File :-(, x, )
life expectancy of a flash memory card? Anonymous
anyone had a flash memory card fail on them after heavy use? as in non-violent user caused failure?

i was reading about different flash memory cards and repeatedly read about them only lasting for 10.000 uses, that would be rather sucky since if you use your camera several times a day, then that 10.000 uses of the card could be reached within one years usage?

but does that actually happen? or is it even common?
i still got the same flash card in my camera that i bought with it, and its almost 10.000 pictures taken on that, is it as good as dead?
EXIF data available. Clickhereto show/hide.
Camera-Specific Properties:Equipment MakeNIKONCamera ModelE4600Camera SoftwareE4600v1.1Maximum Lens Aperturef/2.8Focal Length (35mm Equiv)70 mmImage-Specific Properties:Image OrientationTop, Left-HandHorizontal Resolution300 dpiVertical Resolution300 dpiImage Created2007:03:14 06:05:31Exposure Time10/601 secF-Numberf/3.9Exposure ProgramNormal ProgramISO Speed Rating51Exposure Bias0 EVMetering ModePatternLight SourceUnknownFlashFlash, Auto, Red-Eye ReduceFocal Length11.70 mmColor Space InformationsRGBImage Width1024Image Height768RenderingNormalExposure ModeAutoScene Capture TypeStandardGain ControlLow Gain UpContrastNormalSharpnessNormalSubject Distance RangeUnknownColor ModeCOLORImage QualityNORMALWhite BalanceAUTOImage SharpeningAUTOFocus ModeAF-CFlash SettingRED-EYEISO SelectionAUTOImage AdjustmentNORMALLens AdapterOFFAuto FocusCenterSaturationNormalNoise ReductionOFF
>> Anonymous
by using 10,000 times they're talking about pretty much writing over the entire card 10,000x so to do that if you had say a rebel XT and shot raw and had a 2gb card you'd have to take approx 2,300,000 pics to burn the card out since you can fit 230ish pics on a 2gb card, I don't think you have anything to worry about burning out the card in a year unless you're a pro and literally shooting thousands of shots every single day
>> Anonymous
but the whole memory dont have to fail all over, if a part of it goes bad its a crap situation anyway

and what if you keep taking pics and removing pics, and they over write the same part of the flash all the time

but does that actually happen, although even hard drives do fail sometimes, and they last way longer than flash drives according to the table
>> Anonymous
>>84075
yes, it happens.
>> ?????????????????????????????Anymonous?
>>84074
Don't forget that if you delete pics or format the card from time to time, the same parts will be written to all the time. That way the card will die quicker, even if you don't even use all of it. Actually: Especially if you don't.
>> Anonymous
I've heard many stories about broken memory cards. It's certainly not uncommon.

My 2gb SanDisk SD card is three months old, and I got my first faulty media errors today while downloading the pictures to my computer. Luckily I got all the pictures safe after several tries. Getting it replaced tomorrow nevertheless...

Format your card often. If you consistently delete pictures one by one and write new data over the old without formatting, your files can get corrupted pretty quick...
>> Anonymous
I used a very small SD card with my Powershot and I just recently got a larger capacity one. It's not that it's broken, it's just that it is a lot slower than it used to be at writing. This could just be through use, but needless to say, my newer SD card works seemlessly and I can take a lot of images consecutively without some sort of bottleneck with the write speed (only the camera itself).
>> Anonymous
You will kill the shutter in you dSLR faster than the memory card, and that's much more expensive to rectify :)
>> Anonymous
A couple of months ago, my Olympus xD had some problems when it came to writing data. Read somewhere frequently deleting frames from the camera can make your card all wonky, so I tried not deleting pics until I've uploaded them to my PC then format the card.

Seemed to work.
>> Anonymous
>>84154

you say "format the card"
would it matter if you actually do a format or just use the "remove all images" option on whatever software downloads them to the pc?
>> Anonymous
>>84201
I'm still not convinced that reformatting one's flash card is anything more than correlation-equals-causation superstition.
>> Anonymous
>>84077
>That way the card will die quicker, even if you don't even use all of it
This isn't actually true. Modern flash memories are built so they use all of the sectors equally so that they avoid exactly the problem you're describing here.
>> Anonymous
Ive heard of flash cards being washed and tumble dried and still be working afterwards.
>> Anonymous
You can download recovery programs for free like I did when my parents accidentally formatted their card during their holidays. Failing that most good photo places have a recovery service now.
>> Anonymous
What you should worry about is how to make sure photos that you deleted from your memory card stay deleted. I had a card I took thousands of photos on and it still recovered photos that were two years old. I you are going to take photos that you really don't want anyone to see then I suggest keeping a card just for that purpose and destroying it when you no longer wan t it.
>> Anonymous
>>84328

why not just fill it? if its a 1gig card, put some random 1gig file on it and then format it, anyone trying to recover stuff will only find that 1gig file
>> Anonymous
>>84329
Ya the guy who i bought my 4GB CF card off of did that... That tool, I was hoping to find porn or something incriminating on it.
>> Anonymous
>>84286

does that mean "wiping" your pictures doesn't work properly on flash? since the card will 'distribute' your over-writes all over the card instead of on top of the selected photo?