Memory Card question

I read in another post that someone's memory card had "died" and they lost all the pictures? I am new to the digital world and have 512 MB SD cards. I didn't realize they could "die". Do you get any warning, or is there a guide as to how long they would last??

Thanks!

Not quite sure what they meant by "died"; I guess they meant to say it stopped working. I've been using memory cards in digital cameras for about five years and I've never had one stop working so I would not worry about this happening. Just be sure to buy a quality card from a reputable vendor and I don't think you'll have any problems.

About the same amount of experience here, and no problems. I used to have some compatibility problems years ago, but that's long gone. I also read dpreview.com quite a bit. Enough to know this is a very rare occurance. That said, if you're really concerned, get a CD burner, and backup your photos periodically.

One of my memory cards corrupted & I lost all most of the pictures. I reformated it, upon advice of the dealer, & it worked for a while & then corrupted again. I bought another card & have not had any trouble with that at all.

I read in another post that someone's memory card had "died" and they lost all the pictures? I am new to the digital world and have 512 MB SD cards. I didn't realize they could "die". Do you get any warning, or is there a guide as to how long they would last??

Thanks!

I have been using Compact Flash cards for over 5 years. I have approx 15 cards that I use on a regular basis and most of these cards are 4+ years old. I have only had one card 'fail'. I do tend to stick to 'name brand' cards - like SanDisk, Lexar and Kingston.

Haven't been shooting digital for a terribly long time but I've had no problems with cards. A buddy of mine who is a very well known photographer and travels the country giving seminars for Adobe and Epson claims to never have had a memory card die of natural causes. Gravity checking and testing their swimming ability is another story entirely.

I agree, stick to name brands. That only makes common sense. Also beware of microdrive cards. They actually have moving parts and are subject to failure.

Last, use common sense in dealing with your cards. Spend a few bucks and get a memory card wallet to carry them correctly. Don't have them rattling around in your pocket with car keys, change, etc. Beyond that, download the images to whatever device you choose as often as possible. Redundancy isn't always a bad thing.

Thanks to you all, I feel much better now. I do use name brand and always download pictures immediately. Debbie

Thanks to you all, I feel much better now. I do use name brand and always download pictures immediately. Debbie

Ok; the question is answered but still...

On my first cruise I brought two CF cards. A 128 Card and a smaller card (32). On the last day of the cruise I replaced the 128 with the 32 in my camera to make sure nothing would happen with all my pictures.

I can honestly say I said quite a few words that are not suitable on this board when I noticed at home that the 128 cards was empty. Fortunatly I've don't some forensic research for my work on computers which helped me recover all but one of my photos.

I can only guess what caused it but I'm feeling that removing the CF card from the camera was not a good idea. This year I had a newer model of the same camera with a 512 module but left the card in the camera and still had all my photos when I arrived at home. I was much more happy this time I can tell you that.

Note: I kept both my camera and CF card in my hand luggage both times.

B.t.w. I agree with "UpYonder" but brand cards like kingston. They are often faster than "whitelabeled" and tent to be more robust.

I can only guess what caused it but I'm feeling that removing the CF card from the camera was not a good idea.

That makes no sense. More likely what happened is that you or someone else inadvertantly re-formated the 128 card while it was in the camera or the camera malfunctioned and re-formatted the card spontaneously. There are several more things that could have caused your problem but merely taking the card out of the camera isn't among them.

In the past 18 months that I've been shooting exclusively digital I've been in situations several times where I switched cards in the middle of shooting for various reasons and to date I've not had a problem opening the images either when I put a previously used card back in the camera or open them on the computer. Once I re-format the card it's another story entirely.

Fortunately for you, even when you format a card and erase the images previously on it, those images are still recoverable right up to the time you shoot enough new images to write over the erased ones.

__________________

I also take my card out of the camera frequently and have had no problems with the pictures being there. In fact, I often take it out and take it to

Wal-mart and have the copies made. I use San Disk, hope that's a good brand!

The only thing I could think of is you may have pulled the card while the camera was still writing to it. It sometimes takes a few seconds after the shutter is snapped to finnish writing.

Now for my question......I have never traveled with a digital camera. Do airport security machines (X-Ray) bother them. I remember one cruise (one month after 9/11) when I asked the security person to please hand inspect the film and he refused. Then just to be a S/A he stopped it while inside of the machine and several of the pictures came out foggy. Do the X-Rays harm the digitals in any way?

X-rays do not affect your digital images. If you pack your cards/cameras in your carry-on luggage, they should be fine.

Here's a link to a small article on the subject.

http://malektips.com/digital_camera_memory_0008.html

Thanks for the info Stranger...

6 days and "Look out Mexico.....Here I come"

Just another vote for using quality memory cards rather than the cheap ones --- when I first went digital I bought the cheapest memory card out there, it failed, camera couldn't recognize the card, Walgreens couldn't recognize the card when I put it in their reader thingy. After that I purchased only top quality name brand cards and have absolutely no problem.