Cannot read images from SD card

[Pjay]

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Occasionally I have lockups associated with reviewing images, red light just blinks indefinitely, without any obvious link to a particular brand of SD card.

 

But this weekend the glitches have become more serious. My MacBook Pro and my Mum's Acer laptop will not recognise the SD card from the M246 - I've tried multiple brands of cards. My iPad will recognise the SD cards and allow import, and I can survive short term with PhotoShop Express, but this can only be a short term fix.

 

Have even tried external card readers instead of the laptops' SD slots, to no avail. Sounds like a trip to Leica for my camera, might wait until the M10 arrives so that the wait period is not too painful.

 

Curious to know if this behaviour has been observed and rectified by any other forum members?

[Pjay]

Spoke to Leica Australia today, sending camera in for evaluation/repair - just as well, as the 2 years' warranty expires in July this year....

Pays to keep an eye on warranty entitlements!

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[Jager]

If it's your computer(s) that won't recognize the card(s), that's likely to be on them, not your camera.  Your M246 is able to format, read, and write to your card - all fairly benign, high-level operations.  There's not much else it can do to a card which would damage it.

 

That said, SD card failures are legion (not just with Leica), for a multitude of reasons.  And computers can fail to recognize, mount, and initialize removable devices (you see it most chronically on USB ports) for a number of reasons.  Rebooting your computer would be the first thing to do.

 

Have you been sharing your card(s) with other cameras/devices?

 

I'd recommend putting a brand new, unused, downspec'd (16 or 32gb) SanDisk or Lexar card in your camera, formatting in-camera, and seeing what happens.  

 

Good luck!

Edited April 27, 2017 by Jager

[Pjay]

Thanks for the feedback Jeff.  It may be unexpected, but this issue does in fact seem to be a camera glitch.  I only use 16 Gb or 32 Gb cards from Lexar and SanDisk, and always format in camera.  No card used in the 246 will now read in my MacBook Pro, but will read fine in a Lexar card reader plugged into a USB3 port in my Dell desktop.

 

I spoke to a Leica Australia rep today who uses his M246 for wedding photography, and he gets best results with SanDisk Pro UHS-II SDHC cards, regardless of card capacity. They're expensive though. 

 

The periodic card freezes warrant a check over anyway, and I'd be silly to let the warranty period expire without pursuing a resolution to the issues.

[Pjay]

Humble apologies Geoff. MacBook Pro is in for repair, needs new Board, Right Input-Output - so your scepticism about the camera being the culprit was well founded.

 

This morning I tried reading cards in the Mac from an external card reader, which worked, so that suggested a hardware issue with the built in card reader. False alarm - I guess I'm not Robinson Crusoe when it comes to jumping to conclusions....

[Jager]

Glad it got sorted!