Recommended SD cards?

[Arai]

Advertisement (gone after registration)

These two cards have given me so much grief -- SL startup time is 7sec to 60sec -- pathetic, so bad ... I contacted Leica Australia about it back in December last year with no constructive reply

60sec is outrageous, have you try with another card? I'm using Sandisk extreme pro 64gb and Sony 16gb 90mb/s. My startup time is normal, under 2 sec everytime and this is my second SL, my first also has normal startup.

[pop]

There's no 'magic' in whatever that SD formatter is. I've formatted the cards a number of times on my MacBook with the disk utility. Some cards are just unusable in the SL.

The SD Formatter is a software published by sdcard.org. It can handle cards and situation which the disk utility in the MacBook does not. It isn't magic, either. It's a piece of software designed for a particular purpose.

 

The advice to use this piece of software is sound, even if it does not "magically" make cards usable in the SL which can not be usable.

[Advertisement]

The Leica Q3 is available for pre-order at B&H Photo Video and Adorama

[wlaidlaw]

There's no 'magic' in whatever that SD formatter is. I've formatted the cards a number of times on my MacBook with the disk utility. Some cards are just unusable in the SL.

 

Others' experience on both the SL and previous digital M's would point to the contrary. SD formatter really does appear to do something "magic" to the cards to speed up start times. If you are formatting on Disk Utility with a Mac, make sure you select ex-FAT not MS-DOS FAT or any of the Mac formats as the format. 

 

Wilson

[ramarren]

I was curious some months ago, so I took an identical pair of Sandisk Extreme Pro, 64G cards and formatted one of them with Disk Utility on macOS El Capitan using ExFAT format and the other a low-level format with SD Card Formatter. Then I used disk analysis software to dump out a sector by sector translation of the card volumes. There were some small differences, but camera startup speed and write speed performance were no different between the two cards (I don't have test software or hardware available that would measure the differences with adequate resolution to be useful, in any event). 

 

I use SD Card Formatter because it's convenient to do so, and it's free, but really don't see much magic it applies other than doing a good job of formatting cards with minimal cruft and effort. Perhaps it is more effective at optimizing volume and directory sector layout with some other card hardware than it is with the Sandisk Extreme Pro hardware ... I don't know. My SL boots to "Ready" at power-up time in less than a second when the SL24-90 lens is fitted, and in about 1.5 seconds when R or M lenses are fitted. Wake-up time is very similar.

Edited July 24, 2016 by ramarren

[wjdrijfhout]

Had the same problem with slow start-up (10-15s) and long (close to a minute) wait to write down a full buffer to card. Card used: Lexar SDXC II, 64Gb, 1000x. At Photokina I checked around at both Leica and Lexar booths. Impression I got was that the slow startup was abnormal, the long wait for the buffer quite normal. Furthermore, there might be a benefit of using the 2000x version for writing the buffer to card. 

 

Back home, I decided to order a Lexar SDXC, 128Gb, 2000x, and did some testing:

 

1000x Card: Startup: 14.5 sec.; Full buffer writing: 51 sec. for 33 frames.

2000x Card: Startup:   5.8 sec.; Full buffer writing: 45 sec. for 35 frames.

 

Startup measured from switch on to number of remaining photo's appear on top display (the camera will start operating a bit earlier)

Full buffer generated by continuous high speed shooting.

All measurements in triplicate. 

Also tested differences between in-camera formatting vs SD formatter, but no differences found

 

Conclusions:

1. There is really an issue with my Lexar 64Gb 1000x card, similar to what was reported earlier by others. Since the same card is working well for some and is officially supported by Leica, earlier reports of differences between batches (or, as suggested by the Lexar-people, card-firmware differences) may explain this variability.

2. the 2000x card provides about a 15% faster buffer-writing. Not huge, but when speed is critical, it might be helpful. Added bonus: downloading into the computer via USB3 is a breeze!

 

Overall for me the annoying start-up delays are over and overall better performance. And the 64Gb sits nicely in slot 2, together allowing me to take a total of 4142 photo's...

 

 

 

[thighslapper]

There is something very wrong with your card(s) or camera.

 

I suggest you invest in a Sandisk Extreme Pro 280mb/s UHS-II that can use the faster interface..... 16Gb is plenty big enough. High capacity cards just slow things down even further.

 

FULLY format the card in SD-Formatter on your computer and try that.

 

If you don't get switch on to image taking times of less that 1-1.5 seconds with an SL zoom attached you have a camera issue. If you can't view the image and take a photo in less than 2 seconds something is wrong. 

 

This issue crops up with monotonous regularity with Leica cameras ..... and nearly always turns out to be card/formatting issues. 

Not all cards are born equal ..... from what I recall the manufacturing process is similar to processor wafer production ..... some turn out to be fast and some are not .... they are tested and labelled/priced accordingly. None are 100% perfect (similar to sensors which invariably have the odd stuck or dead pixel)  so it is unsurprising that the odd rogue slips though ...... and there are plenty of fakes about as well. Faking high end SD cards is similar to counterfeiting $100 bills...... and just as lucrative. 

Edited September 25, 2016 by thighslapper

[scott kirkpatrick]

Advertisement (gone after registration)

By now (firmware 2.2) there may have been improvements to the startup routines that avert situations that cause delays, at least some of them.  That sort of stuff doesn't get reported in the update documentation.  I experienced long delays at first, now only moderate ones.

 

scott

[vintola]

By now (firmware 2.2) there may have been improvements to the startup routines that avert situations that cause delays, at least some of them.  That sort of stuff doesn't get reported in the update documentation.  I experienced long delays at first, now only moderate ones.

 

scott

 

Scott, I think the newest firmware is 2.1.  - vintola -

[wlaidlaw]

Scott, I think the newest firmware is 2.1.  - vintola -

 

I used to recommend the Lexar 1000X cards both 64GB and 128GB. However since using the cards for around 10 months now, the lock slider tab has become very slack on all of my Lexar cards to the extent that it is very easy to knock the lock tab into the locked position when inserting into the SL (or into a computer SD slot). Lexar is willing to exchange all my cards when I get back to the UK (2 x 128 and 2 x 64) in 10 days time. Others have had the same problem but even worse than me, to the extent they feel the Lexar cards are unusable in the SL, so it appears that at least one of Lexar's injection moulding dies for the card housing halves, results in very loose lock tabs for batches made from that die.

 

Pity because I found they worked very well in the SL if you did the initial format in SD Formatter and Amazon were selling them at a great price. 

 

Wilson

[scott kirkpatrick]

Scott, I think the newest firmware is 2.1.  - vintola -

Sorry.  I try to keep track of firmware currency in four camera models now (and lenses)...

 

scott

[gvaliquette]

I used to recommend the Lexar 1000X cards both 64GB and 128GB. However since using the cards for around 10 months now, the lock slider tab has become very slack on all of my Lexar cards to the extent that it is very easy to knock the lock tab into the locked position when inserting into the SL (or into a computer SD slot). Lexar is willing to exchange all my cards when I get back to the UK (2 x 128 and 2 x 64) in 10 days time. Others have had the same problem but even worse than me, to the extent they feel the Lexar cards are unusable in the SL, so it appears that at least one of Lexar's injection moulding dies for the card housing halves, results in very loose lock tabs for batches made from that die.

 

Pity because I found they worked very well in the SL if you did the initial format in SD Formatter and Amazon were selling them at a great price. 

 

Wilson

 

Wilson,

 

Try to get some "CrazyGlue" (USA trademark for cyanoacrylate glue).  It should work and save the rest of your trip!

 

Guy

Edited September 26, 2016 by gvaliquette

[wlaidlaw]

Wilson,

 

Try to get some "CrazyGlue" (USA trademark for cyanoacrylate glue).  It should work and save the rest of your trip!

 

Guy

 

Guy, 

 

I am back to the UK on Sunday, and the cards after inserting very carefully are working at the moment. I will go the exchange route next week and only then, if I am still having problems will I go the cyanoacrylate glue route. Put a dot of glue on and then a damp cloth, as the setting of cyanoacrylate glue is catalysed by water but I don't actually want to put the SD card under a running tap, due to the difficulty in making sure it is 100% dry before reinserting into the camera. 

 

Wilson

[mweaverpics]

I just had a Lexar SD card start giving me issues.

 

Contacted Lexar and guess what?

 

No proof of purchase receipt and no return!

 

Doesn't matter if card is so new that it's only been out 30 days.

 

Was told since they were taken over, the return policy has been changed. 

 

Told them that I'd never buy a Lexar card again and I'd tell everyone I know to do the same since it's clearly a way to not replace defective cards under warranty.

 

The defective card was purchased in the last year or two when I needed another to be safe while out shooting. Have no idea where I bought it but I know I'll never buy another Lexar!

 

Thought you all needed to know.

[Irakly Shanidze]

I just had a Lexar SD card start giving me issues.

 

...

 

The defective card was purchased in the last year or two when I needed another to be safe while out shooting. Have no idea where I bought it but I know I'll never buy another Lexar!

 

Thought you all needed to know.

 

The thing about Lexar, which in part was the reason why Micron nearly killed the brand, is that it has been heavily counterfeited. The knock-offs are so well-made that it is impossible to tell them apart just by the way they look. This is the real reason why Lexar return policy is so unfriendly.