The Death of 3 Memory Cards?

M

mattpringle

New member
Hi all,

having only had my GH1 for a couple of weeks I've still a lot to learn so please bear with me. Along with the GH1 I purchased 3 Transcend 16GB SDHC Class 6 memory cards for filming. I formatted all 3 of the cards on the GH1, no probs. I recorded video to all 3 cards, no probs. I 'logged and transfer' video from all 3 cards, no probs.

I do no video for about a week and then decide to record some new stuff. Error!! When inserted into the GH1 all 3 cards now show 'Memory Card Error' and I am unable to format the cards either. The cards don't show up on my Mac either now.

I have a SanDisk 4GB Class 6 memory card that I have recorded to, 'log and transfer' and reused, no probs.

I did a search of the forum and found a thread where someone had a similar experience with the same kind of memory card: http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/showthread.php?t=178669

Any ideas? Can all 3 cards really have died after one use?

Thanks in advance,

Matt.
 
I purchased a Transcend 8GB SDHC Class 6 memory card once and after two uses for video it would not work anymore for it. Only for stills. After that no more Transcend for me.
 
John Caballero said:
I purchased a Transcend 8GB SDHC Class 6 memory card once and after two uses for video it would not work anymore for it. Only for stills. After that no more Transcend for me.
Click to expand...

This happened to me on 2 Core Micro 16 gb cards... I returned them to the company and they sent me a couple of more. I am not sure why this happened, but so far the new ones are ok...
 
Thanks John and mojo43. This is my first time using Transcend cards having previously used San Disk. I may have to return these 3 dead cards and get SanDisk replacements, albeit for more money.

I'm still puzzled how all 3 of the cards failed, what are the chances? :o(
 
It's a little odd to have all three fail but it's happened to me too. However it wasn't just my transcend cards. I had one of those fail and then like a week later my Panasonic 8gb one failed. I chalked it up to storage and handling so now I'm super careful when I'm working on a project.
 
Al MacLeod said:
Can we link this thread to the one where everybody complains about the high price of P2 cards? :)
Click to expand...
made me lol

I found an ebay seller that I was very happy with.. I got a lot of 10 class 4 sandisk ultra SDHC's .I havent used the cards on my GH1 yet, but I have shot heavily with the sd100 and these cards since march without 1 issue memory related (knock on wood) and havent had any horror storys I've heard from buying ebay lots of memory.. I've been shooting heavily with that camera since March, cross country, on planes, skate & surf trips.... but I do keep the cards in the original cases, in a card wallet.
 
I bitched and moaned about the loss of 2 cards as well about a month or so back. Both were different makes.. One an Adata one a Transcend. I wont get into the details as you can prob search it but I still have no idea what the hell happened.

I ended up swapping for a new gh1 and bought 2 new transcend 16gb cards. I now perform a whole prayer and ceremony every time I shoot and dump the footage/photos.

One thing I do now is anytime I remove the cards from cam I flip the switch to write protect.
I copy the stuff over to the computer and then return the card back to cam (write protect off now) and reformat before using again.

The only diff I recall between my GH1s is I never upgraded the firmware on the new unit - and I'm kinda scared to now.
 
Similar problem at the weekend, I've had 9 months of useage from my GH1+kingston SDHC cards, no real issues. All of a sudden it's started with a CARD TO SLOW message! Now I'm a P2 User by the working week and only use this thing for recces - so no real issue - but it's limitations are starting to pile up for me.

Shooting on these cards really has made all this SD thing a non-starter for anything half-serious for me.
 
I've had sd cards go and the first sign of trouble was my laptop locking up tight as a drum on download.

A search of the web turned up scads of file recovery apps ($) so the problem was apparently known.

Some of us may remember the camera that was found on the beach after the 2004 tsunami that yielded pictures of the camera owners last moments.

Some cards can endure and other cards fail. What's the deal?

It would be nice is there was some forensic type analysis available...some way to determine what the flaw was, either user or manufacture in nature.

As it stands now, any attempt to delve into the files/structure on the card locks the computer...ending the effort.

Does anybody have any insight concerning these little blue wonders?
 
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I just recently had the exact same problem, all three transcend cards failed on me one after another. The last one failed during an important take, which was just plain awful. I am now using Kingston cards. If you haven't tried formatting yet, you might try to recover the files and or data structure with testdisk, a free recovery program.
 
I have the GH1 for less than a month and last week had a chance to take some photos/videos. I bought a brand new Patriot 8GB Class 6 card. After 50 shots and a quick few 20 sec video. The camera said memory card full. Ignoring the message, I turned the camera off and back on, took some more pics. Tried to play them back, nothing! just a black screen. Reformatted the card and went for a 2nd round. after about 100shots, it took a dump and I gave up. Tried the recovery software, did not work. was able to get some save some shots to the hard drive.

I had an older Panasonic Class 4 2GB card. It worked flawlessly with photos and video. I just ordered a transcend 16GB card. This is really disappointing. Loss my confidence in taking pics/videos now.
 
This is getting more common by the day. Its a major hit on ones confidence esp if trying to do something serious. Whats the deal here? Do we need to voice ourselves to Panasonic to do something about this nonsense? Firmware fix? Anything???!?
 
I guess a start would be narrowing the list of cards/manufacturers that have high fail rates and the circumstance of the failure.

Recent posts have highlighted different DVD brands in a similar way.
 
In the summer there was a long thread on dropped frames with GH1 and card write/read errors. Most people who had problems seemed to be using no-name brands and Transcend. I got two Panasonic Silver Class 4 with a HD Video marking that has worked so far without a hitch for video, one 16 GB and one 12.
 
In the summer there was a long thread on dropped frames with GH1 and card write/read errors. Most people who had problems seemed to be using no-name brands and Transcend. I got two Panasonic Silver Class 4 with a HD Video marking that has worked so far without a hitch for video, one 16 GB and one 12.
Click to expand...

I was concerned the class 4 Panasonic 2GB card I had would not work for video.
It worked flawlessly. Seems there is an issue with various brands per this thread. Does your class 4 work in 1080p video mode as well?

To early to conclude but it might seem class 6 may be the issue though it's suppose to support the higher rate(?)

Maybe we can start a list and see if there is anything in common. I'm in
the process of getting a replacement for the Patriot.

Brand: Memory Size: Class: Failure:

Patriot 8GB 6 'Mem Card Full', Corrupted files, Reformat N.G.
 
Bengali said:
Does your class 4 work in 1080p video mode as well
Click to expand...

Yes.

I think the GH1 Class 6 requirement is for shooting stills in burst mode to raw. It might have something to do with sustained write rates, ie; some Class 6 cards cannot write long enough at speeds high enough for video but has peak speeds good enough for still shooting. Even SanDisk sells SDHC cards with a HD Video moniker.

I'm old enough to remember when the difference between sustained and peak rates was an issue with hard drives not functioning properly for video despite having specs on paper that seemed enough.
 
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