UDMA CF Card Corruption Issue

[Diane Miller]

Don't know if this is the correct place for this -- if not, moderators, please feel free to move it.

5 months ago I got a UDMA 7 CF card (Lexar Professional 1000x, 32G). All was fine until a few days ago when I began to get errors with it, in my Canon 5D Mk III. Every so often it would record a black frame instead of the exposure I had made. It started one day with two black frames, which I assumed were due to hitting the shutter button when I stuffed the camera back into my holster bag. But it started again and got worse the next day. Changing cards fixed the issue.

I just spoke with a Lexar tech rep and found out that UDMA cards should only be read in a UDMA 7 compatible card reader; older readers can cause card corruption.

The fix is to re-format the card, not in the camera but via the computer (just as you would format any disk) in a UDMA 7 reader, which will perform a more extensive format.

Although I had used the card for 5 months, reading it a number of times in an older reader, without problems, I’m hoping this is my problem. I have a UDMA 7 reader on order and when I get it I'll see if that solves my problem and report back.

[Diane Miller]

I just got the UDMA 7 card reader and formatted the card in it from the computer then formatted it in the camera and shot over 100 exposures with no corrupted frames. (I was getting 10% corrupted the last day I used the card.) From now on I'll only use the new reader. If the problem recurs, Lexar said they would replace the card.

[Grady Weed]

Thanks for the update.

[Diane Miller]

The problem has not recurred with thousands of images shot on that card over many sessions.