lesson learnt on memory card <<advice needed, if any>>

[TME]

As long as I use a 7D I will not touch another Kingston Elite Pro with a barge pole. I lost ~1.3GB of photos when one of them just died on me (it was brand new, first time I used it)... I have 2 such cards. They always hang if u switch data as the pics are written to the card. And the cards take such a long time to write data ~1 min for a sequence of 4 shots.

I have a transcend 4GB and a Lexar 1GB... the Lexar is the fastest card by a fair margin. The Transcend has been good... I will probably get another 2 x 4GB or 4 x 2GB... depending on which is more economical...

And actually I never travel with backups... I start shooting with smaller cards first and then go over to the 4GB... maybe I should use only 2GB all the way.... lose less photos if the card crashes...

 

[tankm]

Sorry to hear this.

Is it totally dead that even can't be recognised on the PC/MAC ? No way to recover ?

As long as I use a 7D I will not touch another Kingston Elite Pro with a barge pole. I lost ~1.3GB of photos when one of them just died on me (it was brand new, first time I used it)... I have 2 such cards. They always hang if u switch data as the pics are written to the card. And the cards take such a long time to write data ~1 min for a sequence of 4 shots.

I have a transcend 4GB and a Lexar 1GB... the Lexar is the fastest card by a fair margin. The Transcend has been good... I will probably get another 2 x 4GB or 4 x 2GB... depending on which is more economical...

And actually I never travel with backups... I start shooting with smaller cards first and then go over to the 4GB... maybe I should use only 2GB all the way.... lose less photos if the card crashes...

 

[TME]

Sorry to hear this.

Is it totally dead that even can't be recognised on the PC/MAC ? No way to recover ?

I sent back to Convergent and they tested the card and gave me a new one as replacement - lifetime warranty u know...

Hahaha... anyway today went on a CF card buying spree!!!

Sandisk Ultra-II 2GB - $46 --> Alan Photo @SLS. I bought a total of 4 cards... 3 from Alan Photo and another from Copernicus Interactive for $47.

The sad part of this story is that I wanted to replace the 2 2GB Kingston Elite Pro with 4 x2GB cards. But I could not find 2GB Sandisk Ultra-II except for one copy at Copernicus... so in desperation I bought another 8GB Sandisk Ultra-II CF card!!!! Then I decided to step into Alan Photo and inquired about the price... AAARRRGGGGHHHH.... they had many copies of the 2GB CF card and somemore had the cheapest price...

So what to do, buy lor... so I have 16GB of CF cards (on top of the 9GB I already have)...

So any takers for the 8GB Sandisk Ultra-II CF card? PM me if interested. Just bought today, receipt dated today, box not even opened. Someone save me? :angel:

P.S. I believe the price for the 8GB card is very low... cos I check with Memory World and their Transcend cards (120x speed) are about >$10 more than what I paid for the Sandisk cards. Their 133x and 266x prices are out of this world...

 

[codling]

i hardly travel with backups as well. but i do opposite, start with the larger cards and end up with the smaller cards. your method makes sense to start with the smaller cards though.

finally went down to EG yesterday to RMA the RiData.
no stock. they were nice enough to present 2 options: either full refund or wait 2 weeks for 4GB Extreme III.
guess the choice was obvious. have to head back there again in 2 weeks.
now to hunt for another 2GB ultraII or Extreme III...

 

[satay16]

yo. me also happened once using elite pro card too. i never used that card ever since. one whole day worth of events just gone like that. but it was last year already.

 

[cosycatus]

Hiee...
My Advice, is not to put all eggs into one basket. Try use smaller denomination of cards.
If you are on a travel trip, at least get to use 2 ~3 cards for one day - spread morning, afternoon, night. Data recovery softwares may help recover some corrupted cards, but not permanently damaged cards due to things like ESD, shorts etc.

Note, the failure you have experienced may be common of any electronic components. How reliable the brand is, due to the different condition, use model and hosting device, failures can happen anytime anywhere. True enough paying a premium for something helps give some level of security. But then again....when the item is fated to fail...it will fail.

i totally agreeed..i shoot weddings with 5-8 1 gig cards and shoot in raw, meaning about 80 pics before i need to swap a mem. But at least, if one fails, i have most of the pics left.

 

[blueayz]

I experience very slow response times with the Kingston Elite too. Extremely slow and frustrating. Bought a Sandisk Extreme III and been using it since last year, very very good and has not failed me so far. In continuous mode on 5D it is much faster than the normal Kingston, and very much faster than the Kingston Elite Pro. Think can take around 10 shots before it slows down. Reviewing pictures on EIII also very fast.

Anyone here has personally compared Ultra II to Extreme III before? Saw the Dyxum table, EIII is slightly faster than UII of course, but just want to see if there is a lot or no difference in real life applications.

 

[TME]

i hardly travel with backups as well. but i do opposite, start with the larger cards and end up with the smaller cards. your method makes sense to start with the smaller cards though.

finally went down to EG yesterday to RMA the RiData.
no stock. they were nice enough to present 2 options: either full refund or wait 2 weeks for 4GB Extreme III.
guess the choice was obvious. have to head back there again in 2 weeks.
now to hunt for another 2GB ultraII or Extreme III...

Try Alan Photo @SLS - 2GB Ultra-II @$46 only. Lexar Platinum at $55, Lexar Pro @$70... The Ultra-II is fast enough for my purposes... the most extreme shooting I do is to take 25 shots in a row for a 180 degree pano (MF & M mode, X.Fine Jpeg). Transcend 120X 2GB is $57 at Memory World. At the moment the Sandisk Ultra-II 2GB @ $46 is best bang for buck...

 

[TME]

I experience very slow response times with the Kingston Elite too. Extremely slow and frustrating. Bought a Sandisk Extreme III and been using it since last year, very very good and has not failed me so far. In continuous mode on 5D it is much faster than the normal Kingston, and very much faster than the Kingston Elite Pro. Think can take around 10 shots before it slows down. Reviewing pictures on EIII also very fast.

Anyone here has personally compared Ultra II to Extreme III before? Saw the Dyxum table, EIII is slightly faster than UII of course, but just want to see if there is a lot or no difference in real life applications.

Ultra-II fast enough... 7D likes this card... together with Lexar cards. Transcend is ok (but not fast enough considering that is is rated at 120x). Ultra-II is 66X while Lexar Platinum is 80X I think, Lexar Pro is 133X.

 

[TME]

Any takers for the 8GB card?

 

[zcf]

Any takers for the 8GB card?

what are the price???

 

[Drudkh]

CF card pricing went so low! :bigeyes: 2GB Lexar cost like 3-4 times more 2 years back!

 

[TME]

what are the price???

Have been thinking about it... I think I have decided to keep the card... more storage space is always welcome lar... thanks bros!

 

[kst]

Just came back from Sim Lim.

Alan Photo no longer selling Sandisk Ultra II 2 GB at $46.

I told the uncle I heard it's $46, and he told me never have such price unless buy together
with camera.

Cheapest I manage to get today is S$49 for Sandisk Ultra II 2 GB CompactFlash and
S$32 for 1 GB version at a shop #04-58. Name is HWH I think - same floor as Active Foto.

Hope this helps.

 

[idi0tekue]

Anybody used the Kingston Ultimate? Read/Write is 20/16mb per sec. Price is around 43 for 2gb. So it's true that specifications cannot be trusted? In terns of price divide by specs, Kingston beats Sandisk. But people here are claiming that Sandisk performs better.

btw: I'm using a 300D, does upgrading to a faster CF card matter at all?

 

[Trigger Happy]

Anybody used the Kingston Ultimate? Read/Write is 20/16mb per sec. Price is around 43 for 2gb. So it's true that specifications cannot be trusted? In terns of price divide by specs, Kingston beats Sandisk. But people here are claiming that Sandisk performs better.

btw: I'm using a 300D, does upgrading to a faster CF card matter at all?

it depends on the camera you use. kingston elite pro is super fast on my PC, crawls like a dead dog on my 7D, in TME's case it went AWOL on him. and the list goes on....

 

[TME]

Anybody used the Kingston Ultimate? Read/Write is 20/16mb per sec. Price is around 43 for 2gb. So it's true that specifications cannot be trusted? In terns of price divide by specs, Kingston beats Sandisk. But people here are claiming that Sandisk performs better.

btw: I'm using a 300D, does upgrading to a faster CF card matter at all?

U'er using Canon, so your mileage might be different. U've got to ask around in the Canon forum. For the 7D and 5D, it's horrible...

 

[TME]

Just came back from Sim Lim.

Alan Photo no longer selling Sandisk Ultra II 2 GB at $46.

I told the uncle I heard it's $46, and he told me never have such price unless buy together
with camera.

Cheapest I manage to get today is S$49 for Sandisk Ultra II 2 GB CompactFlash and
S$32 for 1 GB version at a shop #04-58. Name is HWH I think - same floor as Active Foto.

Hope this helps.

I think he got a shock as well when he found out that his shop is the cheapest... what price did he quote u? Anyway, I have the receipts with me... below $50 can buy already lar... the next place I saw sells at $58!!!

As I think about it, the psychology is quite interesting... I asked for the price of a few cards - different brands and his immediate reply for the Ultra-II was $4 (that was the first card I asked for)... then I said I wanted 3 cards... I did mention to him that his cards were of a good price... maybe that made him up the price!!!