gugs
Offline
• • • • •
Upload & Sell: Off
|
I have had a few serious problems with XQD cards. I don't know exactly what to do and I am just posting my findings until now.
I am using XQD and CF cards in my D4, and never had any problems with CF cards. However, I recently took a long series of pictures until the XQD (set as primary that time) was full. I then got an error message and had to remove the XQD card to further shoot and use the CF card. The settings were correct (XQD primary, CF overflow). The message was something like "This card cannot be used in this camera..." Other than that, everything was working properly. I even forgot I had that experience for some time. I could retrieve the pictures and formatted the XQD card. I used the D4 for some time with just a CF card and two weeks ago, I had an assignment with a lot (>1000) pictures to deliver, and I used the D4 and D7000 both with two cards and both set in overflow mode (maybe my mistake ?).
I shot for a few hours, and when the XQD card became approximately full, my shutter button refused working and I got a "This card cannot be used in this camera" message. I panicked because I was in the middle of an assignment with very critical events to take pictures of. The review button showed me 0 pictures on the card, there was nothing left !!! I removed the card and put it back in and after two tries I could take a picture again, the card was recognized, but all pictures were gone ! I then removed the card, put it in my wallet and continued shooting with the CF card. I never felt that bad during an assignment, because I was going to lose a lot of money and my credibility as a supplier.
The day after, after a bad night, I started looking for similar problems on the net, and I found that Sony just released a specific software to recover XQD cards (the software is available since August 2012 if I am not wrong). I downloaded the software, and ran it on the card. After an hour, NOTHING, 0 files found on the card... the process took a few hours, and the rescue software started finding files. At the end of the process, I recovered all files but 3 random pictures, exhibiting strange large horizontal color bars (jpeg files). My assignment has been saved but at a serious (psychological) cost.
For information, the rescue software can be downloaded here
http://www.sony.net/Products/memorycard/en_eu/datarescue/index.html
it is free for XQD owners but you have to enter your serial number (for info, this is the second line of info engraved on the card, 0's are zeroes and the serial 'number' is case sensitive, 'a' will not be recognized as 'A')
At the end of day, I still have a happy customer, but things could have gone completely wrong. You can tell me I should have shot in "backup" mode, have two copies of each picture to prevent this from happening, but I NEVER had a similar problems in something like 300.000 pics using tens of cards (CF and SD) and before the D3 I didn't even own a camera with two cards...
Because of my first experience (no consequences at all), I am now suspecting bugs in the way the D4 is handling the XQD card, but I couldn't find any confirmation of this. Corrupt files or directories could be considered part of the game (statistically speaking) I don't know...
Any comment/advice or similar experience ?
Guy
|
