Nikon D850 - lost images from Sony XQD cards

I have the last couple of days followed a discussion on another forum regarding loss of photos from a Sony XQD card used with a Sony card reader. The photographer had seen each of the photos immediately after they were taken, but when transferring to the computer several photos were missing. Put the card back into the D850 and they were gone. I was positive it was a computer software issue, however, it turns out that it is a general problem – I have never heard about it. Anyone here have experience the same? I normally use the SD card for overflow, but will in future use it as backup instead, plus I am considering getting a couple of XQD cards more – I do not need the fast CFexpress cards.

In almost four years of using XQD cards, I haven't had any issue so far, concerning lost images. But there is a minor problem with the Sony 120G XQD card I bought last year.

 

I bought my D850 pretty late, in January 2019, which was like 1.5 years after its introduction. It turns out that in these days I mainly use the Z6 for general photography so that I don't use the D850 that much, but I have no issues with the D850. Since it has dual card slots, I would always save each image captured onto both the XQD and SD cards, in the backup mode.

 

My latest XQD card is a Sony 120G, which I bought when Sony had a discount in January 2019: Sony XQD Card Price Drop

What I noticed recently is that card's capacity is down to about 105G, although I was quite sure that it was 120G initially. I assume some of the electronics inside has gotten bad so that part of the memory is now mapped out and the overall capacity is reduced.

ShunCheung - thank you very much. I sounds like the problem is, what you mention last, the capacity is all of a sudden reduced. The card was not full - the estimated balance was abt 200 images

The photographer had seen each of the photos immediately after they were taken, but when transferring to the computer several photos were missing.

I haven't noticed, but cannot say it did not happen. If it did happen, they were probably non-essential shots.

What I noticed recently is that card's capacity is down to about 105G, although I was quite sure that it was 120G initially.

Your comment made me check all 5 of my Sony 120G cards' capacity. They are all between 108G - 109G. All pre-formatted either in Z6 or Z7. But I don't have any that has 120G. Hmm...

I don't have that Sony 120G XQD card with me, but here is a 32G SD card's properties on Windows.

Its capacity is "32G" because it is 32,009,846,784 bytes, but that is actually 29.8GB.

 

I still have a few 128G XQD cards, Lexar and Sony, and I think they are still 128, ... bytes.

But that Sony 120G XQD is now down to something like 105,... bytes.

 

Since my Z6 doesn't have dual card slots, I try to use my latest XQD card in it.

I'll probably start using CFx in the near future just to have a new card there,

since card failures tend to happen on older cards.

 

I had 2 32GB XQD cards from sony fail in my D500, they remained readable, but at a certain point in time i could not write to them anymore, also not from a friends camera or from the PC.

 

Since XQD cards are hard to find here now ( i prefer buying from a shop, not online) and there is no CFexpressupdate for the D500 (yet), i now relie on the single SD slot in the D500 .

The capacity is always less, besides that they use 1,000,000,000 bytes. There is overhead.

 

My D70s sometimes forgets that it has a card (CF) in it. I then take it out and put it back in.

Only one time did it fail in writing.

 

For SD cards, I usually set the write protect switch before putting it in a computer.

That reduces the chance of the computer intentionally writing, though that doesn't

guarantee no problems. The wrong voltage, so some other wrong signal, might

still mess it up.

 

If the space isn't released, the data might be still there, but with no directory entry.

There might be ways to recover it.

 

After they fail, do you completely reformat them? Some cameras get confused if other

devices, such as a computer, write to the card.

Glen h - the card has not been reformatted yet, as the photos are important from a safari in Africa. The card will only be reformatted, when all recovery alternatives have been used.

I still have a few 128G XQD cards, Lexar and Sony, and I think they are still 128, ... bytes.

But that Sony 120G XQD is now down to something like 105,... bytes.

As mentioned in my last post, all my 120G XQD cards report somewhere between 108G-109G, including the overhead. So they are actually 110G cards.

Glen h - the card has not been reformatted yet, as the photos are important from a safari in Africa. The card will only be reformatted, when all recovery alternatives have been used.

What's your recovery status now. Do you use Windows or Mac? I saw there two recovery methods earlier. I have not used them at all, so I am not sure if they are as advertised.:

• Method 1
  
• Method 2 (for Mac)
  

Good luck!

Edited March 13, 2020 by Mary Doo

So, when it comes to the 'missing' files, is the file numbering sequence complete or interupted? Individuals or blocks missing?

 

Most of the 'missing' file stories I've come across have been caused by the roll-over from DSCN.9999 to DSCN.0001 but in ANOTHER folder. Show ALL FOLDERS got around that one.

 

Without sounding cruel and uncaring, the D850 has 2 slots. Safari = Back-Up.

 

The 'One-Slot' XQD only teeth gnashing about the Z series seems relevant here...!

I also recall seeing reports about failed Sony XQD cards. Most, if not all, where about the 120 GB version when last I looked. I have the older 128 GB 440/400 version and have not experienced any problems with it in my D850. However, I do recall an oddity, when formatted (in camera) it shows a slightly different remaining recording time in video mode than my Sandisk SD card of the same size.

 

It would be interesting to see if others with multiple cards of the same size would also be shown different available remaining recording time in video mode.

I have a Sony 120 GB G-series card bought when Sony had a good price on the card bundled with a reader The Sony card refused to be read by card readers (hardware works fine with my Delkin card). The camera had no problem accessing it and I was able to recover images using the Z6's USB connection. I reformatted the card in the camera and it appears to work fine with limited testing both in the camera and reader, but I don't trust it. A friend using a D850 lost all his images on a XQD card last summer. Seems that XQD may not be as robust as we would like to believe.

I have a Sony 120 GB G-series card bought when Sony had a good price on the card bundled with a reader The Sony card refused to be read by card readers (hardware works fine with my Delkin card). The camera had no problem accessing it and I was able to recover images using the Z6's USB connection. I reformatted the card in the camera and it appears to work fine with limited testing both in the camera and reader, but I don't trust it. A friend using a D850 lost all his images on a XQD card last summer. Seems that XQD may not be as robust as we would like to believe.

That really sound terrible - the above case was a friend, but I have the same, and I think the sd card will be the priority in future.

I have a Sony 120 GB G-series card bought when Sony had a good price on the card bundled with a reader The Sony card refused to be read by card readers (hardware works fine with my Delkin card). The camera had no problem accessing it and I was able to recover images using the Z6's USB connection. I reformatted the card in the camera and it appears to work fine with limited testing both in the camera and reader,

Sounds like it's a compatibility problem with your Delkin reader. The images on the XQD are fine.

... but I don't trust it.

Hmm... but it hasn't failed on you. :)

A friend using a D850 lost all his images on a XQD card last summer. Seems that XQD may not be as robust as we would like to believe.

Did he mention what he did with the card?

 

I have five Sony 120G cards and have used two of them intermittently and have not seen any problem.

Edited March 15, 2020 by Mary Doo

I have not had any problems with data loss with XQD cards. I've used them since 2016.

I've got a well used pair of Lexars from April 2017. a 128gb and a 32gb both 2933x. I Paid about £1 per GB for both.

 

Never had a peep of a problem in my D500 or D850.

 

Anyone know if there's an image counter AKA Read/Write tally anywhere in the card's own data store?

I had lost couple of pictures from SD card, but Thanks Stellar Photo Recovery is a professional utility software to recover images, audio clips, and videos from damaged, corrupt, or formatted XQD memory cards. The software supports photo recovery from all volumes of memory cards including all brands and models.