Best (Most Reliable) SD Card

Hi,

I was wondering what the best SD card brand is. I bought a cheap one and it died on me. Also, does the speed of the card matter?

I've used both Lexar Pro and Sandisk Extreme III cards - both very good and very cheap from www.picstop.co.uk
Amazingly fast, reliable, and very long warranties.
No point bothering with the "cheaper" ones.
Matt

Hi Everyone,

Is there a universal code on these cards to indicate speed?

I'm hearing horror stories about nearly full cards really slowing down how quickly the camera will fire after the shutter is pressed.

Thanks!

I use the Sandisk extreme III 2GB cards and haven't noticed any slowing of the writing speed as they fill up. I shoot RAW and a blank one shows a capacity of 121 images, but I have managed to get 180 onto a 2 GB card!

It reads how many uncompressed files it can store, using PEF you get an extra 30-50%.

Needn't pay high prices for good reliability and high speed. The 2 gig ADATA "150X" card I bought from Hong Kong via eBay has been working flawlessly for the months I've had it - despite removing/inserting from the camera & computer many many times.

It's no exageration to say it works twice as fast as an average cheap card. I've timed the write-time to my *ist DS with a stopwatch.

All the above applies too to the Toshiba "Turbo" 512 meg cards I got as well.

In fact with this camera, with various cards of supposedly various speds I've timed, there only seems to be two speeds in reality. They all seem to conform exactly to one or other: slow or fast, that's it!

There are lots of high speed cards available but also many fake cards out there as well. I'd use Sandisk because they come with recovery software should something go horribly wrong.

Danelec, Corsair are good too. Fujifilm's cards are made by Toshiba; as are many others. It is difficult to know where something actually comes from these days with all the rebranding.

Where do you live, Tyr? I have a Super A that isn't broken, and it saddens me to see your sad signature.

G

Leeds, UK. I am saving up for two things at the moment, a K10D and the repair bill for the Super A. It isn't a big repair bill but the K10D fund just soaks stuff up.

It had a slight knock to the 'backlighting' window on the pentaprism casing which has knocked all the metering information out of view. It hasn't been used in a few years and it needs a deep clean. The foam arround the focusing screen has fallen appart and made a mess. Plus it needs a general service to make sure it is in good working order.

I'd like to get a few more SMC-A lenses for it and ME the as I have a very limited 2... 50mm and a 24-50mm.

The nice thing about the Super A is that it is perfectly comfortable with M and K lenses, and that gives you much more scope.

In it's day, the M 75-150 zoom was very highly regarded, and sold well. As a consequence it is plentiful on Ebay and sells for next to nothing. I reckon it would complement your set-up nicely, with very little effect on the bank balance.

G

given the price of Sandisk cards from Picstop I really don't see the point in buying anything else these days.

A lot of the cheaper cards are very good for the price and very reliable (I have had very good service from my keymem and danelec cards from 7dayshop) but since the expensive cards are now down to <£20, you may as well just get the extra speed and peace of mind.

I also went for the SanDisk Extreme III 2GB cards they are so cheap now I don’t see the point in going for budget brands.

One small point – I found that the Mitsumi 7 in 1 internal floppy/flash reader in my PC is not too good at reading them. It takes a long time before it allows access to the card and sometimes refuses to read them. The problem is I think the SD technology has moved on since many card readers were made so it could be worth considering a new one when you buy the cards. I got a SanDisk MicroMate from 7DayShop for £5 which works well – the card is instantly recognised and available and it will also read SD-HC cards, could be useful if there is a need for a 4GB card in the K10D.