Editor's Card Failure Highlights Dual Slot Value

A DPReview editor lost a full day's worth of photos to a corrupted memory card, an incident made more frustrating because the camera used, a Sony a7 V, has two card slots. The editor had not used the second slot, a decision now regretted after data recovery efforts failed.

This personal failure occurred while shooting a sample gallery for a new Sony lens. The editor had traveled to specific locations, including a Rocky Mountain ghost town and a new airport terminal, to capture suitable images with a fisheye lens before it had to be returned. Only three hours passed between taking the final photo and attempting to transfer the files, but the card became unreadable.

The Complacency of Reliability

Long-term experience with digital cameras bred a sense of security. Over more than two decades at DPReview, the team has rarely encountered memory card failures. The editor notes personally experiencing only a handful of failures across cards from all major manufacturers. This consistent reliability made it easy to downplay the risk and treat the sample gallery shoot as part of daily life rather than a critical job.

Professional assignments are treated differently. "Do I use two cards when working for a client or shooting a wedding? Every. Single. Time," the editor states. The stakes for personal or editorial work, however, seemed lower, leading to the avoidable error.

Evaluating the Actual Risk

The editor is not suggesting universal alarm over single-card use. For most people, most of the time, a single card represents an acceptable risk, more likely leading to disappointment than disaster. The key question is not whether one is shooting professionally, but whether the specific shoot can be repeated. A casual neighborhood walk can be recreated; a dedicated day of travel with a loaned lens often cannot.

Richard Butler of DPReview pointed out that the dual-card insurance is not free. Extra memory cards are not cheap, and managing two per camera body adds cost for a small amount of extra security.

A Changed Personal Practice

The experience has tested the editor's personal risk tolerance. Moving forward, the new best practice will be to use two cards in the camera when shooting a sample gallery, provided the camera has that option. The incident serves as a stark reminder of why dual card slots exist, cutting through the online enthusiast jokes about the feature. The editor now understands the fixation from a new, painful perspective.

The lost photos were irrecoverable. Fortunately, a habit of daily backups preserved a handful of images from the previous week, which were used in the published gallery. The editor concludes by asking readers to share their own experiences with memory card data loss in the comments.