Memory Cards: Consumables? How frequently to replace?

[Lefty]

Just a quick question icw SDHC cards: how often do you guys replace them?

How often do you experience catastrophic failures of cards (if at all)?
I recently experienced a failure of a 16GB CF in my camera, - wouldn't record images. Luckily it was the secondary card, and my SDHC card in the primary slot was still fine.
So now shooting without a backup CF card. Very risky, and I am not too comfortable.
The SDHC card is about 2 years old, and from experience, flash memory sticks (thumb drives) have failed me (Verbatim in particular).
Should I be worried, and should I replace the SDHC?

Also noticed that the price of the Sandisk 16GB Extreme, 300X SDHC is now available for R350. A price drop?

[Dave_]

This was a question I had some time back. Apparently CF cards have a lifecycle of several million write cycles, so a card should be good for a decent amount of time.

I also suppose it depends on the brand and product. I only use the Sandisk Extreme line for example (had a bad experience with Lexar).

As far as I know, USB sticks do not use the same tech and usually it's a much cheaper "throw away" type of memory. So you cant really compare the two.

It's a scary thought though, losing a card while on the job...

p.s. just saw you asked about SDHC cards and not CF, so a bit off the topic. Oops...

[Deon RacePics]

I have yet to lose a card, either SD or CF

[Lefty]

Thanks for the response guys.

Dave, no probs, was referring to both. It's just that I had a problem with a CF, which I use as a backup. Decided to get a Sandisk Extreme 16GB SDHC, as a second card for now. Still have to get a new CF. though...

[AstraPics]

I have a variety of SDHC cards of various capacities, speeds and manufacturer, mostly Sandisk and Transcend. I have twice had catastrophic failures of Lexar cards in the field and despite them both being replaced by Lexar, I will never put a Lexar card in any of my cameras again. Both Lexar cards had only been used three or four times when they failed. I don't need to learn the same lesson three times over - I got the message. By contrast I have Sandisk and Transcend cards that have completed at least 50 cycles without any problem whatsoever. Prices do seem to drop continually as capacities and speeds rise, which is good news, but personally I prefer to shoot onto a range of smaller capacity cards rather than one big one for redundancy and protection against failure or loss. I find 8GB cards suit me best but I guess soon they will become less freely available, so I will just shoot 16GB cards and swop them out regularly.

[jayson]

I use mainly Sandisk Extreme and Lexer Professional SD and Compact flash cards on my camera. Never had either of them fail on me. Lexar and Sandisk have the professional/extreme range. Stick to these. They are worth the extra money and have a lower risk of damage/failure. Store you cards correctly when not in camera. J.

[Forgiss - Sean Nel]

I replace mine once they go missing... or have become obsolete (gave away 2gb and under when we switched to the 5DmkII's years ago, just became too much like changing film )

[Henk Coetzee]

My guess is that until they actually start to physically fall apart - had that happen with a card which still carried on working - they are pretty robust. Like a lot of electronic goods, my guess is that if they are going to fail they won't last long at all. Once they are working, there's little to go wrong with them apart from physical damage.

[Forgiss - Sean Nel]

The older cards tended to give errors over time, but the newer cards are supposed to detect a bad cluster and mark it as unusable. So, in theory, you are supposed to lose a little bit of capacity as clusters die out, but the card is not supposed to "fail"

What we have come across now on more than one occasion is "ghost" cards - cards made in the same factory but with rejected components, and sold on the flea-markets for cheap. Also, as the cards gets more complex, we have seen a batch or two with bad controllers... unfortunately it's not brand specific...

Luckily I have not had a failure on a card in years!