SanDisk SD Cards Corrupt When Paired With the R5 Mark II, Canon Warns

As if photographers needed another reason to avoid SanDisk, the company’s memory cards may record corrupted or unreadable still photo files when paired with the Canon R5 Mark II. At the time of publication, there is no fix for the problem other than to stop using the cards.

“Still images taken with Canon EOS R5 Mk II may be recorded as corrupted/abnormal due to incompatibility of certain SanDisk Extreme PRO SDXC UHS-II 64GB, 128GB and 256GB V60 cards,” Canon writes in a warning on its website, spotted by The Digital Picture.

Currently, three cards are affected: the SanDisk Extreme PRO SDXC UHS-II V60 64GB, the SanDisk Extreme PRO SDXC UHS-II V60 128GB, and the SanDisk Extreme PRO SDXC UHS-II V60 256GB. This is one of SanDisk’s most ubiquitous and affordable SD memory card series, with the 64GB version selling for just $26.

Canon points to a SanDisk page that lists all compatible memory cards that can be used instead and that includes all of the V90 Extreme PRO-branded cards as well as the highest capacity 512GB and 1TB options in the V60 line. It is not clear what about these lower capacity cards are “incompatible” since SD is supposed to be a standard. Neither Canon nor SanDisk elaborates on what the issue is.

Canon also points to a SanDisk web page with the promise of finding “steps to resolve SanDisk Extreme PRO SDXC UHS-II V60 64, 128, and 256GB Still Image Problem with a Canon EOS R5 Mark II” but, in what is becoming a classic SanDisk response to a problem, that link’s “Resolution” section is blank.

Update 1/13: SanDisk updated its “resolution” section that instructs users to reach out to the company for a warranty replacement.

SanDisk and its parent company Western Digital have been playing fast and loose with customers’ data over the last few years. First Western Digital consumer-level NAS was found to have multiple zero-day exploits that the company was unable to fully address. In 2023, the most popular SanDisk portable SSD product was found to be poorly assembled, allowing them to suddenly fail en masse. SanDisk attempted to fix the problem quietly — the company never officially responded to requests for more information and never publicly apologized for the fiasco — but did not do so effectively. Additionally, when criticisms of that SSD were at their peak, SanDisk proceeded to discount them heavily rather than recall them, knowingly selling faulty products to the public.

PetaPixel has and will continue to recommend photographers never purchase anything SanDisk branded, regardless of how much money the company spends on a fancy new logo. For SSD alternatives, PetaPixel recommends a long list of excellent options. If photographers still want to use SD cards, PetaPixel recommends OWC, ProGrade Digital, Sony, and Delkin cards.

Canon R5 Mark II photographers should probably move to CFexpress where OWC, ProGrade Digital, and Sony again make the most reliable solutions.

Image credits: Background of header photo licensed via Depositphotos.