Scary "Check Card" pop-ups - Decision time...

S

Subtext_MEG

Member
Hello All,

I'm having continuing issues with SDHC cards with my HMC40. Today, for the first time my screen went blank, said "Check Card" - followed by "would you like to restore data"...This all happened in the middle of a shot.

Now on my first shoot, my card got nuked and I lost 3 very important fights - and to be honest, it was incredibly embarrassing. It was my first "real" shoot and the most important content was lost - now today, I'm filming an insanely important BJJ seminar and this pops up.

I'm honestly scared to check the card because I'm 99% sure I've lost my days footage - which once again will give me that sick, sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach that makes me feel like an amatuer trying to be a professional.

So I'm curious if anyone else has had similar issues? I'm using Duracell Class 10, 16GB cards. As I'm sure many of you have done when you started out filming, I've really pushed to get to where I am where people are asking me to film for them, and now I don't trust my gear - earlier this week I started looking at other cameras (HMC150 & Sony AX2000) because I've had several requests for weddings and a few concerts and as much as I truly do love the 40 - I know it can't do low-light, and at stage I'm at, this is my job and I'm willing to invest the extra capital if it means I'm going to make more in the long run. Now I'm scared to use anything with SDHC....

**Sigh**....Sorry if that all came off as a jumbled rant, I'm bumming very hard right now. If anyone has had related experiences or food for thought I would greatly appreciate it :) These are those days you get home and want to pack up shop lol.

Cheers
Josh
 
I'm not sure who makes the Duracell cards but they sell them at Future Shop. The only advice I can give you is the same advice people have been giving for a few years now....use a name brand card such as Sandisk or Panasonic.

If you have the budget for a new cam, I'd suggest looking at the AC160 or the AC130 (due in November) instead of the HMC150. One of the key features is the ability to record to 2 SD cards at the same time.

If money is tight, go to Vistek and see if you can lease it instead of dropping the $5k in one shot. Leasing costs more but spreads that cost out over 3 years and is a 100% business write-off.
 
I just got some Sony 32g class 10 cards. I could not find anything about the Sony Sdhc cards, but they do have data recovery software for the cards. I would think Sony would make a card that is as reliable as the Panasonic or Sandisk.???? They had a great deal at Frys one day sale. $34 for a 32g class 10 card. Anyone had experience with the Sony cards.
 
Hi Guys

I have been using Transcend for the last 3 years so that's maybe 200 hours on each HMC 70 and so far I have logged 120 hours on each of the HMC80's ... No one card failure!!
However I did find that the Class 10 cards took much longer to format so I stick with Class 6... they are great, reliable and a tiny bit cheaper than Sandisk.

If you do get a card error rather use the AVCCAM card repair software that comes with the camera or grab a copy from the Panny website. I had the cam battery die on me yesterday and it did tell me do I want to repair the data?? I just said no and reshot the clip (Realty shoot...easy to redo!!) However I noticed that despite the power failure..the first clip was still fine!!

I would definately transfer the stream onto your computer ( maybe also in two locations just for safety) and then use the Panny software to fix it!!

Chris
 
Thank you guys for the responses - Amazingly, I think perhaps thanks to karma - I only lost the last 30 seconds of the final clip I was filming. I read somewhere that it may have been an overheating issue, you can see in the clip that it starts to break up then the image goes completely distorted before it stops. (Phew!).

I may go towards name brand cards from now on, and I had never looked at class 6 cards, so I may do that, thanks :)

@Phil - Thank goodness for Vistek, eh? lol. That's what I've done with my 40 is the lease program and now we're looking to exchange/upgrade - I would love the 160, but it's a bit too much, I'm willing to invest up to the $4,000 mark but that's about all I can really swing right now - even leased (interest is a killer), with the computers we've purchased, DSLR (for stills), etc....it becomes a harder sell to the wife lol.

I will say the Sony is looking very nice - but I loves me some Panasonic.

Thanks again guys - you're awesome as always :) Josh
 
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