sandisk, lexar or transcend?

bigjohnson · August 28, 2010

I just wanna a new cf card for my D300s. I have an unknown brand, no good. and does the read and write speed that so important, i saw sandisk got 90MB per second read and write speed, but that is so expensive. So any suggestion?

Art Scott · August 28, 2010

I started off with Lexar and Sandisk and then found Transcend and love the hell out of them...as a matter of fact
I just ordered 6 more 8gb cards for $19.49 ea + $2.99 total for shipping..... from New Egg..................I did a lot of reasearch and then ordered
1 8gb card and put it thru hell shooting outside in the the KS wind blowing ice (it was approx -20°F), as long as I kept
the camera battery warm I could shoot....same in the 103° degree blast furnace called Kansas..........

Knock on wood...
I have never had a Transcend Card fail me.........yet.....I will at some point....all cards fail....it is not a matter of IF...but When......
so you need to make sure you have a very reliable recovery software on hand before it happens.........I have 2.... I have Phoenix Stellar....
which recovers from more than just memory cards.........I also use Lexars Image Rescue ....both work great and I can pick what to
recover...like jps only, tiff, raws or all file types.....................................

I had lexar card to fail first... and hooked a card reader upto my work comouter and the lexar CSR tried to access it and failed....
told her I had a wedding on Saturday and no one in Wichita carried Pro level cards......I'll be damned if I did not get one next day air
and paid return postage for the bad one...........
My Sandisk failed and they were not so accommodating but did replace it...............

6yrs later and all my Transcend cards are still going strong........but I did lose 2 out the 10 I had.........in a few days my count will be upto
14 - 8gb Transcend cards for 3 cameras .............

I keep a Lowe Pro DM-Z Case for carrying 6CF cards and extra business cards ...................

I also gave Kingston a shot but neither my Minolta 7D, Minolta A2 or my Nikon D300's liked it.......they all just showed no card in the camera.......so it went back and
I got another Transcend...................

I only buy when I see good prices and the new Egg price Friday Night was ~~$23......this morning $19.49...so I bought.............

Good Luck

ImageX Photography · August 28, 2010

I have all brands you mentioned and none of them have failed me yet. Knock on wood. Transcend are the cheapest and I have one their 16g cards. For whatever reason I think I trust Sandisk the most. For very very important shoots.... I ALWAYS load my D300S with Sandisk cards. An 8g Extreme card as well as a Sandisk 8g CF card. It just feels right. If you're on a budget... give Transcend a try. I'm sure you'll be pleased with the performance and reliability.

I only own 1 older Lexar card and it's been fine. No issues. I would LOVE to own a Lexar Professional 32g CF card though. It would be my top choice I think.

Overfocused · August 29, 2010

Transcend is the cheapest but is generally a good balance of performance to $ ratio. Some of their cards don't really even run close to their rated speeds, however. I had a Transcend 400x card that ran much slower than a Lexar 300x. SanDisk and Lexar both run much closer to their rated speeds if your equipment can handle it (although I've read terrible reviews about the 60MB/sec SanDisk, stay away from those) Lexar uses the best materials in their cards out of any of them literally speaking, are rated to last 10x longer in terms of read/write cycles. Sandisk is good, but they use less durable memory cells than Lexar.

I'd recommend a Lexar 233x or 300x card.

AlbertZeroK · August 29, 2010

I have shot my 50d primarily with Transcend 300x 16G cards. I also have Transcend 8G 300x cards and 600x cards. I have had one Trancend 8G 600x card fail, which makes me weary to use them.

I shoot 100% with Sandisk SD cards and LOVE Them. I need more CF cards and I'm debating Sandisk or Trancend.

Overfocused · August 29, 2010

AlbertZeroK wrote: »

I have shot my 50d primarily with Transcend 300x 16G cards. I also have Transcend 8G 300x cards and 600x cards. I have had one Trancend 8G 600x card fail, which makes me weary to use them.

I shoot 100% with Sandisk SD cards and LOVE Them. I need more CF cards and I'm debating Sandisk or Trancend.

The transcend 300x cards are made with SLC (single layer cell) memory cells while their 400x and 600x cards are MLC (multi layer cell) which is probably why it failed. I had a Transcend 400x and was thoroughly disappointed with actual performance and returned it. If you go Transcend, stick with the 300x cards even though they cost more than the 600x; they're much more reliable.

BradfordBenn · August 29, 2010

The one thing I decided to do was to use more smaller cards rather than one large card. Distributing the risk so to speak. I would rather lose 1 card with 250 images and still have 750 then lose 1 card with 1,000. I have the Lexar and the SanDisk. I have had problems with Lexar but no with SanDisk. No problem was more than a reformat could take care of.

AlbertZeroK · August 29, 2010

Overfocused wrote: »

The transcend 300x cards are made with SLC (single layer cell) memory cells while their 400x and 600x cards are MLC (multi layer cell) which is probably why it failed. I had a Transcend 400x and was thoroughly disappointed with actual performance and returned it. If you go Transcend, stick with the 300x cards even though they cost more than the 600x; they're much more reliable.

Interesting, I paid $150 each for my 16G 300x Transcend cards last year, they are still the same price. That's gotta tell you something.

bigjohnson · September 1, 2010

So...........that is really hard to say, but one thing for sure, transcend 300x is good

RamstetterPhoto · September 16, 2010

I have only used Lexar and Sandisk. I will have to give Transcend a try!

Medic583 · September 17, 2010

I started off with 2-4gb Sandisk but moved over to the 4-8 gb 300 x Lexar cards when I needed some that would keep up with the 40/50 in burst mode... LOVE my Lexar cards. When shooting the horse shows/snow-x or whatever... I would usually throw the Lexar cards in right off the bat.

But... found some 32gb 233 x Ri-data cards soon after and even though I was hesistant to buy such a big card from someone other than Sandisk/Lexar... let alone a big card period... I've realized that I don't shoot to many at burst speeds after all (timing cuts down on the shots and subsequent editing) and I don't fill the 32gb ever... and download as soon as possible... but they give me a little extra leeway for that last shot or two I wouldn't have got with my 4-8gb cards shooting raw (honestly at most I would fill them to 9-10gb if it really came down to it... but that is even rare).

So... for me... I'll be buying two more 32gb ri-data cards soon... instead of 1 8-16gb Lexar

Overfocused · September 17, 2010

Ri-data has some of the most unreliable standards, falsely labeled speeds, and more negative reviews than any other card brand I've researched (And the very first and last one I bought was a P.O.S. too). It'd be better to get a cheapie Transcend than any Ridata... a 133x transcend would probably out perform the 233x Ridata, unless something magical has happened to their speed rating standards lately.

You may have not noticed but I really don't like that company. Lol.

pathfinder · September 17, 2010

The 400x Transcend cards rock!

Medic583 · September 17, 2010

Ha... Overfocused... didn't really notice

.

That's ok though... that's about my thoughts on Sandisk after going through about 4 counterfit cards from various stores... Yes... I bought packaged ones from stores that had been around for some time but sure enough...

Sandisk's seemingly valiant attempt at looking good by asking people to report it to them is such a complete waste of time, I couldn't believe when they told me... "yes... it is another counterfit card... sorry we can't do anything about it... click". The stores themselves... "sorry... those are the ones that we got from our supplier... no refunds... and yes... I understand the labels have fallen off, yes I understand that Sandisk verified they are counterfit....". Beware... scammed once... ok... scammed twice... ouch... scammed on the third purchase from another sellar... jeesh... wonder if there are any legit cards actually out there from Sandisk

Yep... loving the Ridata cards compared to that

... but again... only speaking from my hands on use with the cameras I have available to me... I don't own any of the faster 1 series cameras so can't give you first hand accounts of their speeds and daily use and haven't read others first hand accounts... just my own actual usage... sorry

Then again... I only have about 20,000 shots through the two of them so far though... so maybe when I get up to shooting the amount everyone else does I can report back with some more accuracy?

Overfocused · September 17, 2010

Medic583 wrote: »

Ha... Overfocused... didn't really notice .

That's ok though... that's about my thoughts on Sandisk after going through about 4 counterfit cards from various stores... Yes... I bought packaged ones from stores that had been around for some time but sure enough...

Sandisk's seemingly valiant attempt at looking good by asking people to report it to them is such a complete waste of time, I couldn't believe when they told me... "yes... it is another counterfit card... sorry we can't do anything about it... click". The stores themselves... "sorry... those are the ones that we got from our supplier... no refunds... and yes... I understand the labels have fallen off, yes I understand that Sandisk verified they are counterfit....". Beware... scammed once... ok... scammed twice... ouch... scammed on the third purchase from another sellar... jeesh... wonder if there are any legit cards actually out there from Sandisk

Yep... loving the Ridata cards compared to that ... but again... only speaking from my hands on use with the cameras I have available to me... I don't own any of the faster 1 series cameras so can't give you first hand accounts of their speeds and daily use and haven't read others first hand accounts... just my own actual usage... sorry

Then again... I only have about 20,000 shots through the two of them so far though... so maybe when I get up to shooting the amount everyone else does I can report back with some more accuracy?

I have no idea what Ridata's standards are now, maybe they've changed, but past experience and other reviews will keep me away

As for Sandisk... yeah, they're the most counterfeited cards in the world. There are some internet resources that point out the subtleties of the real cards vs. fake (I.E. notch in the card... fake hologram seals vs. real seals etc)

You'd probably like to read this:

http://www.overclockers.com.au/wiki/Fake_Memory_Cards

There's more websites like this for the memory cards, but that's a good example. As odd as this sounds, I've found Ebay to be quite safe to order memory cards, if you know where to look for them, and what to avoid (I.E. memory cards in sizes that don't exist yet... "Kingston" 32GB thumb drives were being sold on Ebay before Kingston ever manufactured them... fake!) I've ordered 5 or 6 cheaper sandisk cards from Ebay and some even from China and they've all been legit so far... feedback on Ebay can tell you a lot, especially with the retailers that have been selling the cards for awhile. Sellers with high feedback generally care about their reputation, and %99.9 of the time they will work with you to refund your money, if you let them know your problem with the card and do it within the time period they allow for returns/refunds.

Oh, and I think you'd like this program too, H2testw 1.4:

http://sosfakeflash.wordpress.com/2008/09/02/h2testw-14-gold-standard-in-detecting-usb-counterfeit-drives/

Manfr3d · September 18, 2010

I use Sandisk Ultra II (8GB) , Extreme III (16GB) and Extreme IV (8GB) cards none of which has failed so far .. however I just ordered a couple of inexpensive Transcend 4GB 133x cards only because Art keeps praising them on this board so much, can't wait to test them out vs. the sandisks

Overfocused · September 19, 2010

Manfr3d wrote: »

I use Sandisk Ultra II (8GB) , Extreme III (16GB) and Extreme IV (8GB) cards none of which has failed so far .. however I just ordered a couple of inexpensive Transcend 4GB 133x cards only because Art keeps praising them on this board so much, can't wait to test them out vs. the sandisks

The performance of the Transcend probably will be less than the Sandisk

AlbertZeroK · September 19, 2010

Overfocused wrote: »

The performance of the Transcend probably will be less than the Sandisk

I disagree, the Transcend 300x for me at least, has always performed as good as sandisk extreme iv compact flash, however, it does not perform quite as good as the new sandisk extreme.

Overfocused · September 19, 2010

AlbertZeroK wrote: »

I disagree, the Transcend 300x for me at least, has always performed as good as sandisk extreme iv compact flash, however, it does not perform quite as good as the new sandisk extreme.

I was referring to the 133x, they are multi layered (cheaper) than the 300x which are single layered (high quality/performance)

The 300x should read and write close to the 300x mark on capable hardware... the 133x will read quickly but write at around half the rated speed of the card

Either way, I have two Transcend 16gb 133x as backup and they are very nice cards. (one of them did go bad in about a year though, the other is fine after doing 5x more write cycles than the other)

I guess it only matters when your camera can out-write the card

NeilL · September 21, 2010

I've always bought Sandisk. The last, is a 8GB Extreme 60mb/sec UDMA. My experience, it reminds me of the expression "greased lightning"!:D

Neil

W.W. Webster · September 21, 2010

According to Rob Galbraith, SanDisk and Lexar manufacture their own cards whereas Transcend cards or card components are sourced from God knows where.

I know which type of vendor I prefer to buy from!

angevin1 · September 21, 2010

I buy from Lexar, factory store, only!

Manfr3d · September 22, 2010

W.W. Webster wrote: »

According to Rob Galbraith, SanDisk and Lexar manufacture their own cards whereas Transcend cards or card components are sourced from God knows where.

I know which type of vendor I prefer to buy from!

Whats wrong with using Toshiba or Samsung components? It's not
like Transcend doesn't know what they are doing. Just because they
don't own a chip factory.

Matthew Saville · September 22, 2010

There are two things I've realized when it comes to the price of the card:

1.) Quality costs money

2.) A name can cost even more money.

Think about it. Why do some cards *cough* Lexar / Hoodman *cough* cost so much more than other equally reputable brands? Is it better quality, or just a pricey name?

Only hours of research (and years of testing) would be able to properly answer that question. And in my own half-decade of limited testing, I've had an equal number of failures from both Sandisk, Kingston, and Lexar. (One failure each, all due to poor image data management practices, NOT manufacturer failure...)

Recently I put a little more time into reading up on the subject of WHY certain cards cost so much, ...and as a professional should I really be using those expensive cards?

...I found out one interesting thing about ALL CF cards, and that is "single level cell" technology versus "multiple level cell". Also known as SLC vs MLC. I happened upon this article: http://www.oempcworld.com/support/SLC_vs_MLC.htm

This REALLY made me think long and hard about the memory cards I buy, and I haven't bought a MLC card since. If you dig deep enough on google, you can usually figure out if a card you want to buy is SLC or not.

I found this other website that talks a little bit about the latest cards and whether or not they actually live up to their true speed ratings, among other things: http://sportsphotoguy.com/all-about-cf/

...Seems to be pretty knowledgable, and does speak pretty highly of Transcend's 400x cards while at the same time hating Sandisk's new Extreme 60 MB/sec cards because allegedly they're NOT as fast as the Extreme III cards they're replacing. But I'm sure Rob Galbraith's tests are much more thorough and comprehensive.

Either way, I think the Transcend 400x cards are a safe bet. My personal opinion is that Sandisk, Lexar, and Kingston are not perfect and honestly I've decided to stay away from Sandisk from now on just because they are so widely counterfitted, and Lexar because I think they're flat-out overpriced.

I'll be buying Delkin 625x "Combat Flash" cards in the 4 GB form for high-speed or extreme situations, or Transcend 400x 32 GB cards for medium-fast situations that require high capacities. (The Delkin cards I know for a fact are SLC, but not sure about the Transcend 400x cards. At that price ($99 for 32 GB) ...they're probably MLC. However I would only use them in a dual card slot camera such as the D300s, with a redundant SD card for backup.

=Matt=

MileHighAko · September 22, 2010

I'm an SD shooter. I've been purchasing the Transcend 8 GB Class 6 SDHC Flash Memory Card TS8GSDHC6E from Amazon for $18.49 each. Working great for me so far.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001ECQVSS/ref=oss_product

Overfocused · September 22, 2010

Matthew Saville wrote: »

chatter chatter etc
=Matt=

Ah now you fully know what I was talking about here

http://www.dgrin.com/showthread.php?t=172468&highlight=overfocused

The Transcend 400x and 600x are MLC. I contacted both Sandisk and Lexar, and Sandisk's Extreme Pro cards are MLC (albeit they seem to make them very well vs. other MLC manufacturers) and Lexars Pro line are "all SLC"

Matthew Saville · September 22, 2010

Overfocused wrote: »

Ah now you fully know what I was talking about here

http://www.dgrin.com/showthread.php?t=172468&highlight=overfocused

The Transcend 400x and 600x are MLC. I contacted both Sandisk and Lexar, and Sandisk's Extreme Pro cards are MLC (albeit they seem to make them very well vs. other MLC manufacturers) and Lexars Pro line are "all SLC"

Interesting that you prefer the Transcend 300X cards over the 400X, even though "sportsguy" was raving about the 400x?

Either way I'm not in the mood to buy a massive card unless it is part of a dual card setup, so unless they make a D700s with dual card slots soon, I'll be sticking with Delkin.

Thanks for all the info and good discussion!

=Matt=

NeilL · September 22, 2010

As I said before and elsewhere, where are all the prophotogs decrying Sandisk mlc??!! The silence is deafening, isn't it? Why has Sandisk become a top selling product?! Are millions of people being complete fools?!

Where are the bloodcurdling stories here on Dgrin of Sandisk card failures??!! Is there *one*? Who has said that Sandisk was not fast enough? Anyone?

It seems to me that the dissing of Sandisk by some here remains somewhat hypothetical in the face of user satisfaction.

Neil

Overfocused · September 22, 2010

@matthew

Transcend 300x cards are SLC and cost twice as much as their 600x MLC cards with equivalent capacity. Just the price alone proves that they still are built better at a physical level although they are not as fast.

NeilL wrote: »

As I said before and elsewhere, where are all the prophotogs decrying Sandisk mlc??!! The silence is deafening, isn't it? Why has Sandisk become a top selling product?! Are millions of people being complete fools?!

Where are the bloodcurdling stories here on Dgrin of Sandisk card failures??!! Is there *one*? Who has said that Sandisk was not fast enough? Anyone?

It seems to me that the dissing of Sandisk by some here remains somewhat hypothetical in the face of user satisfaction.

Neil

Well I don't think silence is the deafening element here...

I said they are MLC but still are made very well. There's a difference between dissing and just stating facts for knowledge. I emailed Sandisk personally and that's what their staff says; they use MLC chips in their Extreme Pro line.

NeilL · September 23, 2010

Overfocused wrote: »

Well I don't think silence is the deafening element here...

I said they are MLC but still are made very well. There's a difference between dissing and just stating facts for knowledge. I emailed Sandisk personally and that's what their staff says; they use MLC chips in their Extreme Pro line.

To state a fact is one thing, to base a recommendation on it is another, and requires some evidence. I asked, where's the evidence that it is *better* *not* to buy Sandisk mlc cards? If there is none, then where does that leave your recommendation?

Neil

Overfocused · September 23, 2010

Medic583 wrote: »

So... for me... I'll be buying two more 32gb ri-data cards soon... instead of 1 8-16gb Lexar

Looks like ri-data is changing! Now its tempting

(although being so low priced, probably MLC)

http://sportsphotoguy.com/a-top-performer-from-ridata/#more-824

NeilL wrote: »

Repetition

Neil

Where's the evidence? It's in scientific data sheets and tutorials explaining the attributes of SLC and MLC. We already argued over all this crap but since you seem to have forgotten:

http://www.dgrin.com/showthread.php?t=172468&highlight=overfocused

Regardless of the amount of failure stories, the advantages are still to SLC at a physical level. You don't have to feel like I'm trying to say Sandisk users are making a huge mistake. If SLC is available at the same price there's no way I'm not going to recommend it.

I guess I'll relink the evidence as well:

http://www.supertalent.com/datasheets/SLC_vs_MLC%20whitepaper.pdf

So to conclude the forum's headline...

Transcend:
MLC: 400x, 600x, nice price
SLC: 300x, and 'industrial' label cards, double cost

SanDisk Tech Support:

"Thanks for emailing SanDisk Technical Support. It is our goal to make sure you have all the resources you need to get the most from your product.

The Extreme Pro Compact Flash as well other SanDisk cards uses MLC (Multi Level Cell)."

Lexar tech support:

"Dear Customer,

Thank you for contacting Lexar.

All our Lexar Compact flash cards are SLC"

sandisk, lexar or transcend?

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