SDHC Cards Life Expectancy?

I have a 4Gb Sandisk Exteme III card that is now failing on a regular basis. The card is initially recognised by Windows and Windows even generates thumbnail images, but then I get an error message indicating that there is no disk in the reader when I try to copy/move or open the files on it.
I have tried different readers/pc's and operating systems, it is definitely a card error.
Sandisk agreed to replace the card under their lifetime warranty, but here is the rub. The card has to be returned in a padded sealed packet using a signed for and tracked service and the nearest office to the UK turns out to be in the Czech Republic. Turnaround is quoted as 5 weeks minimum.

I purchased 3 of these cards in May 2008 and cycle them after each session. I estimate that each has captured approx 4,000 images, not excessive use, I believe. Since I feel that I can no longer trust the remaining cards, I am thinking of replacing them with a few of the new Samsung SD Plus Class 6 cards. Does anyone have any experience with these?

Steve

There are always poor examples of every product. The Samsung looks good through the initial reviews on Amazon seem a little too glowing. For £18 I'd buy the Samsung and not have all my eggs in one basket. You can send the duff card at your own pace then.

100.000 to 1.000.000 write cycles seems to be the norm and that's per bit so to speak, it simply means you can 100.000 to 1.000.000 times fill your card before it would be wear out.
Many brands now have technology in them the distribute the data over the last used bits so that the card wear out evenly.

Unless you're a very heavy user they should easily last up to 80 years and certainly more.

I agree with Doug, the Samsung white cards have very good reviews I was planning to buy them but it's hard to get hold of them here so bought Sandisk instead.

In six years and a lot of cards with all of the latest being SDHC, I've had one fail and it failed quite soon after I bought it. I'm assuming it was defective from the start.

MTBF mean time between failure = average

so some things last for longer than the manufacturers claim and some fail in minutes. The manufacturers also guess as they're not going to test a product for 5 years before bringing it to market.

A "tap end of the bath" failure.

Don't Sandisk have a lifetime warranty?

But they can certainly simulate it.

I bought one of those Samsung SD Plus cards a few weeks ago to replace a Lexar 133x 8GB card that had broken. I was so happy with the performance and construction of these cards that I've ordered some more.

I did some tests between the Samsung and the Lexar on my K-7 and didn't notice much between them. In fact I used the 8GB version at the air display the other evening and the read/write speed was good enough for me.

When I had a look inside the other Lexar card I found Samsung memory in there anyway...

£18 on Amazon is a good deal as they seem as though they will withstand anything

Rob

Sorry I meant Thosiba white cards, never read a review about Samsung before

All the failures I've had with SD cards (three so far) have been related to the write protection switch. There have been no electronic failures.

D'Oh!

Frankly for how little they cost, the last ones I bought were £8 or so in Costco, I'd bin it and get on with my life.

do you know where you bought the card from?

I once had a Sandisk UltraII fail (write protect switch rather than electronic) and 7dayshop swapped it out for me no problem. Much easier than sending it all the way to the Czech Republic!