My D4 destroyed five SanDisk CF-Cards the last months. I´ve got ERROR-Messages and there was no way to rescue the pictures files. Because of that I´ve lost a job and the customer. The last CF-Card I took out of the D4 was unbelievable hot.
First the NPS-Service in Germany told me, there´s no problem with the camera. Three months, a changing of the display and a repair of the autofocus system later, Nikon accepts the problem with the CF-card slot of my D4 camera. Now I want to change the camera. The D4 is very expensive. The camera should work in a professional way. But my D4 is the most expensive one, because it´s a instrument for loosing jobs and customers.

Regarding overheated cards in the D4....

I just got back from a trip to Sedona Arizona and ran into this problem with Delkin CF cards.
I had a 32 Gig Delkin card in the CF slot and I shot all day long with it then realized my camera was
acting odd so I turned it off then on and saw the message about "This memory card cannot be used" on the
screen. I then opened the card slot door to smell some burning type smell although not too strong...
I removed the card and it was almost about to melt but it didnt get that far. It was so hot I could not hold
it though.

I am worried that this might have damaged my D4 but I wont know until I get another card for it.
Im amazed that the camera would even let the card get hot like that. I do have other Delkin cards of
the same make but I wont put them in the slot for fear of damaging my camera if it has not already been.

Avoid Delkin cards. I had the same problem with my D300s believe it or not... but not with heat.. more like just
file corruption everywhere.

On page 443 of the D4 User's Manual it lists the "approved" CF cards. They are all Sandisk and Lexar. I have tried others, but have not found any that will work. Err blinks in the information finder and the camera won't focus or shoot. The XQD on the other hand, works great and indicates 1.4K images remaining at Large/Fine/JPEG setting. Very efficient, and maybe the future. Lexar CF cards format and work great also. Fortunately, I still have two D2x's and a D3 to use the CF cards that are "off brand" with. I suspect we will all find similar results.

aorobert said:
XQD cards are so fast I will only use CF for backups now.

XQD is where it's at. I wish the D4 had two of them.

where did you buy the card ?
i gather there are a lot of SanDisk forgeries on e bay

Does the D4 work now with the QXD card in place? And was the CF card inserted with the camera on or off? Was there any problem getting the card in the slot? If off, and no problem getting card into camera slot, it certainly sounds like a warranty issue provided no other condition exists.

billmfoto said:
I inserted a SanDisk Ultra II CF card into my new D4. It didn't work ! Not only did it not work, but there camera went into some kind of "green light blinking/freeze mode." I turned it off, but light kept blinking. I removed the card and an electrical fire burned smell came from the card and camera !

WTF ???????

I am using those in my D4 without a problem, 32 and 16 GB are working fine. Sorry to hear about your problem, I hope the camera is fine.

Jürgen

I inserted a SanDisk Ultra II CF card into my new D4. It didn't work ! Not only did it not work, but there camera went into some kind of "green light blinking/freeze mode." I turned it off, but light kept blinking. I removed the card and an electrical fire burned smell came from the card and camera !

WTF ???????

XQD cards are so fast I will only use CF for backups now.

My experience with Kingston and Transcend cards has been god awful. Transcend do overheat and melt (that was in industrial apps) that caused random data failures on files, and then on the whole card. I doubt a camera would cause that, but then again the heat on the cards has more to do with data transfer (more electricity pumping through it)than anything else. (Assuming you are not in a dessert.)

There are some photographers that say the card don't matter. I find people who say that either A: Have a lack of interest in learning the differences or B: Haven't had a bad experience yet.

So many threads on this but Lexar and Sandisk are the only two that are continuously suggested by most and I concur. Even if one get's corrupted, they both offer free software that you can recover almost everything.

Anecdotal cool story bro, but I have some 32GB Transcend 400x cards that seem to overheat or otherwise stop working right under heavy use (11fps) in the D4. You get a card error, and if you take them out, wait a few seconds and put them back in they are "okay" until it happens again. The card is very warm when you remove it. This is consistent across four cards. I'll be getting some Sandisk or Lexar cards shortly, this is just what I had laying around for now (the D4 was a surprise purchase).

TimHarrison said:
I would expect all CF and SD cards to work in all cameras, but not all at the same speed obviously. The fact that only SanDisk or Lexar cards seem to be guarenteed to work means to me that this is more of a Nikon issue.

When standards are created there are many MUST and MAY statements when it comes to vendor specific implementation. To get certified all the MUSTs, well, must be met. The MAYs is where you get into a grey area of a specification.

It may also be that the D4 has a single I/O bus controller that is designed around the XQD and has the CF slot in compatibility mode. There may be things in the XQD spec w.r.t. CF compatibility mode that are not supported, partially supported, etc.

If you expect all cards to work in all cameras you will forever be disappointed.

Later,
Jeff

I would say it's more of a sd and cf manufacturer card problem than Nikon as the same thing happen not only in Nikon but in any other cameras on the market.

But whats the point of having a universal CF or SD card standard if some work and some don't. I would expect all CF and SD cards to work in all cameras, but not all at the same speed obviously. The fact that only SanDisk or Lexar cards seem to be guarenteed to work means to me that this is more of a Nikon issue.

JForhan said:
Seriously though, get the approved cards for a $6k camera. What is a few extra bucks for something you know will work.

Absolutely! Only problem is once you've bought the camera, all you can afford is the Radio Shack special.

@JForhan. I agree 100%. I'll be sticking to my SanDisk Extreme Pro 16GB cards. I just happened to be testing my CF Cards to see what did and did not work. RiDATA, Viking, Transcend, and ProMaster UltraMAX all worked fine. I'll let Duracell focus on batteries.

I thought Duracell made batteries?

Seriously though, get the approved cards for a $6k camera. What is a few extra bucks for something you know will work.

I realize it worked with your D700 but this is newer technology.

Later,
Jeff

I figured a topic of cards that have trouble in the Nikon D4 would be appreciated by others so they don't have to wonder if they are the only ones with a card that does not work.

So far, I have found the following fail to work in the D4. Add your own failed cards to this thread.

Duracell Pro Photo 600x UDMA 32GB CF CArd

I don't know that it's necessarily a matter of thinking something is or isn't a "real" camera. I look at it more from the standpoint that I'm buying a camera, not a flippin' Swiss Army knife. I don't need it to take video, fry an omelette, or open my garage door. :) I just want it to take the best possible picture. Ditching video and all that goes with it should, at least in theory, not only bring the price point on the camera down, but also leave room for other photo-related features. Just a thought.

Welcome to the forum slightdelay.

Like it or not video is going to be in just about every future camera. Just like autofocus and electronic controls in film cameras. I remember the argument back in the early 80s that if you need a battery to power the shutter then it wasn't a "real" camera and that autofocus was cheating. Same argument now with video. Same argument now with electronic viewfinders etc.

Long-time lurker, first-time poster. :)

My short list:
--Video: Strictly optional. I don't have the same enthusiasm for video on a photo camera that a lot of you seem to have, HD or no HD.
--Appearance: I'd like something that doesn't scream, "Look at my expensive camera!" Something that, unlike a DSLR, doesn't draw attention to itself or to me; in short, a camera that's good for street shooting pretty much anywhere, without being thief bait.
--EVF? Nope. I'd prefer a rangefinder, actually. Assume that the rear LCD would function both as control screen and for Live View shooting for those of us who occasionally find that sort of thing useful. Said screen would, hopefully, be an articulating screen of good resolution.
--Format: 4/3, though I have the sneaking suspicion that Nikon, like Canon (and Leica) will turn their backs on the format.
--Finally, as for the aesthetics of the thing: Something suitably retro, with plenty of manual controls. As Olympus has done with the PEN line, Nikon could look back to its own past (say, the Model S Nikkor rangefinder camera) for design inspiration.

"I still prefer to have my EVF attached to the camera. The less I carry around the better. "

I agree, but for those times when you need to be shooting from some position that doesn't allow for you to have the camera to your eye, it would be kind of cool. Though I'm thinking of something much smaller than that headset, but not sure if that would be possible.

JorPet said:
Thinking this through, once you have a electronic viewfinder, why restrict it to only on the camera? Using bluetooth, you could create a wearable eye piece that would allow you to hold the camera wherever it was convenient and still be able to see the "viewfinder".

Just a thought

Nikon already made such a device. It's called the UP300X.
http://nikonrumors.com/2009/02/09/nikon-media-port-up300x-video-headset-gets-reviewed.aspx

There are also many wireless viewfinder monitors including apps that allow you to control your camera remotely from your iphone.

http://www.aputure.com/en/product/gigitube_wireless_digital_viewfinder.htm
http://www.proviewsite.com/

I still prefer to have my EVF attached to the camera. The less I carry around the better.

JorPet said:
Thinking this through, once you have a electronic viewfinder, why restrict it to only on the camera? Using bluetooth, you could create a wearable eye piece that would allow you to hold the camera wherever it was convenient and still be able to see the "viewfinder".

Just a thought

That is a very good idea, and I'm surprised none of the camera manufactures have done that yet. The only problem would be battery life, bluetooth sucks power like nobodies business.

nau said:
F mount adapter
more or less standard DX sensor
small but with all the functionality from DSLR on a buttons (not with 100 menus)

You have just described D3000 more or less.
Anyway Nikon EVIL camera will not have F mount because it will defeat the main goal for it and it is a small size, F mount could not be made smaller then it is ...