My K5ii chews up SD cards

Having just had my 7th SD memory card replaced by Sandisk.. (Awesome Company by the way) All with the same problem. Electronic bit is fine but the plastic shrouds seem to crumble with constant use. I do use my K5ii quite regularly maybe 3 or 4 times per week. I was just wondering if anyone else had suffered with this problem ?

Though it does seem that they are now putting the problem squarely at the host device and wont swap anymore... please see there reply :-

Just maybe lifetime product guarantee, Dosnt always mean what it says on the packet...

We have seen that you have plenty of our products that all of them have the same issue. All of the cards replaced already as well as the one requested are broken on the top left or right side.

"I would like to inform you that we will proceed with a one time courtesy replacement of those cards however if the same issue reoccurs will be taken as a customer misuse and mishandling and a further replacement will not be accepted.

We kindly recommend to handle the cards with more caution to avoid breaking them as this is an extremely rare incident and the fact that has happened to a single customer many times makes us think that maybe the host device has something to do with it."

I have had it happen once in 8 years which was also a Sandisk card (replaced by them)

Always use Sandisk, never had an issue, use the camera almost every day, put over 100,000 shots on my old K-7 in 3 years prior to retiring it, never a hitch. The only time I've had a problem was when I loaned a card to someone and it came back with one of the plastic bits between the contacts snapped off and a piece off the corner. Still works though
No issues since with either my K-5iis of K-3

I recall a thread somewhere that was advocating removing the card and putting it into a card reader rather than using the USB plug on the side of the camera. The writer said it was easier (Eh? getting one's finger behind the thing to pull it out is a well known problem, given the bad design of the door). I always plug the USB cable in. It's designed that way. Why should someone want to continally pull the card out? Once my cards are full, then I pull them out and I shove them directly into the computer if ever the need arises. I also keep the original packets and store the cards as they were first packed by the makers.

I must say that whilst I do take the card in and out (computer seems to read it easier than via a camera device), if I'd chewed through 7+ cards already I would start using the USB cable.

I only use Sandisk normally, with a few other brand smaller sizes as absolute spares. I've never had any issue with any of them in all my devices.

It's hard to disagree with Sandisk's take on it .... They have been very accommodating really, and have probably gone over and above considering its clearly a problem at the user end ....ie the camera SD slot or 'misuse'.

I'd have tried a different make of card also to see if the problem occurs with that as well. But since its clearly an issue with the card slot or the manner in which you are handling the process, then if you can't resolve it then definitely switch to a cable technique and keep one card in all the time .... Make regular file transfers to a computer and back those up, and keep using the one card.

At the first sign of any file saving, image display or corruption issues, then carefully replace the card with a new one.

Samsung cards are a lot tougher......

http://www.samsung.com/uk/consumer/memory-storage/memory-cards/sd/MB-SD64D/EU


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I guess it must be me then....Though I'd be interested to hear how you can actually misuse an SD card....?

Yes the problem also happens with other brands of card... My solution is to swap to micro SD cards an use the replaceable SD shroud...

Loads of us here, myself included, have the exact same physical camera body design as you, ie K7/K5/K5Ii .....

It's long been known that the SD card slot in these models causes a difficulty in that the gap between the body of the card and the open slot door is very small. Any normal adult male fingers are not really ideal for the task of gripping on to the card to pull it out. Inevitably there will be some sideways pressure between the wall of the slot and the card casing, and if that is too much then there will be sideways force and bending applied to the card.

It's a case of finding an effective but more delicate manner to carry this out. I sort of brace my index finger against the door but then only use the very tips of finger and thumb to ease the card out, bring sure to avoid any sideways force.

But if it can't be done delicately enough, then find another way. I wonder if tweezers could grip the card securely without damage? With those you should be able to extract it straight upwards

I find it easier to transfer my files by removing the SD card and haven't had any problems. I tend to use lots of different manufacturers cards.

The door is a bit tight for the fingers but I always push the card down and let it click out a bit on its detente spring before extracting. I also tend to use my fingernail to help pull it out (sometime guitar picker). I also have fairly thin fingers so that probably helps.

The main thing is to extract the card straight out and not bend it at all. If this is difficult to do with your fingers a pair of fat nosed plastic tweezers or metal ones with a bit of plastic/rubber on the ends (to help with gripping the card) will probably save you from grief.

I've just been using my K-S1 to transfer all files off my 3 cameras onto a laptop and external hard drive whilst travelling.

The K-30 has a proprietary plug for which I don't have the cable with me, and windows 10 just won't recognise the GoPro Hero 4 at all.

The K-S1 has a standard micro USB cable, which I have for several devices, and windows 10 picked it up perfectly.

I always take the card out to transfer photos. My laptop has an SD card reader built in, but I also have a USB SD card reader dongle, which I can use on His Nibs laptop.
I have a K5ii and whist it is tight getting the card out, and I have fat fingers, not delicate little feminine ones sadly. Like doingthebobs I push the card down first and let it pop up. The first couple of times it was a struggle but I haven't had any problems since.
I use a range of brands of card.