M8 card trouble

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posted Mon Aug 17 2015
Here is my persistent problem: For the 3rd time this year I am running into trouble with my Panasonic 8GB SD cards - loosing 3/4 of my photos.
The strange thing is that while I am shooting I can see the images appear on the LCD but later on can not recover them even with recovery software.
This happens with both of my M8 bodies.
When I diagnose the cards via Lexar's image rescue I get a "Cluster" error - when I check them with Panasonics software I get no error.
My standard practice/ procedure is to erase the cards after download via Lexars image rescue and subsequently reformat it in camera before shooting. (Same as I do with my Sigmas, Canons, Nikons, Kodaks, Panasonics, Sonys.)
I just went back to use my old 2GB 133x Lexar Professional Cards and ordered a Lexar 8GB Professional 133x 20MB/s SD Memory Card and a 16GB Professional UHS-I SDHC Memory Card (U1) today ... but I am getting a bit paranoid about the whole thing ... What SD cards are you guys using here - and what procedures proved successful for you over the years... any advice ?

 

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Please advise if "rangefinderforum" is the wrong place to post this question - Thank you so much !

Card Type SDHC Capacity 8.0 GB Class Rating Class 10
UHS-I Speed Rating 166x Read Speed Up to 90MB/s Write Speed Up to 25 MB/s Waterproofing Depth rating: 3.28' (1.0 m) in fresh water for up to 30 minutes - IECG0529 IPX7 standard Resistance Bending: Up to 20N
Twisting (torque): 0.3N•m
Magnet: Safe to subject to DC magnetic field of 0.1T for 5 sec
X-ray: 0.1 Gy of medium-energy radiation Temperature Range -13 to 185° F (-25 to 85° C) Certifications TÜV Rheinland certification for power failure protection

 

[Range-rover]

This is a good place to ask, I have a M8 as well and had problems with
certain cards, the M8 is a bit fussy on which cards to use. I use Lexar
8GB 300x Platinum II cards they seem to work good for me other cards
are Samsung 8 and Transcend 4GB, when I use other cards it would always
say card full so I had to find cards that would work. I never had downloading
problems but it could be the cards that you are using the M8 not totally
excepting them.

 

[-------]

Thank you !

Thank you !

This is a good place to ask, I have a M8 as well and had problems with
certain cards, the M8 is a bit fussy on which cards to use. I use Lexar
8GB 300x Platinum II cards they seem to work good for me other cards
are Samsung 8 and Transcend 4GB, when I use other cards it would always
say card full so I had to find cards that would work. I never had downloading
problems but it could be the cards that you are using the M8 not totally
excepting them.

Thank you so much ! I will give the Lexars a try then.
The "funny" thing is that when I click the play button on camera while shooting I get to see images - but then they are gone - I deep scrubbed the card with several SWs and found an array of super old images - which leaves the question if the M8 formatting option is working as intended or
what the issue really is - I know that the cards worked great at first - why they develop clusters is odd ( I only shoot single frames ).

 

[LCT]

First time i hear of SD card problems with the M8. It is in no way a fussy camera to me. I've tried perhaps two dozens cards of different brands on it with no problem at all. Just format your current card with the free SD Formatter and it should work if it is not corrupted.

 

[benmacphoto]

I've only used SanDisk cards in my M8.
And never had an issue with any of their cards.

 

[Range-rover]

Thank you so much ! I will give the Lexars a try then.
The "funny" thing is that when I click the play button on camera while shooting I get to see images - but then they are gone - I deep scrubbed the card with several SWs and found an array of super old images - which leaves the question if the M8 formatting option is working as intended or
what the issue really is - I know that the cards worked great at first - why they develop clusters is odd ( I only shoot single frames ).

Take a flashlite and shin it into the card slot, just to check the
condition of the pins. My camera had one pin bent up and it
would not reads cards at all, which I was able to bend back
very carefully and I got it to work.

 

[jaapv]

If you get messages like "cluster error" the card is corrupted. This may happen:

A. If you use them on different cameras without formatting in the camera.
B. If you remove the card from the camera with the camera powered up.
C. If you are in a habit of deleting images in-camera.
D. If you neglect to lock the card before inserting it into the card reader.

The solution is to do a deep format using SD Formatter (free)

There is also the possibility of having been sold a fake card (especially Sandisk) but that usually results in premature "card full" messages.

It is completely normal to find old images when using recovery software btw. The formatting you do in the camera (any camera) only deletes (aka replaces the first character of a string by "?") the files and does not erase them. It suffices to format in-camera on a healthy card.

Using recovery software to format the card routinely is not to be recommended. If you want to do a more elaborate format use "overwrite" on the camera or use the standard formatting options of your computer. In that case format again in the camera.

 

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after only 2x in camera format cycles with SDSDRX38192A21 the camera again fails to write DNGs to card. It will record JPGs of the same shot.

 

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strangely enough people over at Flickr warn against using SanDisk cards in Leica cameras... after 4x consecutively failing SDHC Class 10 cards I begin to think that they are on to something. ( will try recommended Transcend card next )

 

[-------]

I do none of the above

I do none of the above

If you get messages like "cluster error" the card is corrupted. This may happen:

A. If you use them on different cameras without formatting in the camera.
B. If you remove the card from the camera with the camera powered up.
C. If you are in a habit of deleting images in-camera.
D. If you neglect to lock the card before inserting it into the card reader.

The solution is to do a deep format using SD Formatter (free)

There is also the possibility of having been sold a fake card (especially Sandisk) but that usually results in premature "card full" messages.

It is completely normal to find old images when using recovery software btw. The formatting you do in the camera (any camera) only deletes (aka replaces the first character of a string by "?") the files and does not erase them. It suffices to format in-camera on a healthy card.

Using recovery software to format the card routinely is not to be recommended. If you want to do a more elaborate format use "overwrite" on the camera or use the standard formatting options of your computer. In that case format again in the camera.

Thank you again ! Both cameras worked flawless for years with Lexar 2GB SD cards