I’ve been a digital photographer for nearly two decades now, and have been working professionally for about 1.5 decades. I think, in total, I’ve owned 50-100 memory cards, from 512MB and 1GB Compact Flash cards, (and a 4GB CF Microdrive that cost $300!) …to recent 128GB SD cards that go on sale for a mere $30.
I’ve owned pretty much every major brand of memory card, too, from Kingston and others “back in the day”, to the latest and greatest Sony “Tough” and ProGrade. Of course, I’ve owned literally dozens of Sandisk memory cards, virtually all of them “Pro” or “Extreme Pro”.
Unfortunately, I’m done buying Sandisk SD cards. and I think you can see why. They seem to be more flimsy than any other memory card (make or model) I have ever had. Inevitably, they split open and spill their memory chip guts.
[Related: How To Recover A Corrupt Or Damaged Memory Card | A Step-By-Step Guide]
Sandisk SD Memory Card Quality Issues / Breakages
This is definitely a pattern. In fact, of the dozens of SD cards I have owned over the years, I believe that either 100%, or all but one, of the SD cards that failed in this manner, were Sandisk.
Considering that I am now at 5-10 Sandisk cards with the exact same type of failure, I can only conclude that Sandisk cards are significantly less well-made than the other brands I’ve been using.
In fact, even my set of nearly a dozen “cheap” Samsung SD cards, that I bought on a whim when they were on sale, are all still going strong. They even lasted so long that I retired the 16 GB ones, when megapixel counts jumped to 36 and then 45, of course. (You don’t fit many Nikon Z7 or Sony A7R IV images onto a 16 GB memory card!)
All in all, in my two memory card wallets that have my 18 most current, “active duty” SD cards, …I believe I am down to my last two that are still Sandisk. The rest are Sony & Sony “Tough”, ProGrade, Lexar, and Samsung.
Have Other Photographers Experienced The Same Breakage?
Yes, I know of at least two or three other professional photographers who have either shown me this same exact type of breakage in-person or described in great detail. The memory card “shell” splits open, and the chip falls out. This happened with Sandisk SD cards as much as 5+ years ago, back when a 128GB SD card was MUCH more expensive!
[Related: Image recovery with EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard]
Don’t Sandisk Memory Cards Have A Lifetime Warranty?
Yes, they do. Or, at least, the Extreme Pro cards do; I think Sandisk does not offer a full lifetime warranty (anymore?) for cards that do not have “Pro” on the label.
However, I just can’t consider warranty replacement to be an acceptable conclusion on such a frequent basis. Bottom line- these cards are behaving like a disposable product; I don’t care if a lifetime warranty can be honored or not, the whole reason I buy a product with such a lifelong guarantee is that I expect it to be an indication of truly top-tier build quality because that is what I REALLY need, more than a warranty–a memory card that won’t fall apart on me.
Am I Just Not Taking Good Care Of My Memory Cards?
I repeatedly ask myself this question. Am I the guilty one, am I doing something horrible to my memory cards that is causing them to break so repeatedly? There’s a chance that is the case. The abrasion marks on the card labels, and the overall wear and tear, seems to indicate that I’m doing something wrong.
True, there is the glaring fact that I have owned all the different brands, and Sandisk is the only brand that is falling apart like this. But, just for the sake of argument, let’s pretend that it’s still my own fault; I’m doing something that is causing the Sandisk cards to break. In other words, they’re clearly the poorest quality, but maybe they should still be able to stand the test of time under “normal” use.
So, honestly? I am very gentle whenever I insert memory cards into a camera and when I eject them. I only insert/eject the card once or twice a week, and not every single week of the year, so let’s just call it 50-100 cycles per year, for 3-5 years before I “retire” a card. Memory cards should all be well within their physical lifespan with this much wear and tear, I believe.
The P-Touch labels that I print on my cards can snag on the slot itself if a corner comes loose, but if that ever happens, I never try to force the card into the slot.
I store my cards in the same memory card wallet as many, many other photographers: The ThinkTank Pixel Pocket Rocket ($17-22). I own two of them for SD cards, and two of them for CF cards, plus two more that have space for both SD and CF at once. (I told you, I own a lot of memory cards! Being both a wedding photographer and a time-lapse photographer, over the past ~10 years I have had many weeks that resulted in 10K+ photos)
This cloth and plastic case is not the most rigidly protective, admittedly; it’ll be bad news if you putting the card wallet in your back pocket and sit on it, something I’ve never done. I always put the card wallet in my front pocket while I’m photographing a wedding, or in a spacious compartment of my camera bag when I’m on a different type of adventure or travel.
I’ve tried those card wallets that are a hard shell case, and they house your cards by pinching them “gently” at the edges. Honestly? Those things generally ripped SD cars in half even more rapidly; I didn’t even include those older destroyed cards in the graphic carnage photos above! I have been using the ThinkTank for many years now.
Bottom line: I could see how a crushing force might harm the memory cards, after months or years of heavy abuse, but I’m almost certain that no such heavy compressing force is happening. I can only conclude that, indeed, Sandisk SD cards just fail to deliver long-term professionally acceptable build quality. PERIOD.
So, Which SD Cards Do I Recommend?
The most sturdy types of memory cards are definitely the newer types of SD cards that have two layers of pins, because the overall construction of the card itself seems to be more of a one-piece molded plastic part; however, I’m not sure if that is true of all brands that are offering these ultra-fast types of cards.
Here is what I can say with great certainty: both Sony “Tough” and ProGrade Digital SD cards are built very solidly. They’re just highly durable, and you can feel it.
[Related: Prograde SD Cards & Refresh Pro Software Review]
Conclusion
In conclusion, you might not have thought of buying one of these “fancy” memory cards before, especially if you don’t shoot extremely high volumes of photos, and need the read and/or write speed of the memory card to be “blazing fast”. However, even if you’re not a high-volume photographer, you’re still capturing valuable images that ought to be protected by spending a little extra money on the highly durable, “tough” memory cards.
Personally, I’m just done buying Sandisk SD cards. No matter how cheap they are, on sale or not, no matter how long the warranty is, I’m done. If Sandisk makes two-layer type SD cards that are completely different in their physical construction, I would consider them, but other than that, “nope, nope, nope”…
So, consider this a warning to other photographers! Either take extremely good care of your memory cards, (or leave them in your camera forever, and use its USB port to download your images, nice and slowly?) …or, buy a different brand of SD memory cards.
DISCLAIMER: This is my opinion and my opinion alone; this article was not sponsored by a third party. Nor did I reach out to Sandisk to see if they were interested in “taking care of me”, either. This is the raw, bare truth of my own personal experience with dozens of memory cards and literally, millions of photos captured over the course of ~20 years in digital photography.
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https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/d6efa71091abe03b6f9bc0ae800c3493b1261fbb227ef86e161a36fcdfc89fc0.jpg these are mind that just started chipping, also have had a few peel apart after a while. I blamed myself, then the ad reader on my desktop (got a USB reader), then I blamed my camera’s slot holder, now it’s doing it with a new S1R with every card, I notice sooner now because my camera won’t bother to read them. I have been getting Sandisk because it’s all the local target has and I’m usually buying them because I need them right away. A few years ago I didn’t have have this problem, and felt safe with this brand. I know it’s “forbidden” bit I think I’m going to use micro-sd. So I can just replace the case. I’d use qxd if I had more $$ to burn and a reader for them. But I’m paranoid those will break and they cost so much more.
came here because my Sandisk has a crack in the corner when I do keep my card in the slot all the time, I can defiantly see that the plastic is really weak, im afraid to touch the card again, do you think it may be due internal heat that makes the plastic weaker?
Hi Simon, I don’t know if you’ll see this reply because there is a bug in our Disqus comment system, but my advice would be that if your cards are beginning to show cracks in the corners, it might be time to retire them soon. If your camera’s USB transfer speed is very fast, and if you’re not shooting many tens or hundreds of GB of photos every week, then just leave the card in the camera and transfer via USB. Otherwise, if the card shows cracks when very gently trying to flex it, then it’s a gonner. Could be due to internal heat, but leaving the card in the slot all the time wouldn’t increase that heat exposure unless you’re leaving your camera in a hot car all the time. It’s probably just normal (heavy) wear and tear.
Hi Matthew, Can you recall when your card splits? Is it when you take them out of the computers card reader, coming out your camera/cameras or your storage wallet? From my experience I newer had this that the SD cards goes into pieces. I think that maybe one or some of those metall contact springs that glides onto the card are maybe skewed or distorted (in the camera or card reader). On your photo of the cards from above there are scratches on all of them. Whatever causes the cards to split you should find the cause of it and have it repaired/changed so it doesn’t cause another damage to your new cards. Maybe the new ones doesn’t split but you could end up in having corrupted data in the worst case. It could be risky not doing something about it. Hope it works out : )
Hi Martin,
The “when” has an easy answer that kind of solves the whole riddle of why cards are splitting: After tons and tons of heavy use. I review cameras for a living, and that means all of my memory cards have been inserted into almost every camera announced in the past 5-10 years. Often times, multiple times a week, or even multiple times a day. So, simply put, I am probably exceeding the rated lifespan of these cards.
So, I don’t think it is the cameras themselves have any problems, because they’re literally brand-new.
Plain and simple, I am pushing the limits of each cards’ lifespan, and Sandisks are proving that they consistently wear out much sooner than all other brands. Most other people will never wear out their cards like this, unless they too review cameras full-time and also do a lot of paid work plus everyday shooting and wilderness adventures. ;-)
What are you doing with your cards? All but one of mine are Sandisk and the oldest are maybe 10 years old now and still going strong. No breakages, no card failures, they’re perfect. I don’t think I’d want to buy any second hand gear from you!
You definitely would never want to buy used memory cards from me, but I would never sell used storage, period, and you should probably never buy used storage from anyone, period!
I do take decent care of my bodies and lenses and other gear, of course, but I also use it all extremely heavily for many years.
I’m sure many people have Sandisk cards that have lasted a decade-plus. I would recommend retiring any card you own after 3-5 years, though, or 100K image read/write cycles, whichever comes first.
Personally, I review cameras for a living, and photographed weddings before that, so I am inserting and removing memory cards from cameras multiple times a week, sometimes multiple times a day, literally every week of the year.
In other words, what am I doing to my cards? I’m using them ALL well past their rated lifespan, and finding that out of the dozens of different cards I’ve had from almost every brand on the market, Sandisk in particular falls apart the soonest.
Years and years ago, I had a SandDisk Extreme Pro cause my camera to reboot like Windows 98. And, sometimes, it would get an error writing so I would lose the last couple of images. Though, it was fine with my other camera. I’ve never bought SandDisk again.
Also, Matt, WOW you struck a nerve in the photographer community! Look at all of these comments!!! If only you could get that much engagement on all of your pieces!
I had lots of issues with Lexar cards when I started out and from there, I left the brand. In the last 8 years, I’ve only had 2 Sandisk cards break, both times I was able to pull the info off after the break. I’ve been happy with them, especially since they weren’t really expensive.
Highly interesting! This took me by surprise, I must say. Sandisk was for a long time considered THE brand to chose from. In my light usage I had long ago issues with the old CF cards (bend pins) and only one SD card ever failed me: a corner broke off and the camera did not recognized that a card is inserted. I restored the corner using 2-component epoxy to read out the data, and tossed it… I forgot to mention: I had issue with loose switch on Sony cards! When inserting the card the switch went often into write-protect position. I has to glue the switch.
In the age of UHS-II I have now only Sony Tough and Lexar, the Sandisks appeared totally overpriced to me. I like the Tough rib-less and no-switch design. And the ProGrade: the sister site FStoppers made once a video about troubles with ProGrades! Anyways, such problems are indeed a good argument for a dual card slot!
The simplest solution is to purchase some good quality Micro SD to SD cards and use the Micro SD cards as storage, if the SD card falls apart you still have access to the Micro SD card. I use these all the time now as I got fed up of some cards splitting.
I’ve not broken an SD card yet, but I do agree the Sandisk SD cards (the only ones I have are all Extreme Pro) seem to be lacking a little something-or-other in physical build compared to the competition. I simply have several of them because they were the fastest SD cards for the Nikon D800. The distinction between these and the newer UHS-II design is bigger, though. The UHS-II cards, of which I have two Lexar devices so far, seem to be thicker and indeed they don’t spring out of the D800 card slot like the UHS-I cards do; you have to work at them a bit. They’re a bit better behaved in newer cameras though.
Looking at the entrails of your cards, I have to ask, are you finding that you’re getting very fine, almost microscopically fine, dirt into the SD card slots on your cameras? Or just cameras with a very tight fitting slot? It seems to me that there’s quite a bit of wear on your pins and I wonder if the camera is just gradually tugging at the card over time until it fails.
I bought a ridiculous amount of their memory cards in my life and never had a problem, what exactly are you doing to those cards…. I smell a rat.
Do you know how to take a picture of the moon? I was a custom darkroom technician for over twenty years until digital photography took over and photography labs evaporated. In photography, it is not about how much light falls on the camera. It is about how much light falls on the subject. The same amount of light falls on the moon at night, as falls on the earth during the day. Set your camera manually for the average daylight exposure, and use a tripod if you are using a telephoto lens. Do not buy Sandisk. I have had enough. My card was currupt. Anyway, the above is how I separate the boys from the men (in photography).
I bought a 512GB SanDisk card, and it was corrupt. No good at all. Perhaps, it was a grey market card. Nevertheless, I am done with SanDisk. Great article. It confirmed what I already knew.
You’d do better with 3 cards and a hard drive, I do.
Your cards are getting beaten up when they are not in the camera
I do too much shooting for just 3 cards to be a viable option. A week in the wilderness shooting time-lapse = I need an entire card wallet (or two) full of 64-128GB cards. Or even higher-capacity if I’m doing 8K time-lapse instead of 4K.
Like they say in the industry, there’s no reason for lots of camera cards unless you are producing a ton of child porn.
My experience was also the opposite. I’m a videographer for about 15 years now and had only once an issue with a sandisk 32gb extreme sd card ( which I actually suspect was a fake…). I had an issue with EVERY Lexar card I had (though I love their card readers ) and with a Sony U3 card but from the basic, not tough series.
I guess there is a difference between a photographer’s and a videographer’s use of the cards so this is my ‘angle’ on the topic 🙂.
In the sd arena I stick with sandisk…
My advice is to buy micro sdxc cards that bring adapter in the package instead. They are not as flimsy as the larger cards and not as prone to disassemble provided they’re handled with proper care.
I’ve never had this problem with Sandisk or any other memory cards makes. I use CFs, SDs and microSDs. I think he may be counting on his SD wallet to provide more physical protection than the physical stress he’s putting it under. One way to test that theory is to place a stiff piece of plastic, say from a CD jewel case or VHS/DVD case cut down to size to act as a flat rigid protection inside his cloth case. If the cards stop breaking there’s the proof of to much stress. A second recommendation is to switch to microSDs and use the adaptive SD carrier they come with so it’s more likely the cheap SD carrier that would break and not the microSD card itself. I’ve stopped buying SD cards and now get only microSD and use the SD carrier when/where an SD card is required, works great.
Thanks. Great idea!!!
Tried that, but had multiple micro SD cards fail on me in terms of data integrity, so I stopped buying them.
Interesting, I’ve also gone through a few hundred SD cards in my 20 or so years and have never hear anything like this with any brand. I’m also not the most careful person either. I’ve had data data corruption issues with Sony and Samsung cards that ended up in lost work, which is why I’ve stayed exclusively with SanDisk. I’ve recently moved on the CFexpress cards and those are tough as nails, I dont think i could take it apart even if i wanted to.
Just keep them in the little plastic box they come in and then insert them into the pixel pocket. ALL cards are just bits of plastic and thin metal so they’re pretty fragile. And, like many others here, I’ve never had this happen with any brand of card.
Have you taken into account that Sandisk cards are the most counterfeited of all cards? Both Amazon and ebay are regularly guilty of selling fake SD cards. I would not encourage anybody to buy from them, especially if they are being sold at a special discount. My experience is that I have never had a card disassemble on me, Sandisk or otherwise, although I have not used as many as you seem to have.
For that reason, I never buy through eBay, and rarely buy through Amazon, and only through official Amazon, NEVER third-party retailers.
Having said that, I think for the past few years I have ONLY been buying SD cards through B&H, for this very reason.
No SD card is professional grade and should be considered short term. CF cards are professional grade.
That’s just not true. CF cards have many parts and I have had plenty of failures from them over the years, compared to the rock-solid build quality of some of the tougher SD cards that have not let me down.
I got it from tech support from Marantz before Denon bought them. Its not my opinion. I don’t use either one anymore.
C’mon guys, soft case for cards, no hard case, really? No wonder they get damaged with other stuff and camera equipment in your bags.
I had no problems ever, like in 12yrs, ok maybe a wrong angle in a hurry, makes few “ribs” to crack, or peel off ears from stickers but no such problems ever like you mention. Thats all from your bag or similar if you say you’re gentle with them. Buy hard case and let me know if im wrong or use housing for cards before putting them in cards wallet.
Good luck!
Did you read the entire article? I do not put the card wallet in any “under crushing force/pressure” type conditions, as far as I know.
Besides, the fact remains that of all the dozens of SD cards I’ve owned, ONLY Sandisk cards have failed like this.
I did read it.
However, i see on ypur pics that its in a bag near batterys, so i thaught maybe theres some pressure sometimes or so, but once again, try using hard case. Hope it works for you if you ditch Sandisk!
Nice eye. That was actually just a stock gear review pic that I just snapped for a bag review. I usually store my card wallet in a spacious compartment of my camera bag, with the lens dividers set to not allow the wallet to be crushed, when I’m actually out on long jobs or adventures.
We use SanDisk for our shoots at work. When needed, we transport them loose in a ziploc bag. LOL Never once any mechanical breakage.
At least get an antistatic bag. You’re going to end up with ESD damage the first time someone wears wool and the humidity drops below 50%.
Use the sandisk extreme pro cards and buy original.
Don’t buy fakes, and don’t buy cheap cards. You get what you pay for. I still have 100% faith in Samsung and won’t buy another brand.
I’m a photographer and YouTuber. My 128gb card has recorded I estimated 2tb of video footage and is still going strong.
https://www.youtube.com/JacReviewsStuff
SanDisk isn’t a professional brand, so ofcourse using them in that matter isn’t going to work well. They are fine for 99% of use cases but not yours. Not every brand is going to be a perfect fit for every situation. You should only be buying higher quality brands in a professional use case. I argue that you are your own cause using a cheap brand for professional use. Stop buying cheap SD cards or know that you’ll have failures but don’t knock a low cost manufacturer for it failing in your use case.
I think this is an interesting comment because, while I agree with you, I believe that “Extreme Pro” Sandisk cards seem to be the default go-to for many working professionals that I know. (I know dozens, by the way)
You don’t recommend any higher-grade brands, though. I mentioned Sony Tough and ProGrade in the article. Got any other recommendations?
Same here, I have like 4 that broke in similar manner: Broken “ribs”, broken corners that left debris inside the camera, and the most irritable failure is a pair of cards that for some unknown reason have their write protection switch very loose, so much that every time I insert the card into the camera it half-slides itself into the lock position.
Imagine this: Card in my hand = unlocked …. card into the camera = locked… And I have two with the exact same symptom! One was 1 month old and a few weeks later the small plastic thing just snapped away. That card is in read only mode now… unless I put blacktape like some internet post suggest? I am not inserting something that might get stuck inside my camera.
I gave up, I bought myself a Sony Tough UHS-II out of pure anger and I am really really happy. It was pricey as hell but totally TOTALLY worth it. It seems to be constructed from a single piece, so its impossible to snap in two. It have no “ribs” and best of all, no stupid lock switch.
Yes, I’ve had that issue before too. A teeny-tiny bit of superglue on the card lock switch fixed the problem, haha.
I have been using SanDisk Extreme / Extreme Pro cards since 2010. I have had some cards fail on me during this time, maybe two or three. In all cases, I was shooting with dual cards in backup mode so it wasn’t fatal. But other than this, I have also had 3 x 512GB cars that had their ribs brake and the top part (the side that goes inside first) fractured. I then started looking for more rugged cards and found Delkin Black. It was difficult to find it online and speed wasn’t great, and thankfully Sony released Tough cards. These cards are great, speed is good and they are very rugged. So far I haven’t had any issues. Let’s see how long they last.
Thanks for mentioning that brand, we’ll have to look into them!
I’ve always said, if you think it’s a good idea to spend $3000 on a camera and then complain about memory cards that cost more than $30, you’re doing something wrong. I learned this lesson the hard way.
Oh wow – that’s some pretty nasty damage there.
I use SanDisk exclusively and have done so for about 7 years now, and I have never, ever had a card fall apart on me like that, so that makes this article even more interesting.
While I do shoot tethered from time to time, the absolute majority of my work includes taking out the SD card and using the SD card reader in my MacBook Pro (and that dates my computer, I guess…) for transferring the files to my storage, so I definitely handle my cards quite a lot.
On e major difference, though: I only use very few cards (four in total) since my shoots can generally be stored on a single card, which means that most of the time I have two cards in my camera and two in small hard shell containers (the ones that came with the cards at the time of purchase). When photographing it is the card in slot 1 that is being popped out and inserted back into the camera, while video footage is taken from the card in slot 2.
I have never used something like the ThinkTank Pixel Pocket Rocket, so I have no idea how much flexing and pulling is involved in inserting and removing the cards from it, but I did at some point use a small camera bag with two small pockets for memory cards, and I did not like the way I sometimes had to manhandle my cards in order to get them out of the pockets – is that the same with the ThinkTank, or is it relatively easy on the cards?
It would be interesting to hear from people here how they are using and storing their cards and see if there is some kind of pattern – after all, it is pretty clear from the answers so far, that you are not alone in having this problem, and at the same time, others (like myself) has never experienced it at all.
I agree that it is pretty obvious that whatever the cause is, the SanDisk cards seems to be less built to withstand it than the other cards you use, but the quetions is if that is something that should cause concern in general, or only in some specific use cases.
That is definitely some data I would like to collect. I’ve always laughed when I see a camera bag that includes tiny little pockets for memory cards; there’s no way I’m jamming my cards into those little pockets; from problems with camera bags getting stolen, to the crushing pressure of just tossing your bag in the back of your car roughly when you’re rushing from one location to another, I couldn’t imagine doing that.
I like the ThinkTank Pixel Pocket Rocket because it seemed to have the perfect balance of gripping a car when it is in the pouch, but also not requiring much fiddling when trying to get the cards in or out of their individual pockets.
Maybe I’m wrong and there is something fundamentally flawed about the design and/or usage habits of the card wallet, but that doesn’t negate the fact that this catastrophic failure has happened to ONLY my Sandisk cards over the 12+ years that I’ve been using SD cards in particular.
I can’t remember the last time I’ve bought Sandisk SD’s. Maybe 2013/2014. :) I was really disappointed with the Extreme Pro. It wasn’t as fast as I thought it would be…and, caused my Sony a77 SLT to reboot like Windows 98. Then, it was fine with my Sony a6000. Even the super cheap $8 cards had no problem. Since then, I’ve always viewed Sandisk to be overhyped and overpriced.
That’s serious damage… I should touch wood now, but so far I haven’t broken a single Sandisk SD card…
After each shoot I eject one of the cards ( I have double SD slots in my Nikon cameras) and transfer the photos to my computer.
Just wondering: do the cards in your camera get warm or something?
My cards and USB sticks from before the Western Digital acquisition still work without issues. Everything newer has failed. My Sony Tough SD cards are also failing so I’m switching everything over to Samsung.
Another vote for Samsung. I did have one of my Samsung cards begin to throw data failure errors, though, so I retired it early. Might have to look into them again; though I really do like the Sony Tough cards, they’re just so physically durable, and I haven’t had a data loss issue yet. *knocks on wood*
Interesting, I’ve had the opposite experience. 20 years as a pro photog. Your experience is truly damning but my experience with the Sony tough is not about toughness but read and write failure to the point of not trusting them.
Take away – there’s no guarantee in technology. Plan ahead. Plan for failure. We’re photographers, we show up prepared for anything.
This is very true. Of the 50-100 memory cards I’ve owned in my lifetime, I have had far fewer losses due to actual loss of data integrity or other types of things, than I have had issues with the Sandisk cards.
Everybody’s story may be different. I had to tell mine.
For sure, don’t get me wrong – I appreciate your story and the perspective – I hope my last sentence didn’t come off as me trying to instruct – it was meant as camaraderie, days in the lives of photographers.
No issues EVER from 1G to 1TB SD… This guy jus doesn’t take care of his things. “in my opinion” he’s jus hating on SanDisk or he had a personal bad experience with their customer service or something. If u don’t got nothing nice to say get OFF line
Quite the opposite, Jonathan. I’m sure if I contacted their customer service, they would have “taken care of me” and you would have never seen this article. That might called being bribed not to publish the truth. Is that what you want?
I wouldn’t have published this article at all, indeed, if my issue had been across the board and the dozens of other brands of SD cards I own had any issues as well. Unfortunately, the physical failures are 100% Sandisk, and they’re not even my oldest cards, either. Obviously I need to take better care of my memory cards, or just retire them all sooner. But that one fact undeniably proves that Sandisk cards are the least physically sturdy. Period.
Indeed, I have the opposite experience too. Exactly what you said: problems with read and write failures of several other brands. I use now only Sandisk extreme cards and never experienced any problems with them.
100% Agree! I’ve had several shred at the plastic separator tines and leave them behind in the cameras card slot. These are the only cards that have exhibited this behavior. Sure, I may be a bit rough in quick swap situations but I don’t think that’s an excuse for using plastic that’s that weak.
I have pretty much exclusively used Sandisk and have never had one fail (hope I haven’t just jinxed myself).
Interesting. I’ve never heard of this before but I believe you. I already avoid Lexar. I’ve got 10 UHS-I Samsung 64GB Pro cards that have been fast and absolutely flawless for years now. I just wish Samsung offered a UHS-II variant. They certainly understand how to build reliable SS storage devices.
I started avoiding Lexar years ago when I realized how deceptive they were about advertising write speed VS read speed. They use that silly “X” speed rating that means nothing to most photographers, and they sometimes wouldn’t even list the write speed on the packaging, only the read speed.
In other words, you’d get blazing-fast speed when transferring from a card to a computer, but in-camera your buffer would fill up and then take AGES to clear. Forget action sports or wildlife, I would literally have to halt mere portrait sessions that got too active, LOL, and wait 30-60 seconds sometimes.
I think Lexar has improved lately and their read/write speeds are now more similar, and listed clearly too. Might have to look into them again if that is the case.
Just watched a video of a South African wildlife photographer shooting with an R5 that was throwing errors whenever he used his Lexar SD card. There was at least one person in the comments who was having the same experience and getting the same error. I actually trust them less now that Micron sold the name to some Chinese manufacturer.
Same here. I had 3 or 4, 32gb sandisk sd cards fail on me in exactly same manner.
Thank you for your comment. I totally understand that there will be many, many comments from people saying “this never happened to me after X years and Y SD cards!” …but hearing that others are, in fact, having the same issue is affirming.