Got a new camera recently, a Canon Powershot SX610HS, & the assistant in the shop said I needed a Class 10 SD card (otherwise shots may be randomly deleted??) Anyway I used the camera for a wedding with an old 1GB card & everything was fine but as wer’e giving that card to the bride & groom I needed a new card so got a Phillips 32GB class 10 card from 7Day shop.com. Just taken some shots & the computer can’t open the file, even though I can see them on the camera. Tried the card in my Lumix G1, its fine & I can review the shots on the computer. Whats going on between the card & the Canon?
Doesn’t mention much about memory cards in the manual, only that SD,SDHC & SDXC cards are compatible. Help!

Class has nothing to do with it

Helpfully, all SD cards are rated with a “class”, which reflects their performance. There are four standard ratings, which you’ll see advertised as class 2, 4, 6 and 10; these respectively guarantee that the card can sustain a write speed of 2MB/sec, 4MB/sec, 6MB/sec or 10MB/sec.

But otherwise it’s a bit fishy! Can the computer see the file but not open it? Can you copy it off? Is there any meta data in the file? Does the size of the file look appropriate?

/edit – I’d also be very wary/suspicious of the card. Last SD card I bought from 7dayshop was dodgy/corrupt. It might not be the size/capacity it thinks it is.

What type of file is it? RAW, JPG etc?

My guess is you’re shooting in a format which you haven’t got a program to display those photos on your computer.

That model doesn’t do RAW apparently, so shouldn’t be that.

Just taken some shots & the computer can’t open the file

How is the computer reading the file? Have you attached the camera via USB or have you got a card reader on the computer?

If it is the latter then it sounds like your computer’s card reader can’t handle the SDHC or SDXC format.

That model doesn’t do RAW apparently, so shouldn’t be that.

Correct, I’ve just checked. But is he shooting JPG compression or another format.

Stop buying cheap unbranded cards.

You should get the data off by putting the card in the camera and connecting the camera to the computer via USB, if you have such an option.

Where you format the card can matter. Conventional wisdom is to format them with the camera, but you might have more luck in this case formatting with the PC / Lumix instead.

Stop buying cheap unbranded cards.

He bought a Phillips card, not unbranded.

Did you format the card in the camera before you started taking pics. A lot of the camera manufacturers recommend it. I always do as a matter of course, but not sure what real issues it might cause.

If you suspect a problem with the card, contact 7day shop & try to get it replaced. I wouldn’t trust a card that I had issues with, even if I resolved them; not worth the hassle of losing a load of pics for the sake of a new card.
If you aren’t sure, just ditch the card and get a new one would be my advice, although ideally you’d want to try another one before splashing out in case it’s a camera fault (unlikely).

What is the actual fault when you say the computer can’t open the file? If you open windows explorer are the files there, but you can’t open them or do they not appear to exist on the card? Can you see a thumbnail of the pics if you right click on the explorer window background and change the view to something like ‘large icons’ if it isn’t that already.

I don’t know how much your card cost you, but I gave up with cheap cards a while back. None of them actually failed, but I had one where the casing split & almost jammed in the SD slot on my SLR (that went straight in the bin) and other ones where they slow the camera down massively as the read/write speeds are rubbish (even though they are class10.
I only buy Sandisk cards now & have not had a problem for years with them.

He bought a Phillips card, not unbranded.

Oh yeah, missed that. (I didn’t know Philips still existed…!) I’d still be wanting Sandisk or similar though, doubly so if the word “wedding” was involved.

Where you format the card can matter. Conventional wisdom is to format them with the camera, but you might have more luck in this case formatting with the PC / Lumix instead.

This. I always format the card in the camera or recorder, as it can sometimes not record data correctly if you don’t.

I would also go with connecting the SD card through the camera to the PC, rather than through a card reader.

So why does the card work perfectly in the Lumix G1, both reviewing on the camera & downloading with no probs to the computer? I can review the photo’s on the Canon so It’s obviously recording onto the card ok.
I’m putting the card into the SD slot on the computer.

Cougar, I got the 32GB card after the wedding, all that’s on it up to now is some shots of a moth!
I’ll try formatting the card to the camera, see what happens.
I wouldn’t buy an ‘unbranded’ card anyway but reckoned Phillips were reputable enough.

I would say that is because the card has only been formatted for one camera or the other.

The main reason for formatting a card in a camera, is to make sure that any other metadata that is required to read and write information, such as file structures is also put on the card, so the the information can retrieved later.

Now, you have a Canon camera and a Panasonic camera. They will both have their own proprietary software which will enable images to be read from the card that is formatted in that camera, but not the other camera.

In other words, if you format an SD card in a Panasonic camera, you can take a picture and play it back on the Panasonic camera just fine, but if you then take it out and put it in the Canon camera, you may not be able to play it back, as the card has been formatted slightly differently to work with another manufactures system.

PITA isn’t it ! It’s certainly something I come across at work all the time, and I have know people to lose work, because they didn’t format the card in the camera before they started, and so it didn’t record the information correctly.

More information here

I’m putting the card into the SD slot on the computer.

So try it in camera (which you say can read the card) and connect the camera to the computer (usually USB).

There are a lot of fake cards out there, usually from the cheaper than looks genuine shops on eBay. It’s normally knock off low grade memory with counterfeit packaging.

Go for SanDisk, Kingston or Transcend and buy from a known name. Amazon are usually pretty OK as long as you go for stuff direct from them rather than Marketplace.

I did the format thing & it now works.

I wouldn’t have thought 7Day Shop would sell ‘dodgy’ stuff. Obviously stuff can be faulty no matter where you get it from.

Thanks anyway folks.

There are a lot of fake cards out there, usually from the cheaper than looks genuine shops on eBay. It’s normally knock off low grade memory with counterfeit packaging.

Go for SanDisk, Kingston or Transcend and buy from a known name. Amazon are usually pretty OK as long as you go for stuff direct from them rather than Marketplace.
I really wouldn’t have thought that 7dayshop would be flogging iffy cards! I’ve bought loads from them, including unbranded (that were Toshiba cards they bought in bulk, just without any branding on), without any issues at all.
I’d never buy from Amazon and wouldn’t touch cards from fleabay with yours, let alone mine. But Sandisc, Transcend and Kingston are all cheap as chips anyway. (See what I did there?) 😀