Originally posted by PALADIN85020 ...Apparently, even if card 2 was not being used, a problem with it will absolutely shut down the K-3.
Confirmed... I tried it on my K-3 by putting in a microSD to SD adapter without a microSD card and it did exactly what you described. (Flashing on top, message on rear display.) It doesn't matter which card fails, or even if it's the one that the camera is currently writing to. The camera will take a while to boot up and show the error, but it won't take any pictures and it will just sit there flashing. The power switch won't even turn it off until you pull the faulty card or the battery.
What happened to you could be heat related, or just bad luck. I'd suggest blowing out the SD card slots to make sure there isn't any dust on the contacts. (And if it happens again, I'd recommend getting a new card.)
Originally posted by PALADIN85020 I have set the camera's priorities to direct all shots to card 1, and the overflow to card 2...
With the K-3 there is no explicit setting to send pictures to card 1 before card 2 which caused some frustration for a few people. What happens pretty much depends on the order you insert or use cards, but sometimes I've noticed that it seemed to switch cards for no apparent reason since neither card is full. (Maybe I bumped it or didn't pay attention to the order I put the cards back in after emptying it.
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On my K-3 it starts with card 1 if you insert two cards at once, but there are some situations where the camera will write to card 2 and overflow to card 1. I hate when my K-3 switches SD cards before it's full because I end up with folders mixed between the two cards and I have to look on both to find different events. (Part of my problem is I leave some folders on the camera for a while to show people or look back at what I did. If I completely emptied both cards each day I probably wouldn't care!
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Here are some things I've been able to repeat on purpose:
— If you are writing to card 1 and insert (or remove and re-insert) card 2, it will still write to card 1.
— If you are writing to card 1 and remove and re-insert card 1 before turning it back on, it will still write to card 1.
— If you pull card 1 and power up the camera with only card 2 in, it will write to card 2.
— If you are writing to card 2 and insert (or remove and re-insert) card 1, it will still write to card 2.
(So if you fill card 1 and overflow to card 2, it will still write to card 2 even after you empty off card 1.)
— If you are writing to card 2 and remove and re-insert card 2, it will switch to card 1 even if you didn't turn it back on before re-inserting card 2.
I've had enough of the camera switching between cards on it's own, so I came up with a quick and dirty solution.
I just set the write-lock tab on the card I am not using so that I can force the camera to use the main one (whether 1 or 2). Once my main card runs out, the camera will stop taking pictures and I just pop the second card out for a moment to set it to writeable. This way I'm not surprised by the camera unexpectedly switching cards, and it also gives me a sort of warning when I'm about halfway out of space. Granted, if I was doing a paid gig I might rethink this, but I haven't missed any pictures yet by having to pop out my second card for a few moments to slide the tab.