SD Card recovery and 5 tips for photographers and to be prepared and all hell breaks loose.

Right now this might not be exciting. But later this post will save your bacon. SD cards are temporary devices. This means at some point your SD card will start to fail.

At some point! The problem is that when it happens you panic, and companies waiting to get your money. Here are 5 tips that will save your bacon and a few more in the point below.

Almost every post you find about this will be spam. Save this one.

I made this. In the video for my viewers because I have decades of experience. I mention ReclaimMe and Rstudio as two of the top memory recovery tools.

They are not free. Most that claim to be free and free are spammy products wasting your time. They may or may not work. but skip them and invest in a good product.

Neither of these have any affiliation with me nor do I get anything from them. I bought ReclaimMe with my own money and these are not affiliate links. I learned about these being the best form many years of searching.

I’ve never had a card fail without any warning. But it can happen. Like I said in the video however the files are usually there.

After a certain number of writes, cards wear out. So if you start to notice a file here that is corrupted mark that card and stop using it for any critical work. If I suspect a card I will trash it or mark it with a sharpie that it is suspect.

Back up and use double card slots.

This I’m preparing from the video tips. It is not 2008 where this was rare. Most higher-level cameras have dual card slots and if I’m doing a wedding or session that paid I’ll always grab my camera that does.

Yes, you can often recover your files. But the truth is I never have. Yes, I have recovered files I deleted accidentally. However, this does not happen on a critical shoot because I never delete in the field and as soon as I return O copy and backup the shoot. No waiting.

I have used SD recovery tools many times and tried many tools you want to avoid. But usually, it’s the old deleted file, helping a friend etc. What I’m saying is be prepared to recover, but avoid situations where you MUST recover.

I hope when your day arrives. You find this helpful.

Related Posts...

Mochochrome photography. Make stand-out black and white with any camera.

Mochochrome photography. Make stand-out black and white with any camera.

The best advice you’ll ever get for improving your exposure…

The best advice you’ll ever get for improving your exposure…

DXO Photo Lab 8 VS Lightroom Torture Test. Does it measure up.

DXO Photo Lab 8 VS Lightroom Torture Test. Does it measure up.

Contrast Pools will suprise your and improve your shadow photography in every photo!

Contrast Pools will suprise your and improve your shadow photography in every photo!

Tell me your thoughts....

Leave a Reply


Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked

{"email":"Email address invalid","url":"Website address invalid","required":"Required field missing"}

About the Author

Glad you're here.

I'm from WA State USA and started studying photography in 97. I started work as a pro (using that word loosely because I sucked) using film at age 16. I learned fast but was not as easy to find training then. Sometimes I beat my head against the wall until I figured stuff out.

As digital dawned I went all in and got to study with masters like Ken Whitmire. In 09 I founded the Pro Photo Show podcast. I started promoting tone-focused editing. When Lightroom arrived, I started developing tools to make editing and workflow better.

20 years of study and photography around the country earned me a Master of Photography (M.Photog) from PPA. I got to see my workshops and tools featured in publications across the industry. Once I even won the prestigious HotOne award for my "EXposed" light and tone workshop.

Wanting something calmer, I moved to Mexico in 2017. It's a land of magical light. I'm here now exploring light and trying to master my weak areas. I make videos of that for my Youtube channel, sharing what I learn. I hope you'll stick around and be part of Light Hunters Tribe... Gavin

Gavin Seim

>