ProSpec 64 GB UDMA 6 cards on D800

[stevenseelig]

<p>I have had three of these cards fail while using them on my D800.<br>

Computer: All the failures have occurred with my Apple 15 inch retina display laptop. I have not had a failure on my desktop iMac.<br>

Camera: There have been failures on two different D800 bodies.<br>

Card Readers: There has been failure on two different card readers and 4 different cables. One of the card reader was a ProSpec and the other was a Delkin (Both USB 3.0)<br>

Two of the cards have been replaced with new ones and one of those replacement cards has failed.<br>

I am thinking it is the laptop or the cards.<br>

I am wondering if anyone has used these cards on their D800 and what there experience has been.<br>

Thanks</p>

[agitater]

<p>Calumet's ProSpec cards have gone through a lot of ups & downs. They're slower in use than the specifications would have you believe. Calumet doesn't seem to have much control over manufacturing quality because the chip controllers are frequently flaky (that's the problem you're experiencing - although I've seen a few ProSpec cards that were working quite well - something which illustrates that quality control is all over the map).<br>

Calumet provides a warranty for the ProSpec cards that is at least partly also covered by Calumet's customer satisfaction policy. So I suggest that you go back to Calumet to exchange the ProSpec junk for SanDisk Extreme Pro (95MB/s) or Lexar Professional (600x & 1000x) cards instead. You'll have to pay the difference in price. You'll be much happier and your D800 will rarely again keep you waiting while a shot is being written to either card.<br>

SanDisk, Lexar and Integral offer the fastest tested SD and CF card write speeds and read speeds in the camera. If you haven't seen it yet, go to Rob Galbraith's site and have a look at the <a href="http://www.robgalbraith.com/camera_wb_multi_page9ec1.html?cid=6007-12451">D800 cards tests</a> of various brands (although I don't think Galbraith has tested the newer Integral brand of cards). It's a real eye opener that will help protect you from any more aggravation.<br>

In case you were wondering too, a poor quality chip controller in an SD or CF card can give fits to any card reader, laptop or PC - Mac, Windows, it doesn't matter, because the readers and the card slots in a laptop or desktop computer are just dumb devices. If a flaky controller in an SD or CF card is sending junk to the interface, the computer will often just stall and throw up an error.</p>

[ShunCheung]

<p>I would stick with either SanDisk or Lexar. I can count in one hand among all the problems those two brands of memory cards have given me over 10 years of using DSLRs. After those, there are a few more good brands such as Kingston, etc.</p>

<p>Additionally, I would take full advantage of the dual memory card with backup mode on the D800.</p>

[stevenseelig]

The second card has saved me on two of the episodes, and a file recovery software once.

[agitater]

<p><em>"After those, there are a few more good brands such as Kingston, etc."</em></p>

<p>I don't think that Kingston has been a good recommendation for a long time. Kingston used to make good cards; not any more. The cards also rate consistently near the very bottom in Rob Galbraith's testing.</p>

 

[stevenseelig]

<p>And which cards do you use for the backup slot?</p>

[agitater]

<p><em>"And which cards do you use for the backup slot?"</em><br>

<em> </em><br>

I use SanDisk Extreme Pro cards in both slots. My D800 is set up to write a NEF/Lossless Compressed + JPG High/Large to slot 1 (SD card) and a backup to slot 2 (CF card). FWIW, I don't shoot using Cl or Ch - rahter, single shot only. I use 16GB SD cards and 64GB CF cards in the D800. </p>

<p>During trips, when the CF card gets loaded up in its backup role, I swap it out for the next 32GB card in my bag and keep the full one as a backup (I also backup the day's shooting to my Macbook Air each night, and I don't re-use any SD cards during a trip which gives me another backup set which I store separately from the CF cards). You can't have too many backups. On a 2-3 week trip I go through anywhere from 6-12 SD cards and 1-4 CF cards. I've been using at least half my current crop of SD cards for several years - or anyway since the SanDisk Extreme Pro 95 MB/s cards first came out. I only picked up the 64GB CF cards when I picked up my D800 in May 2012. I organize my SD and CF cards in a Think Tank Pixel Pocket Rocket card wallet - very handy, and I've got a couple of them. </p>

<p>I know some photographers who install really large SD and CF cards in the slots and then never swap them out, preferring instead to hook the camera up to a laptop or desktop comptuer using the USB cable to transfer files directly from the camera. That's the slow way to do things. The fast way is to use an external card reader, i.e., a SanDisk USB 3 model (which is backwards compatible with USB 2.0 Hi-Speed ports too). It's the fastest file transfer method whether you're using Windows Explorer or Mac OS Finder to copy the files to a hard drive folder, or using your photo editing software to directly import the files. </p>

<p>I realize it's a higher up-front expenditure, but I never leave home without several SD and CF cards in my card wallet. Installing a pair of cards and never swapping them out increases the likelihood that a card failure will occur. The reason is simply that even the best quality cards have a finite cell life. That cell life is now measure in years and years of regular use, but I personally prefer to lower the chances of failure by maintaining a set of cards instead. The number of SD and CF cards I'd recommend for anyone is obviously highly dependent on the amount and frequency of shooting he does.</p>

 

[elliot1]

<p>When you say they have failed, you mean they have stopped working completely, or just selectively on certain devices as you list, and continue to fine on other devices.</p>

<p>I have a couple of 16gb Kensington cards that work fine on my D3 but will not work with my D800.</p>

[stevenseelig]

I mean that the card is not reable across multiple devices or the camera, or I am not able to transfer all of the pictures off

the card.

[rick_chen]

In backup mode, the Sd card in the d800 is the limiting factor so u dont need anything faster for the CF slot, a 600x or

400x can probably keep up with the fastest sandisk extreme pro 95mb/s

Same thing as the d4, nothing can match the xqd so u want the fastest cf u get get , such as the lexar 1000x.

I really dislike this design from Nikon, makes no sense to have a sd in d800. The d4 maybe, since xqd is too new and

some might not want to jump media until its more affordable. The point of having 2 slots is for backup, and now we have

to deal with diff cards and speeds , and reader

[miffy o]

<p>I have had four Prospec Imaging CompactFlash 8GB UDMA 6 Memory Cards fail on Nikon D800 and D4 cameras.<br>

Purchased 1 year apart different stores.<br>

Failure on 2 different card readers, 2 different computers and 2 different cameras.<br>

Corrupted after use and cannot be reformatted in any camera, or on a PC, or Mac.<br>

Still waiting for Calumet UK to agree to replace.</p>

 

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