Do not purchase Komputer Bay 128GB 1000X CF cards for raw

[themattcastro]

First card that I got after transferring the footage from a production test shoot of shooting raw the card crashes Finder ejects and becomes unreadable.

Cannot format, cannot mount it. It's done for.

So thinking it might be that my card reader is too slow I then return the card to get a replacement and grabbed a USB 3.0 Kingston card reader along with a new PCIE USB 3.0 card for my mac to make sure I can transfer the footage without hassle.

The new card comes in and the same thing happens! Only this time I was able to at least copy the footage over-but even so every file was corrupt or unusable

http://imgur.com/1F7ZFmT

So now I have to return the card again but this is ridiculous. The second card with the same exact problem that should not be happening.

If anyone has a fix, please help me out.

Otherwise-if you care about your project, I suggest not doing work with KomputerBay

[EDIT] To help everyone out, here are some issues and complaints about Komputerbay from other threads that I have found

http://www.magiclantern.fm/forum/index.php?topic=8425.0 - Dropped Frames

http://www.magiclantern.fm/forum/index.php?topic=6823.0 - Write Corruption

[KMA_WWC]

Do you really think it was that necessary to create 1005th thread about Komputerbay cards issues that everyone is aware off? You could've simply posted it in those 1004 Komputerbay related threads.

[themattcastro]

As you can see that was my first post in the forum. I certainly was not aware of them as they're few to find on the first page of this forum. I wanted to start using RAW so I checked out the forums for more information and only found people saying they were having small issues with the cards.

I wish that these Komputerbay issue threads were stickied on this forum so I can see it as the first thing instead of having to search through to find out information cause at first all I read was just that the Komputerbay cards worked fine for people. Some had read and write issues where it was slower but never go this issue stated. If it had been, than I wouldn't have wasted a month waiting for these cards just to have them be returned 2 days later and wasting money supporting this company.

So again, for people just starting to shoot in RAW and are looking for a card to use, I suggest that you stay away from Komputerbay. The hassle of hopefully getting a card that works and having to return the ones that don't will slow down your production.

Plus with uncertainty that what you just shot hopefully might not be corrupted from these cards makes shooting in RAW seem a lot more dangerous than you'd like it to be.

[Midphase]

I disagree with your assessment, and I disagree with your difficulty in being able to access the relevant information in a quick and convenient manner. Just a simple search yields tons of threads which contain valuable information if you're willing to spend the time to read them.

If you had read these threads, you would have realized early on that the 128gb 1000X Komputerbay CF cards are not recommended for ML systems which require 83mb/sec or above speeds. Rather the most recommended until now has been the 64gb 1000X cards. Recently, Komputerbay has released 1050X 128gb cards which appear to be at least as good as the 64gb 1000X cards, so to purchase 1000X 128gb cards from them makes no sense now.

People choose Komputerbay because they are as much a 70% less expensive than a Lexar or Hoodman Steel counterpart. Contrary to popular belief, sometimes you do get what you pay for. In this case, Komputerbay is known for having somewhat of a "flexible" QC and it is recommended that you order multiple copies of the cards, evaluate their real-world performance on your camera, and send back the ones which don't meet your criteria.

I don't think it's fair for you to go on a public forum and bad mouth a company which has otherwise been very helpful to so many ML users.

By saying things like "So again, for people just starting to shoot in RAW and are looking for a card to use, I suggest that you stay away from Komputerbay." you are completely writing off hundreds if not thousands of very happy Komputerbay ML users including myself who have absolutely no problems with their products.

I would think twice before publicly damaging a company by disseminating highly generalized and incorrect information.

[ivannoel]

i'm a film director, i stupidly trusted komputerbay cards.
I shot a scene today with 15 actors over many hours, an entire specialised tech team. We shot 120gb of complicated scenes for which we invested a lot of money.
All the files were there, and simply because I it didn't like my card reader (that was used fine before), the files were instantly wiped off and unsalvageable.
You completely irresponsible to suggest that we should not make sure everyone keep far away from these cards - in the professional world, it is simply NOT acceptable that the cards work sometimes for some people, and sometimes wipe out entire projects.
I would suggest never buying these cards.

[kgv5]

This situation is horrible and really it is hard to believe, it shows that much safer is just using lower capacity cards like 32, max 64GB rather than 128, 256GB etc and archiving them to HDD more often... It would be not very comfortable but having couple of 32 GB instead of huge one will give ability to copy data even once per couple of minutes, for example just after important take. And I think this concerns all manufacturers, not only KB.

[mageye]

While I would be happy to perpetuate the idea that all Komputerbay cards are a write-off. I would only be happy to do this so less people bought them and the price dropped; - so I could buy more of them.

I have been using them and accept that they can have a variable performance. They are not the fastest either. Once you accept the limits of these cards they can be reliable. I would not have bought a second one if I was in doubt. Money is an object.

Mine have not died yet and I hope that things will stay that way. They are cheap and there are caveats. But I will still buy them (at the right price).

I can only speak about the 32GB 1000x cards because they are the only ones I have experience of.

I have been reasonably happy with my choices.

[1%]

The 64s have been working great so far no issues. Not working as exfat though.

[silverface]

I've just bought a 128gb 1000 komputerbay card  its writing at 87mbs,  giving them a warm up I'm happy ...at £109 in uk

[jonnyginese]

No issues like this for me on my KB 128gb 1050x or 64gb 1000x. The 128gb isn't quite fast enough to be a reliable performer, but the 64gb works perfectly.

[ted ramasola]

the 64s are the fastest performers. I ordered 2 more last week.
They come in a new packaging and logo also.

In their new look website, you can find out which ones are ideal for Magic Lantern firmware.

[stevethornton]

I have 2 of these and will buy more. Not one problem shooting on a 5D MKIII ML RAW. I have had other cards fail so it is possible. One thing I do on all of my card is run "Secure Erase" (Lexar software but Sandisk has an identical product, just a different name). Most of flash memory issues are caused by having a file fragment left on the card. Secure erase removes every bit of information from every cell. It becomes just like it was new. I run this on all of my cards about every 3-4 months. For the 128GB card it will take about 12-14 hours to run a Secure Erase.

I also use SD Formatter so they will run in the exFAT format, it does make a difference in the write speed.

Steve Thornton

[tjaja]

Did I just read you trusted on raw recording with a whole crew and cast?
Like As in, everyone made effort and freed time so you can shoot with experimental stutf?
Even in theorie raw recording is pushing the limits of the camera, no matter what card. And the "tech" people: no one to specially handle files?

[Sufiancool]

i have a 128GB 1000x Card from kumputerbay as well , ive had it for 4 months and never used it , simply because ML Doesnt work on Cards bigger than 64GB ....i have never tested it on raw since i never got to so i cant anything about that .

[rainless]

i have a 128GB 1000x Card from kumputerbay as well , ive had it for 4 months and never used it , simply because ML Doesnt work on Cards bigger than 64GB ....i have never tested it on raw since i never got to so i cant anything about that .

But... you have a 5D mk II... couldn't you just load ML on a smaller card and then save your files to the Komputerbay?

[ted ramasola]

i have a 128GB 1000x Card from kumputerbay as well , ive had it for 4 months and never used it , simply because ML Doesnt work on Cards bigger than 64GB ....i have never tested it on raw since i never got to so i cant anything about that .

ML works with 128gig. There were early versions of KB 128 that had issues not bootable with ML but they have fixed that. Going to their site you will see the cards compatible with ML and those indicated as not compatible.

I have been using a 128 1050x on my mkII for while now and while its a teeny bit slower than 64gig 1000x in read time, it is BOTH bootable/compatible with ML and it can handle raw video.

These are sample of videos I shot with the 128gig 1050x.
https://vimeo.com/92451424

https://vimeo.com/91895912

This one I used the 7D with the 128gig 1050x
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hZt4YQ8wlVs

[ted ramasola]

But... you have a 5D mk II... couldn't you just load ML on a smaller card and then save your files to the Komputerbay?

the mkII only has one CF slot.

[rainless]

the mkII only has one CF slot.

Seriously?

But that's... stupid.

[powerpc]

it was horrible that I shoot 300+ raw photos today and 1/3 of them can't be read. This is the first time it happened to me. Then I formatted the card and then I tested 50+more, the problem remains the same. The other cards worked fine.
my card was bought last May, it was fine until today. it is komputerbay 128gb 1000x udma 7