[nostatic]

I use this in my Leica D-Lux 3 which needs a fast card to write raw files to:

RAW Secure Digital-Hoodman Corporation

Nary a hiccup so far. Not cheap, but you get what you pay for wrt speed and reliability. The other card I'm using for the K10d is an ATP Promax 150x card. Speed is a good thing...

[christinelandon]

Bruce, I think your choice of cards is pretty solid, assuming they're not fakes. I've used both SanDisks and Lexars over the past four years with no problems and no lost files. However, I follow a different regimen than you when it comes to downloading.

I always download everything to hard drive, and immediately backup onto an external USB hard drive and onto CD/DVD. I then reformat the card before shooting with it again; either Lexar's Image Rescue software in the computer or the camera's formating function have worked well for me. I rarely delete photos as I shoot, and I never rely on an SD card to store files over an extended period of time.

The FAT32 file system, as noted above, is rather notorious for file corruption and losing track of files in the directory, for one thing. For another, SD flash memory retention is not permanent, can be affected by low camera battery levels, and is also susceptible to heat (especially in continuous shooting mode), cold, and moisture when the card is in (less of a problem for K10D, K20D, and K200D shooters) or out of the camera. Some cards handle these issues better than others, but the premium cards from long-established flash memory card makers do seem to do better than the no-name, cheapo cards, from all I've experienced and heard, FWIW.