SD card advice

[MN Shutterbug]

I just received my new Panasonic camera today, and of course it came with just a 16 mb card. I also bought a Sandisk 1 gb card. Unfortunately, the 1 gig cannot be formatted with the camera or PC. I googled this problem and found out that many people have problems with Sandisk brand. Some people even report losing half their pictures because of the card.

Recommendations please? I won't repeat this mistake. Anyone use Kingston?

[Steve Foss]

Hey XT:

Man, that sucks. Sorry to hear it. I've used Lexar Professional and Kingston Ultimate in all temperature conditions with absolutely no failures or lost data in nearly four years, but I use CF cards, not SD, and I don't know the ins and outs of your camera, so I don't know if I have any knowledge that can help you.

[Dbl]

I've used Kingston SD with good results. I currently use ONLY SanDisk CF Ultra II and III's in 2.0gb size. It is common for me to put 2,000 to 4,000 images a week on these cards, I've never had a hiccup with one. They are formatted in camera every time I put one in.

I stay with the 2.0gb size because I don't care to have all my eggs in one basket so to speak. If one does fail I don't loose all my shots, just a portion of them.

[Ufatz]

No problems with Sandisc. Had not heard of any problems with them. Where did you see all the negative information?

[MN Shutterbug]

Quote:

---

No problems with Sandisc. Had not heard of any problems with them. Where did you see all the negative information?

---

Here is the link I found. [Note from admin: please see forum rules before posting again. Thank you.]

I just ordered a Kingston 512 mb. I'll see how that one works. The Panasonic 16 mb that came with the camera works fine.

[tgff009]

I have been using Sandisc in all my devices(cameras, phones, gps) for years with no issues. Maybe you got your hands on a bad card - which can happen with every brand.

[ScoutII]

Some devices have capacity limits for the cards. I remember trying to use a 1 gig card in my H2O, when I tried to format the card in the H2O it partitioned the card so I could only use half of the card. H2O would recognize 512MB and smaller cards only. Once the card was partitioned it would not reformat to a 1 gig card anymore.

[MN Shutterbug]

Maybe it isn't the card after all. I can take pictures with it and then attach the USB cable to it and download into my PC just fine. It's when I use the card reader, that I have problems. As soon as I plug it into the PC via card reader, it give me the message that the card needs formatting. However, the card reader works fine with my 16 mg card that came with the camera. Opinions?

Just heard from the company I got the card and reader from. They discovered that the readers are defective. Due to a damaged chip, they won't read anything larger than a 128 mb card. It will be getting replaced.