Transcend Cards, MLC vs SLC/ 2 different class 6 cards

[Paul Kellett]

I found out that there are 2 different spec Transcend class 6 cards, one with SLC (single layer cell) and one with MLC ( multi layer cell).
This may explain the recent errors with Transcend cards.

Ok, i've been using the Transcend sdhc and MXR for a long time now, i must've been one of the first to do the firmware upgrade myself, "back in the old days", at the time i bought a load of Transcend cards, all have been fine so far,using kensington and later MXR adaptords, at a later date my colleague bought an EX1 and bought a load of Transcend cards, but, he bought his in 2 seperate batches, a couple of months apart. Recently he had a card fail on him, so our supplier swapped the card, no problem, now another card has failed, card swapped again no problem.
I examined all of our cards, and found that all of my cards have a small green stripe, these have all been ok, half of my colleagues card have a green stripe and half have a big red stripe, the red strip ones are the ones that have failed.

I remember when i bought my cards there was a choice of 2 Transcend cards, one with 133x write speed, one with 150x write speed, i bought the 133x, all with green stripe.
When i visted my supplier yesterday we looked at the packaging on the transcend cards, the green stripe Transcend cards now have 150x written on the packet, the red stripe Transcend now have nothing about write speeds on the packet, no 133x on the packet anymore.
Now i was under the impression that for a card to be classed as class 6 the write speed had to be over 100x, so maybe the red stripe card are over 100x but only just.
Another thing i noticed, the 150x green strip Transcends have SLC chips in them whereas the cheaper red stripe Transcends have MLC chips in them, SLC is better in many ways,
the links below explain better than i can.


Texas Memory Systems - Flash: SLC vs. MLC

http://www.edn.com/article-partner/CA6319917.html


So my thoughts are maybe "back in the old days" Transcend where using good chips in both 133x and 150x cards, but nowadays the cheaper non 133x use cheap chips.
I remember trying to cut down one of my first Transcend cards to try and get the EX1 door to close "back in the old days" he he, any way, the card had a Samsung chip inside, if someone out there has a recently failed red stripe card could they cut the card open and tell us what chip is inside.
For what it's worth, me and my colleague are going to buy a load of the faster green strip cards.


Paul.

[William Griffin]

As I own 4 8GB and 2 16gb Transend cards.....they all have no color stripe on them at all.....but these cards were gotten last January, so the questions is.....

where on the cards are the color stripe?


also, I have never had a card fail on me....using SDHC.

thanks

[Derek Reich]

Interesting. I just looked at my cards, and 4 of them have the green stripe, and two have the red stripe. I bought them in two batches last december and january from Amazon. Got 3 each time, so at least one batch had both red and green stripe cards in the shipment.

I have not had a card failure yet, but I only have them for emergency backup, I always use my SxS cards first. I have used them a fair amount on really heavy shoot days, and have only had one clip on one card fail once. Can't say it was the card, since all the other clips were just fine.

I think I'll just take the red cards out of my gear bag, just in case! (maybe I'll play with them and try to get them to fail)

[William Griffin]

I just went to the Transend web site and the card on the page has "MLC"

here is the link:

Welcome to Transcend Online Store

[Jon Braeley]

Can I get some comments on the current brand of SDHC cards people are using and the current SxS cards (is the 32G size only available?).
I need to stock up extra cards. Also I worry about reusing cards over and over ... is this a problem?
Finally what sources/vendors are members buying from? Thanks.

[Craig Seeman]

Note that MxM is now recommending ATP ProMax cards.
MxM Express
They have a page with comments on their testing of cards
MxM Express Tips – memory cards

[Craig Seeman]

I'd thought I'd add
MxR (sold through Dolgin in the USA) seems to recommend (sell) Transcend cards.
MxR Expresscard Reader 32GB [e-1201-32] - $49.95 : Dolgin Engineering, Camera Power Solutions

And e-films MxR comments on testing on their site directly
http://e-films.com.au/shoppingcart/p...rd-Reader.html

[Paul Kellett]

Here on the transcend site, 2 types of class 6, the 150x is SLC chip.

Welcome to Transcend WebsiteStandard Memory,Flash Card,USB Flash Drive,Portable HDD,Multimedia Products,Card Reader,Proprietary Memory ,Digital Music Players ,USB Flash Module,Solid State Drive,Digital Photo Frames

Welcome to Transcend Online Store

I had and 8GB green stripe in my hand yesterday, the packet said SLC chip.

Paul.

[Dave Morrison]

Is this the green stripe you guys are talking about?

This is the package deal I bought back in June and July of this year. If the green stripe you are referring to is the one just under the brand name, then my two 16gig cards are stripe-free. There is a red stripe under the word "Transcend" but that's all. Should I be worried or not? They seem to work okay but I'm not trusting them on any paying jobs.

[Paul Kellett]

Yes that's the green stripe.
The red stripe is bigger and behind the word Transcend, ie Transcend is written on it not above it.

Paul.

[Dave Morrison]

Hmmm, so I need to keep an eye on them even more, huh? I ran them continuously when I first got them. I ran the camera filling both cards and spanning across both of them without incident. I've used them sporadically ever since but I don't trust them as much as my SxS cards. My "red stripe" cards came with the USB card reader like the one shown in the photo I included except they show "green stripe" cards in that shot. Weird. We might have to track this down via serial numbers in case the label changed before the internal chips did.

[Anthony McErlean]

Originally Posted by Paul Kellett

For what it's worth, me and my colleague are going to buy a load of the faster green strip cards.
Paul.

Thats an interesting find Paul. I looked at my cards and only two of them have the green strip.

How can we be sure when we order the Transcend cards that they will come with the green strip?

[Paul Kellett]

Originally Posted by Anthony McErlean

Thats an interesting find Paul. I looked at my cards and only two of them have the green strip.

How can we be sure when we order the Transcend cards that they will come with the green strip?

Tell your supplier that you want the ones which write at 150x speed.
The other ones USED to have 133x printed on the packet but now they have no such claims so who knows what speed the can write to.

Paul.

[Ilya Spektor]

Originally Posted by Paul Kellett

Tell your supplier that you want the ones which write at 150x speed...

Transcend SDHC cards with 150x speed (SLC) are limited now only to 8GB capacity, vs. CF cards, which reach the capacity of 16GB with speeds up to 300x (may be, because they are physically almost twice larger...):

Welcome to Transcend Website - 150x SDHC Class 6 (SDHC SLC 150X)
Welcome to Transcend Website - 300x CompactFlash Card (CF SLC 300x)

[Matt Davis]

Originally Posted by Paul Kellett

who knows what speed the can write to.

Hmmm. Really confusing...

Welcome to Transcend Online Store

These are cards claimed to deal with 'High End' 1080p recording, with that 'Reassuringly expensive' badge on it. The all important 'V'

Then the cards you have...

Welcome to Transcend Online Store, but in the overview they show the label pattern that I have (from last year) with the RED band behind Transcend.

So the website doesn't seem to differentiate between the red band and the green stripe. Could it be that the early Red Stripe (last year) were the precursors to the TS16GSDHC6V cards, but when Transcend got wind of this, they created two product lines?

Or is it because, with 16 cards to cycle through, I haven't hit a wall yet? But then a colleague has a couple of rogue cards that are a matter of weeks old.

Ow... Brain hurts...