How long should a CF card last?

CarlukeDave

CarlukeDave

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I've heard a few stories about CF cards going faulty and losing data. It's not something that's ever happened to me, but as I'm starting to do more paid work, it's something I'm paranoid about.

How long should a CF card last, how often should they be replaced?

Has anyone had a card go faulty that's resulted in lost images?

Are there any precautions that should be taken, obviously not getting them wet, dropping them etc

Cheers

Dave
 
As long as you don't buy a cheap card, they should last years.

I've had a Kingston 4gb card that i've had for like 2 years and it's never corrupted.
 
are sandisk considered to be good? i just bought a 2gb high speed sd card off ebay
i've had a couple cards go faulty on me now and its damn annoying
 
All my cards are SanDisk and I have never had one fail on me
 
I have all sorts of makes of CF cards going back 10 years and not had one fail. I have just last year lost a cheap make of SD card but it was set as an extra drive in a laptop, not the job it was originally intended for.
 
thats good to hear, the ones that failed weren't sandisk i dont think

nice post count btw Foggy
 
I have only had one cheepy one fail (SD).
Some people recomend replacing them every few years, but I don't know whether a new card is any less lightly to fail. Probably a faster write speed anyway. Wayne
 
I purchased what I thought was a SANDISK 4Gb CF card just over a year ago from AMAZON - one of their marketing "partners" I found out later. During an important shoot last Cricket season, the card failed. Off I went to SANDISK quoting their warranty terms and they asked me to send them photographs of my card - which I did. The reply .... this one is a fake! AMAZON were no help whatsoever - refused to consider my complaint. So it is a big thumbs down for them.

I have had a LEXMARK card fail in the past which was replaced no questions asked at all after I had sent it back to them.

My advice - stay with a known and respected brand if funds allow as their warranties are fantastic. I have since purchased what I think are genuine SANDISK cards but to answer the question - these things are electronic devices and very reliable. They are going to fail at some point like every electronic device but I don't believe anyone can put a figure to their lifetime - best to keep a spare (or two) in the kit bag I guess.

Alan
 
We're still using an old sandisk 256mb card I purchased years ago with my Nikon coolpix camera. It's now in the wife's electronic photoframe and still going strong - it's got to be getting on for 7-8 years old.
 
Richie-ST said:
are sandisk considered to be good? i just bought a 2gb high speed sd card off ebay
i've had a couple cards go faulty on me now and its damn annoying
Click to expand...

Sandisk are very good, they're the only ones I use. But if you bought from Ebay you may want to check they are genuine.
 
I had a CF card which somehow became physically damaged. I have no idea how it happened but it bent a pin in the card reader in the camera. £150 for a new card reader for the camera. So I check 'em with a magnifying glass from time to time now.

Other than that, all been well for me.
 
Since flash memory CF cards don't contain any moving parts they're less likely to fail due to mechanical issues however, the type of non-volatile memory used is only good for a finite number of write cycles (100,000 cycles seems to come to mind).

Once you start seeing issues with corrupt files on heavily used CF cards then it might be time to start thinking about replacements.
 
Not had a problem with SanDisk cards but have had a cheapo one fail on me. I managed to get the pictures rescued from the duff card (at a price) but never trusted that brand again (can't even remember what the brand was!).

If you take care inserting/removing the cards to/from the camera/reader, they should last a long time. Formatting them regularly (in camera) is supposed to help keep them "clean" and I keep my spares (and full cards) in a protective case rather than loose in the bag.

Finally, only buy from reputable sellers. E-bay (and it seems Amazon's marketplace) may not be as reputable as they would like you to believe. Yes, you may save a few quid by buying from there (you never know your luck, you may even get a real, reputable card!) but if you lose all the pictures from an unrepeatable event it ceases to be the bargain it first seemed.
 
out of interest about 6 or 7 years ago someone at nikon told me to expect good quality type I cf cards had a lifespan of about 140,000 writes and rewrites. not sure how much accuracy was in it, but ive heard similar things over the years. ive had a few cf cards for what must be 8 or 9 years that still seem fine. as mentioned before i should imagine when you get your first 'problem' (whatever it may be) would be a good indicator to replace soon. they're so cheap nowadays that its not really worth the risk.

ive had a couple of really cheap cards fault on me in the past (ones ive got for free or that have come with 2nd hand goods), but good brand ones of any size and speed have been perfect and havent failed.
 
The cheap makes use cheap connectors/housings, that's where the problems occur. A fake sandisk may have the same flash memory chips as a real sandisk but the connector may be made from cheese :)


(you can't make cheap flash, the factories costs 100s of millions of pounds :D)
 
sorry for the bump on this but i got my card yesterday and I'm pretty sure its a fake as its no faster than my normal 2gb sandisk card and looks nothing like the one on the listing

dunno if its worth going through all the process of sending it back etc seeing as it only cost £5 :shrug:
 
Richie-ST said:
sorry for the bump on this but i got my card yesterday and I'm pretty sure its a fake as its no faster than my normal 2gb sandisk card and looks nothing like the one on the listing
Click to expand...

Get a photo up :) There should be a serial number on the back - you can check it on the SanDisk website to check.
 
DSC_0183.jpg


thats exactly how the card arrived, no packaging or plastic card holder thing

i took a 30sec exposure with my normal card and the "fast" card but both took around the same time to write the file to the card

i cant see the serial number thing on sandisk's site but I'll look at the forums or email them
thanks for the link Wontolla, i think I'll stick to trusted sellers from now on
 
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