Photographers are gearheads. We love to know what the latest-and-greatest technology is and what piece of gear will produce optimal results. I admit it. I love the technology side of photography and I enjoy pixel peeping even when I know it doesn't really help my photos. Surprisingly, however, I am frequently shocked at how clueless photographers are about memory cards.
Memory Card Tip #1: Do not listen to the MANY photography instructors who teach that brand doesn't matter, or that Sandisk and Lexar are both the same. That is simply incorrect. The truth is that there are loads of very relevant differences between the two. For example, Sandisk has had several exclusives with Nikon in which they create a memory card that is able to access the full processing power of the camera. Nikon and Sandisk worked together on a memory card for the D90 and recently did so again with the Nikon D7000. Lexar also has some useful advantages over Sandisk, but that's for another post.
Memory Card Tip #2: I constantly hear professional photographers teach that photographers need to get a super-fast memory card only for shooting video. While it is true that HD video produces large files, digital RAW files produce more data in a shorter period of time when photographers shoot a quick burst of multiple RAW files. Fast memory cards are even more vital to still photographers who shoot bursts than HDSLR users.
Memory Card Tip #3: Never “erase all images” on your card. Always format the card. DSLRs provide both an “Erase all images” option and a “format card” option. Choose the format card option in order to prevent a host of different errors that can arise by simply erasing all images. Formatting the card will re-organize the folder structure and prevent database errors.
Memory Card Tip #4: While we're discussing how to erase all images, never erase any of the images by using the computer. This will taint your database and can cause even more errors than “Erase all images.” If you persist in erasing images by using the computer, you Canon shooters will face the famed ERR-99 (side note: that is a general error that is not specific to memory card problems, but memory card problems are one of the things that can draw the error).
Memory Card Tip #5: Because I properly format my memory cards and never edit the contents of the card from the computer, I rarely have technical issues with memory cards. However, I have broken several memory cards by not storing them properly or ripping them out of the card reader. This is particularly true with SD memory cards, which have delicate little pieces of plastic on the underside which can easily be bent or broken off if misused. Treat 'em like a baby.
Memory Card Tip #6: According to Lexar, using high-capacity memory cards uses more battery life from your camera. The reduction in battery use is slight, but I think it's a handy bit of knowledge.
Memory Card Tip #7: Both Lexar and Sandisk professional-level cards come with a free program that can help you recover the images on your card if you accidentally delete them. If you delete something accidentally, STOP SHOOTING, bring the card home, run the card through the program, and you'll probably get the shot back–even if you formatted the card. I have not tried Sandisk's program for memory cards, but I give high marks to Lexar's Image Rescue Software.
Memory Card Tip #8: If you are unsuccessful at recovering images on a corrupted Lexar memory card, you can actually send the card to Lexar at NO COST and they will have a technician perform professional data recovery on the card, put the images on a DVD, and mail you a new card and the images. Now THAT is impressive service! As far as I know, Sandisk doesn't offer this level of customer support. I checked their website for information and couldn't find anything comparable. Does anyone knowledge about this?
Memory Card Tip #9: Okay, I admit that this one is only marginally connected to memory cards. It is just a recommendation that you subscribe to a blog written by Jeff Cable. He's one of the head marketing guys at Lexar and always has interesting things to share on his blog.
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I’d recommend looking up the write speed of the camera first, then go and purchase a card which satisfies the speed (check separately). If a DSLR (eg. my Canon 600D) is only capable of writing around 24 mb/s, there is no reason for buying a 90 mb/s card (apart from reading out the files with a computer obviously).
Also there is a handy program called “testdisk” which is open source and able to recover data from corrupted cards. It worked brilliantly for me on older hard disks, but the command line interface might not be everyone’s favorite.
I recommended an advance or effective photo recovery software, you can use Kernel for Digital Media Recovery Tool. That software easily recover all lost deleted photos, images from memory card, SD card or all storage media device. http://www.softwarerecovery.org/memory-card-data-recovery.html
Accidentally deleted data from SD card or memory card, you may try Kernel for Digital Media Recovery Software. It is efficient to recover all lost deleted data.
Any smart people out there tell me the easiest way to remove photos from an iPhone 4s and storing them for easy access? Thanks
Great article! Lots of things can go wrong with SD cards or CF cards… especially if you are using a card that is not fast enough for how fast your camera is capable of shooting. Then there are times where cards just fail…. that is super scary for someone like me, where photography is my livelihood.
I’ve been a wedding photographer for 4 years on a professional level, and over the years I have had a few memory cards fail. I always used the Lexar Recovery program (even though I use Sandisk cards) and I can’t tell you how many hundreds of images I’ve recovered like that. It always worked…. until one day.
I shot a wedding this past June and after dinner and the speeches we took the couple out for some extra little portraits during golden hour. I was shooting on a card for speeches and our golden hour portrait time and the dance, etc. When I got home my card was only half readable by Lightroom, and by my computer (although I could see the images greyed out… they weren’t in a recognized format).
I tried several recovery programs on my own. All of the recovery programs failed to retrieve the lost memory card data. I took the card to a professional recovery store in town, and they were unable to retrieve the card.
I looked around on the internet for days and found a place in Germany (I live on the West Coast of Canada), who had rave reviews for repairing and recovering images from memory cards that no one else could recover. So I sent the corrupt, unrecoverable sd card to Germany….
Four days later I got an email from this company Recoverfab, showing me the files they were able to recover from my disk, and it was all of the golden hour portraits and the dance!!! I am so glad I didn’t just throw away the card and inform my clients. Recoverfab uploaded all the RAW full sized files online and I was able to download them straight to my computer.
If you haven’t been able to recover a very important memory card and recovery software has failed, I HIGHLY suggest contacting Recoverfab in Germany. They have amazing customer service and have some sort of magical skills. Here’s the link: http://recoverfab.com/
Excellent article!!!!
Deletion of photos from Camera can happen due to varied reason. If you have got into such situation then make use of Remo Recover to get them back in few simple steps.
I’m a Canon person and I use Adobe Photoshop Elements to move pictures from my camera into a folder on my computer and it prompts me to delete them after they are moved. I have not had a problem doing this so far. I also don’t edit on the card. I wait until they are on the computer.
I have accidentally washed a SanDisk card once. And still recovered images from a wedding(one last download, thankfully). Our dog also chewed on a SanDisk card (6 yrs ago), and we were still able to use it several times afterwards. But I do use both Lexar (cf cards) and SanDisk(SD cards), and have had no issues with either one! And I am a Nikon d800 user.
Hello I have bought another memory card it is an lexar multi use for my canon t5 rebel dslr and EVERYTIME I put it in it says “card cannot be accessed reinsert or change the card or format card with the camera” but Everytime I try to format the card it won’t even do anhthing
I ran a SanDisk through the washing machine a few years ago. It’s still working perfectly today.
My camera and my truck radio uses the same 2g,9pin sd card. How can I determine what to buy online. Thanks,Jackie.
Paid advertisement from Lexar and Sandisk.
I have been using a 6yr old memorex SD card with disregard of anything the article mentioned and I have not had any issues.
I had a Sandisk which got stuck in the locked position and not only did Sandisk replace it for free but also offer to recover the images on the card if I need them to. Having had already downloaded them to my computer that wasn’t a problem. So in light of tip number eight Sandisk will do a recovery for you. I will always stand by Sandisk’s customer service they will stand by their product.
The numbers and letters on the memory cards mean a lot too. I can’t tell you what they mean. All I did was review them, bought the right cards and ended my lesson there.
I have bought Sandisk CF cards in the past but this year, although I read after that cards could last for 10’s of thousand formats, but I had 3 CF cards go bad on me, they worked ok in the camera, then when put them in the card reader I got a message that said this card needs formatting before use! I put it back in the camera and the same thing happened, the camera wanted to format the card. I then spent £50 on a recovery program as the ‘trials’ had finished a couple of years ago and reclaimed my photos. The program also offered cleaning the card but that didn’t help and the problem kept occurring.
The only thing I can think of is where I have taken the card out of the camera without switching off the camera first or not ejecting from the card reader if I had a problem downloading. So now I always make sure the camera is switched off and check the ‘finder’ page on the Mac to see that the card isn’t still mounted.
If you delete photos from your memory card in your camera does it leave a space or do the next pictures taken move into the space
Hi
It was intersting to read your tips for memory card use.
I have had trouble lately with my photos not being in order.
Last night I found out that some have a _ in front of the number and some do not. This must be what mixes them up but I do not know how to correct this problem.
Do you know?
Glenda
I have a Nikon D90 and have used *just one* 8 gb Patriot SD (6) card with it, since I got the camera in the fall of 2010.
At the time I got it, I bought one memory card- PATRIOT BRAND.
The user reviews for the Patriot card were very high and favorable, at the time I bought it off Amazon at a very fair price.
I have my camera set to shoot each image simultaneously as RAW & JPEG.
Like others on here, I have been downloading to the pc via cable cord from camera to pc, and just deleting what images were duds while just downloading the good images, * but also leaving the good ones intact on my camera*.
I leave much on the camera card, because I seem to always be working with enough room and it also feels safer the more places I have those images backed up to.
( I back up to the cloud- my hard drive- blu ray -memory cards-usb sticks…uh yes, a tad neurotic about that kind of thing)
****This means, that since the fall of 2010, I have not re-formatted the card yet. ***********
Thus far, I have not seemed to noticed any sequential numbering disorder with my images .
( Or at least, none that I have become aware of)
I also use a Sandisk SD 8GB (6) in my Nikon L22 . Haven’t re-formatted that one either and got it in the fall of 2010 as well.
While Lexar and Sandisk are among the most reputable cards, I honestly have NOT had a problem using PATRIOT brand.
I am sure there are some real junk brands out there and maybe people should ask themselves about quality, when cards with a decent size seem to be dirt cheap in price. 🙁
TThat being said, I learned something from this article about the need- or the wisdom – in reformatting( though I have not had an issue so far with having *not* done so).
The debate on card quality or which is best?
Sometimes it is a subjective thing among the better brands.
As for enhanced speed with a faster card?
You can only go with what your manufacturer recommends for your camera as the high end of a speed on a card.
If you have a limit on horse power- you have a limit on horse power and you kind of have to accept that even if faster cards do exist.
I really appreciated the tips. I am a novice and already made a mistake and now the wiser after the tips. That you!!