Important Lesson Learned About Discount Memory Cards

[pgowder]

Yesterday I went on photography workshop in Charleston, South Carolina. We met at 5:30am to shoot the sunrise. We then spent the rest of the morning shooting in various locations. About 750 images!

We go to lunch to look at the images and do some processing, and on his Mac my photos don't show up. He guesses it's because he doesn't have the right update for the D700. So I go out to the car and get my laptop, no images. Put the card back in my camera, says the card is empty!

My heart dropped! I was feeling pretty devastated that I would lose these images!

I went back to the hotel and used their business center to contact SanDisk support. Turns out the card I bought was a fake! They did point me to some recovery software.

$40 and an hour later, I had my images!

And that's the last time I'll buy a card off of eBay!

Here is one of the images.

Click it to view it on Flickr.

 

[plyeng2ff]

Sorry to hear about your experience on Ebay but that a cool pictures of the sunrise

 

[Marlton Mom]

Wow!

How interesting.....

Did SanDisc tell you how they were able to identify your "ebay" cards as knock-offs?

Any tips (from anyone) about identifying fake cards would be appreciated.

Thanks for the post.


Marlton Mom

PS The picture is AWESOME!

 

[WVDisGeek]

Sorry about the card issues. At least it had a happy ending!

The sunrise picture ROCKS!

 

[disneyboy2003]

Did you format the card in your camera before using it? You probably did, but just wanted to double-check.

Also, when you bought the memory card on eBay, was it sealed in its original SanDisk packaging?

It's a little weird that even though the card was fake, your camera was still able to write onto it and the photos were still on the card. Maybe the card was only "partially fake"?

Anyway, glad it all worked out in the end. Beautiful photo.

 

[Golf4food]

Great photo. Thanks for the warning. I wound up with a defective Hoya CP filter from an unauthorized retailer on eBay who said they were an authorized Hoya retailer - there is a speck missing on the front element that shows up in photos (small enough to be fixed in PP with the correction tool). I contacted Hoya and they would not replace it as the "store" is not authorized, in spite of their claim. I never could find a way to notify eBay about their treachery. They have good reviews, too. $100 for the filter. I contacted my credit card company after the eBay store failed to respond to any of my requests for replacement and the credit card company refunded my purchase. So I got the filter for free in the end, but it is a pain to have to edit every photo taken with it (I try to keep that portion of the filter on the bottom of the filter so it is hidden by land/buildings, etc.)

 

[Suburbanmom]

I can see why you were initially heartbroken...that image is beautiful.

 

[boBQuincy]

Counterfeiting is a big problem that is getting bigger. NewEgg recently (and unknowingly) sold a batch of counterfeit microprocessors. I have seen counterfeit fuses and circuit breakers rated for 15 Amps that took over 50 Amps to blow, and diodes that were nowhere near meeting the rated specifications.

It looks like batteries, memory cards, filters, etc. are all fair game.

 

[jupster75]

Looks like that $40 spent was well worth it. I am jealous of the trip to Charleston. I have been once before but didn't get to do much sightseeing.

 

[AbbysFamily]

So when you thought you lost your picture of Botany Bay, did you scream "KHAN!!!!"?

Sorry - a little Star Trek humor. I too would be really curious what they told you to look for on the card that they were able to identify a counterfit over the phone.

NICE picture btw!!!

 

[MICKEY88]

I had the same thing happen with a name brand card

ZAR is awesome and free recovery software,

the company replaced both cards, it seems they had a firmware upgrade to deal with this problem which occured with certain cameras

 

[pgowder]

Wow!

How interesting.....

Did SanDisc tell you how they were able to identify your "ebay" cards as knock-offs?

Any tips (from anyone) about identifying fake cards would be appreciated.

Thanks for the post.


Marlton Mom

PS The picture is AWESOME!

They could tell from the serial number.

In reading about it and talking with others about it today, I heard about how some plants in other countries have "ghost shifts". These shifts come into the plants at night, used left over parts and reject parts and make the cards.

The card was sent to me in a Sandisk sealed box. All the labels look just like my others.

 

[pgowder]

Did you format the card in your camera before using it? You probably did, but just wanted to double-check.

Also, when you bought the memory card on eBay, was it sealed in its original SanDisk packaging?

It's a little weird that even though the card was fake, your camera was still able to write onto it and the photos were still on the card. Maybe the card was only "partially fake"?

Anyway, glad it all worked out in the end. Beautiful photo.

Yes, all original packaging.

Apparently the problem is sporadic. I believe it is having trouble writing file table or something like that. So the files are still there but the camera and laptop couldn't see the list of them.

If I had continued shooting, it would eventually start overwriting them!

 

[pgowder]

Great photo. Thanks for the warning. I wound up with a defective Hoya CP filter from an unauthorized retailer on eBay who said they were an authorized Hoya retailer - there is a speck missing on the front element that shows up in photos (small enough to be fixed in PP with the correction tool). I contacted Hoya and they would not replace it as the "store" is not authorized, in spite of their claim. I never could find a way to notify eBay about their treachery. They have good reviews, too. $100 for the filter. I contacted my credit card company after the eBay store failed to respond to any of my requests for replacement and the credit card company refunded my purchase. So I got the filter for free in the end, but it is a pain to have to edit every photo taken with it (I try to keep that portion of the filter on the bottom of the filter so it is hidden by land/buildings, etc.)

I'll be much more careful about where I buy things now!

The seller did send me an email today and is going to refund my money!

 

[pgowder]

I can see why you were initially heartbroken...that image is beautiful.

Thanks for all the comments about the photo! It was a great day shooting.

We started the day at Botany Bay. It is a completely natural beach and absolutely beautiful.

I'll post more from the day on flickr over the next few days.

 

[SrisonS]

A while back, I heard reports of possible fake Memory cards on eBay. And that's a big reason that I don't have more memory cards. The last time I bought one, I just waited for Best Buy to have a sale. Maybe I'll look to Adorama or B&H next time though.

It's great that you got your pictures back though.

 

[SrisonS]

I'll be much more careful about where I buy things now!

The seller did send me an email today and is going to refund my money!

Were they real good about giving you a refund??? I bet they were. I remember receiving a counterfeit copy of a lord of the rings DVD, from an eBay seller. Thy tried to say it was meant for someone else (another Scott or something). But they eventually sent me a legit copy; and were very "sorry" about the mistake.