SDXC Extreme PRO UHS-I format issues with Sony NEX-7 camera

Hello there,

Hope someone can put a light on this.

Dr. Lucky you know you comments are highly appreciate for me :manwink:

A buyer  has reported some issues regarding the use of a SDXC Extreme PRO 64gb card in a Sony NEX-7 camera. Basically the buyer says that when he put the card on the camerA he can take pictures normally, video recording , etc… But when he put the card in the card reader (he is using Windows 7) appears the windows message : “this card needs to be formatted” .

At this point I know that when that message appears must click NO , because the card could be formatted on FAT32 and can damage the exFAT partition. But in this case the buyer is using Windows 7 and according to the Microsoft information Windows 7 is already compatible with the exFAT file system and there´s no need to install the updates or drivers that requires the older Windows OS as XP or VISTA.

The buyer says that he can format the card throught the card reader in exFAT and then the card is recognised in Windows 7, but when he put the card again in the Sony NEX-7 appears a message that the card must be formatted again.

So, the buyer must format the card before using with the NEX-7 or when using the card reader in Windows7, so obviously he can not transfer any content from the card to the PC.

I was looking any information regarding this issue on internet but I did not found any problem or issues with the SDXC cards and the NEX-7.

I know that the Sony NEX-7 do accept the SDXC cards, with the unique limitation of the UHS-I mode that it´s not accepted, that mean the NEX-7 won´t be able to get the speed of 95MB/s as it can not work under UHS-1, but there should not be any problem with the compatibility with the SDXC format in Windows 7.

My opinion is that maybe could be the card reader, but the buyer says he can format the card in exFAT with the reader so I don´t know if maybe is Sony who have developed a different or not compatible file system that makes the SDXC card compatible only when is formatted with the NEX-7  O.S.

I know the card is OK as he can shot normally with the camera, the problem is when he put the card in the reader. (the buyer has not confirmed if he used an internal card reader or just a external USB reader)

Any suggestion?

Thanks in adance!

it could be related to the card reader they are using. have they tried connecting the camera with the USB cable and using it as a reader?

Yes, that´s what I supposed initially, but the customer said he could format the card with his card reader in exFAT. The problem comes when he return the card to the camera as it needs to be formatted again.

I asked him if he can transfer data from the usb cable directly to the PC, but I guess his reader is obsolete, maybe it can format to exFAT but need to be upgraded in order to recognise automatically the data and avoid to be formatting each time he put the card into the reader.

I will let you know the results. I phoned Sony and they told me the NEX-7 is fully compatible with SDXC cards, they had no idea about why the NEX-7 is asking to format the card every time…what a smart guys…