carstenw Posted August 7, 2007 Share #1 Posted August 7, 2007 Advertisement (gone after registration) Having just spent four days in Hamburg, a really nice city btw, and having forgotten my second SD card at home, I ended up buying a 2GB 133x "Formel 1" plain SD card at Karstadt, a brand I do not know. I tried it in the store before buying, and though it worked fine, I ended up having a really weird problem at some point, and I am not sure if it is the M8 acting up or the card which is a little funny. After taking some shots, and reviewing them on the screen afterwards, trying to bring them up again, I saw just the name of the file in the middle of the LCD, for example "L1031387.DNG". Has anyone seen this before? I wonder what I should do with this card... Leica really needs to make the SD card support more robust. The number of poorly functioning cards is too high, and there are too many gotchas, judging from the stories here in the past. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Advertisement Posted August 7, 2007 Posted August 7, 2007 Hi carstenw, Take a look here Filename instead of Image: new M8 problem?. I'm sure you'll find what you were looking for!
jaapv Posted August 7, 2007 Share #2 Posted August 7, 2007 What to do with the card? I'm sure you have a trash-bin.. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
carstenw Posted August 7, 2007 Author Share #3 Posted August 7, 2007 Every Mac has one! I did get the images off the card. I was a little worried, recalling someone who had shots on the card which he could view on the camera, but could not get off the card. I will try the card again and see if I hit the same problem again. If so, I will try to get a refund. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest V64 Posted August 7, 2007 Share #4 Posted August 7, 2007 I too have had this problem - exactly the same end result - I lost all the images taken whilst the cache memory was 'not empty', the end result was the red light continued flashing, the camera was not operational and I had to remove the battery to 'reset' it.. Further tests (on a computer) showed that the SD Card appeared to be ok until I wrote over the 'defect' when it locked up and became unavailable. It would appear that until one has written over the whole card at least once you cannot be sure that you will not encounter this problem, even then that is no guarantee against future failure. My conclusion is that the M8 software would appear to leave the file system entries in some way incomplete until the memory file buffer is empty, at which point it goes back and updates the file directory for all the files written in that 'batch', but if a transfer fails the M8 locks up (as does my Pc/Mac) and the update does not happen, leaving the file directory with incorrect entries. I think this could be a serious issue, since cards can and do fail. It is one thing to lose the (one)image that failed, but to lose the whole sequence is something else. David Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
geoff Posted August 7, 2007 Share #5 Posted August 7, 2007 I ended up buying a 2GB 133x "Formel 1" plain SD card at Karstadt, a brand I do not know… I ended up having a really weird problem at some point... ...Leica really needs to make the SD card support more robust. The number of poorly functioning cards is too high, and there are too many gotchas, judging from the stories here in the past. Excuse me, but do I have this correct? You bought an unknown card of a brand you admittedly do not know. You experienced a problem while you were using said memory card. Leica does have a published list of memory cards that are tested and approved but your card is not on the list. Your conclusion is that Leica SD card support is somehow not robust. What is wrong with this picture? Memory card manufacturers, including major brand names, have a history of not adhering to industry standards--the primary source of problems and incompatibility issues. Yes, “the number of poorly functioning cards is too high, and there are too many gotchas….” If Leica is holding true to industry standards, and there is no proof that they are not, I would prefer that they not deviate in attempts to accommodate those that do not. I would not know, technically or logistically, how they could proceed on this anyway. Additionally, it is easier for Leica to make available a list of memory cards do work, rather than include those that do not, mainly for logistical and legal reasons. Therefore, I do not expect every card to be listed, working or not, just the ones that have been tested. Geoff myspace.com/geoffotos Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
jaapv Posted August 7, 2007 Share #6 Posted August 7, 2007 A bit harsh, Geoff. Basically you are right, but you may not know that Karstadt is a huge department-store chain, selling normal to high quality merchandise. So in buying a no-name brand there one will expect it to be a rebranded A-marque thing, maybe not top quality, but decent, and not an out-of-spec piece of rubbish. Yes- one should stick to the Leica list - but that is not always feasable. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
wparsonsgisnet Posted August 7, 2007 Share #7 Posted August 7, 2007 Advertisement (gone after registration) Carsten, I had *exactly* this problem -- BUT seem to have most or all of the files. The problem was occasioned by having the operator remove the bottom plate while the red light was still winking; that is, the camera was still writing to the card. After I put the next card in it started doing this. When I noticed it, I put a different card in and the camera worked fine. The card in question had lots of images on it when I got home. Dunno how many I lost -- certainly the ones I didn't write! I checked the cards, and they seem to be fine. Damn assistant. Can't get good help these days. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
carstenw Posted August 7, 2007 Author Share #8 Posted August 7, 2007 Geoff, in theory you are of course right, but life doesn't always cooperate. The old-style camera store is getting harder and harder to find, and I was in a foreign town, and my girlfriend was losing patience and getting hungry, so in the end I took the best I could find, tried it out in the store, it worked, and then later had the problems. The Karstadt employee thought that the cards were often actually SanDisks, relabelled. SanDisk is normally a supported card. I did stay away from SDHC cards. While Leica can test a few cards, publish a list, and call it good, there is a certain amount of effort required for good will. I am not normally one to complain, but the list is really *very* short, and I think that due dilligence requires a longer list of supported cards. There are many very common, very good cards which are not on that list. My Canon 5D supported whatever you threw at it. Sure, Canon is larger than Leica, but as I said, a certain amount of effort is required to establish a minimum level of performance and conformance, and I think Leica should work on lengthening that list. I will immediately order a few more Ultra II cards, of course, or perhaps Transmeta or some other known good brand. I don't want to run into this situation again. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
geoff Posted August 7, 2007 Share #9 Posted August 7, 2007 A bit harsh, Geoff. Basically you are right, but you may not know that Karstadt is a huge department-store chain, selling normal to high quality merchandise. So in buying a no-name brand there one will expect it to be a rebranded A-marque thing, maybe not top quality, but decent, and not an out-of-spec piece of rubbish. Yes- one should stick to the Leica list - but that is not always feasable. With all respects to Carsten, who does contibute very useful information to this forum, I think it was a bit harsh to rush to judgement to blame Leica right off the bat for the issue at hand and past reported memory card problems. My stance is not to blindly assume anything, but to advocate educated consumerism. Personally, I would not buy a unknown brand of memory cards, regardless of the vendor, unless perhaps I was in a rush and it was all that was available, which most likely sound like the case. Additionally, as Bill mentions, one way to invoke the the problem has nothing to do with either the memory card or camera, but in operational use. Geoff myspace.com/geoffotos Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
wparsonsgisnet Posted August 7, 2007 Share #10 Posted August 7, 2007 My best trick: operator headspace error. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
geoff Posted August 7, 2007 Share #11 Posted August 7, 2007 While Leica can test a few cards, publish a list, and call it good, there is a certain amount of effort required for good will. I am not normally one to complain, but the list is really *very* short, and I think that due dilligence requires a longer list of supported cards. There are many very common, very good cards which are not on that list. Carsten, I absolutely agree 100%. At the very least, Leica should note something to the wording of, "...that of the cards tested to date, this is what we have found that works." Otherwise it give a false illusion and misleds customers. In fact, the memory cards I trust and use are not even on the list. I hope with the much anticipated firmware update to provide SDHC support, Leica not only brings the list up-to-date but appears more proactive in testing memory cards. Although, I cannot expect them to go out and acquire and test every possible memory card that comes out on the market. In all fairness, they seem to have most of the major brand names covered. Additionally, as mentioned, I cannot see Leica listing cards that do not work for legal reasons. There are a lot of questionable memory cards being marketed. Personally, I have written to my card manufacturer of choice and asked them to contact Leica in supplying their memory cards for testing. Also, rather than just expecting Leica to test every product out there it should be made know to Leica what we prefer to use and would like testing on, ambient with in reason. Additional popular and professionally used brands I would like to see evaluated include: A-Data ATP Ridata Transcend Geoff myspace.com/geoffotos Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ho_co Posted August 8, 2007 Share #12 Posted August 8, 2007 Carsten, I had a similar problem to those discussed here with another manufacturer's camera. For some reason, every time I tried to write file #103 (IIRC) to a particular card, the camera would hang and erase all images already written. It was the third time it happened that I decided it really was the card and had it replaced. It was a name brand, and the manufacturer replaced it without hesitation. Geoff et al--It never ceases to amaze me how brand names differ between Europe and the US. More than half of the brands on Leica's 'approved' list are unfamiliar to me, though maybe I just haven't looked in the right places. I've had good luck with some brands not on the list (Patriot, for example), but no matter whose list, eventually every card will fail. BTW Carsten--could this be a warning that when the chick is hungry, food and not camera accessories is the immediate need? --HC Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
guidomo Posted August 8, 2007 Share #13 Posted August 8, 2007 If you walk into a tech shop here in Hong Kong you can get a 2GB SD card of virtually any name. "Ligthning", "Racestar", "Trustme" - you name it. They may be re-branded SanDisks or they may not be. I definitely agree that Leica should test (and possibly support) more of the established brands. However, it is asking too much to support some random non-brand (although I agree that other cameras seem much less fussy). Only surprises me that Karstadt did not have SanDisks. Going downhill I guess. Then again, they may have had the slow blue ones but Carsten wanted a fast card. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
carstenw Posted August 8, 2007 Author Share #14 Posted August 8, 2007 The Karstadt I was looking in had only some Fujis and Sonys, which are also not supported, as well as this Formel 1. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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