Problem with Sandisk UltraII and both adapters

[Bo Skelmose]

I have not had any issues like that. I do not format them - unless the camera wants to do it - like the first time I use a new Sd card. After transferring the files from the transcend card I also just delete them in the clipbrowser. I have no problems using the cards for storage for other files on my computer.

[Ola Christoffersson]

Originally Posted by Bo Skelmose

I have not had any issues like that. I do not format them - unless the camera wants to do it - like the first time I use a vew Sd card. After transferring the files from the transcend card I also just delete them in the clipbrowser. I have no problems using the cards for storage for other files on my computer.

Same here. I have never had to reformat a SDHC card and can freely move them back and forth between computer and camera. This includes the Ultra II:s that I have had problems with as described above. The problems I have had have only been "Media error - card needs to be restored". Never reformating.

[Steve Shovlar]

Well the alarm bells have rung enough for me to cancel my order on the 32Gb card and get three 16Gb Ultras instead. I shoot weddings and can't afford this to happen under any circumstances.

[Chris Norman]

I bought 5 x16gb Ultra ll cards to use with MxR adapters, 3 work brilliantly & 2 are complete duds .. constant restore media messages on the EX1 & also had problems with imac. Have sent the 2 faulty ones back & waiting for replacements. So maybe it's not so uncommon.

[Ola Christoffersson]

Originally Posted by Chris Norman

I bought 5 x16gb Ultra ll cards to use with MxR adapters, 3 work brilliantly & 2 are complete duds .. constant restore media messages on the EX1 & also had problems with imac. Have sent the 2 faulty ones back & waiting for replacements. So maybe it's not so uncommon.

This was the answer I was waiting for! Now I know I am not completely bonkers!
I am sorry that you too have had problems but it is comforting to know that I am not alone.
Do you also get "restore media messages" but not the option to restore? Do you have the same other problems as I have with the cards?

[Paul Newman]

I also have 15 transcend 16gb class 6, many hours use, no errors. All shot with different hired in cameras as well as my own. Also 6 Sandisk Ultra II's - no issues with these either.

I would say that this is a card based problem.

Paul

[Ross Herewini]

Originally Posted by Ola Christoffersson

This was the answer I was waiting for! Now I know I am not completely bonkers!
I am sorry that you too have had problems but it is comforting to know that I am not alone.
Do you also get "restore media messages" but not the option to restore? Do you have the same other problems as I have with the cards?

Hi Ola,

I had one Sandisk Ultra II 16GB, that behaved in a similar way on the MxR, it would record as normal, but then when I stopped it would go throw "media error", as if it was too slow.

This happened after I was testing what happens if you pull the MxR out while still recording, do you end up with a disaster, (PLEASE DO NOT DO THIS AT HOME), I just wanted to see of I could break the MxR. Well the files were still there, and as expected the Sony asked for a "media restore", I ejected it but when I put the card back in it wouldn't go and do the media restore. I copied all the files off the card, and put them onto another, and it did the media restore on that card no prob.

So back to the first card, I tried reformatting in the camera, I tried clearing the card in my laptop using clipbrowser, I even used Explorer to clear the card of data, ie the BPAV files. I did another test of using the SDHC in my laptop and then formatting it using a cheap USB/SDHC adapter.

Well I'm sorry to say,...ONE of the things I did remediated the card, but I don't know which one. It now works fine, and I can't tell the difference between it and the others. In fact I can't remember which one it is now, of the pile on my desk.

I know this may not help you, but I wanted to share what I did in case someone else might try what I did and it might lead to a fix.

[Michael Palmer]

I think people are pulling the MxR out before the recording has finished and as you say Ross you have had issues from this too. The tally light doesn't mean the recording has stopped.

I think anyone who is purchasing the MxR/SDHC should realize they need to understand what they are getting into, and learn what works in their camera. I will always check and make sure the slot light is Green before I remove any card from now on.

From all of the research I have read and from my personnel experience the Transcend brand is very very good. I have the Convergent Design Flash XDR using the 32 gig CF Transcend cards and they are rock solid when recording @ 100 Mbps Mpeg-2.

I would like to have a few 32 gig SDHC cards but I'm going to wait until they come down a bit more before I purchase them.

[Marten Dalfors]

I had problems with my 16GB Transcend Class6 card with the Kensington adapter. So I bought the UltraII and they have worked much better, but not perfect. I get the same message as Ola sometimes but not as often as he describes. With the Transcend it was impossible to use (corrupted every other clip). Obviously many don't have any problems, but it's not safe to say that the Trenscends will work better in every situation. It seems like you have to test different combinations on different cameras until you find a reliable one.

For your information Ola, I bought all my cards and adapters at Webhallen. Don't know if the cards behaves differently depending on which batch they were made in.

I'm using the EX3

[Bo Skelmose]

Hi
I forgot to say that I have the EX3 - Maybe there could be a small difference between EX1 and EX3. As I said - no problems with EX3, kensington and 15 transend 16gB class6 cards.
And waiting for the slot led to go out before pulling the cards out out.

[Ola Christoffersson]

First of all - thanks for all of your thoughts.

Michael - I have not taken out the card before the light went green. I am very aware of what that means so that is not my problem.

Originally Posted by Marten Dalfors

For your information Ola, I bought all my cards and adapters at Webhallen. Don't know if the cards behaves differently depending on which batch they were made in.

I'm using the EX3

Mårten - I bought my Kensingtons at Webhallen too(!) Now i have nice Australian MxR-adapters instead so I don't use them any more (need more Kensingtons for your EX3? I have two for sale). Bought the faulty Sandisk Ultra II:s at Dustin though. Your experiences with the Transcends cards seem to confirm that some cards simply are bad apples. Like I pointed out my ExtremeIII-cards have worked absolutely perfectly so that is kind of what I expect from other cards. But maybe that is not realistic? But considering the success everybody seems to have had with this solution and the very low number of people actually having problems I think we should be able to expect the cards to be very reliable.

[Ola Christoffersson]

I promised to report back so here's what's happened.

Two days ago I got a replacement Sandisk Ultra II 16 GB and to my great relief it behaves completely different to the two other cards. I have now recorded more or less constantly to the card for two days and only have had media errors when overcranking too much. These errors are not at all the same as those I experienced before.

My conclusion is that two out of the three Sandisk Ultra II cards I got where no good! In the future I will not trust a card in the field before testing it for several hours.

[Andy Wilkinson]

Pleased you got this resolved and reported back. Good outcome! :-)

This seems to confirm that you really were VERY unlucky in getting TWO bad Sandisk SDHC Ultra II 16GB cards! I wonder (we will never know I guess) if they both came from the exact same manufacturing batch or if this is just one of those statistical improbabilities that one occasionally sees.

Your advice is good. Thoroughly test each adapter combo before any serious stuff. Hell, I even had a SxS problem a few weeks ago (EX3 started claiming media not recognised!!!!). After much fraught agro I eventually recovered all but a tiny portion of a critical interview and that card is being watched very closely!

[Christopher Dye]

I have a Kensington adaptor and I just bought a Sandisk 16gb Ultra II card. I plugged it into my EX3 and did the quick format. It recognized the card, so I went out and tested it.

Everything seemed fine shooting. I shot about 45 minutes worth of test footage on the card, but when I went back to watch it via clip browser on my laptop, a problem arose.

I could see all the clips in the clip browser. They all played well up until about clip number 13 where it just stopped playing about a quarter way in. I tried clip 14. Same thing. It just stopped. Didn't say anything was wrong. I did notice what looked like a little exclamation point on the thumbnails.

As I tried playing each clip after the clips with the error, they each showed a little exclamation point and wouldn't play.

I tried copying onto the hard drive. Only the 12 good clips copied, then there was some sort of error message that displayed, but I can't remember exactly what it said. Something about the clips not existing.

At this point, none of the thumbnails were showing in the clipbrowser from the Kensington card anymore. I reinserted the card and restarted the browser and there they were again.

I decided to put the card back into the camera and see what happens (I didn't review any clips while out shooting, which I should've done). Anyway, the thumbnails show up and played fine until clip 13. On clip 13, I got the error message 'media error. media (a) needs to be restored'. Then the thumbnails disappear and I have to reinsert the card.

The thumbnails are back. I know the clips are there, so I decide to look at the very last clip. The last clip plays fine. I continue backwards with each clip to see which ones play with no problems until I finally isolate the two bad clips which were clips 13 and 14. All other clips were fine, even though after playing the bad clips before, the good clips too had exclamation points in the clip browser and wouldn't play. It appeared at first, that all clips after the bad ones were bad, but they weren't.

I then come to dvinfo.net to see who else may have had this problem. I search and learn that class 4 32gb Sandisk cards don't seem to work. I check my new 16gb Sandisk and lo and behold it's a class 4, not a class 2.

Did I just end up with a bum card or are the 16gb class 4 cards not reliable like the 32gb ones? How do you know if you're getting a class 2 or 4? I guess I have to exchange this one. I don't like the idea of shooting something and not knowing if a clip will end up corrupted.

[Alexander Kubalsky]

All these reports of failures with sandisk cards makes me think about biting the bullet and getting the 32GB SxS cards that have just gone down in price.

Peace of mind has a price. $900.