Lexar Image Rescue

[Marsilius Boa]

Greatblog post!

I actually fully wipe the card on the computer after transferring and backing up the images, and format the card in the camera before use. This wipes out the old images (not just the FAT), assures I reformat for the specific camera, and actually would make a recovery effort easier should that be needed. It is much easier for a recovery program to recover from a relatively clean card than from one with several sessions of digital residue.

And I only use Lexar cards and my Lexar reader. I have never had one fail yet.

Do we have to remove the memory card the way we remove the battery from camera when shoot is over? Or will it be ok if i did not remove the card from my camera and always use usb cable to transfer the data from camera to laptop? (Canon 5D M3 user)

Although I agree with the suggestion to use name brand memory cards I will say I've had three or four name-brand cards fail in my life -one of them so badly a tech from the company could not read it at all. A great reason to have backups and maybe shoot on two smaller memory cards instead of one larger one.

One other point I wanted to add is I just recently got a new, faster SD UHS-II/U3 card (150MB/s) and it was significantly slower in my camera than my older 95MB/s U1 SD card! So before you spring for a faster SD card make sure your camera supports the newer spec fully.

As for keeping the cards in cases I do it not so much for the cards (though it can help protect them) but also because that way stray dust/particles will not get into the SD slot in my camera.

Hi Jeff,

Seams quite logic to me except of this part:

* You must keep your cards in covers.

I hate to tell you this folks, but I have my cards loose in my bags all the time. I do not use the little jewel cases that come with the cards. I do use the ThinkTank Pixel PocketRockets, but also have countless cards thrown in my bags. This has never been an issue.

If there is a grain of sand or a grain of dust entering a notch of the CF card - and by that damage or bend a pin of your camera, you may write in your next blog: I hate seing people spending more than 10.000$ on gear and than try to save money by not buying a 5$ cover ;)

No mention of making sure that UDMA7 cards are used in UDMA7 readers. I can't imagine how much money the FW800 readers have cost lexar in the last couple years and still they aren't screaming this from the treetops like they should. PR issue I suppose. We are on the new Workflow readers now, but just sent off my last batch of corrupted cards to leave last week from the 7 snafu. The effects seem to be cumulative of some sorts as we had several daily long after ceasing use of the fw800 readers.

Don't delete images one by one (if you're in the middle of a shoot and you see a bad image, don't delete. Just keep it on your card until you transfer them to your computer. Then you can delete the bad image from your computer. Don't delete the images from your card while in your card reader/computer. Once you have finished transferring your images to your computer (and backed them up sufficiently), put the card back into your camera and format the card. This will take care of deleting your images from your card and formatting the card correctly to your camera.

Hi Jeff

Great blog and good information how to use the memorycards!

Just to add some more informations:

1. Don't format the memory card in the computer because the computer uses a different kind of format!

And:

2. It is important to put the cards in this little plastic covers! When you are travelling in deserts or very dusty areas, it can happen, that very smal sandparticals enter the holes for the pins in the CF cards.

You can not clean that and the pins in the camera will break if you try to put it in the camera slot... I saw this twice on a desert photo tour!

Thanks for your interesting blog

Dionys

When I fly back from vacation, I always remove all of my cards and put them in my wallet which has my ID, cards etc, just in case I might have to evacuate the aircraft. That way I know I have my photos, the equipment can be replaced.

Thanks for all of the great info. Can you provide any additional information regarding your suggestion that "Your camera is awesome at taking photos, but it is not very smart at managing the data on your memory card." Millions of people delete many millions of photos from their cameras every day. What makes cameras "not very smart" in this regard and did Lexar have evidence that this was a common issue causing card corruption?

Thank you for taking the time to share this! So informative. I tend to think of my memory cards as magic genies that hold on to my images for me, and I just cross my fingers that they don't get angry and destroy my data, haha! That said, it sounds like I'm doing most things right, so it's good to know I'm not making any major mistakes.

I do have one question, though -- you mention using a quality card reader, but what if the only card reader you have is the one that's built into your laptop? Is it a bad idea to use a built-in card reader, and if so, is there a (not too expensive) external card reader you would recommend?

Earlier this year I had the misfortune of having the waterproof cover on my GoPro fail whist snorkeling in the ocean.

Unfortunately I had no internet access on the cruise ship until 4 days later so I had no access to research additional advice for handling salt water exposure. I immediately put the camera and card in rice to dry them out, but unfortunately the salt water starts corroding the circuitry in the camera and card several days later. The card and camera dried out within 24hrs but two days later both were destroyed.

If faced with this scenario again I think I may have been better off flushing it all with very strong alcohol, leave the gear in rice overnight then back up everything immediately to another storage device.

If faced with this situation again I would flush with alcohol, dry in rice and

But then aren't you then relying on your camera battery not to fail? All reader 100%. USB 3 with a fast memorycard is awesome. Downloading a 32gb card of RAW files took ages on USB 2, USB 3 was a real treat.

Interesting info, just have a couple things. #1, what about built in sd readers on most laptops?

#2, Be sure to give your blog a proof read once or twice next time. There where a few mistakes that are easy enough to fix with a proof read. (Example, section 3, "have the images IN MORE THAN MORE PLACE".

I have a Nikon D300s with a CF & SD slot, in the menu you can set what you would like to do, eg RAW to one card and maybe a full size Jpeg to the other as depending on where you are, you may not have access to RAW software so then you have the JPeg. Can be handy.

Years ago I had a lead case with film inside and I was told off when my bag went through the X-ray, they said it was no longer needed and there X-ray would affect my film. Still didn't ask to see inside.

I often get requested by newbies what cameras, contacts, or digicam purses I would suggest for them. For those concerns, I had written a couple of short article already. Now I want to give my recommendation on a little device that gets ignored most, but for me is one of the most important device you should have. crossword answers

I agree with all the points, but want to add: don't put your SD card in your back pocket wallet. I did that on a wedding shoot, only to get home and the computer wouldn't read the card. Sent it away to a lab and got back a scan of the memory card inside cracked into two pieces! To this day 2 years later I get minor PTSD-type flashbacks just thinking about it (returning half the couple's money was nothing! I would have paid the lab ANYTHING to get that data back). Never imagined that the card and my wallet were that flexible.

#4 was news to me - I always assumed all card readers are equal; that they just copy data from one place to another and don't mess with it ...

This article has little value especially coming from a former Lexar employee. Most of this is common sense, but some are nonsense, like #1 & #5: who cares if the FAT is scrambled? He never says what the consequences of having a scrambled FAT table are and I've never experienced any machine, camera or computer, that has system software that can't handle an unorganized fragmented FAT. Delete off your camera all you want. I do this systematically as my import process; before uploading, I always delete off my camera images I'll never use. And I'll delete while shooting; I've never had any consequences from it. And fill that card up to the brim; the camera doesn't care. Jeff never explains why this caused him problems. It's like he cares more about a FAT table than practical issues. #4 is important. I've had corrupted memory cards from this, but he never addresses built-in card readers whether they're good quality or not. I've never had a problem with either my laptop's or desktop's built-in card readers. #2 is important only because cameras are picky. I've formatted cards in different cameras and my laptop only to find the camera doesn't accept it. It's unfortunate, but it's a fact of life: always format a card in the camera you will use it in. #3 is part of my system of importing: just format the card in camera after uploading and backing up the photos. #6 is critically important; wait a few seconds after the light goes out or the door is open to remove the card. #8 is important. Buy name brand cards. You wouldn't buy crappy film. I've put off-brand SD card down the garbage disposal. Life is too short for cheap memory cards. Also, the read-only tab falls off the cheap ones; this is a design peeve for me. It's not actually a read-only tab: it's a write-allow tab because if it comes loose and falls out, your SD card is now read-only. They should have designed it the other way: if it's missing, you can't write-protect it. Lastly about #5, if you've formatted your card, then filling it up isn't going to fragment your FAT. I'm not impressed with this article.

3a8082e126