# Canon R5 issue - camera suddenly stopped writing photos to the CFe and SD cards and lost a batch of them



## tonidavid5 (May 15, 2022)

Hi there,

I've had my first serious issue when working with my R5. I'm a recent owner and have only shot around 5.000 pictures with it, with no problems until today.

I was shooting an event ceremony, 45 minutes in, when I tried to play and peak the last pictures of an important moment of the event I had just gone through, and suddenly realized that the camera was displaying something similar to 'No Card1 detected' (can't remember exactly in the rush of things).

As far as I remember the R5 had been shooting (I was using the EVF) and the flash was firing as expected during those last shots, but just saw the message. I tried to recycle (turn off/on) the camera but then I had a message the camera was saving 23 photos to the SD card ... but never progressed.

I have the camera configured to simultaneously record RAWs to the CFe and JPGs to the SD. The R5 is on the latest v1.5.2 firmware.

I remember just opening the card door and removing the cards for a couple of seconds. The camera turned off and when turned back on, both cards were again recognised and operational as usual. I continued with the shoot with no other issues.

Unfortunately, I've lost 23 photos of an important moment (none were recorded to the SD card either). Thankfully, at least they were captured by my partner with the B-cam.

I all my first-amateur then pro years, I've never had anything similar to this issue. I've searched through the internet and have not found anything that resembles the issue I had today. It was not a 'camera lockup' (I've read those threads), at least I think it wasn't.

My Sony Tough CFe 128MB and my Sandisk Extreme Pro SD had been working faultlessly up to the day.

Obviously, I'm now very concerned because this leaves open to other occurrences of something I may not realize until too late (as I said, the camera seemed to be shooting ok through the EVF until I tried to double check the last shots on the LCD)

Anyone has heard of anything similar to this issue?


----------



## koenkooi (May 17, 2022)

Have you set this setting to 'OFF'? 



Canon : Product Manual : EOS R5 : Releasing Shutter without Card


----------



## tonidavid5 (May 17, 2022)

koenkooi said:


> Have you set this setting to 'OFF'?
> 
> 
> 
> Canon : Product Manual : EOS R5 : Releasing Shutter without Card


Yes, it's one of the first things I do when configuring a camera.


----------



## LAURIE P. (Jul 15, 2022)

This too recently happened to me. The camera stopped recording images to both cards. When I pressed preview it would just jump back to another image. I took the cards out and replaced both and it then started working. I am wondering if the cards became overheated. I wasn't event shooting that fast, but the main cf express card was hot. About 15 images didn't record.


----------



## LorenDiaz (Dec 16, 2022)

This happened to me with wedding day photos. Has anyone been able to recover the lost images? I’ve been shooting for 14 years and this has never happened


----------



## SHAMwow (Dec 17, 2022)

That's scary. But I'm confused on two things. Were the images not there when you went to playback? Or were they only confirmed not there when you cycled the camera? Maybe it did glitch out but the photos were only lost when the camera turned off and it was still writing? Any visual memory of the red light going off that it was still writing to the cards ?


----------



## Sporgon (Dec 17, 2022)

Don’t let anyone who believes a camera body must have two card slots to safeguard against card errors read this, they’d have a meltdown.


----------



## AlanF (Dec 17, 2022)

Sporgon said:


> Don’t let anyone who believes a camera body must have two card slots to safeguard against card errors read this, they’d have a meltdown.


Having two card slots won't safeguard against a failure to read to both slots but it will against a failure to read to one.


----------



## Mt Spokane Photography (Dec 17, 2022)

Usually, when a camera fails to write to a card due to a bad sector on the card, it hangs. I'd mark both cards as questionable and eventually give them a full check by doing a sector by sector format that writes to every memory cell (a long process for a large card). If the card tests bad, I'd call Canon support and ask why the second card did not keep on writing when an error on one card was found.
A card can appear to work just fine, right up to the point where it tries to write to a bad sector. Then, the writing stops. You can restart the camera and it will start writing to a different area of the card for future saves, but that bad sector is still there waiting for another attempt to write to it. That may be a day, week or month into the future depending on how much data is usually written at a use.


----------



## HeavyPiper (Dec 17, 2022)

Mt. Spokane, thanks for the info.


----------



## Frodo (Dec 18, 2022)

I use Sony Tough SD cards because they are physically stronger than other cards. However, shortly after I purchased 2 , I got a recall and they were replaced. I didn't have any issues before or after, but you may wish to check if yours were in a recalled batch


----------



## SHAMwow (Dec 19, 2022)

Frodo said:


> I use Sony Tough SD cards because they are physically stronger than other cards. However, shortly after I purchased 2 , I got a recall and they were replaced. I didn't have any issues before or after, but you may wish to check if yours were in a recalled batch


Are they though? I always read this as a marketing gimmick.


----------



## Frodo (Dec 19, 2022)

SHAMwow said:


> Are they though? I always read this as a marketing gimmick.


Definitely! I've only ever had two SD cards fail, both because the housing split. Very unlikely with the Sony Tough, which are one piece and don't have an erase tab. I bought them when I was shooting events on my R and wanted to reduce the risk of the single card failing.


----------



## koenkooi (Dec 19, 2022)

SHAMwow said:


> Are they though? I always read this as a marketing gimmick.


@Frodo covered most of it already, but the main reason I switched to the Sony cards was that a ribs between the contacts broke off and wedged itself *in the camera slot*. A soft wooden toothpick, gravity and patience fixed that, but it wasn't fun.

Sample size=3, so far the Sony Tough cards have lived up to their claims, for both the rated speeds and durability. 

On the left is a Sony Tough card, on the right a Sandisk Extreme Pro Turbo Equinox one million. I circled the bit that broke off on the other Sandisk.


----------



## Del Paso (Dec 19, 2022)

I have 2 cameras with a single slot. And fortunately a 5 D IV.
Never had an issue.
But I live in constant fear it could happen, and it certainly will, in months, years or decades (if I live that long).
Therefore, for "irreplaceable shots", I feel obliged to use 2 cameras, safe, but not practical.
Nobody will ever convince me that double-slots aren't a huge advantage. But 2 cameras are even safer...


----------



## AlanF (Dec 19, 2022)

koenkooi said:


> @Frodo covered most of it already, but the main reason I switched to the Sony cards was that a ribs between the contacts broke off and wedged itself *in the camera slot*. A soft wooden toothpick, gravity and patience fixed that, but it wasn't fun.
> 
> Sample size=3, so far the Sony Tough cards have lived up to their claims, for both the rated speeds and durability.
> 
> ...


Do you routinely download using a card reader?


----------



## koenkooi (Dec 19, 2022)

AlanF said:


> Do you routinely download using a card reader?


Pretty much always! And which reader you use also matters. 

The reader Lexar includes with their 'fast' SD cards is very tight and will snag on multiple points on the SD card. And 90% of the time it will move the WP switch to read-only when inserting. The Lexar LRW400 CF/SD reader is the best one so far, it's fast, can collapse to keep out dust and the SD slot isn't tight. The ribs on the Sandisk broke after I was lazy and used the built-in reader on my macbook pro, big mistake.

If the M6II would use USB3 instead of USB2 I'd consider using that, I'm already charging the camera that way


----------



## AlanF (Dec 19, 2022)

koenkooi said:


> Pretty much always! And which reader you use also matters.
> 
> The reader Lexar includes with their 'fast' SD cards is very tight and will snag on multiple points on the SD card. And 90% of the time it will move the WP switch to read-only when inserting. The Lexar LRW400 CF/SD reader is the best one so far, it's fast, can collapse to keep out dust and the SD slot isn't tight. The ribs on the Sandisk broke after I was lazy and used the built-in reader on my macbook pro, big mistake.
> 
> If the M6II would use USB3 instead of USB2 I'd consider using that, I'm already charging the camera that way


I use the cable to the camera, it's slow but I prefer it to taking the cards out. I do sometimes use the included Lexar reader.


----------



## Frodo (Dec 19, 2022)

AlanF said:


> I use the cable to the camera, it's slow but I prefer it to taking the cards out. I do sometimes use the included Lexar reader.


I always use card readers. Reduces the (small) risk of damaging the USB port, especially if its hard connected to the camera motherboard.
As Roger Cicala and Aaron Closz found in their tear-down of the R5, the USB and other ports on that side are attached directly to the main PCB.


----------

