DSandisk vs. Transcend vs. hoodman Raw SDHC cards at DVinfo.net

Leonard Levy · May 23rd, 2009, 02:16 AM

Is there any consensus at this point about which 16G cards are the most reliable for the MxR adapter.

I just upgraded my EX-1 firmware (the at home method) and am ready to join you guys.

I'd like to support Ross with the MxR cards but have read that the Sandisk cards are not so reliable. Anything to that?

Are the raw cards built the same as the MxR ?

I'm not interested in the 32G cards. One hour is plenty on a card as far
as I'm concerned. Easy to continually recirculate smaller cards than big ones.

Lenny

Paul Kellett · May 23rd, 2009, 02:55 AM

I'm using the mxr adaptor before that the kensington adaptor, i'm using transcend 16gb cards with the adaptors, so far fautless performance, that goes for me and my colleagues all using the same combo without faults.

Paul.

Ola Christoffersson · May 23rd, 2009, 04:05 AM

I am using Sandisk. 3 x 16 GB Ultra II and 1 x 16 GB Extreme III.
They all work perfectly BUT I have had to exchange TWO 16 GB Ultra II cards that did not work!

My conclusion is that Sandisks QC is poor but IF the cards are OK they work perfectly.

ALWAYS test a new card before you start using it professionally!

Ed Kukla · May 23rd, 2009, 05:31 AM

8 Transcend cards working fine for me so far.

Seems there is some confusion in the sandisk camp over class 2,4,6.

I have easily found the 16gb transcend class 6 cards on amazon and newegg. Make sure you buy from amazon direct, not a re-seller. Some resellers seem to be selling knockoffs that are not class 6.

Transcend has a website to verify the authenticity of their cards
Welcome to Transcend Website

Barry J. Weckesser · May 23rd, 2009, 08:43 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ed Kukla

8 Transcend cards working fine for me so far.

Seems there is some confusion in the sandisk camp over class 2,4,6.

I have easily found the 16gb transcend class 6 cards on amazon and newegg. Make sure you buy from amazon direct, not a re-seller. Some resellers seem to be selling knockoffs that are not class 6.

Transcend has a website to verify the authenticity of their cards
Welcome to Transcend Website

Ed - thanks for the info on that transcend link - I registered all my cards and verified them all - no problems. Bought from Amazon direct.

Bruce Rawlings · May 23rd, 2009, 09:12 AM

I use MxR and Kensingtons with Transcend 16gb cards - no problems. It seems to be more of a gamble with Sandisks. Have only bought from reputable suppliers no ebay or Amazon 3rd party sources.

Kevin Cates · May 23rd, 2009, 11:36 AM

I've used Kensingtons, now MxRs. I have 7 Sandisk Ultra IIs, and 1 Transcend, never had a failure with either card.

Louis Schmidt · May 23rd, 2009, 01:44 PM

Hi Lenny,

Hoodman here with the reply to your question. The Hoodman RAW SxSxSDHC adapters are built by the same factory as the MxR adapters... who wants to call Australia for customer support? ... who wants to pay freight from Australia? RAW SxSxSDHC adapters are already in many of your dealers throughout the USA and Canada. You can also purchase adapters on line from Hoodman for $49.99...
RAW SxSxSDHC Memory Adapter-Hoodman Corporation

The best advantage Hoodman has to offer EX users is that we have been making very high end memory cards for professional photographers for 4 years now. If you have questions about the RAWSxSxSDHC adapters and our RAW memory... we can help you out with the whole SxS memory solution. Other memory card companies will not know about EX adapters… Other adapter companies will not know about memory.

We are the only company making memory cards in the USA. Yes, building the cards in the USA costs more... but our customers cannot afford failures... Our customers require the extra time, attention and testing that we spend on each card before it is ready to hit the professional market... Hoodman guarantees compatibility with the RAW memory and its RAW SxSxSDHC adapters... Yes, you can Use Sandisk ultra II and Transcend cards in the RAW adapter.
Now from reading the threads... you can see that one person stated that he had Sandisk cards that would not work for him... Ultra II cards are also slower at downloads at just class 4.

You are preparing to leave the specialized SxS memory land and are entering into the SDHC land where you can find yourself in a quagmire of want-to-be-reliable SDHC memory producers all for $2 per gig. Did you ever wonder why you will not find Transcend memory cards or Sandisk Ultra II cards in your professional photo dealer??? These cards are mass merchant channel cards...Mass merchant cards are for consumers who will never take a $25,000 photo and do not care if the card fails on them in 6 months or a year or 2 years... the cards are cheap enough so that they will just buy another card and move on. Mass merchant cards run a 3 - 5% failure rate. Which EX user can afford to be the guy who gets a card failure? Which camera dealer will sell a card that disappoints its customers?

It is learning curve for EX users saving a few dollars on memory... It will catch up with them. I encourage you to check out what top professional still photographers, who have had other brands fail on them, have to say about Hoodman RAW memory... you will find that pros who have been around long enough, do not view memory as a commodity.
Pro testimonials... Hoodman Corporation

Lastly, Hoodman has a RAW Turnkey Kit deal that saves you $10 on the adapter if you buy the RAW SxSxSDHC adapter and RAW memory at the same time...
RAW SxSxSDHC Turnkey Kit Deal-Hoodman Corporation

Lou Schmidt
VP Marketing
Hoodman Corp.

Tuy Le · May 23rd, 2009, 02:59 PM

I use MxR adapters with Sony EX1.
2 weeks ago we used 20 Sandisk 16GB (+4 were backup and re-used again) & 2 Trancends 16GB. ONE sandisk gave "media restore" msg.

Jamie Roberts · May 23rd, 2009, 06:36 PM

Thanks for the pitch Louis.

I have to say that from my reading and understanding, there are many users of sandisk and transcend that arent having any problems at all.

In fact, the first place an EX owner will go to when they have an EX related issue is to a forum like this. Look through the threads...They arent full of 'wow this is great' headings, they are full of 'whats going on here', 'why wont this work', 'problem with that' etc. Quite rightly too. Forums like this are a great resource for users to troubleshoot with other users, get new ideas, ask questions etc.

Im sure Sony would also come up with a similar pitch to yours as to why we should all pay more for their memory products.

Im in Australia and Im VERY grateful to Marek for selling his product here at a price that is fair (as against the other half of the old partnership who is clearly hoping for a 'get rich quick' outcome when it comes to selling here in Australia).

Im not going to write off using sandisk or transcend cards though because occasionally we hear from a user having a problem with one of them. If that was 'smart thinking', none of us would buy an EX1 or EX3 either (or any camera) as we are always going to here about things that go wrong with them when we frequent these forums.

cheers

Jamie

Leonard Levy · May 23rd, 2009, 10:59 PM

Well, I'm not sold on Louis' argument about the need for the more expensive Raw cards, but I must admit I find Jamie's response less than compelling and frankly a little insulting to Louis.

First , I don't think many of us are in a position to know what the failure rates of conventional brands are. However the number of people I've read on these pages documenting bad Sandisk cards recently gives me very serious pause.

Second, to treat Louis as someone trying to "pitch us" for something we don't need, doesn't make sense to me. Sure I can see why Sony would want to sell expensive cards because they had a monopoly at first. But why in the world would any company like Hoodman decide to invest in trying to convince the world they needed a card that costs double the competition unless there was some kind of compelling need? It just would be an incredibly stupid business plan wouldn't it?

I mean if your cards weren't really any more reliable and it was just a marketing ploy wouldn't you just price them 10- 20% higher than the competition? But 50%?
Either Hoodman is completely bonkers or it is a more reliable product.

I've been scouring the web to find examples of people who've had failures from bad cards and haven't found many, so as yet I'm not convinced. But I have seen some and maybe that's enough.

Apparently I think card reliability is more critical than Jamie as well. I am still convincing clients that cards are as safe as tape. Its got to be a bigger stretch to say, "Hey I've got these new cards are that way cheaper than Sony, its the same thing you put on your point and shoot."

If you can't be sure its 100% as reliable as Sony than you shouldn't be doing professional work. If the Hoodman cards are actually 3% more reliable that's easily worth $50. Frankly 1% is worth $50 when you think about it.

I'd like to see Louis provide more data to back up the failure rates of other cards.
Also is there any noticeable difference between the cards. i read somewhere that the hoodman cards were heavier and seemed more solid . Anything to be said about that? Some more detail about what specs are different in the manufacturing process would be helpful - if there are any.

There's a thread here about SDHC cards losing their write protect tabs - Have the Raw cards had that problem? Is this a manufacturing quality issue?

BTW - Louis, I think that Turnkey discount rate should include a plastic case as well.

Oh yeah, one more question:

What is the difference in download time between using the expresscard card adapter for downloading in say a Macbook pro or using a USB adapter?
Do the cards affect the download speed (class 4 vs 6)
Are different USB adapters faster than others?

I was going to get an extra card just for downloading but if USB is fast enough I'll save my pennies.
Lenny Levy

Christopher Dye · May 23rd, 2009, 11:35 PM

I have a Kensington adaptor and I recently had to return a Sandisk 16gb Ultra II card Class 4 because of media errors. I should point out that this particular card came in bulk packaging. I didn't think that would make a difference, but maybe it does. I purchased it from a third party dealer through Amazon.

I replaced it with a Transcend 16gb in retail packaging and so far so good with that one.

Craig Seeman · May 24th, 2009, 01:36 AM

I believe Sandisk MUST have changed something regarding their manufacturing process and/or QC.

My 32GB Sandisk Ultra II CLASS 2 cards have been ROCK SOLID DEPENDABLE since January. All the Sandisk cards people are having issues with seem to be recent purchases.

I haven't seen any reports of Transcend issues.

FWIW I think Hoodman is selling better QC. Apparently Transcend has good QC too though. I don't fault Hoodman for standing behind their QC but I'm not sure anyone can make negative claims on Transcend yet. Sandisk is another story. In fact I've even heard at least one story of a Sandisk branded SxS card failing. My Sandisk cards have been reliable but current cards seem to have poor QC (at least). Based on what I've seen on this and other forums, Transcend do seem to be reliable though. No fault to Hoodman for attesting to the quality of their cards publicly though. For all we know, Transcend could go the way of Sandisk in the "next round." Currently though, Transcend have proven reliable.

Tuy Le · May 24th, 2009, 02:16 AM

in my case, the Sandisk card was in bulk packaging.

Maybe the lower yield cards were sold as bulk ?

Bob Grant · May 24th, 2009, 02:23 AM

Has anyone confirmed that the SDHC cards have actually failed?
Taking Hoodman's claims at face value at best what they have to offer is going to reduce the risk of one of the possible causes of the problems some are having. Claims of zero in field failure of the cards in still cameras are cold comfort until we know exactly what is going wrong. Still cameras do not write data continuously for extended periods of time and until Sony give their blessing to using the cheap solution that we've put together we're all taking some risk, more reliable SDHCs cards may only be reducing one of the risk factors.

May 23rd, 2009, 02:16 AM	#1
Leonard Levy Trustee Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: USA Posts: 1,684	DSandisk vs. Transcend vs. hoodman Raw SDHC cards Is there any consensus at this point about which 16G cards are the most reliable for the MxR adapter. I just upgraded my EX-1 firmware (the at home method) and am ready to join you guys. I'd like to support Ross with the MxR cards but have read that the Sandisk cards are not so reliable. Anything to that? Are the raw cards built the same as the MxR ? I'm not interested in the 32G cards. One hour is plenty on a card as far as I'm concerned. Easy to continually recirculate smaller cards than big ones. Lenny

May 23rd, 2009, 02:55 AM	#2
Paul Kellett Trustee Join Date: Nov 2007 Location: Bristol UK Posts: 1,273	I'm using the mxr adaptor before that the kensington adaptor, i'm using transcend 16gb cards with the adaptors, so far fautless performance, that goes for me and my colleagues all using the same combo without faults. Paul. __________________ Round 2 GH5,FZ2000

May 23rd, 2009, 04:05 AM	#3
Ola Christoffersson Major Player Join Date: Nov 2007 Location: Stockholm, Sweden Posts: 462	I am using Sandisk. 3 x 16 GB Ultra II and 1 x 16 GB Extreme III. They all work perfectly BUT I have had to exchange TWO 16 GB Ultra II cards that did not work! My conclusion is that Sandisks QC is poor but IF the cards are OK they work perfectly. ALWAYS test a new card before you start using it professionally! __________________ Ola Christoffersson, Kamrat produktion, Stockholm - Sweden www.kamrat.tv

May 23rd, 2009, 01:44 PM	#8
Louis Schmidt Sponsor: Hoodman USA Join Date: Apr 2009 Location: Torrance, CA USA Posts: 8	the RAW Scoop Hi Lenny, Hoodman here with the reply to your question. The Hoodman RAW SxSxSDHC adapters are built by the same factory as the MxR adapters... who wants to call Australia for customer support? ... who wants to pay freight from Australia? RAW SxSxSDHC adapters are already in many of your dealers throughout the USA and Canada. You can also purchase adapters on line from Hoodman for $49.99... RAW SxSxSDHC Memory Adapter-Hoodman Corporation The best advantage Hoodman has to offer EX users is that we have been making very high end memory cards for professional photographers for 4 years now. If you have questions about the RAWSxSxSDHC adapters and our RAW memory... we can help you out with the whole SxS memory solution. Other memory card companies will not know about EX adapters… Other adapter companies will not know about memory. We are the only company making memory cards in the USA. Yes, building the cards in the USA costs more... but our customers cannot afford failures... Our customers require the extra time, attention and testing that we spend on each card before it is ready to hit the professional market... Hoodman guarantees compatibility with the RAW memory and its RAW SxSxSDHC adapters... Yes, you can Use Sandisk ultra II and Transcend cards in the RAW adapter. Now from reading the threads... you can see that one person stated that he had Sandisk cards that would not work for him... Ultra II cards are also slower at downloads at just class 4. You are preparing to leave the specialized SxS memory land and are entering into the SDHC land where you can find yourself in a quagmire of want-to-be-reliable SDHC memory producers all for $2 per gig. Did you ever wonder why you will not find Transcend memory cards or Sandisk Ultra II cards in your professional photo dealer??? These cards are mass merchant channel cards...Mass merchant cards are for consumers who will never take a $25,000 photo and do not care if the card fails on them in 6 months or a year or 2 years... the cards are cheap enough so that they will just buy another card and move on. Mass merchant cards run a 3 - 5% failure rate. Which EX user can afford to be the guy who gets a card failure? Which camera dealer will sell a card that disappoints its customers? It is learning curve for EX users saving a few dollars on memory... It will catch up with them. I encourage you to check out what top professional still photographers, who have had other brands fail on them, have to say about Hoodman RAW memory... you will find that pros who have been around long enough, do not view memory as a commodity. Pro testimonials... Hoodman Corporation Lastly, Hoodman has a RAW Turnkey Kit deal that saves you $10 on the adapter if you buy the RAW SxSxSDHC adapter and RAW memory at the same time... RAW SxSxSDHC Turnkey Kit Deal-Hoodman Corporation Lou Schmidt VP Marketing Hoodman Corp.

May 23rd, 2009, 11:35 PM	#12
Christopher Dye New Boot Join Date: Jul 2008 Location: Los Angeles, California Posts: 17	Transcend seems the way to go I have a Kensington adaptor and I recently had to return a Sandisk 16gb Ultra II card Class 4 because of media errors. I should point out that this particular card came in bulk packaging. I didn't think that would make a difference, but maybe it does. I purchased it from a third party dealer through Amazon. I replaced it with a Transcend 16gb in retail packaging and so far so good with that one.

May 23rd, 2009, 05:31 AM	#4
Ed Kukla Major Player Join Date: Mar 2008 Location: All over, USA Posts: 512	8 Transcend cards working fine for me so far. Seems there is some confusion in the sandisk camp over class 2,4,6. I have easily found the 16gb transcend class 6 cards on amazon and newegg. Make sure you buy from amazon direct, not a re-seller. Some resellers seem to be selling knockoffs that are not class 6. Transcend has a website to verify the authenticity of their cards Welcome to Transcend Website

May 23rd, 2009, 09:12 AM	#6
Bruce Rawlings Major Player Join Date: Feb 2008 Location: Cardiff, Wales, UK Posts: 410	I use MxR and Kensingtons with Transcend 16gb cards - no problems. It seems to be more of a gamble with Sandisks. Have only bought from reputable suppliers no ebay or Amazon 3rd party sources.

May 23rd, 2009, 11:36 AM	#7
Kevin Cates Regular Crew Join Date: Sep 2006 Location: Fairfax, CA USA Posts: 33	I've used Kensingtons, now MxRs. I have 7 Sandisk Ultra IIs, and 1 Transcend, never had a failure with either card.

May 23rd, 2009, 02:59 PM	#9
Tuy Le Regular Crew Join Date: Mar 2009 Location: San Jose, CA Posts: 96	I use MxR adapters with Sony EX1. 2 weeks ago we used 20 Sandisk 16GB (+4 were backup and re-used again) & 2 Trancends 16GB. ONE sandisk gave "media restore" msg.

May 23rd, 2009, 06:36 PM	#10
Jamie Roberts Major Player Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: bendigo, australia Posts: 204	Thanks for the pitch Louis. I have to say that from my reading and understanding, there are many users of sandisk and transcend that arent having any problems at all. In fact, the first place an EX owner will go to when they have an EX related issue is to a forum like this. Look through the threads...They arent full of 'wow this is great' headings, they are full of 'whats going on here', 'why wont this work', 'problem with that' etc. Quite rightly too. Forums like this are a great resource for users to troubleshoot with other users, get new ideas, ask questions etc. Im sure Sony would also come up with a similar pitch to yours as to why we should all pay more for their memory products. Im in Australia and Im VERY grateful to Marek for selling his product here at a price that is fair (as against the other half of the old partnership who is clearly hoping for a 'get rich quick' outcome when it comes to selling here in Australia). Im not going to write off using sandisk or transcend cards though because occasionally we hear from a user having a problem with one of them. If that was 'smart thinking', none of us would buy an EX1 or EX3 either (or any camera) as we are always going to here about things that go wrong with them when we frequent these forums. cheers Jamie

May 23rd, 2009, 10:59 PM	#11
Leonard Levy Trustee Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: USA Posts: 1,684	Well, I'm not sold on Louis' argument about the need for the more expensive Raw cards, but I must admit I find Jamie's response less than compelling and frankly a little insulting to Louis. First , I don't think many of us are in a position to know what the failure rates of conventional brands are. However the number of people I've read on these pages documenting bad Sandisk cards recently gives me very serious pause. Second, to treat Louis as someone trying to "pitch us" for something we don't need, doesn't make sense to me. Sure I can see why Sony would want to sell expensive cards because they had a monopoly at first. But why in the world would any company like Hoodman decide to invest in trying to convince the world they needed a card that costs double the competition unless there was some kind of compelling need? It just would be an incredibly stupid business plan wouldn't it? I mean if your cards weren't really any more reliable and it was just a marketing ploy wouldn't you just price them 10- 20% higher than the competition? But 50%? Either Hoodman is completely bonkers or it is a more reliable product. I've been scouring the web to find examples of people who've had failures from bad cards and haven't found many, so as yet I'm not convinced. But I have seen some and maybe that's enough. Apparently I think card reliability is more critical than Jamie as well. I am still convincing clients that cards are as safe as tape. Its got to be a bigger stretch to say, "Hey I've got these new cards are that way cheaper than Sony, its the same thing you put on your point and shoot." If you can't be sure its 100% as reliable as Sony than you shouldn't be doing professional work. If the Hoodman cards are actually 3% more reliable that's easily worth $50. Frankly 1% is worth $50 when you think about it. I'd like to see Louis provide more data to back up the failure rates of other cards. Also is there any noticeable difference between the cards. i read somewhere that the hoodman cards were heavier and seemed more solid . Anything to be said about that? Some more detail about what specs are different in the manufacturing process would be helpful - if there are any. There's a thread here about SDHC cards losing their write protect tabs - Have the Raw cards had that problem? Is this a manufacturing quality issue? BTW - Louis, I think that Turnkey discount rate should include a plastic case as well. Oh yeah, one more question: What is the difference in download time between using the expresscard card adapter for downloading in say a Macbook pro or using a USB adapter? Do the cards affect the download speed (class 4 vs 6) Are different USB adapters faster than others? I was going to get an extra card just for downloading but if USB is fast enough I'll save my pennies. Lenny Levy

May 24th, 2009, 01:36 AM	#13
Craig Seeman Inner Circle Join Date: Feb 2004 Location: Brooklyn, NY, USA Posts: 3,841	I believe Sandisk MUST have changed something regarding their manufacturing process and/or QC. My 32GB Sandisk Ultra II CLASS 2 cards have been ROCK SOLID DEPENDABLE since January. All the Sandisk cards people are having issues with seem to be recent purchases. I haven't seen any reports of Transcend issues. FWIW I think Hoodman is selling better QC. Apparently Transcend has good QC too though. I don't fault Hoodman for standing behind their QC but I'm not sure anyone can make negative claims on Transcend yet. Sandisk is another story. In fact I've even heard at least one story of a Sandisk branded SxS card failing. My Sandisk cards have been reliable but current cards seem to have poor QC (at least). Based on what I've seen on this and other forums, Transcend do seem to be reliable though. No fault to Hoodman for attesting to the quality of their cards publicly though. For all we know, Transcend could go the way of Sandisk in the "next round." Currently though, Transcend have proven reliable. Last edited by Craig Seeman; May 24th, 2009 at 02:19 AM.

May 24th, 2009, 02:16 AM	#14
Tuy Le Regular Crew Join Date: Mar 2009 Location: San Jose, CA Posts: 96	in my case, the Sandisk card was in bulk packaging. Maybe the lower yield cards were sold as bulk ?

May 24th, 2009, 02:23 AM	#15
Bob Grant Trustee Join Date: Nov 2005 Location: Sydney Australia Posts: 1,570	Has anyone confirmed that the SDHC cards have actually failed? Taking Hoodman's claims at face value at best what they have to offer is going to reduce the risk of one of the possible causes of the problems some are having. Claims of zero in field failure of the cards in still cameras are cold comfort until we know exactly what is going wrong. Still cameras do not write data continuously for extended periods of time and until Sony give their blessing to using the cheap solution that we've put together we're all taking some risk, more reliable SDHCs cards may only be reducing one of the risk factors.