SD cards.........do you reuse yours?

[photo_chick]

There is also the longevity of the card to consider here and I haven't seen anyone mention that. Granted, flash memory is one of the most stable forms of storage. But every form will fail at some point in time.

 

[WilsonFlyer]

Anyone that trusts their precious memories on an SD card will eventually get exactly what's coming to them. To do so is simply rolling dice that don't need to be rolled. Whether it's removing a card at the wrong time, or the cards simply going "bad," it will happen. Besides, what's their backup?

SD cards (or any digital card form-factor for that matter) are simply not designed for long-term storage. They are designed to be a temporary medium and that is all.

 

[WilsonFlyer]

There is also the longevity of the card to consider here and I haven't seen anyone mention that. Granted, flash memory is one of the most stable forms of storage. But every form will fail at some point in time.

You are absolutely correct. There is a TON of difference in the digital memory in your iPad and the memory used in SD cards. Re: my post above.

 

[WilsonFlyer]

Some I keep--for example, we went to Europe summer of 2011. I saved those SD cards (as well as backing up to laptop and portable hard drive). Some I don't. If you remember film days, they are surprisingly cheap to keep as archive compared to the old price of film.

At least you're doing it the right way. You have it backed up in multiple places. You will be glad you did that one day.

 

[perdidochas]

At least you're doing it the right way. You have it backed up in multiple places. You will be glad you did that one day.

Well, I figure the two hard drives is probably sufficient. I don't trust DVDs and CDs for long term storage. I know they deteriorate pretty fast. I had thought SD cards were safer, but I've got to research that more. I haven't found any evidence that they are just temporary storage, but haven't found any evidence that they are longterm either.

 

[WilsonFlyer]

Well, I figure the two hard drives is probably sufficient. I don't trust DVDs and CDs for long term storage. I know they deteriorate pretty fast. I had thought SD cards were safer, but I've got to research that more. I haven't found any evidence that they are just temporary storage, but haven't found any evidence that they are longterm either.

I've been doing this a long time so maybe my experiences are more based on early on in the digital card days, though I have had quite a few bad experiences with SD cards early on too. I've stuck them in so many times when they said "need to format" that I simply couldn't count the times. It's just not a hard drive and it's just that simple.

You pay $20 for a 16G SD card now. You pay $100 more for 16G more on an iPad. There's more in play there than simply Apple's greed.

 

[boBQuincy]

The SD organization has a standard (that all cards bearing the SD logo must meet) of 10 years. Beyond that I could not find any specific information on a manufacturers website. Still, 10 years is pretty good!

I have some memory cards that are 10 years old (Compact Flash) and they still work but they are mostly 64 MB and no one would actually use them anymore. History indicates that 16 and 32 GB cards will be thought of the same way in another 10 years.

 

[DSLRuser]

The most stressfull time for me is when i need to get my photos out of my laptop and onto our desktop machine. Then my file duplication and back up process takes over.

i download pictures from the camera (I SHOOT RAW) to the laptop every night on vacation. the format the card in the camera.

then I pray to baby jessus that the laptop doesnt die, or get stolen. At that point, i am working without a saftey net, and only have 1 copy of the file.