buggy 'fast' Sandisk cards (UDMA / Extreme) - I stop using them, don't trust them

I’m not sure what’s going on with new ultra/extreme/fast/UDMA Sandisk cards… For years I have shot without any problems, I’ve had all kind of cards, 1Gb, 2Gb, 4Gb, 8Gb …

but… since the ‘fast’ Extreme cards, i have a lot of troubles with the CF cards of Sandisk. I shoot Canon, 5DmkII/III and 1DmkIV, I shoot ‘semi’ professional, I’m a CPS member and take good care of my gear. I use it a lot, under difficult circumstances (I shoot wind/kite surf, in rain/heavy winds sometimes). I bought SanDisk because everybody recommends them for professional use. These days, I’m really hesitate, and I don’t buy those ‘extreme faster then fast’ SanDisk cards anymore. They don’t live up with the ‘fastness’. There are some test around that confirm SandDisk never reaches those speeds, and I have the feeling the ‘fastness’ of the card creates more problems then it’s slower versions (and for photography you don’t need more then 30Mb/s… believe, i know :slight_smile: )  I only bought faster cards for video.

I have problems with:

CF Extreme UDMA 60Mb/s - 32 Gb

  • my 5D mkIII doesn’t regonize it sometimes… if I put it in again, it sometimes ‘works’… and no, it’s not my 5D, because it’s brand new with new firmware (and does other cards without any problem)

  • yesterday the card wasn’t recognized by any camera/PC… luckily I already moved the files of that card earlier, but I would have been quite pissed if I lost all material due to this. Format by 5D didn’t work, format by the 1DmkIV… worked… after that, card worked normally.

  • I loose sometimes RAW files after I edited this from the CF card in Canon’s DPP, and converted that to JPEG (on my HDD)… I lost a couple of RAW files this way… Is NOT acceptable, and yeah I should transfer the files first, which I do now, but then again it should NOT happen…

SD Extreme 32GB 45mb/s

  • this one is known to be buggy. I know that now. SKIP THE 45MB/S cards!! Really! Keep away from them!!  

I have a Panasonic GH2, with that russian hack, so the bitrates are higher. Is a proven concept, lot’s of user use it without problems…  If you read about it, you’ll see that the 30Mb/s is way better then the 45Mb/s for video!! There are some tests around that even show that this 45Mb/s is never reaches the 45Mb and is even slower then the 30Mb/s !!!

I had troubles with it also.

  • Panasonic GH2 with hack, stops filming after 45 minutes. The hack removes the 30 minutes barriere, and I tested it, it worked, I could film until battery was empty or card was full. Not on that SanDisk … it just stopped ‘suddenly’… I lost video during a payed shoot in a theatre, and it stopped during another shoot after 20 minutes!!  Other cards … no problems!!

  • Canon 1DmkIV. I used it as extra card next to my CF card… (1DmkIV has a CF and a SD slot). Normally with CF, I never have troubles with 10 fps… works nice. When the CF was full, the camera switched to the SD and after shooting some photo’s, the camera ‘frooze’ after a sequence of 15 photo’s in 1 go… camera LED’s kept flashing, could not watch photo’s, couldn’t do anything… problem was this buggy card… It is NOT up to the task, and should not called be a “PRO” card.  Even my ‘old’ CF cards keep up with the 1D speed… and … 45Mb/s should be more then enough… but it doesn’t… and worse, it freezes the camera… for quite some time (I had to wait 3 minutes!! ). With other cards you cannot always look up the photo’s directly, but,… you can watch the once who are ‘done’ and you can keep shooting… with this card I couldn’t do anything… 

I don’t use that card anymore, bought a 32Gb 30Mb/s version, which works fine. (and is way cheaper!!!)

Never buy the 45Mb/s version, buy the 30Mb/s. That’s advice on numerouse video fori!!  I have 2 16Gb/30Mb/s cards and now 1 32Gb on 30Mb/s, have NO problems what so ever… the fast Extreme cards…  lost material, lost ‘speed’… buggy. I have the feeling UDMA ‘fast’ ‘extreme’ is a big failure of SanDisk (and seeing here on this board, I’m not the only one, and I don’t see any responses of SanDisk other then ‘send it to SanDisk’… That’s nice, but I don’t trust these kind of cards anymore… I buy 30Mb/s cards, but I skip those Ultra/Extreme versions. They cost a lot of money but are NOT worth it, even get you in trouble.

Ow btw, I never format CF/SD cards on the computer, and I use  ‘all in one’ USB 3 card reader. I always format the card in the camera before I start a shoot.

True.Sandisk has all buggy extreme pro cf cards.I have lost all of my precious images .I had made mistake of my life purchasing sandisk card.The worst company and worst product.