Well I had the inevitable happen to me on Saturday. I was recording with my T2i and with the Card almost full I get a error 02 code. I remove the card to swap cards as I figured I'd recover the files when I get home and sure enough the card is hot. Didn't feel so good about that. Got home and immediately tried to recover files and the card is dead. No reader or device will read the card even to format it. I feel sick in the gut about it. There's about 12mins out of 40mins of important footage on the card and I have contacted Patriot about the situation as the card has a 5yr warranty. My question here is would it be possible that the heat from the camera killed the card? The card was pretty hot when I removed it from the camera. The filming was inside in a air condition location. Thanks everyone.

Monday

Oh NO!! That is horrible!!! I hope there is a way for you to find it back! :(

This is the 2nd Patriot hit. I am really pissed on them as you (even If I will never use one).

The thing though is I don't believe this is a Patriot hit yet. I want to put the blame on them but I think that the heat from the 550D maybe too much at times for any SD Cards. Till I can come to a good conclusion I'm going to use my 550D for only special jobs instead of moving them to Primary use.

I can't believe that the heat is too much to burn a card.

Well it maybe that the card isn't as heat resistant as a Sandisk. I just don't know anything right now and am pretty frustrated that I lost 12mins of very important footage that I may not be able to recover. :'(

Can't you reshoot this?
And this is an unkown info for me about Sandisks.

Nope. Can't be re-shot. I wish it could be. Just to be clear my problem is with this patriot card and not a sandisk one. I'm just nervous shooting with Patriots again for a while till I can pinpoint the possible cause. Thanks George for helping me think this through.

I think we need more months with the t2i in the field to really judge; my gut instinct would be it's that specific brand, which i never have heard great things about the way i hear great things about Transcend. I haven't experienced that, but I haven't pushed it in a real heavy situation. I guess factors like, how long was the camera running, what were the environmental conditions (lots of air flow? No air flow?) would factor into it. My transcends haven't shown this problem- at most, my camera show the little thermometer icon for a second or two and then goes away. But again, I haven't pushed the limits.

Either way, I know that pain and would buy you a beer if I could!

I think it's not logical to have a card toasted because of a continuous 12 min capture.
I will buy a Verbatim or a Transcend or a Sandisk when I will buy my 550D next month.

Well make it a cappuccino as I don't drink ^_^

The camera was working all day. Prob off and on for 9hrs. From AC location to Outside in the heat. 80degree day. Back to AC location. Air flow was pretty good. There was lots of fog from a fog machine. I may need to just change to transcends but now I'm a little nervous because of this particular situation I guess. I may just have to wait till Panasonic ships their agf100 and just go that route as the cards will be in a better location away from the body heat the camcorder will generate.

As you described it, it seems more like a war than a shooting.
And at war you should get the best weapons.
I mean I don't know if anything will handle those situations.

Well my XHA1 handles it really well. ^_^ In all honesty the fog was for lighting effects which lasted 3minutes at times. The other 2 Patriot cards did fine but the third one I guess died. That's what I'm trying to figure out why it did. I am really bummed out right now.

You can't compare such different sizes. At least from the video's I have seen from 550D it has an outstanding image very close to 16mm film (in terms of color and resolution) and it looks a lot better than HDV. Now to produce something like that @45 mbit in a tiny camera this ain't easy at all. I mean the processor must really be on fire...
But was that this card the last one in the row. Have you used it again?

George for me the two images are different. One is not better than the other but one maybe preferable to the other. I wanted to give the T2i a shot on this particular shoot because I wanted see what type of look it can give me, and also the ease of being tapeless. It was the 2nd card used out of the 3. I have tried using it again and the card is not readable, writable, & can't be formatted. Which leads me to my initial thought that the heat from the camera may have killed this particular card.

Or that the card was faulty. There is a 33% percentage for both thoughts.
But I consider Patriot not very good cards anyway.
I mean around here when they want to give a gift for any SD using device, they give this...

Hi Monday,

I'm really sorry to hear about your loss. Hopefully you can recover the footage. Before I took the plunge with DSLR's I researched the reliability of the media and compiled a list of good habits to develop when working with flash memory. Some of it might be overkill, but I won't be completely comfortable shooting to solid-state until there is a way I can record two copies at the same time:

WHEN PURCHASING:
- Only use brand-name memory cards from companies that have a history of making products with reliable performance. This information can be gathered through merchants that have ratings and feedback as well as forums and comparative reviews.

- Use the smallest capacity card that your workflow allows. This will limit the losses you may incur if a card becomes corrupt.

WHEN SHOOTING:
- Always format new cards before use in your camera, even if they come "pre-formatted".

- Don't delete images and video files during a shoot.

- Never use the card to its fullest capacity. Always leave free space.

- Don't let your batteries run out during shooting. Though most modern cameras have safety measures in place to guard against write errors its safer to always have sufficient battery power.

- Completely turn off your camera before removing the memory card. Even though most modern cameras have safeguards and warning systems to tell you that the camera may still be accessing the card it is even safer to turn the power off before changing cards.

- Only use a card in multiple cameras if they are the same brand and model and also have the same firmware installed.

WHEN TRANSFERRING:
- When you transfer your card's image and video files to your computer don't reformat the card until its contents exist in two separate locations, i.e. your internal hard drive and an external hard drive, your internal hard drive and a DVD-R etc. When making your second copy of the card's contents don't copy the first copy to the second location. Rather, copy the card's contents to each location directly. This will avoid creating two corrupt copies if the first copy was corrupt.

- Don't delete the image and video files while the card is connected to your computer. Format the card in the camera you intend to use the card in.

- Always eject your cards from the computer's desktop when you're done transferring your images and video files. Don't just pull out the card. The computer may be accessing it.

- Store your cards in a dust-free, low-humidity location with a consistent temperature. Don't knock, bump or juggle your cards.

this brings up the question- anyone come up with a better way for backing up such large files? i know- blu-ray dvds, or buy terrabyte drives... just wondering if there's anything new on the post-NAB horizon...

I plan to archive at plain DVD's or Dual Layer.

Is PQI a decent brand?

Hi Monday,

WHEN PURCHASING:
- Only use brand-name memory cards from companies that have a history of making products with reliable performance. This information can be gathered through merchants that have ratings and feedback as well as forums and comparative reviews.

- Use the smallest capacity card that your workflow allows. This will limit the losses you may incur if a card becomes corrupt.

WHEN SHOOTING:
- Always format new cards before use in your camera, even if they come "pre-formatted".

- Don't delete images and video files during a shoot.

- Never use the card to its fullest capacity. Always leave free space.

- Don't let your batteries run out during shooting. Though most modern cameras have safety measures in place to guard against write errors its safer to always have sufficient battery power.

- Completely turn off your camera before removing the memory card. Even though most modern cameras have safeguards and warning systems to tell you that the camera may still be accessing the card it is even safer to turn the power off before changing cards.

- Only use a card in multiple cameras if they are the same brand and model and also have the same firmware installed.

WHEN TRANSFERRING:
- When you transfer your card's image and video files to your computer don't reformat the card until its contents exist in two separate locations, i.e. your internal hard drive and an external hard drive, your internal hard drive and a DVD-R etc. When making your second copy of the card's contents don't copy the first copy to the second location. Rather, copy the card's contents to each location directly. This will avoid creating two corrupt copies if the first copy was corrupt.

- Don't delete the image and video files while the card is connected to your computer. Format the card in the camera you intend to use the card in.

- Always eject your cards from the computer's desktop when you're done transferring your images and video files. Don't just pull out the card. The computer may be accessing it.

- Store your cards in a dust-free, low-humidity location with a consistent temperature. Don't knock, bump or juggle your cards.

Quite right Joel. Whatever the reason for this terrible mishap, I think we should all accept that these DSLRs have major problems, apart from the terrible aliasing and moire that everyone knows about. Dont get me wrong, I love the 550D, I use mine regularly alongside an EX1, it is great as a B cam for shooting cutaways and infills. What we have in the 550D is a great stills camera that happens to shoot great video, if used within its limitations. It is not, and was never intended to be used as a full time video camera. As Monday said, his XHA1 handled everthing the same day with no problems, as one would expect. No doubt all the issues connected with DSLRs will one day be a thing of the past, but this is the technology we have available today, and we have to accept that. Out of interest, I also have a Sony HX5 digital camera which shoots glorious 1920 x 1080 footage, it never overheats. !!!!!!!!

Is PQI a decent brand?
Try ATP pro. They can be used in an EX1 almost as well over/under cranking as SxS cards. Very reliable

Monday,

I'm sorry to hear about that happening to you. My "guess" is that there was something about that particular card that caused it to heat up bad, some extra resistance somewhere in it that was encountered as the card got close to full.

Patriot, A-Data, and several others are "Johnny come lately" to the market cards and I've heard many horror stories about them. Transcend, I hear just enough "card quit and can't be read, formatted" to where I won't take a chance on them. Dane-Elec has a miserable record of media failure.

If and when I get a T2i (sold my T1i and have a 7D) the only card I will consider is SanDisk. That's what I used in the T1i, what I use in the 7D (SanDisk ExtremeIV 45Mbps and one 60Mbps) and never a problem.

Filling the card up: I don't do this, I treat flash media just like we used to have to treat 20MB and 30MB hard drives. It was in the last 15% down to 10% of capacity that we saw an astronomical rise in File Allocation Table errors. I had 2 instances of horribly scrambled data until I learned to stop filling it up at about 80% and that's where I try to stop on SDHC and CF cards. It makes a difference.

I easily feel your problem was with that one Patriot card. I would get one SanDisk Class (6) or Class (10) and try to run that hard like you did the patriot. Periodically shut the cam down and see if the card is getting warmer than you're comfortable with.

You helped me out with the T1i, I hope this info helps you. I think your T2i is just fine.

Me...I pay the SanDisk price, swallow hard and move on.

Thanks Joel and Bruce. I'm going to get rid of my remaining two Patriots and get 3 Sandisks. I'm going to have to send the card out to a recovery place as the files on there are very important to me. Oh well. I've learned my lesson.

Monday

I and many others have used Transcend 16Gb SD class 6 cards with no problems.

... I'm going to get rid of my remaining two Patriots...
Monday

I'll use them. I hope I didn't make it seem like Patriot is a 'no-name- brand. I don't think that at all. The've been around since '85 and consistently rank high in unbiased customer ratings on sites like newegg and amazon - practically always 4 or 5 stars. As with any product you're going to have a failure rate, and the people you most hear from that buy a product are the ones that experienced those failures first hand, so getting a good rating within a public forum is especially hard. Having said that I totally understand you not wanting to use them after you've had one fail...

You totally understand me there Joel. Just nervous being bit once. You definitely did not make it seem that Patriot was a bad brand at all. I'm just nervous to try them on important jobs. B&H has 16GB Sandisks Class 6 for $50 so I'll pick some up and go from there. The Sandisks I have now have been very reliable so far. I just hope they can keep up the record. "/

Just another piece of data:

Patriot LX 32GB SDHC Class 10 (Model PSF32GSDHC10): died within days (froze up a couple of times, then died).

Patriot support (in newegg.com) comments speculates that it might be Class 10 needs to be supported better by the camera (i.e., firmware update) because it's newer (just tellin' ya what they wrote).

And, by the by, I got Patriot because of their good reputation and agree it's not a no-name OEM.

That means that the camera damages the cards because they have intense i/o performance?
I don't understand how this is possible. I can understand that the camera doesn't recognize them but to destroy them? Not a good excuse.

Sorry to hear it happened to you too D. Eric. Just picked up some Sandisks from B&H now.

I had a Patriot 16gb class 10 that failed on me... I retured them and bought 2 Sandisk 8 gb for $50 each-End of story. No problems and no heat. I'll never mess aournd with another card while shooting anything important.

Hi Dylan,

I had a Patriot 16gb class 10 that failed on me... I retured them and bought 2 Sandisk 8 gb for $50 each-End of story. No problems and no heat. I'll never mess aournd with another card while shooting anything important.

How did the Patriot card fail? What were the symptoms? When did the problems start? In the camera? When transferring? Do you notice a difference in the heat of the card of the amount of times the camera overheats? Just trying to see if there is a pattern...

I bought a 8gb along with my 16. The 8 never failed, but really didn't use it that much. As soon as put in the 16gb I started to record random stuff outside and when I went to preview the file off the camera it said media error "cannot play file" or something like that. A couple of times it did record stuff but with HUGE glitches to the video and audio, rendering it usless. It would also stop recording without me pressing anything. I tested out the cam with taking multiple pics in a row to see if that would have any effect and it did. Multiple pics said "cannot view" . Perhaps it was just a faulty card, but it scared me big time. I'm shooting a wedding in a couple of days and cannot afford for this to happen. My primary is a EX1 so I'm safe.. No problems yet with the Sandisk.

Dylan,
what type exactly are your Sandisk cards?

13 SDHC Memory Cards Reviewed : SD Memory Cards for Professionals (http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/sdhc-memory-card,review-31516.html)

A good test to read.

13 SDHC Memory Cards Reviewed : SD Memory Cards for Professionals (http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/sdhc-memory-card,review-31516.html)

A good test to read.
Interesting Quote from the article "Information on the temperature operating range would be more valuable, for example." Which brings me back to to my original thought that this specific card may not be as heat resistant as others.

I still think my first card will be a Silicon Image. All the tests I have read say about a very good card. And is cheap. 40 euros for a class 10 card aren't much. And they test the class 6 here.

Silicon Power Class 6 SDHC, 16 GB

Silicon Power is a Taiwanese company that specializes in memory products of all kinds. We received a 16 GB SDHC Class 6 card; there are also 32 GB, 8 GB and 4 GB versions. Our card reached the maximum read speed of 19.7 MB/s, while also providing fast write throughput: we measured between 16.5 and 17.2 MB/s, which is an excellent result. In fact, this card offers the highest minimum write throughput of all the cards in this test, and is only beaten in the maximum results.

Also this white paper is interesting.
http://www.supertalent.com/datasheets/SLC_vs_MLC%20whitepaper.pdf

So how does one find out which card on the market is SLC and which is MLC?

Hi Khoi,

So how does one find out which card on the market is SLC and which is MLC?

According to this post Sandisk apparently is MLC:

Extreme III SDHC 4GB - SLC or MCL ??? - Extreme III Cards - SanDisk Community (http://communities.sandisk.com/sandisk/board/message?board.id=extreme3&thread.id=318)

And it looks like some manufacturer's put SLC right in their packaging:

Silicon Power intro 8GB 150x SLC Class 6 SDHC card :: TweakTown (http://www.tweaktown.com/pressrelease/769/silicon_power_intro_8gb_150x_slc_class_6_sdhc_card/index.html)

Ok thank you, I will try that next time.

I bought the extreme 30mb/s. Doesn't this camera shoot over 35mb/s anyway?

Data rate and video bitrate are 2 different things.
HDV is about 25 Mbit/s (3.125 MB/s) almost as DV.
This should be around 5-6 if it is 45-50Mbit/s.

I got done a Wedding today and noticed that the Sandisk cards when swapping the cards were a tad warm. Towards the end of the event I used the Patriots and when swapping the 2 patriots I have left they were scorching hot. Very strange which brings me to my conclusion that these cards are not very tolerant to heat as the Sandisks. Probably the reason my first card died.

I am convinced that everyone should use at least the Extreme III from Sandisk. I still haven't seen the 3.7 fps/sec rate. The 30mb edition.

I bought a 8gb along with my 16. The 8 never failed, but really didn't use it that much. As soon as put in the 16gb I started to record random stuff outside and when I went to preview the file off the camera it said media error "cannot play file" or something like that. A couple of times it did record stuff but with HUGE glitches to the video and audio, rendering it usless. It would also stop recording without me pressing anything. I tested out the cam with taking multiple pics in a row to see if that would have any effect and it did. Multiple pics said "cannot view" . Perhaps it was just a faulty card, but it scared me big time. I'm shooting a wedding in a couple of days and cannot afford for this to happen. My primary is a EX1 so I'm safe.. No problems yet with the Sandisk.

I had the exact same thing happened to me with the patriot 16 gb card. I then bought a Sandisk class 10 extreme and haven't had any issues since then.

I bought two brand new class 16 patriot cards a few weeks ago. One didn't work at all and the other failed after about 15 clips, only one of which was viewable. I promptly returned both cards and got cheaper class 4 PNY's that are still flawless 500 clips later.