What SD Card do you Trust for Weddings?
 

I have a couple weddings coming up in April. I've always used Transcend cards, but even the class 10's are too slow sometimes. I've had random luck with these cards in my T2i and 60D. Sometimes they work flawlessly, and other times they are a nightmare. I'm in need of a large capacity card for the ceremony portion of the wedding. I will be shooting alone, so I need a card I won't have to worry about. I'd hate for the unattended B camera to miss any of the ceremony because "recording has stopped automatically."

What card do you trust for weddings? I know Sandisk is top of the line, but they make ridiculously overpriced products.

That was a bunch of pointless rambling, but my main concern is: who here trusts Transcend cards? I basically just need some reassurance. If enough people recommend Transcend, I'll order a 32 or 64gb class 10. If not, I'll buy a Sandisk (with the money I don't have).

Thanks for any help!

Re: What SD Card do you Trust for Weddings?
 

I use Transcend 16gb cards. I have not had any issues with them yet. (knock on wood) I like the 16gb because if for some reason my card fails, then I will have lost about 30-40 minutes of footage max. If you are using a 32 or 64gb card, then you are talking a loss of hours of footage. It's just a small reassurance I like to take.

Re: What SD Card do you Trust for Weddings?
 

I use the 16 gigs also. I love the size, but since I am shooting alone I will need a large capacity card purely for the ceremony. (I won't have time to switch cards while I'm roaming with a monopod)

Re: What SD Card do you Trust for Weddings?
 

I own 8 sandisk. One has failed on me. But the footage was recoverable with Aero Quartet software called Treasure.

I also own 3 32gb Lexar Professional 300x and have never had an issue. I've heard from photographers that these are the most reliable because of what kind of buffer is inside I guess!! I actually like the 32 gig card cause it gets us through the prep, ceremony and photos. If you have a full Mass Catholic ceremony you don't have to worry about running out. And you can upload your footage without having to come back to swap out cards as often. Yes, I run the risk of losing 32gigs but if I lose 16gig it's still bad.

I always run two cams during the ceremony, first dance and speeches just in case.

Re: What SD Card do you Trust for Weddings?
 

Thanks Kelly,

Do you run a continuous shot of the ceremony with the 32 gigs? I'm debating whether or not 32gb is an efficient amount of space to cover the average ceremony.

Re: What SD Card do you Trust for Weddings?
 

I use 16gb Transcend SD cards. I have 5 of them and have never failed me once (knock on wood too). Although I use a class 6, i've read reviews that class 10 are more susceptible to failures.

Re: What SD Card do you Trust for Weddings?
 

I think that may be true, Chris.

Well, I've decided to spend the extra money and buy a 32gb Class 10 Sandisk. Better safe then sorry!

I apologize for the pointless thread. Let's just turn it into a good source for card reliability information.

Re: What SD Card do you Trust for Weddings?
 

if you have a failed card... can you still play back the video on the camera? Is there no way to tell that it's to late until you get home and try to transfer the footage onto the computer?
Steve

Re: What SD Card do you Trust for Weddings?
 

I've had issues with an 8 gig and 16 gig Sandisk SD card.

I only buy Trancends now and I've had no issues.

Re: What SD Card do you Trust for Weddings?
 

Hi Guys

All my cards are Transcends ..I use a combination of 8GB and 16GB and all are pretty good. All are Class 6 and plenty fast enough. I did buy some class 10 ones but strangely they took twice as long to format...I suspect they were not the genuine article so I tossed them!!

Just make sure you buy real Transcend and not the fake ones on eBay!!!

Chris

Re: What SD Card do you Trust for Weddings?
 

I use Transcends in my EX1, 550D and Nex-5, never had a problem with them. All cards, even the so called best, are capable of failure, Having a locked off camera covering all you can, is the best safeguard. The problem is, if card failure happens, its to late to do anything about it. I do believe we are getting a bit paranoid regarding this, I had quite a few tape wrap ups over the years, its something that is going to happen. The only way is to find a card you like, test it as much as you can, and when you, personally, are satisfied and confident with its performance, stick with it. You will never get an objective answer to which card is best, we have all found strengths in the cards we use regularly. I like and trust Transcend, I have no reason not to, the next guy will advocate using Sandisk etc etc

Re: What SD Card do you Trust for Weddings?
 

Failed card? How do you know? I think the tendency is to assume it's media issue but in fact there is the possibility that the camera has performed write errors, or has recorded a corrupt file to an error free card.

I've had bad files on a card, made the assumption that the card was bad, but subsequently filled the card with perfect files over and over.

The speed of a particular card is not fast enough? Re-visit the 7D manual which states that the minimum read/write speed only needs to be 8 MB/s. That's a fairly slow card.

Re: What SD Card do you Trust for Weddings?
 

Always Transcend also. Never a problem. Best price/service I've found is www.memoryten.net

Re: What SD Card do you Trust for Weddings?
 

Hi John

Are you using Class 6 or 10??? I changed back to 6 as my Class 10 cards seemed to take forever to format in the camera. I have never had an issue with the Class 6 and they are plenty fast enough!!

However although they are supposed to last thousands of uses I do buy a couple every 3 months and "retire" the older ones (well not actually retire but I use 'em for realty shoots where if the card DID fail, I can simply change it and reshoot the clip..unlike a wedding)

Do you replace yours on a regular basis ????

Hope Christchurch is slowly recovering too!!!

Chris

Re: What SD Card do you Trust for Weddings?
 

Hi Chris - yeah - I'm not going back into the city for a while. 180 buildings being torn down apparently - gonna be quite a different skyline soon.

I'm using 133x 32gb Transcend CF cards in my Z7. Been using the same one for the last 80+ weddings and hasn't skipped a beat. 32GB CompactFlash Card Ultra 133X with MLC Flash inside Retail, Transcend, CDW, TS32GCF133 - MemoryTen

Just purchased the 600D/T3i to play with and have ordered the Class10 Transcend 32gd SDHC from MemoryTen. I kind of wish I ordered the Class 6 as I've heard it's just as good - but this was the same price. Hasn't arrived yet but will let you know the results soon. 32GB 9p SDHC Secure Digital Class 10 Retail, Transcend, CRC, TS32GSDHC10 - MemoryTen

Re: What SD Card do you Trust for Weddings?
 

The 16 gig give me about 40 min so it is long enough to do a ceremony of that length. If you do Catholic weddings then figure about 60 to 80 min long needed.

If you ever plan on doing SDE's then you will want at least the 300x or 60MB/s speed. But with Mac's and PC's being able to transfer footage lighting speed real soon here then 233x is good too. I like the faster ones thou for now because I do a lot of SDE's and use the Firewire CF reader.

If you plan on doing just one SDE this year than the faster cards are worth it. You'll get anxiety with the slower cards.

Re: What SD Card do you Trust for Weddings?
 

Sandisk CF and SD cards in multiple cameras. No issues.

Re: What SD Card do you Trust for Weddings?
 

I hate to burst the bubble now but I am doing a Realty Shoot (non critical) this morning and I just popped in a 16GB Transcend and the camera said "Check Card" ...then went to normal operation and formatted perfectly. Funny I think the same card gave a Check Card error for a moment between events at my last wedding too.

It seems to work OK but rather than take a chance at my next wedding, I will just replace the card ..!!

Anybody had a Check Card error that corrects itself????? At current card prices it's far easier to get a new one!!

Chris

Re: What SD Card do you Trust for Weddings?
 

It will be an issue thou when you are doing a single camera for the ceremony, bride getting ready or the reception. Especially during important parts like the speeches or first dance.

I think Sandisk is a great brand. It's all about luck thou in the end.

Tapes can have the same issue. I've heard of videographers documenting an entire wedding and to find out the record heads were faulty and nothing was recorded.

So if you can record theeee most important events with two cams just as a back up then do it. It saved me from a wedding i did recently. I would have lost all the speeches but having a sec cam saved my butt and money.

Every time a card has failed thou I've been able to recover using Aero Quartet

Re: What SD Card do you Trust for Weddings?
 

Chris, can I ask where you purchased your Transcend cards from? I can't find them anywhere in Brisbane or the Gold Coast or in any of the major online Stores here.

I was going to order them from B & H but the shipping was going to cost $60!

Re: What SD Card do you Trust for Weddings?
 

Hi John

I get mine off eBay from a dealer called "SinceritytradingAU" from Hong Kong..now before you throw up your hands in horror muttering the words "fake cards" I took the trouble to check the card serials with Transcend in Taiwan (they have a verification page to identify fake cards) and these are genuine cards and you can also register with the manufacturer too. I don't think I would trust some China/HK sellers but these guys do sell the real thing and none have ever failed on me and my 16GB are not repacked 2GB cards like some floating around...he charges $32.99 for a 16GB Class 6 include postage.

I did buy a few Class 10 cards from another HK seller and they took twice as long to format as the Class 6 so they were labelled "suspect" .... If you are unsure about whether you are getting genuine cards ask for the card ID numbers (10 digits) and run 'em thru the transcend.com.tw website and you will soon see if they are authentic or not.

All purchases so far have been the genuine article. Ebay have a few Sydney sellers too that might be prepared to email/message you the ID numbers!!

Chris

Re: What SD Card do you Trust for Weddings?
 

Good thing I've never done a single camera shoot then. d;-)

Re: What SD Card do you Trust for Weddings?
 

Thanks Chris, I'll look them up now.

The price was about the same from B & H but shipping was going to cost more than 2 16GB class 6 cards!

Re: What SD Card do you Trust for Weddings?
 

I just placed an order from the seller you listed Chris.

I only ordered one and I'll check the serial numbers when it arrives and also run some speed tests on it. If it all goes well I'll order another half-a dozen cards from them.

Thanks for the help.

Re: What SD Card do you Trust for Weddings?
 

Sandisk + the OLDER transcends are what I use in terms of SD cards. When I first got my HMC150 (sold for a 5dmk2) the transcend 16GBs were all the rage. Then all of a sudden I read, either here, vimeo or on the other site, that they changed something in manufacturing and the cards were not as reliable or had some problems with them. I can't remember exactly the specifics but my older 2 transcends have given me zero problems. I only use them for audio now after moving to all DSLR in 2009 but they've been fine. My sandisk class 4's gave me zero issues with HMC150 and are also performing fine for audio capture. Purchased the transcends from amazon (and they came with a sweet SD card reader).