News,  Sony

Sony SD card replacement program

Sony issued a replacement program (a recall in common parlance) for some SD cards on 18 June, 2020 relating to their SF-M series, as well as their two Tough spec series, the SF-M (T) and SF-G (T). If your cards have an asterisk before the lower of the two serial numbers on the reverse side of the card or start with TR (SF-G Tough only) then your card is unaffected.

Although this was reported by DPReview which published US contact details only, if you’re in GB, Ireland, Latvia or Estonia, you can request an SD card exchange from the following link, here.

Sony state that recorded footage data on the card may be damaged or may have not been recorded optimally when using a camera compatible with VSC mode (Video Speed Class) cards. However, while this suggests only video is affected, I’ve experienced occasional RAW file corruption with two 64GB SF-M Tough cards purchased via Amazon UK recently. Playback on the cameras is also affected, with interrupted and occasional slow access and failure to display. While I haven’t been able to directly verify the cards were at fault, it is cause for alarm.*

We’ve completed the registration for replacement cards at this link, but be warned it’s relatively easy to misidentify your product when stating the card type. We’ve claimed for one SF-M type when we should have claimed for an SF-M T. You also have to supply photographs of the front and rear of the cards, which seems sensible.

*Update April 2021. Sony offered to replace the cards but I bought them for a specific purpose, prompting me to switch back to more reliable SanDisk cards [Affiliate link].