Sandisk 64gb/128gb 95mb's cards are no longer compatible with Sony cameras

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Thought this might deserve it own thread as it's likely quite a few Sony users bought these cards during the black friday promotions and are not yet aware of the issue.

The problem is with Sandisk 64gb Extreme Pro 95mb's UHS-1 SDXC & Sandisk 128gb Extreme Pro 95mb's UHS-1 SDXC memory cards in Sony a7 III, a7R III & a9 being used in card slot 1 resulting in this warning: “Unable to read memory card. Reinsert memory card. Slot 1" There have been some reports of older Sony camera bodies having the same issues.

This is only a problem since Sandisk made a change to these memory cards a couple of months ago by changing the controller in the cards so only effects newer produced cards.

At first many people seemed to believe that was an issue with Sony firmware, as they released new firmware around the same time. I have spoken to both Sony and Sandisk and both have said that this is due to the change that Sandisk has made to the cards and regardless of what firmware the camera has this will be an issue.

Reported bad batch numbers thus far include:

128 GB Sandisk Extreme Pro UHS-I – batch 766G
64 GB Sandisk Extreme Pro UHS-I – batch 838G, 839Z

This is only an issue when using the cards in slot 1, they will work in slot 2.

Formatting the card in camera or in another device makes no difference.

I have also had the same issue with 256gb Sandisk cards but have now returned theses and didn't keep a record of the batch number. Sony users might be better to avoid purchasing new Sandisk cards for the time being.







 
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So pleased I'd just spotted this, I literally had 4 in my Amazon basket whilst i browsed a few other bits and bobs.

I'll get a couple of Transcend ones for now as they are cheap as chips!
 
Amazon will accept returns even if opened as the cards are not fit for purpose.

Another photographer on a Facebook group said that he contacted Sandisk and they offered to replace with the new UHS-II cards which don't have the same issue at no extra cost on the understanding he return the other cards to Sandisk first.

This wasn't my experience however when I contacted Sandisk, they told me to return them to the retailer and that the retailers had been made aware of the issue, in my case this was Amazon.

Amazon took them back no problem.
 
Surely if they work in one slot then the camera is at fault and not the card?
 
Surely if they work in one slot then the camera is at fault and not the card?

Nope cards manufactured before September work fine. Sandisk changed the controller in the card (probably to make it cheaper to manufacture) and caused the cards to no longer be compatible. The reason it only effects card slot 1 is because it is the UHS-II capable slot where as slot 2 is UHS-I only.
 
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Thanks for the heads up.

I haven't purchased any new recently so hopefully I won't be affected. I was planning on putting a 128GB SanDisk Extreme 95MB/s in the slower UHS I slot (slot 2) so shouldn't be affected. I've been wondering how well those cards would work trying to shift uncompressed 42MP files at 10FPS. I'm guessing it would need the faster 300MB/s write speed cards otherwise performance would take a hit. Is anyone able to say how bad performance is hit? Having different slot speeds (UHS I & UHS II) probably makes writing to both cards as backup an issue if I want the ultimate speed/performance of 10FPS.
 
I’ve contacted Sandisk customer support and the guy says “they’ll sort this out” what that means I don’t know. I’ll have to wait 2/3 days for email.
 
Worth getting on to sandisk my 6 cards are all being replaced with UHSII versions

They have done that for a few people. They didn’t offer me the option though. Based on previous experience waiting for Sandisk to send replacement cards I couldn’t have waited that long anyway.
 
They have done that for a few people. They didn’t offer me the option though. Based on previous experience waiting for Sandisk to send replacement cards I couldn’t have waited that long anyway.

I’m not in any rush but I’ll post them tomorrow and see how long it takes. But can’t really complain!
 
I’m not in any rush but I’ll post them tomorrow and see how long it takes. But can’t really complain!

Not a big issue if your not in a hurry it took them over a month to send me a replacement for a faulty card.
 
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