# Sony "Tough" SD cards to reduce risk of card failure?



## Frodo (Dec 9, 2019)

I am considering purchasing a Sony "Tough" SD card as a way to reduce failure of the single SD card slot. My concern is that SD cards are physically fragile and I once had an SD card split, rendering it inoperable. The Sony Tough cards are one piece and do not have a potentially vulnerable write protect tab. 
It does not appear that I will gain much from the higher speed of the UHS II card, so the main benefit is physical robustness.
Your thoughts?


----------



## privatebydesign (Dec 9, 2019)

I'd look at it like this. 
1: How many times have I personally lost images on SD cards that are truly unrecoverable.
2: What was their value.
3: What is the industry standard for failure rate.
4: Is the Sony failure rate appreciably improved on the 'standard' failure rate.

Answer those four questions and you have some data to do a calculation of value to your personal situation.

For me the answers are 
1: Never.
2: See 1
3: See 1
4: See 1

So for me the equation is simple, I buy Sandisk memory and SSD's when they are on specials always from a reputable dealer, not Amazon affiliates or the like.

Now that doesn't mean I haven't done stupid things with SD cards, I have run them through washing machines and yes I have broken them, but on each occasion I have got the data off of it. Didn't help when I lost one once but having a better card wouldn't have helped then either.


----------



## Bennymiata (Dec 9, 2019)

UHS-ll cards will only improve your speed if your camera is UHS-ll compliant.
Otherwise it's a waste.


----------



## privatebydesign (Dec 10, 2019)

Bennymiata said:


> UHS-ll cards will only improve your speed if your camera is UHS-ll compliant.
> Otherwise it's a waste.


Or your card reader, ingress can be time consuming especially with big cards with a lot of data.


----------



## Mt Spokane Photography (Dec 10, 2019)

privatebydesign said:


> Or your card reader, ingress can be time consuming especially with big cards with a lot of data.


Or the camera you get this Christmas, or next year. I bought a R last year, so I have a bunch of older cards that I don't want to use and bought two new ones. 

That was a waste.


----------



## privatebydesign (Dec 10, 2019)

Mt Spokane Photography said:


> Or the camera you get this Christmas, or next year. I bought a R last year, so I have a bunch of older cards that I don't want to use and bought two new ones.
> 
> That was a waste.


I end up buying whatever capacity of cards I need and keep them for each camera, that way you get the right speed and capacity for the current camera, I then pass those cards along with that camera when I sell it/give it away so I don't end up with a frustrating array of comparatively small capacity and slow cards when I get a new body. 

I am not an especially high volume shooter so each camera will have one or two dedicated cards. My M5 has a single Sandisk 128GB SD card, my 1DX MkII's have single 64GB capacity CFast and CF cards each. I like to KISS


----------



## Mt Spokane Photography (Dec 10, 2019)

We have multiple devices that use cards, my 5D MK IV, my wife's compact camera, and several other cameras that I just keep around. I tend to collect old cameras, I still have my first one, a Olympus that used a Smart Card which is long gone from modern cameras, but I have a few because I keep them. I still have a type III PCMIA card, I may yet find a vintage camera that needs it. I sold my old Kodak DSLR and included one of my cards.


----------



## mkamelg (Dec 11, 2019)

Frodo said:


> I am considering purchasing a Sony "Tough" SD card as a way to reduce failure of the single SD card slot. My concern is that SD cards are physically fragile and I once had an SD card split, rendering it inoperable. The Sony Tough cards are one piece and do not have a potentially vulnerable write protect tab.
> It does not appear that I will gain much from the higher speed of the UHS II card, so the main benefit is physical robustness.
> Your thoughts?



This is what a SDHC 32GB Sony SF-G TOUGH UHS-II memory card looks like after six and a half months of daily use.



 



There are abrasions visible as bright spots in the corners of the card. How were they created? I would like to know myself. The housing of this memory card is very stiff, it is probably even stiffer than those used in Delkin Devices memory cards. Probably something in the memory card reader works like a file and "attacks" the memory card housing.

You have five years warranty (it says so on the back of the box in its upper left corner) on this memory card. Yes, there's no lifetime warranty here.

You have access to two very usefull applications https://www.sony.com/electronics/support/memory-cards-sd-cards/sf-g32t/downloads

A few days ago I had the opportunity to use this Memory Card File Rescue application because I accidentally deleted one file in the CR3 raw format and I was able to recover it without any problems.

Personally, I can't imagine working with EOS R without UHS-II speed class memory card (regardless of the brand), this type of memory card is the "key to success" when working with this camera.

"It does not appear that I will gain much from the higher speed of the UHS II card, so the main benefit is physical robustness."

Do you really think so?






Canon EOS R Fastest SD Cards UHS-II vs UHS-I comparison of Write Speed in the EOS R Mirrorless Digital Camera - Camera Memory Speed Comparison & Performance tests for SD and CF cards


Canon EOS R SD card speed comparison. Recommended memory cards for the fullframe mirrorless digital camera for fast continuous shooting. Which Secure Digital memory cards to buy for the EOS-R.




www.cameramemoryspeed.com


----------



## Frodo (Dec 11, 2019)

mkamelg said:


> "It does not appear that I will gain much from the higher speed of the UHS II card, so the main benefit is physical robustness."
> 
> Do you really think so?
> 
> ...



Thanks for sharing that link about memory card speed. There is no real difference between the best UHS-I cards and UHS-II cards until the EOS R buffer fills up. Indeed that report states: "UHS-I cards can provide decent performance in the EOS R for short bursts of photos, up to around 20 shots in RAW". I can not remember ever (including previous cameras) shooting a burst of more than 20 images. Hence my conclusion about speed not being of much benefit for me.

Your photos do show the 1 piece nature of the Sony Tough cards. The only SD failure I've experienced was when the two halves of an SD card separated and I've noticed that this and the plastic strips between the contacts on other cards appears to be vulnerable to physical damage. Privatebydesign has also broken them.

Your experience indicates that the Sony cards are built tough.


----------



## Frodo (Dec 11, 2019)

An interesting snippet in a report linked to the article mkamelg circulated.
This shows that the UHS-II performance is very good (even though it doesn't reach the UHS-II theoretical maximum), beating the Sony A9, which prides itself with speed.




Sony SF-G 300MB/s UHS-II 32GB
Tested in CameraWrite Speed
(MB/s)Canon EOS R176.5Fuji X-T3160.1Sony A9146.3Panasonic GH586.5Nikon D750081.2Canon Rebel T7i81.1Canon 77D80.8Canon EOS M580.1Nikon Coolpix P100034.0


----------



## koenkooi (Dec 12, 2019)

Frodo said:


> Thanks for sharing that link about memory card speed. There is no real difference between the best UHS-I cards and UHS-II cards until the EOS R buffer fills up. Indeed that report states: "UHS-I cards can provide decent performance in the EOS R for short bursts of photos, up to around 20 shots in RAW". I can not remember ever (including previous cameras) shooting a burst of more than 20 images. Hence my conclusion about speed not being of much benefit for me.[..]



I went with UHS-II for everything because my cardreader can actually achieve the 300MB/s read speed, which is like 10 RAWs per second. Very nice if you return from a day of shooting with a 1000+ images on your card


----------



## Frodo (Apr 19, 2020)

See this post here for a physical problem with a Lexar card that may have caused focusing problems with my R: https://www.canonrumors.com/forum/i...ocusing-whats-the-deal-with-that.36625/page-2
The little used Lexar has gone in the trash and I have ordered replacement Sony Tough cards without the fragile ribs.


----------



## SecureGSM (Apr 19, 2020)

Frodo said:


> See this post here for a physical problem with a Lexar card that may have caused focusing problems with my R: https://www.canonrumors.com/forum/i...ocusing-whats-the-deal-with-that.36625/page-2
> The little used Lexar has gone in the trash and I have ordered replacement Sony Tough cards without the fragile ribs.


I suggest you could remove the card and enable release shutter without card option. Then take some photos and observe EVF behaviour when shooting without card. Personally,I do not see how the card can affect focusing. Card is engaged only for writing of the taken exposure.


----------



## Frodo (Apr 19, 2020)

Hi SGSM, yes I couldn't see the link between the broken card and the AF behaviour. But, I'd never experienced that before in 10,000 exposures and never used that card in the camera. I hope it is the cause because its the first time my EOS R has let me down. I'm open as to what else caused the AF problem.


----------



## Frodo (Apr 25, 2020)

Scrub my last post. The problem happened again with a Sony card. I thought a card was unlikely to cause this, but a coincidence. My current thinking is that it is a mechanism built into the camera to protect the sensor when shooting wide apertures in bright sunlight. Still a bit of a pain as it seems to reduce focusing accuracy.


----------



## briangus (Jun 16, 2020)

Looks like an issue with some of these Sony Tough cards.
Luckily all mines are TR's

https://www.sony.com/electronics/support/memory-cards-sd-cards/sf-m128t/articles/00246463


----------



## Frodo (Jun 17, 2020)

Thanks for that. Both my Tough cards are affected and the Sony people will replace them.


----------



## Random Orbits (Jun 20, 2020)

briangus said:


> Looks like an issue with some of these Sony Tough cards.
> Luckily all mines are TR's
> 
> https://www.sony.com/electronics/support/memory-cards-sd-cards/sf-m128t/articles/00246463



I bought one because they were highly recommended. Mine is a TR, but over the last week, I've lost 4 images from a couple sessions from it. Low level format between the sessions did not fix the issue. I wouldn't be surprised if the "bad cards" range is increased in the future. I had a really bad experience with a Sony DLP TV and now this card. I'm going to avoid Sony stuff like the plague unless it's something I consider "disposable." This is the main reason why I've stuck with Canon. Canon is better with warranty repairs and they actually support their equipment longer.


----------



## briangus (Jun 21, 2020)

Random Orbits said:


> I bought one because they were highly recommended. Mine is a TR, but over the last week, I've lost 4 images from a couple sessions from it. Low level format between the sessions did not fix the issue. I wouldn't be surprised if the "bad cards" range is increased in the future. I had a really bad experience with a Sony DLP TV and now this card. I'm going to avoid Sony stuff like the plague unless it's something I consider "disposable." This is the main reason why I've stuck with Canon. Canon is better with warranty repairs and they actually support their equipment longer.



As a rule I never buy Sony but at the time in Singapore nobody was selling anything other than Sony UHS-II cards.
I'm not sure if I have lost any photos but what I have observed is that not all photos are imported.
Sometimes just random raws missed but latterly only about 3/4 of the raws were imported.
Was blaming the C1 importer and a high number of raws on the card.
I ended up copiyng the missing raws into the folder and then re importing into C1 - that worked.


----------



## SteveC (Jun 21, 2020)

briangus said:


> As a rule I never buy Sony



So if you come on here some day griping about Canon cameras and announce you're buying a Sony...we can assume your account has been hacked?


----------



## briangus (Jun 21, 2020)

SteveC said:


> So if you come on here some day griping about Canon cameras and announce you're buying a Sony...we can assume your account has been hacked?



Absolutely, I am ABS (Anything but Sony) rather the IBIS ( I believe in Sony)
I will admit to picking one up once, just out of curiosity,


----------



## SteveC (Jun 21, 2020)

briangus said:


> Absolutely, I am ABS (Anything but Sony) rather the IBIS ( I believe in Sony)
> I will admit to picking one up once, just out of curiosity,



I've sworn off them forever because of other crap they sell. It sounds to me like they STILL have no concept of human factors engineering, 20 years after I ditched them because of the asinine decisions they made. How about a DVD player that would go into standby mode when you powered it up. Yes, you had to tell it twice you wanted it to be on, once wasn't enough. (DId it occur to those donkeyporking morons that when someone turns it on, they might be turning it on to watch a video NOW, not an hour from now?) Or worse, picture a portable CD player, that, when powered off, resets to volume set to full blast. If you forget, you'll blast your eardrums into your skull the next time you start it up with headphones on. That one was worthy of being a target at the gun range.


----------



## Frodo (Jun 22, 2020)

If Canon produced strong one-piece UHS-II cards, without the fragile ribs alongside the contacts and without the stupid write-protection switch, I'd buy them.
So far, I haven't lost any images on the Sony cards...
I'm very happy with my R (I shot a gig in low light on Saturday and then a house concert with silent shutter it was brilliant. The single card slot is the single biggest gripe I ahve with the camera. So I need robust and reliable cards.


----------



## briangus (Jun 23, 2020)

Frodo said:


> If Canon produced strong one-piece UHS-II cards, without the fragile ribs alongside the contacts and without the stupid write-protection switch, I'd buy them.
> So far, I haven't lost any images on the Sony cards...
> I'm very happy with my R (I shot a gig in low light on Saturday and then a house concert with silent shutter it was brilliant. The single card slot is the single biggest gripe I ahve with the camera. So I need robust and reliable cards.



Glad to see you are still shooting gigs, not done since March and not sure when will get to do again.
I only had a broken rib on a card once and it was the non Tough Sony UHS-II
As in it cost $340 sing i still use it without issues, not sure what these ribs are there for as seem to have no purpose.
Got me thinking why I had only seen this issue once so I checked all my Sandisk Extreme and Extreme Pro and they don't have ribs.
They do seem fairly robust as well and though they do have a write switch but not see nay problem with that as never touch it


----------



## David - Sydney (Jun 29, 2020)

the question for me is whether to buy cards for the R5 in advance as they are on special until the end of June in Australia (end of financial year). 
The list of qualified cards for the R5 is clearly not available yet but it seems unlikely that the USH-II cards with 300mb/s will not be included ie Sandisk extreme pro and Sony tough. They seem to be the fastest available anyway.
Any thoughts? I am on the right track?

For CFe, it is much less certain as there is a small list of approved cards for the 1DXiii and they "only" deal with 5.5k raw. I am unlikely to use 8k often in the near future or maybe at all. 4k120 is more likely at times but only for short clips. Still, if I am going to invest this much then I should get something that works if/when needed. From what I can see, the write speeds vary hugely. I am guessing that a CFe card/reader will be part of a R5 bundle.

The Canon Website indicates that for RAW movie 5.5k60p Recording four CFExpress Cards are supported: 
ProGrade Cobalt 325GB; 
SanDisk Extreme Pro 512GB; and
Lexar 256 and 128 GB cards. 

progradedigital dot com/products/cfexpress/
Max speed, size, avg speed
600MB/s Gold 120GB => Avg 145MB/s
1000MB/s Gold 256GB => 350MB/s
1000MB/s Gold 512GB-1T => 500MB/s
1400MB/s Cobalt 325GB => 1300MB/s
The avg to max speed difference is huge from 25% to 50% for gold but cobalt is pretty close to max.

Sandisk write speeds with no mention of sustained/average speed! link is:
shop dot westerndigital dot com/products/memory-cards/sandisk-extreme-pro-cfexpress-type-b#SDCFE-064G-ANCIN
64GB 800 MB/s
128/256GB 1200 MB/s
521GB 1400 MB/s

Lexar. I can't find a datasheet for them... only 64GB — 512GB Up to 1750MB/s read, up to 1000MB/s write.
If Lexar 128/256GB cards are okay for the 1DXiii (assumed) 1000MB/s then why aren't the Sandisk 128/256GB included?

Sony tough
128/256GB up to 1480MB/s


----------

