB SDs, an Extreme in my NEX6 and an Extreme Plus in my Tascam DR60.

 

The only time I've had a card fail is an 8GB CF after I installed Magic Lantern on it and it was never the same after.

 

Alan

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12 minutes ago, spacecadet said:

I cut a thin strip of sticky label and wrapped it round under the slide.

I'll do it today! Actually looking at that memory speed site for the Fuji X-Pro2 (I have an X-T2) the Micro versions are considerably cheaper for the same spec and seem easier to get hold of. I don't know if they cause other kinds of problems, perhaps they keep falling out of their adapters, but on the face of it will be the adapter that is getting the wear rather than the card itself.

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9 minutes ago, Harry Harrison said:

 Actually looking at that memory speed site for the Fuji X-Pro2 (I have an X-T2) the Micro versions are considerably cheaper for the same spec and seem easier to get hold of. I don't know if they cause other kinds of problems, perhaps they keep falling out of their adapters, but on the face of it will be the adapter that is getting the wear rather than the card itself.

My only dodgy one is a micro in an adapter but it was inherited from a phone so I don't know it's provenance. I just don't fancy the extra set of contacts, and the fit in the adapter seems rather loose- they stay in a phone virtually for life, but ours are in and out all the time. An extra couple of quid doesn't hurt.

I settled on 32 that time in Germany and it only got close to full in New Zealand. But my Sony compressed RAW is only 20MB. I imagine some would think me very light on the shutter release.

Edited by spacecadet
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4 minutes ago, spacecadet said:

An extra couple of quid doesn't hurt.

I take your point, could be kept in place with a judicious bit of that tape I suppose. It can be more than a couple of quid though, on that US site 64GB '95MB/s' Extreme Pro SD is $60 on Amazon and the Micro version is $14.50. That's the speed that I use in all my cameras.

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1 minute ago, Sandi said:

I buy a 64 MB cards (every year but never come anywhere close to filling it.

On Jan 1 I retire the used card, as an instant back-up and start a new one.

I can see the sense in that but I can't really do that as Lightroom takes an age to register all the (previously imported) images on the card before I can download the latest ones, maybe there's a way round that though?

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2 hours ago, Ognyan Yosifov said:

I use SanDisc cards and when transferring the data, I use the built-in adapter of my laptop. A few months back I got the card out of the camera and put it into the laptop's slot, as usual. Done deal, but when I put the card back into the camera, I was unable to shoot... After a quick investigation, I found out that the lock switch plastic pin on the card is missing and the card was locked. At this very moment, I recall that at the time of putting the card into the slot, I found a small grey plastic bit on the floor and binned it. Funnily enough, I found it and, despite my large fingers, somehow put the thing back into the card. It is still in use, even though it's 10 years old, but now I use a CF card in the second camera slot as a backup, just in case... Lesson learned!

 

That's amazing, Ognyan! Good for you. I have a hellish time just getting the card out of my Sony a6000. Oh! I'll use my tweezer!

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1 minute ago, Harry Harrison said:

I can see the sense in that but I can't really do that as Lightroom takes an age to register all the (previously imported) images on the card before I can download the latest ones, maybe there's a way round that though?

 

 

I download to Lightroom as I go. Then back it up onto another disk,

The Old SD card is a last resort back-up kept in a fire-safe box (this is in Australia)

 

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7 minutes ago, Harry Harrison said:

I take your point, could be kept in place with a judicious bit of that tape I suppose. It can be more than a couple of quid though, on that US site 64GB '95MB/s' Extreme Pro SD is $60 on Amazon and the Micro version is $14.50. That's the speed that I use in all my cameras.

I'm looking at the moment at my newly bought SanDisk Extreme Pro SDXC UHS-I 64Gb card (not the better UHS-II), 200MB/sec reading/90MB writing speed for the equivalent of 28 EUR, Bulgaria. Prices are equal no matter where in Europe you are.

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