Reading mode: Light Dark

CF card brand reliability?

Go to last post
V

Violadeity

Senior Member
Messages
1,139
Reaction score
1
Location
Las Vegas, NV, US
hey everyone.

so...this year i went from a d70 to a d300...and haven't upgraded my memory capacity yet. i'm mainly a student (art education, w/ previous degree in commercial photography), but i do pro work on the side when time permits. i have a wedding at the end of the month, and need more cards.

i'm looking for decent memory cards, but i'm not looking to spend so much. i mean...i will if i have to. my current cards are sandisk extreme III and lexar pro.

what's the reliability of say, kingston?

i ask because their cards are half the price of the others (8gb for $30), and that seems pretty enticing. it seems that i shoot in the neighborhood of 10-12k images a year. are they going to hold up, or is there enough concern to shell out and get my usual sandisks?

don't get into ethics or whatever with me, and don't give the cop out response of "you get what you pay for"...just tell me about reliability.

thanks,
david

--
'Thank you for flying church of england. Cake or death?' - Eddie Izzard

FLICKR!!! GO!!!!
http://flickr.com/photos/ontheduck
 
I use both kingston and sandisk, and have not had any issues with either. new egg has kingston 133x 8gig cards on for $22 right now, and I will likely pick up a couple at that price (paid $60 for the same card a few months ago becasue I walked into a retail store and needed it right then). I think memory prices have fallen with the economy just to keep sales going. Memory was already a fickle market for the manufacturers. Stay away form stuff like Ridata and house brands for bulk retailers. I also would not buy from ebay or CL, as its been proven @ 75% of the name brand memory cards there are fake/counterfeits. newegg.com and some other reliable online places will yield you bang for the buck.
 
Bought 5 32gb cards 6 months back. One was DOA, the others 'konk out' at random and stop working until reformatted... sometimes I can get 1000 images on them, other times they stop at 50... it's seemingly random.

I've never had a single issue with Transcend or SanDisk
--
JOE FEDERER
Websites:
Misc personal stuff: http://www.joefederer.com
Minneapolis / St. Paul Wedding photography @ http://www.federerphotography.com
 
SanDisk. SanDisk, and did I mention SanDisk. Seriously. I have a boatload of them (in my case Ultra II, for my money the best price/performance cards out there) and never had a problem with them.

In the past I've tried Lexar and Ridata. And failures from both, though to be fair the Ridata cards went for two years before they pooped out.

jack
--
A few of my photos:
http://www.jackkurtzphotography.com or
http://www.sportsshooter.com/members.html?id=4177 or
my PhotoShelter Archive
http://pa.photoshelter.com/user/kurtzjack
 
To be honest, I have found CF cards to be amazingly reliable. I have Lexar, Sandisk, Ridata, Kingston and just picked up a 16GB A-Data SD card. They all have been flawless over many years. I have old Ridata and Lexar 512MB CF cards from, perhaps 2002 or 2003, and while they don't see a lot of use, they still work.
 
Most of my CF cards are either SanDisk or Lexar . . .

Never had a problem with any of them.

I prefer to buy mine locally instead of online . . . but thats just me!

SanDisk Extreme III 4GB CF cards at the camera store I work at are selling for $30 . . . that is pretty cheap!

I prefer to stick with smaller cards instead of relying on big memory cards . . . but thats just me!

--
J. D.
Colorful Colorado



Remember . . . always keep your receipt, the box, and everything that came in it!
 
i think you might have mentioned sandisk. :P

i'm a pretty big advocate of sandisk myself, and when i worked at ritz i pushed them heavily based on my own positive experience.

but i really am trying to be frugal. i just don't want that to bite me in the bottom. i don't care if they poop out 2 years from now, just that they don't do it on november 29th.

just trying to gauge where the line in the sand is...between reliability and price, and what the risk really is.

thanks for the reply...its what i'd tell myself, actually :P
jackkurtz said:
SanDisk. SanDisk, and did I mention SanDisk. Seriously. I have a
boatload of them (in my case Ultra II, for my money the best
price/performance cards out there) and never had a problem with them.

In the past I've tried Lexar and Ridata. And failures from both,
though to be fair the Ridata cards went for two years before they
pooped out.

jack
--
A few of my photos:
http://www.jackkurtzphotography.com or
http://www.sportsshooter.com/members.html?id=4177 or
my PhotoShelter Archive
http://pa.photoshelter.com/user/kurtzjack
Click to expand...
--
'Thank you for flying church of england. Cake or death?' - Eddie Izzard

FLICKR!!! GO!!!!
http://flickr.com/photos/ontheduck
 
i knew there'd be one :P

i'll have a look around and see what the best prices are i can find for sandisk i suppose, before i give the kingstons a shot.

i'm a pretty big advocate for buying the best you can, and have been a sandisk supporter since i first jumped into digital. but everyone's entitled to get lucky every once in a while and save some money.

i also am usually a fan of smaller cards...i'm also considering the 4gb ones. if its gonna fail, i want to lose as little as possible.

thanks for the reply :D
MusicDoctorDJ said:
Most of my CF cards are either SanDisk or Lexar . . .

Never had a problem with any of them.

I prefer to buy mine locally instead of online . . . but thats just me!

SanDisk Extreme III 4GB CF cards at the camera store I work at are
selling for $30 . . . that is pretty cheap!

I prefer to stick with smaller cards instead of relying on big memory
cards . . . but thats just me!

--
J. D.
Colorful Colorado



Remember . . . always keep your receipt, the box, and everything that
came in it!
Click to expand...
--
'Thank you for flying church of england. Cake or death?' - Eddie Izzard

FLICKR!!! GO!!!!
http://flickr.com/photos/ontheduck
 
I've always used Crucial and found them good value and reliable. They also offer useful support.

I understand they are now owned by Lexar, which can't be a bad thing.

Tony
 
I've used SanDisk now since 2001 and I have never had a problem. I started with Ultra II, then Extreme III cards. My Ultra II cards are still fine and I use them for casual outings (the cards are too small now for weddings, etc). I have some 8GB Extreme III cards which I got for cheap after a recent SanDisk rebate that are great. Having said that, for the money, the Ultra II can't be beat IMO.

Look on SanDisk's website to see if they still have a rebate. I got 3 8GB cards for ~$120 after rebate.
 
There simply isn't anybody doing scientific reliability comparison testing on memory cards.

And all you're going to get here is anecdotal personal experience.

Here's the way I look at it. I'm a professional. What I shoot are typically once-in-a-lifetime events -- and some of the weddings I shoot have well over $100K invested in them, and if my card fails and I lose images, I'm in really, really big trouble, despite the fact that I carry professional liability insurance.

I have been using SanDisk heavily for several years, and have never had a failure of any kind. I worked with a team of five photographers for 2.5 years, shooting hundreds of thousands of images -- they also used Sandisk, and never had a card failure that resulted in loss of images.

So, for the life of me, given the low cost of Sandisk Extreme IV and Extreme III cards, which do have an excellent reputation for reliability, I can't imagine how or why you as a professional can justify thinking for one moment of cutting corners in this area. The most you could possibly save is a few hundred bucks -- in exchange for increasing risk to your reputation and livelihood dramatically.

Cut back somewhere else -- but never in an area that could compromise the safety of your images.

Best,
Paul
http://uipstatephotographers.com
http://albanyheadshots.com
 
Violadeity said:
i'm a pretty big advocate for buying the best you can, and have been
a sandisk supporter since i first jumped into digital. but
everyone's entitled to get lucky every once in a while and save some
money.
Click to expand...
Yes, but the opposite is true too -- everyone's entitled to get UNLUCKY once in a while and lose irreplaceable data. Cutting corners on memory cards, for the handful of dollars you save, is just WRONG, imho.

Best,
Paul
http://upstatephotographers.com
http://albanyheadshots.com
 
When the CF card first came out, both Lexar and Sandisk sales representatives gave many professional photographers at an NFL football a free 1GB CF card. I remember at the time these cost about $800 each and everyone grabbed them. Periodically, Lexar and Sandisk sends me CF and SD cards to use and test in the field. So far, none of those cards have failed me.

I have used Dane-Elec, Kingston Technologies, SimpleTech and other off brand cards. Kingston's are pretty good but I have not used them extensively. I also used SimpleTech and theirs is very good too but I still use Lexar or Sandisk 95% of the time when out in the field.

I am currently using Lexar's 8BG cards to shoot auto racing and college football. Yes, it scares me to think that one corrput image could mean disaster but so far I have yet to experience anything bad.

IBM's Microdrives are junk. I wouldn't use those unless it was an extreme emergency. These are the CF cards I have experienced the most problems with even when I treat them like a fragile butterfly. Sorry IBM but your cards are not useful.
 
I've been using Sandisk since 2001 without a single failure through dozens of CF cards, speeds and capacities.

Regards,
Mike

--

Polaroid Swinger; Kodak Instamatic 126 Ricoh 500G; Canon FTb; Nikon F2AS; Nikon F3HP; Hasselblad 501CM; Pentax 67II, Nikon 990; Nikon D1x; Nikon D300; PhaseOne P65+ (in my dreams ;-)
 
I can't imagine a worst place to cut corners than off-brand CF cards. My experience with SanDisk Extreme III cards is that, year after year, they are 100% reliable.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

C
UHS-2 V90 Memory Cards
Replies
5
Views
5K
Charlie Le Denn
C
N
Any good reason to get CF card for my Z8?
2
Replies
25
Views
3K
shuncheung
S
S
Has anyone tried the Sandisk Pro Cinmea CFE cards?
Replies
17
Views
6K
shuncheung
S
C
P65+ card checking says all my cards are corrupt
Replies
6
Views
571
camera dudebro
C
C
Which first Tilt-shift solution for Nikon Z8
Replies
9
Views
2K
NAwlins Contrarian
N

Keyboard shortcuts

f
Forum
m
My threads
Mobile site
About
Editorial content
Cameras & Lenses
Community
All content, design, and layout are Copyright © 1998–2025 Digital Photography Review All Rights Reserved.
Reproduction in whole or part in any form or medium without specific written permission is prohibited.
When you use DPReview links to buy products, the site may earn a commission.
©GPS Media - Guides, Products, Services.
Back
Top