# Lexar CF cards FAIL - Sandisk?



## Benhider (Mar 10, 2013)

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?


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## Mt Spokane Photography (Mar 10, 2013)

No, my Lexar cards are fine. Sandisk is reported on this forum to have some issues.

How many cards failed? You make it sound as though you have a lot of them and they all failed.

Individual cards fail, and, of course, counterfits fail frequently. Even batches of a certain lot can have a die flaw.

Which cards failed,? Is there a serial number laser engraved on the back edge of the card. I'd ask for it, but mine is a very long code and I'd likely make a error copying it. (Its hard to see, because its engraved on black)


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## Rienzphotoz (Mar 10, 2013)

I currently have 2 Lexar 64GB CF cards and both work perfectly ... I've also had Lexar 4GB, 8GB & 16GB CF cards, none of the ever failed me ... not even once.


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## brett b (Mar 10, 2013)

I've seen a couple of posts complaining about Lexar cards. I've been considering getting a few of the Pro 1000x cards for the speed. Now I'm hesitant. 
I've been using Sandisk for many years. I also have one Photofast card. I haven't had any failures with any of them. 
Where did you purchase your cards? My understanding is that there are a lot of counterfeit cards being sold on Amazon.
In what camera body/bodies of yours have the Lexar cards failed?
My Sandisk cards have been used in many bodies without a failure:
1Dx, 1DIV, 1DsIII, 1DsII, 1DIIn


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## Mt Spokane Photography (Mar 10, 2013)

brett b said:


> I've seen a couple of posts complaining about Lexar cards. I've been considering getting a few of the Pro 1000x cards for the speed. Now I'm hesitant.
> I've been using Sandisk for many years. I also have one Photofast card. I haven't had any failures with any of them.
> Where did you purchase your cards? My understanding is that there are a lot of counterfeit cards being sold on Amazon.
> In what camera body/bodies of yours have the Lexar cards failed?
> ...


 
Since Lexar replaced them for him, they are not counterfits, but it is unusual for cards to fail.


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## Orangutan (Mar 10, 2013)

How many times had you used the cards before the failure? CF manufacturing defects tend to show up early in the use life of the device. *You should test your cards thoroughly *before you trust them for important work.

http://www.canonrumors.com/forum/index.php?topic=13413.msg241802#msg241802

Every manufacturer has some defective product, so you won't necessarily be any better off with a different brand.


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## Robert Welch (Mar 10, 2013)

I've used both Lexar and Sandisk with pretty much equal success. I had some Sandisk cards fail on me about 10 years ago, but since then, the only other card I've had fail was a Delkin.

I think Lexar and Sandisk haver similarly good products, they both have some who have had problems, but the problem rate is rather low I would think. Those who do have problems are very vocal, of course, and may make it seem that the products are worthless, and that is understandable. If you've had a number of Lexar cards fail on you, then you are not likely to continue to use Lexar and I wouldn't blame you. But you can find this is the case for any card, I'm sure.

If you really want the highest quality card, and are willing to pay for it, you can get the Transend 300x UDMA 16GB, which have a different type of error correction built in:

http://www.amazon.com/Transcend-300x-CompactFlash-Memory-TS16GCF300/dp/B0017NO1H2

Be careful, though, not all Transcend cards use this technology, and I don't think the ones that don't have as good a reputation as either Lexar or Sandisk, from what I can tell. The only Transcends I know for sure have this is the one I linked to, and you can tell by the price (almost 3x the price of the regular Transcend cards), it's not cheap technology.


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## Efka76 (Mar 13, 2013)

It could be the case that you have fake Lexar cards and that's why they are failing. Lexar, Sandisk, Transcend are all really well known firms and I have never heard that their production is failing (massively, as in your case).

Another reason could be that you improperly handle them. In such case Sandisk and others will fail as well.

In my opinion, try to buy original cards and your problems will be solved


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## expatinasia (Mar 14, 2013)

I too have never had any problems with my Lexar cards, in fact I just purchased two 1000X 32GB cards for the extra speed they offer. SanDisk's fastest aren't quite up to the same speed yet.


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## francorossi (Mar 14, 2013)

I had the same error with a 32GB 400x Lexar. I tried to recovery in Lexar and Sandisk software and both fail. Found online a software called CardRescue that save all files from the card, only 3 losses. Since then i usually test this card in recreational shots, and it never had that error again.


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## demwilliams (Mar 14, 2013)

Hello,

If you contact Lexar @ 1-877-747-4031 we will be glad to help you sort through your card issue, 



Regards
Lexar support


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## Studio1930 (Mar 14, 2013)

I have had two Sandisk cards fail but none of my 10 Lexar 1000x cards have failed. 1Ds2, 1Ds3, 1D4, 1DX. The Lexar cards have tens of thousands of shots on them each (if not hundreds of thousands).


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## expatinasia (Mar 14, 2013)

demwilliams said:


> Hello,
> 
> If you contact Lexar @ 1-877-747-4031 we will be glad to help you sort through your card issue,
> 
> ...



Sorry if this sounds cynical, but has anyone verified if this is a valid Lexar number? I am not in the US, so am not about to call it to find out! 

If so, then wow!! That's what I call customer service, and I am even more pleased to be a customer of Lexar's best cards.


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## Stickman (Mar 15, 2013)

expatinasia said:



> Sorry if this sounds cynical, but has anyone verified if this is a valid Lexar number?



You mean getting crazy like doing a cut and paste into google, and finding it as the primary number for Lexar support as listed on their webpage? 

http://www.lexar.com/support


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## m (Mar 15, 2013)

expatinasia said:


> Sorry if this sounds cynical, but has anyone verified if this is a valid Lexar number?


http://www.lexar.com/support

I'm running 2 cheap kingstons, which some other cameras can't even read. (from that other brand, of course )
Never had any issues with them.


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## expatinasia (Mar 15, 2013)

Stickman said:


> You mean getting crazy like doing a cut and paste into google, and finding it as the primary number for Lexar support as listed on their webpage?
> 
> http://www.lexar.com/support



Yes, something like that. 8) I knew posting before my first coffee of the morning was a bad idea. 

Thanks!


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## Benhider (Mar 17, 2013)

Studio1930 said:


> I have had two Sandisk cards fail but none of my 10 Lexar 1000x cards have failed. 1Ds2, 1Ds3, 1D4, 1DX. The Lexar cards have tens of thousands of shots on them each (if not hundreds of thousands).



Obviously I have already contacted Lexar, and there was no recovering the images! They did an extended recovery, and could only replace the card at best.

I'm switching to Sandisk, but also doubling all data at time of creation. (additonal SD on mark iii and CF on 1DX)


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## willhunt (Mar 18, 2013)

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.


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## thepancakeman (Mar 18, 2013)

willhunt said:


> 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.


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## acoll123 (Mar 18, 2013)

thepancakeman said:


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


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 . . .


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## willhunt (Mar 18, 2013)

thepancakeman said:


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


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.


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## acoll123 (Mar 18, 2013)

acoll123 said:


> thepancakeman said:
> 
> 
> > willhunt said:
> ...



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 . . .


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## Simon_X_George (Mar 18, 2013)

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.


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## AriesPhoto (Aug 25, 2013)

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!!


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## alexanderferdinand (Sep 12, 2013)

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


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## wickidwombat (Sep 16, 2013)

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


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## CarlTN (Sep 16, 2013)

wickidwombat said:


> 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!


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## wickidwombat (Sep 17, 2013)

CarlTN said:


> wickidwombat said:
> 
> 
> > 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.
> ...



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


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## CarlTN (Sep 17, 2013)

wickidwombat said:


> CarlTN said:
> 
> 
> > wickidwombat said:
> ...



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!


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## Mt Spokane Photography (Sep 17, 2013)

willhunt said:


> 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?
> ...


 
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.


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## CarlTN (Sep 17, 2013)

Mt Spokane Photography said:


> willhunt said:
> 
> 
> > 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.
> ...



Maybe other people took photos and video of it?


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## Auscrox (Mar 6, 2014)

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.


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## markwilliams279 (Mar 6, 2014)

Benhider said:


> 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 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.


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## CarlTN (Mar 7, 2014)

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.


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## EricFiskCGD (Mar 19, 2014)

Auscrox said:


> 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.
> 
> ...



+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?


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## AcutancePhotography (Mar 19, 2014)

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.


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## tron (Mar 19, 2014)

EricFiskCGD said:


> Auscrox said:
> 
> 
> > 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?
> ...



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...


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## RustyTheGeek (Mar 19, 2014)

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/


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## LookingThroughMyLens81 (Mar 19, 2014)

Auscrox said:


> 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.
> 
> ...



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.


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## EricFiskCGD (Mar 19, 2014)

AcutancePhotography said:


> 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.


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## kbmelb (Mar 19, 2014)

I've never had an issue with Lexar Pro CF cards. The only failures I've had with with two Sandisk that were purchased at the same time from same retail store. So I'm _kinda_ writing that off as a bad batch. I was able to retrieve images off each. They started throwing out error warnings on the camera and I knew to shut them down. But since I tend to trust Lexar a little more than the Sandisk.


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## CanonOregon (Mar 20, 2014)

Agreed with a couple of posts- be SURE to buy your cards from reputable dealers first off. Second, format cards before first use and before reusing and every once in a while twice. And finally, most pros will only use their cards a maximum of two years. Generally new technology is coming out by then but that's slowed lately too. And with CF cards you do have to be careful to not bend pins. Never just throw one in a pocket without a case as lint can fill those holes and bend a pin. 
Static discharge can create problems too. With so many variables it's hard to narrow down what really caused the problem. Pressure on the case can break contacts within the card as well, making it unreadable. There really isn't a reason any one name brand should have a higher failure rate as many of the components are by just one or two suppliers. So, good luck and hopefully your issues are behind you!


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## tron (Mar 20, 2014)

EricFiskCGD said:


> AcutancePhotography said:
> 
> 
> > 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
> ...


I will echo too...

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)


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## Rienzphotoz (Mar 20, 2014)

CanonOregon said:


> Agreed with a couple of posts- be SURE to buy your cards from reputable dealers first off. Second, format cards before first use and before reusing and every once in a while twice. And finally, most pros will only use their cards a maximum of two years. Generally new technology is coming out by then but that's slowed lately too. And with CF cards you do have to be careful to not bend pins. Never just throw one in a pocket without a case as lint can fill those holes and bend a pin.
> Static discharge can create problems too. With so many variables it's hard to narrow down what really caused the problem. Pressure on the case can break contacts within the card as well, making it unreadable. There really isn't a reason any one name brand should have a higher failure rate as many of the components are by just one or two suppliers. So, good luck and hopefully your issues are behind you!


+1


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## EricFiskCGD (Mar 20, 2014)

tron said:


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


And I'll "+ 1"

I'm talking to a photographer friend about this thread and she swears by this rule of thumb - if she's paid to do a small job she buys TWO 16 Gig SD cards. If it's a big job then she buys four 16 GB SD cards... and when she's done with the job she archives the sticks because you never know when a customer will ask for a specific picture at a specific time...

... granted, I guess she has a ton of SD cards that are locked away in a safe somewhere that she'll never reuse but she covers her bases at least two different ways at the same time.


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## chris haylett (Mar 20, 2014)

I just had a Lexar 32GB 1000x card fail and Lexar support told me that if I wasn't using a UDMA7 card reader that eventually all my UDMA7 cards would fail. I had been using an older firewire800/non-UDMA7 card reader and have now switched to the latest card reader from Lexar. Never heard of that before but that is directly from Lexar.


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## infared (Mar 20, 2014)

Hey...I had a Lexar Pro 1000X 32GB CF card fail on me last month. It was a couple of years old, had moderate use...of course it failed when I go up before sunrise to shoot a ship with magic sky before sun comes up...LOL! Never had a card failure before..I would shoot 9-10 photos with my 5DIII and then I would get an error message (dont recall what it was...I was almost awake! LOL)..so I turned the camera off..turned it back on...took a look at the images on the card..(they were there)...and finally I switched over to the SD card (what a luxury!!!) after the light was NOT as good ...LOL....
When I got home I could not upload from the card and I ran recovery software (Lexar or Sandisk can't recall of the top of my head which), that I had run in the past and it recovered images off of a card that I had formatted in the camera twice!...but no luck here...the card was dead. 
I did contact Lexar...had to get thru a screening process and was able to send the card into them and get it fixed or replaced...I am not sure which. It has been working fine since then...
Oh...I am pretty careful and methodical too. I always turn the camera off before removing the card, always eject the disk on my computer, etc...so I think it was definitely faulty manufacturing with the card.


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## RustyTheGeek (Mar 20, 2014)

chris haylett said:


> I just had a Lexar 32GB 1000x card fail and Lexar support told me that if I wasn't using a UDMA7 card reader that eventually all my UDMA7 cards would fail. I had been using an older firewire800/non-UDMA7 card reader and have now switched to the latest card reader from Lexar. Never heard of that before but that is directly from Lexar.



From an electronics, engineering and otherwise common sense viewpoint, what they told you is total hogwash.

I'm an IT guy by trade, I've been immersed in various electronics for 30 years and I have never heard anything so ridiculous. If you can find this odd fact confirmed somewhere, fine, I'll eat my words but in general, a reader is just that, a reader. The SD specifications for compatibility state how the device, chipset and firmware are supposed to work and SD cards & readers are backward compatible. If they weren't, there would be some physical notch preventing insertion.

http://kb.sandisk.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/2520/~/sd%2Fsdhc%2Fsdxc-specifications-and-compatibility

The only thing that is going to cause compatibility problems has to do with the upper level file system format (FAT32, exFAT, etc) not how the device is accessed by the reader itself.

The only difference between the different specifications is transfer rate. Period.


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## Ellen Schmidtee (Apr 7, 2014)

Efka76 said:


> It could be the case that you have fake Lexar cards and that's why they are failing. Lexar, Sandisk, Transcend are all really well known firms and I have never heard that their production is failing (massively, as in your case).



Had a Sandisk disk-on-key fail out of the box. Couldn't copy anything larger than ~100KB to it.

Had an Intel processor fail straight from the shop, failing to install three different versions of MS-Windows from five different CDs.

This is a well known phenomena, which is why it is good practice to test memory cards before using them for anything of importance.


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## CreationHeart (Oct 19, 2014)

My sandisk 32G had failed me twice but I was able to recover them using software. Transcend had failed before as well. Lexar 1000x however, works fine so far...


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## tcmatthews (Oct 19, 2014)

RustyTheGeek said:


> chris haylett said:
> 
> 
> > I just had a Lexar 32GB 1000x card fail and Lexar support told me that if I wasn't using a UDMA7 card reader that eventually all my UDMA7 cards would fail. I had been using an older firewire800/non-UDMA7 card reader and have now switched to the latest card reader from Lexar. Never heard of that before but that is directly from Lexar.
> ...



He is talking about a CF card not a SD card. Everything you said is true for SD cards. However, CF cards have a Hard Drive controller on board. So it is very much like reading a new HD on an old controller that does not support all the features. It could very well cause the card to fail over time. Not all CF cards are equal. In the lab at work we had a number of Sandisk CF fail do slight incompatibilities. They would work for a while then just die and no amount of formatting would fix them. Mind you we were using them in Embedded Computers as HD. There was nothing wrong with they cards they were just incompatible. 

So what Lexar told said is likely correct.


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## Don Haines (Oct 19, 2014)

Auscrox said:


> 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.
> 
> ...


+1
I needed some larger capacity CF cards for one of the spectrum analyzers at work.... they bought me consumer grade ones.... they were all dead in a couple of months. (approx. 2000 write/erase cycles)


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## surapon (Oct 19, 2014)

Dear Friends.
Sorry, I am not computer expert, Just regular Architect in my profession. Past 15 years since 1999, I use CF of all Brand name companies --Shoot more than 10,000 Photos per year, and Never CF. fail me.
BUT, Big but---One of my dear Electrical engineer friend ( 12 years ago ) told me that---Brand new CF from the box---Do not put in Camera yet, USE COMPUTER FORMAT THEM first= To get rid of all informations in CF.--After that Use my CAMERA format that CF, 2-3 more time before I use .
Yes, My friend told me that = Set up the CF ( set) for each camera that I use , Yes, I have 4 DSLR cameras---DO NOT USE THAT CF. in difference Camera.

Yes, It work for me---AND I DO NOT KNOW WHY?---With out fail. might be have logic ( MAGIC ) behind this methods
Good Luck.
, Have a great Sunday.
Surapon


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## wavesurf (Oct 19, 2014)

I have had great luck with Lexar I use Lexar Professional 800X, 1000X and a few 1066X cards. I have a total of 19 cards 32GB, 16GB and 8GB mix and have never had one fail. I will continue to use Lexar as they have been very reliable.


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## alexanderferdinand (Oct 19, 2014)

"Premium"- cards like Sandisk or Lexar seem to be a little bit more reliable then cheaper ones like Transcend.
Although: I had issues with a Transcend 16gb 600x, a Sandisk 16gb 30mb/s and a Sony 16gb 94/s SD.

The first both were only getting noticable slower; the Sony didn't work- in the Sony RX 100.

Check the card with h2tw, for example. A real bad one should be identified.

Oh- I have Lexar CF and SD- everythings fine.


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## lindatranphotography (Mar 11, 2015)

hi guys, I bought 2 64 gig professional lexar cards. After shooting them full on a 2 day wedding. The cards totally failed. utter and completely. they "offered" to fix it. but it didnt work. they claimed it was unrecoverable. it was a lie since i'm having someone else recover it for a cool $2500, but at least it can be done. 

i will NEVER EVER EVER use lexar again.


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## Orangutan (Mar 11, 2015)

lindatranphotography said:


> hi guys, I bought 2 64 gig professional lexar cards. After shooting them full on a 2 day wedding. The cards totally failed. utter and completely. they "offered" to fix it. but it didnt work. they claimed it was unrecoverable. it was a lie since i'm having someone else recover it for a cool $2500, but at least it can be done.
> 
> i will NEVER EVER EVER use lexar again.



Linda, you have my sympathies -- it must be very stressful to worry about the loss of an entire wedding. You should keep in mind that others have had great success with Lexar, as well as other brands. I have a few thoughts that might help avoid the problem in the future.

If both cards failed, and if you bought them at the same time from the same vendor, they may have been counterfeit. The quality assurance on "pro" cards would make it unlikely that two would fail similarly. It's also possible that there's something else wrong, e.g. a problem with your camera. Also, you may want to be sure you turn off your camera and wait a few seconds before removing the card. Check your the camera manual for the safest technique. Last, I always suggest to my friends that they test new flash cards thoroughly before using them. I typically use 7 or more passes of DBAN, but there are probably other flash card testing programs out there.


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## RGF (Mar 11, 2015)

lindatranphotography said:


> hi guys, I bought 2 64 gig professional lexar cards. After shooting them full on a 2 day wedding. The cards totally failed. utter and completely. they "offered" to fix it. but it didnt work. they claimed it was unrecoverable. it was a lie since i'm having someone else recover it for a cool $2500, but at least it can be done.
> 
> i will NEVER EVER EVER use lexar again.



Sorry to hear about the failure and Lexars unwillingness to recover your images. I imagine you did not make any money on the wedding (and may a lots a good bit). At least your reputation is saved.

One think I like to do, is complete read/write to each card when I get them. I am running a Mac Pro and have SoftRaid software. This software has a certify option that writes and then reads the entire disk/card. Not sure if there is similar software (certification) for the PC.


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## benperrin (Mar 11, 2015)

I've bought a lexar card a while ago and it corrupted some of the images on me. I'll never use lexar again after that. But I've been using Sandisk for years now and have not had a single failure. I think the biggest problem with Sandisk is that there are so many fakes on ebay and I'll bet that's where most of the issues have been coming from. The fakes are also getting much harder to detect.


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## WhoIreland (Mar 11, 2015)

i've seen this topic come up before and I share your sentiments.

in all the years of digital shooting the ONLY cards i've had fail are lexar. I know at least 5 other pro's who had same experience and when I asked a pro dealer in Ireland was I just unlucky, he said he won't sell Lexar to pro-users because of their unreliability

touch wood, Sandisk have never let me down

in the early days I even used some brand x 256mb cards which still work 10+yrs later..!


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## wyldeguy (Mar 11, 2015)

Robert Welch said:


> Be careful, though, not all Transcend cards use this technology, and I don't think the ones that don't have as good a reputation as either Lexar or Sandisk, from what I can tell. The only Transcends I know for sure have this is the one I linked to, and you can tell by the price (almost 3x the price of the regular Transcend cards), it's not cheap technology.



The page you linked shows a newer version of that card that is a 400x at only $28 and the 300x you linked is $128. I think there is a bigger issue there. The 400x card also has ecc and I have the 1000x and it also has the ecc. I have a feeling that the page you linked might be either in error or a scam. Not sure how anyone would buy that slow card for that money unless it was made of solid gold. I think I paid $70 for my transcend 1000x 32Gb card. My lexar 64Gb 1066x was $130 on sale I think and it has worked beautifully.


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## LDS (Mar 11, 2015)

tcmatthews said:


> He is talking about a CF card not a SD card. Everything you said is true for SD cards. However, CF cards have a Hard Drive controller on board. So it is very much like reading a new HD on an old controller that does not support all the features. It could very well cause the card to fail over time.



The only real difference I know is that the TRIM command is not implemented until the UDMA7 spec. It can extended the life of a card because delete operations are handled far better. Other improvements AFAIK are for "secure erase" of data.
Otherwise reading the card at a slower speed should not have any adverse effect - the ATA interface (and SATA as well) were designed to be backward and forward compatible, for obvious commercial reasons.
Or Lexar means also you can't use one of its UDMA7 cards in an older camera that doesn't support UDMA7? Looks like the average clueless support rep attempting to sell you more stuff.


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## LDS (Mar 11, 2015)

willhunt said:


> Yes, you are absolutely correct. And I had a Sandisk Extreme Pro SD card resting comfortably in my bag.



I keep one in a pocket were I can grab it quickly if something goes wrong... issues can be investigated later.



willhunt said:


> the cam was dead. No functions, nothing in the viewfinder, nothing. The first time this has ever happened.



I experienced something alike with a Transcend 32GB SD card in my 5DIII. The camera "goes crazy" - flashing LCD, non responding buttons - and other strange behaviours. Removed that card, and using others, all works without issues. After all those cards becomes part of the camera electronics, and it looks camera electronics is less "resilient" to some issue than, for example, computers electronics, if something doesn't work properly.

My advice in such situation is 1) Have some backup cards always with you 2) If something doesn't work, remove the cards, see what happens without - then insert another one. If your camera supports two cards, you can also wait to insert another one unless you really need two cards at once.

For the same reason I always have a spare battery at hand.


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## eosuser1234 (Mar 11, 2015)

I have used Lexar, Transcend, and Sandisk. I have only had problems with Lexar. It was with video, not still images, but even after sending it back to Lexar Japan, they claimed it was fine. Speedtest done with blackmagic speed checker however showed that faulty lexar running very very slow. 

These days, I primarily use Transcend. Their professional line (600x and 1000x) is good stuff in my opinion. 

I won't be buying lexar going forward.


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## Maximilian (Mar 11, 2015)

Benhider said:


> Does this happen with Sandisk?


Hi Benhider! 

I feel sorry for your loss of work/pictures as well as for all the trouble.

I have no experience with Lexar but I can tell you that i use several different (generations) Sandisk "Extreme Pro" CF cards for more than 5 years and some "Extreme" SDHC cards since about 6 months and have no issues till now. (hope it stays that way). This is just my personal experience and I'm sure, you'll also find someone like you that had issues with Sandisk. 

I hope you'll find a solution for you that'll keep all that trouble away from you.


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## Mt Spokane Photography (Mar 11, 2015)

AriesPhoto said:


> 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!!



The report was 2 years old. There are just as many reports for other brands, some companies have refused to use Sandisk. So, cards fail, but you have to use something. I use both Sandisk and Lexar with no failures since my first memory card in 1998. I also use a backup card in my 5D MK III. For someone doing critical work its important to get a camera with a backup card. With low prices on a used 1D MK III, they are affordable for anyone really concerned. I use as large of a card as I can afford, which is dual 64GB cards right now. A Lexar 1000X CF card with a Sandisk SD card as backup.


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## Maximilian (Mar 12, 2015)

Mt Spokane Photography said:


> ... So, cards fail, but you have to use something. ... For someone doing critical work its important to get a camera with a backup card...


+ 1000


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## beckstoy (Apr 20, 2015)

I've had a Lexar CF 100x 16gb card since I purchased my 5DM3 at its release, and it's been my Go-To card. Awesome, with no failures whatsoever. In fact, the outside is looking kinda drab since I handle it so much, but the internals work flawlessly.

I just ordered a Lexar CF 32gb, and did it without resitation because my past experiences were so good. 

I've used 1 SanDisk SD card, and that card gave me a failure, so I use it only as a backup now.


I'm a Lexar guy.


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## tron (May 7, 2015)

Up to now I have been using Sandisks (5 CF, 3 SD) and have no failure at all.


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## expatinasia (May 7, 2015)

This is quite an old thread (and topic). We all know that the pro Lexar and pro SanDisk cards are among the best you can get. Unfortunately cards, from both manufacturers, do fail from time to time.

Some of us have used Lexar for years and never had a problem. Others swear by SanDisk and have never had a problem either. Others have had problems with one or another, and in extreme cases both manufacturers.

I seriously believe that neither manufacturer is better than the other.


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