2 different 32GB SanDisk Ultras (class 6) giving me trouble

[Bruce Foreman]

That deserves a somewhat sulfurically worded "onion letter". Your camera manual plainly states Class (6) or faster media and SanDisk owes you replacement Class (6) Ultras (20MB/s) or Class (10) Extremes if they have no Ultra's left.

There is NO EXCUSE for them sending you Class (4) 15MB/s replacements.

[David Ells]

I did call SanDisk and clearly stated that I would not accept anything less than what I originally purchased so they are sending me another RMA number.

After I did that I decided to test these Ultra II class 4 15MB/s cards just to see how bad they are. Unbelievably I didn't have a single problem throughout both tests at 1080 30p! It doesn't make any sense so I'm going to do another test to confirm, but I may be fine with just these class 4's! I know these Ultra II's are newer, And I'd rather not risk it by getting those original same cards again in case there was a model-wide problem with those Ultra 20MB/s cards.

As you guys have said, stick with the cards that work for me.

[Keith Forman]

It may be a counterfeit card.

[Bruce Foreman]

Originally Posted by David Ells

I did call SanDisk and clearly stated that I would not accept anything less than what I originally purchased so they are sending me another RMA number.

Good for you. They need to know folks won't stand for that kind of "slipup". Sounds like the guy who sent you the replacements didn't know what he was doing.

Originally Posted by David Ells

After I did that I decided to test these Ultra II class 4 15MB/s cards just to see how bad they are. Unbelievably I didn't have a single problem throughout both tests at 1080 30p! It doesn't make any sense so I'm going to do another test to confirm, but I may be fine with just these class 4's!

Don't count on it. There are reasons Canon specifies Class (6) or FASTER. SanDisk cards do often perform better than spec'd, others have found SanDisk Class (4) cards to work. But if you find yourself recording where the scene has a lot of detail or the action in the scene is very fast, those cards may "let you down" when you least "need" that.

Originally Posted by David Ells

I know these Ultra II's are newer, And I'd rather not risk it by getting those original same cards again in case there was a model-wide problem with those Ultra 20MB/s cards.

There is no "model-wide" problem with those Ultra 20MB/s cards. I had a few that worked very well with a T1i and T2i (included them with those cameras when I sold them so the buyer could walk out the door and start shooting). I have one Extreme 20MB/s 16GB card in the media case with the T3i along with 2 Extreme 30MB/s 16GB cards and one 8GB card.

I purchase mine from B&H. Lately they've had some attractive prices.

[David Ells]

I was once again sent the slower 15MB/s cards as a replacement. I tried to see if I could get faster cards this time as compensation for my trouble, but they said since they only represent SanDisk Ultra they are not able to provide me anything faster than the 20MB/s card. I do not have a very high opinion of SanDisk's customer service anymore.

Hopefully 3rd time's the charm.

[Bruce Foreman]

Refer them to the part of the Canon manual for your camera that states "Class (6) or faster" media should be used. Advise that you purchased media in accordance with that requirement in your camera manual, and advise that legal action is forthcoming.

I have NEVER heard of such a thing as "representing only one class of product". See if you can get a communication outlining your problems to SanDisk corporate HQ for some kind of resolution.

I'm not a "lie down and take it" kind of guy when it comes to this kind of nonsense.

In the future purchase media only from B&H or similar companies known for integrity.

[David Ells]

So I finally called SanDisk HQ and got my memory cards upgraded to Extreme class since I still hadn't received the replacement yet. They should arrive by the end of the week. I am hopeful that this will work out, but perhaps I am foolish.

Thanks for the advice, Bruce!

[Randall Leong]

Originally Posted by Bruce Foreman

You have so many "me too" bargain brands to wade through what he says is partially true. That may be why SanDisk has now dropped the "class" rating from the imprinting on their media, their latest SDHC offering now bears the "95MB/s" rating. The last couple I ordered from B&H (and now discontinued) were marked "45MB/s". CF format Extreme Pro are marked 90MB/s.

I just got in a couple of $26.49 SanDisk Class (10) 30MB/s 16GB SDHC cards that work fine but I look for those to be discontinued soon.

Not all brands meet specs. So I don't take chances on "bargain" brands.

It will be interesting to see what SanDisk says about the ones you return. It could be that some counterfeit cards are beginning to find their way into the "big box" store retail chain.

Bruce,

The latest 95 MB/s SanDisk Extreme Pro SDHC/SDXC cards have a Class 10 rating in addition to UHS Class I. Some UHS cards without a class rating require a UHS device just to even be usable at all; they will not work properly (if at all) on any SDHC/XC device without UHS capability.

Originally Posted by David Ells

I was once again sent the slower 15MB/s cards as a replacement. I tried to see if I could get faster cards this time as compensation for my trouble, but they said since they only represent SanDisk Ultra they are not able to provide me anything faster than the 20MB/s card. I do not have a very high opinion of SanDisk's customer service anymore.

Originally Posted by David Ells

So I finally called SanDisk HQ and got my memory cards upgraded to Extreme class since I still hadn't received the replacement yet. They should arrive by the end of the week. I am hopeful that this will work out, but perhaps I am foolish.

Thanks for the advice, Bruce!

David.

The SanDisk Ultra SDHC has been "upgraded" to the "30 MB/s" (this refers to the maximum read speed of the cards). Unfortunately, the "30 MB/s" version of the card is not yet available in the 32GB size (which remains "20 MB/s"), but the 4GB, 8GB and 16GB cards are already shipping in the "30 MB/s" speed.

I have a 16GB version of the "30 MB/s" SanDisk Ultra, and I have to say that its write performance is disappointing: While it did reach or exceed its "30 MB/s" claim in reads, its write speed never got faster than 8 MB/s, and in some sequential write tests it even fell below its claimed "Class 6" rating (sometimes going as slow as 5.7 MB/s). In fact, it is slower in writes than the "15 MB/s" "Class 4" version of the Ultra it replaced! The current version of the "regular" SanDisk SDHC card, labeled "Class 4", is also slow in both reads and writes (that card barely surpasses the minimum write speed requirement of a Class 4 card while its maximum read speed fails to even reach 10 MB/s), but is much more consistent in its performance.

These inconsistent write speed results from the currently shipping versions of the SanDisk Ultra SDHC/SDXC cards (with the exact same card exhibiting wildly variable write-speed results on the exact same write test) could be the reason for corrupted images and early death of the cards themselves.

[David Ells]

I am now a satisfied owner of 2 SanDisk Extreme 32GB Class 10 (30 MB/s) SDHC cards. That shipped fast! I encourage anyone else who also is having difficulty breaking out of a bureaucracy loop to circumvent the RMA process and find the HQ line.

Randall, it relieves me that there may be a logical explanation for all that I went through. I try to limit the number of existentially infuriating experiences I have in a year. :)

[Randall Leong]

Originally Posted by Bruce Foreman

I just got in a couple of $26.49 SanDisk Class (10) 30MB/s 16GB SDHC cards that work fine but I look for those to be discontinued soon.

Bruce,

Your hunch was correct: The 30 MB/s Class (10) Extreme HD Video cards are being phased out and replaced in the lineup by a new Extreme HD Video whose claimed speed is "up to 45 MB/s" (the cards still have a Class (10) rating).

Originally Posted by David Ells

I am now a satisfied owner of 2 SanDisk Extreme 32GB Class 10 (30 MB/s) SDHC cards. That shipped fast! I encourage anyone else who also is having difficulty breaking out of a bureaucracy loop to circumvent the RMA process and find the HQ line.

Randall, it relieves me that there may be a logical explanation for all that I went through. I try to limit the number of existentially infuriating experiences I have in a year. :)

Thanks for the update. I'm happy that you found a replacement that's at least satisfactory for your use.

[Randall Leong]

Originally Posted by Randall Leong

Bruce,

Your hunch was correct: The 30 MB/s Class (10) Extreme HD Video cards are being phased out and replaced in the lineup by a new Extreme HD Video whose claimed speed is "up to 45 MB/s" (the cards still have a Class (10) rating).

An update on the Extreme:

My local Best Buy now has the 45 MB/s version of the regular Extreme in stock in the 16GB size. I just picked up one on sale for $35 (in addition to an 8GB Extreme Pro 95 MB/s card that was also on "sale" for $35).

My assessment: At least with the USB 3.0 card reader that I currently have the plain Extreme is by far the better value (both in capacity per dollar and performance per dollar) than the Extreme Pro. In CrystalDiskMark, I got 45 MB/s read and 41 MB/s write with the Extreme "45 MB/s" card - a far cry from the "30 MB/s" Ultra that never wrote any faster than about 7 MB/s. The Extreme Pro fell far short of the 95 MB/s read/90 MB/s write claim (at least with the particular reader I used): I got only 56 MB/s read and 51 MB/s write.

In other words, the Extreme Pro "95 MB/s" SDHC card is faster than the Extreme "45 MB/s" SDHC card - but not by all that much (at least on my equipment).

[Randall Leong]

Originally Posted by Randall Leong

An update on the Extreme:

My local Best Buy now has the 45 MB/s version of the regular Extreme in stock in the 16GB size. I just picked up one on sale for $35 (in addition to an 8GB Extreme Pro 95 MB/s card that was also on "sale" for $35).

My assessment: At least with the USB 3.0 card reader that I currently have the plain Extreme is by far the better value (both in capacity per dollar and performance per dollar) than the Extreme Pro. In CrystalDiskMark, I got 45 MB/s read and 41 MB/s write with the Extreme "45 MB/s" card - a far cry from the "30 MB/s" Ultra that never wrote any faster than about 7 MB/s. The Extreme Pro fell far short of the 95 MB/s read/90 MB/s write claim (at least with the particular reader I used): I got only 56 MB/s read and 51 MB/s write.

In other words, the Extreme Pro "95 MB/s" SDHC card is faster than the Extreme "45 MB/s" SDHC card - but not by all that much (at least on my equipment).

After further investigation (using Rob Galbraith's site on card-to-computer transfer tests using various card readers), it turned out that my particular reader (a US Robotics-branded USB 3.0 card reader) is limiting the sequential read and write performance of the Extreme Pro 95 MB/s SDHC card.

And even with the limitations of the chipset that's used inside the reader, the two fastest cards clearly showed the superiority of the Renesas USB 3.0 host controller (as used in earlier revisions of the Asus P8P67 Pro motherboard) over the one from Etron (as used in most current Gigabyte Z68 motherboards). Slower cards render the differences between the two host controllers very negligible.

[Randall Leong]

I forgot to add the following findings (because I could not edit my existing posts after 24 hours):

The SanDisk Ultra 30 MB/s (at least my particular sample of the 16GB card) would not have qualified for the SD Card Association's Class (6) rating despite its labeling: In my testing of flash memory cards for minimum, average and maximum sequential throughput, that Ultra "30 MB/s" barely meets minimum write speed standards for Class (4) cards. SanDisk should have kept the Class (4) designation on the Ultra 30 MB/s SDHC card instead of Class (6). The blue standard SanDisk Class (4) SDHC card also barely met its labeled speed class rating.

And that card is not the only card that should have been given a lower speed class rating. SanDisk's original Extreme Pro 45 MB/s card also did not receive a speed class rating at all - in this case, it was because its minimum write speed fell far below the 2 MB/s minimum write speed required for a Class (2) rating. (In fact, the minimum write speed of the original Extreme Pro SDHC card was only 800 kB/s.) And so far, in my testing of the 8GB and larger SDHC cards in my possession, besides the aforementioned SanDisk Ultra 30 MB/s, an 8GB Class (10) Memory Master (PNY)-branded "20 MB/s" card had a minimum write speed of only 6.7 MB/s - clearly Class (6), not Class (10).

On the other hand, a few Class (2) and Class (4) SDHC cards that are in my collection far exceeded their class ratings (based on their minimum write speed throughput scores). For example, both the previous "15 MB/s" SanDisk Ultra II (the last ones made before SanDisk changed the label design in mid-2010) and the "made-in-Japan" PNY Optima (the ones made just before PNY also changed the label design) were both listed as "Class (4)" cards, but actually exceed the minimum write speed requirement for Class (10). (And that's not to mention the SanDisk Extreme 30 MB/s pre-UHS-I card having a minimum write speed of over 16 MB/s and the current Extreme Pro 90 MB/s card having a minimum write speed of more than 32 MB/s. Plus, the Extreme 45 MB/s card should not be confused with the aforementioned Extreme Pro 45 MB/s: The currently-shipping Extreme 45 MB/s has a minimum write speed of more than 20 MB/s; all three of the latter are "Class (10)" rated.)

And not all Class (6) cards are equally fast in my computer-to-card multiple file copy tests: A Lexar Platinum II "100x" "Class (6)" 8GB card did clearly meet Class (6) write speed standards (at over 9 MB/s), but was one of the very slowest cards in my multi-file copy test: In the case of that card, its write access time is more than 600 ms. Most of the other SDHC cards had a write access time of less than 300 ms (and many at less than 200 ms). This means that the Lexar card needed well over one-half second for a file to begin writing to card or to even switch from one file to the next. By contrast, three SanDisk SDHC cards - a previous-generation Extreme 30 MB/s (pre-UHS-I) 8GB card, a current-generation SanDisk Extreme 45 MB/s card and Extreme Pro 95 MB/s card - all have write access times of less than 50 ms, which explains their top-notch performance in the multiple file-copy test.