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CF Card went west in the west country

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    CF Card went west in the west country

    An appointment in Torquay combined with this wonderful Indian summer seemed an ideal opportunity to record some of the less photogenic but no less interesting parts that some of the historical forums I'm on crave.

    Equipped with 5D3 + 'walking about' 24-105 I diligently photographed lots of weird and wonderful 'off the tourist trail' (ie seedy) parts that I know are so popular. Part way though camera told me my CF was full so I swapped it for a fresh one and continued.

    Back home, tired, hot and sweaty (Torquay, just like Rome is built on seven hills which serve as a reminder of how unfit one is) but with 198 images 'in the bag' I inserted the second CF card into my reader and transferred all the later images to safety. Then I inserted the first to be greeted with: "You need to format drive H: before you can use it" Bugger!

    This is the first corrupt CF or SD card I've personally had but knew from the misfortune of a cousin whose photographs of her 'holiday of a lifetime' journey from Australia through China and Russia to Europe by train were potentially lost due to a corrupt SD card that recovery tools were available.

    To get me out of my hole I turned to Google who informed that product X was free and up to the task so I downloaded it. Free? yes. Up to the task? Maybe but with a recovery limit a mere fraction of my card size without an expensive upgrade I wouldn't know. Product Y simply didn't work. Product Z used an archaic command line interface but worked (well, after retrying all the failures).

    So, the upshot is that now I have the images I thought were lost I need to consider what replacement to buy - the one that failed was a Kingston 16GB ultimate 266X - any suggestions? Oh, and is there a downside to using both card slots in future?

    Cheers,
    John

    #2
    Re: CF Card went west in the west country

    Sorry to hear this John, it really stinks - it's happened to me once too, and I remember it also being a Kingston CF card (4GB). I now only use Sandisk extreme & pro, and touch wood, never had a problem since. I do shoot with 2 cards in the both my camera's (5Ds & 7D2), and on normal shoots have the camera set to record raw files to the CF card (16/32GB) and jpegs to the SD card (8/16GB) - that way you always have a raw or jpeg available in case one goes corrupt. If I think the shoot is important, I'll set the camera's to record raw+jpeg to both slots, as a more robust back-up. If you're not machine gunning the shots, you'll have no problem with buffer slow down.
    Regards
    Lez

    5Ds // 5D Mark III //
    7D Mark II // 16-35 f4L // 24-70 f2.8L II //
    24-105 f4L II // 70-200 f4 L // 70-200 f2.8 Lis II // 50 f1.2L // 85 f1.8 //100 f2.8Lis // 200 f2.8L // 300 f4Lis // 1.4ex // .......... and a longer wish list

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      #3
      Re: CF Card went west in the west country

      One of my 16 gb cards failed but luckily there were no shots on it at the time. Now I never use the CF shot, always SD from the Lexar Professional range

      Stan
      Stan - LRPS, CPAGB, BPE2*

      http://neptuno-photography.foliopic.com/
      flickr

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        #4
        Re: CF Card went west in the west country

        I always have two CF cards in my 1DX, I tend to use them individually but sometimes double up on them, I just make sure they are the same speed really.
        Canon 1DX, 50D, EF500 F4.0 L, EF100-400 f/4.5-5.6L I , EF100-400 f/4.5-5.6L II, EF70-200 f/2.8L II, EF180 f3.5L Macro, EF 24-105 f/4L, EF17-40 f/4L, EF2.0X III, EF1.4X III, 430EX II, MR-14EX...

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          #5
          Re: CF Card went west in the west country

          I always use either the Sandisk Expreme Pro or Lexar Professional range.
          I generally go for something fast 120MB/s (x800) or faster.
          I have never had a Sandisk or Lexar card fail on me, I currently use SD cards (150MB/s x1000) with the 7DmkII.
          Canon EOS R6 Mark II, Canon RF 100-500mm f4.5-7.1L, Canon RF 24-105mm f4L
          Please note: I do not have or use Photoshop

          flickr

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            #6
            Re: CF Card went west in the west country

            I had a ProSpec (from Calumet) fail during a wedding.....I didn't loose anything because I had the SD card recoding the same time....I was using a 5D3. I now use SanDisk Extreme.
            I tend to keep to 16 or 32GB so if it happens again its not too expensive to replace.
            Brian Vickers LRPS

            brianvickersphotography.com

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              #7
              Re: CF Card went west in the west country

              Thanks for the replies, folks.

              I'll be giving Kingston a miss now and go for the suggestions but I see SD cards are in favour so are they better/more reliable than CF? I've always used CF in my digital cameras (except the G10 which is SD only) and have a few but should I only use SD in future? As my 7D only uses CF standardising on CF would be more convenient but not at the expense of reliability.

              Re the size to buy, I prefer to have a number of smaller sizes and swap them out regularly when away in order that, if one fails, I haven't lost everything.

              Cheers,
              John
              Last edited by ColytonJohn; 04-10-2018, 16:12.

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