Camera memory card manufacturers?

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OK, which camera memory cards manufacturers are the most reliable? I bought a PNY 16GB Class 10 (20MB/s) SDHC card, which died on me last week while in Iceland - which was really annoying! As eveything is so expensive there :eek:

So in order to limit this happening again, I would like to buy a better quality memory card (I was orginally going to buy a Samsung - same spec). Can anyone recommend reliable camera memory card manufacturers? Lexar/Transcend/Sandisk/Sony??

Camera is a Sony A35 and can shoot 7 photos per second - if that helps?
 
Never had anything go wrong with my Sandisk Ultras or Extremes but they can be a bit pricey.
 
iamtheoneneo said:
I just use a couple of Transcend ones, their like £8 each or something. screw paying £50 for a mem card.
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*laugh*

My most expensive memory care was somewhere north of 200 quid. 100Mb/s, 16GB.

I have a dozen or so Sandisk cards. I have run many Terabytes through them.

Never a blip.

Andrew
 
why thats ridiculous, if you a pro (and i mean proper pro) then fair enough - but if your not then that imo is an epic waste of money for features you can get for a fraction of the cost.
 
iamtheoneneo said:
why thats ridiculous, if you a pro (and i mean proper pro) then fair enough - but if your not then that imo is an epic waste of money for features you can get for a fraction of the cost.
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But Sandisk cost so much more, so they must be better right? ;)
 
iamtheoneneo said:
why thats ridiculous, if you a pro (and i mean proper pro) then fair enough - but if your not then that imo is an epic waste of money for features you can get for a fraction of the cost.
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The feature is reduction in lock-out. When you hit the end of the buffer, how long do you have to wait before you can take the next picture.

With my 1Ds3, generating images at 5 frames/second and around 25MB per image, I *want* to be able to write at at least 125MB/s, so that the card can keep up with the camera. With a 20MB/s card, when I've filled the buffer, I'm toast for half a minute. With a 100MB/s card, I'm shooting again in a couple of seconds.

If Sandisk did a card that comfortably exceeded the speed of a 1D series camera for 10% of the cost of the camera, I'd buy it in a heartbeat.

In other words, I wouldn't think twice about paying 500 quid for 150MB/s.

Andrew
 
iamtheoneneo said:
But your a pro though aren't you, I'm not sure the op needs that level of control
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Absolutely.

But there seems to be a great deal of confusion about WHY you might buy a fast card. Whether or not it is worth the money is a straight forward decision of cost vs functionality. Pro or not.

Andrew
 
Same as anything really, you get what you pay for. I wouldn't go for the cheapest (build quality, speed etc) aim mid range and get some 8gb sandisks from the channel islands.
 
I shoot Motorsport photograpahy as a hobby.

I use a mixture of Transcend and Sandisk cards, shooting in RAW on EOS 500D. The Transcend cards are class 10, however the Sandisk are the budget class 4 cards.

The only time I need the faster cards is if I'm doing burst shooting, including when people are on the podium and they are firing champaign. I can still shoot motorsport on the slower cards, but it's always one shot per subject and i'm replying on gaps in race for camera buffer to recover - having the slower card really makes you think about the shots you take however! I would say for most situations however the budget Sandisk cards would be fine.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/52819966@N08/
 
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All my cards are Sandisk, Extreme or Extreme Pro for my DSLR.

The Extreme Pro 8GB SHDC UHS1 (the new 90Mb/second version) is £20 online - I'd take 2 x 8GB for £40 over 1 x 16GB for £40. If one dies, you have another and have probably lost fewer pictures.
 
Xee said:
OK, which camera memory cards manufacturers are the most reliable? I bought a PNY 16GB Class 10 (20MB/s) SDHC card, which died on me last week while in Iceland - which was really annoying! As eveything is so expensive there :eek:

So in order to limit this happening again, I would like to buy a better quality memory card (I was orginally going to buy a Samsung - same spec). Can anyone recommend reliable camera memory card manufacturers? Lexar/Transcend/Sandisk/Sony??

Camera is a Sony A35 and can shoot 7 photos per second - if that helps?
Click to expand...

1 card by PNY failing doesn't mean they are unreliable and are to be avoided. You were just unlucky you had a faulty card.
 
Sandisk or Lexar for me, if I had to choose it'd be Sandisk I think. Maybe it's a bit more but it's nothing in the grand scheme of things and when you're talking about a couple of hundred shots per card to loose if it fails buying the best available for 10% more seems like a bargain to me...
 
matthab said:
I use lots of small cards so I don't lose all my work during a shoot.
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That cuts both ways, I figure with decent cards you're more likely to physically loose a card if you're swapping 4 through the camera during the course of the day than you are to have a single big card fail if it stays in the camera all day.

If I'm shooting seriously (ie. there's money involved) then I tend to use smaller cards, swap and be paranoid about keeping track of them. If it's just personal then it's less hassle to just use a 32GB card for me.
 
Thanks for the replies thus far - interesting perspectives, and I know that my PNY might have been a one off. But its put me personally off buying another from them. But I think i will go for a slightly smaller 8Gb class 10 or higher this time. Luckily I had bought the card less the 7 days ago so got my money back.
 
I have a small pouch on my belt for my memory cards so they are always with me, if doing a wedding, back up after preps & ceremony and then agian after speeches and then after first dance. the backup goes to a laptop and then a ext HDD at each stage so at any time we have some data somewhere different. Laptop goes into boot of car, HDD stays in kit bag and memory cards on my person.
 
bigredshark said:
That cuts both ways, I figure with decent cards you're more likely to physically loose a card if you're swapping 4 through the camera during the course of the day than you are to have a single big card fail if it stays in the camera all day.
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If you lose cards, then that's your problem. At least you're in control.

If a card dies, then there's usually sod all you can do about it.
 
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