Best Possible SDHC Card For DSLR

J

jamesh1

New member
Hi There,

I am currently in the market for some SD cards for my new camera. I need the best possible quality/write speed I can get. I am going to order around 3 or 4 16gb cards but I need to know what to get. Which brand is best? Lexar? Sandisk? PNY? - also I was thinking class 10 was the way to go, correct?

Thanks,

James
 
Hello James...
My recommendation would be SanDisk Extreme 30MB/s SDHC class 10, but that doesnt mean other brands are not good too...
The most important thing though, is where you buy from so try to do it from some reputable dealer to be sure you get what is advertised...
 
Wish I could remember the site that reviewed them, but they ran a few cards through a battery of tests including shooting them with a bb gun, running over them with a car, and taking a bath with them. The only card that passed every test was the Panasonic gold.
 
Sandisc extremes are the only cards I use at this point. The 64gb 95MB/s sandisc extreme card is becoming the go to card for me these days although I own three 16gb 30MB/s cards as well... It's worth noting that Transcend has a recall out on some of their newer cards so maybe avoid them. And everyone who's told you to only buy from a reputable dealer are right, I've been burned with a fake card before trying to save money, not a good feeling.
 
mcbob said:
Wish I could remember the site that reviewed them, but they ran a few cards through a battery of tests including shooting them with a bb gun, running over them with a car, and taking a bath with them. The only card that passed every test was the Panasonic gold.
Click to expand...

With the exception of the water test, the others are kind of pointless. I mean, durability is nice and all but are you really going to shoot your card with a BB gun? I'd rather see:

-static electricity test
-place-a-magnet-next-to-the-card test
-submerge it in (fresh) water
-submerge in (salt) water
-drop it from eye-height onto concrete 10 times

To answer your question, the general consensus is that Panasonic Gold and Sandisks are the way to go.
 
Okay, excellent- thanks everyone. I've ordered a couple 'Sandisk Extreme Pro 16gb' cards- should be pretty good by the looks of things. Thanks for all your help.

James, :D
 
You won't go wrong with them. I have 3 of the 16GB 45MB/s cards (before being discontinued) and just got one of the 95MB/s cards that now replaces them. Progress marches on.

They stay in a media case packed with my 60D. My older SanDisk Extreme Class (6) and Class (10) cards stay packed with my T3i. I've never had a problem with any of the SanDisk.

Important reminder: Format them in the camera when you first receive them and then format them in camera after copying each day's "take" to computer hard drives.
 
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mcbob said:
Wish I could remember the site that reviewed them, but they ran a few cards through a battery of tests including shooting them with a bb gun, running over them with a car, and taking a bath with them. The only card that passed every test was the Panasonic gold.
Click to expand...

I've use Panasonic gold and no problems undr the worst conditions this is the video.

 
Whatever you do, don't buy from eBay. I know this is sort of repetitive, but counterfeit cards are a lot more popular than you may think. Only purchase from trusted dealers and/or reputable stores.
 
Hi Guys, Finally i registered lol

Why would you want to have the best? anyway sandisk and lexar are the best, but others work too like adata ( for me ) but you cant be sure about transcend and others it seems. Adata again worked for me it might not for others ( cant see why ) but it is cheap.
 
I primarily use the Sandisk Extreme Pro and the Panasonic Gold. If you want the very fastest cards and fastest transfer rates and a reliable card, you could look at these... they use UHS-1 (which is a speed class above Class 10) and with the USB3 reader they can offload very quickly, especially to an SSD. Pricier than the other options, but faster and very solid.
 
aras said:
Why would you want to have the best?
Click to expand...

To prevent or drastically reduce the chances of putting hours into a "shoot", and suddenly find the card has failed on you and your work for the day is gone...

aras said:
anyway sandisk and lexar are the best, but others work too like adata ( for me ) but you cant be sure about transcend and others it seems.
Click to expand...

Having followed this issue by reading others experienced problems for the last two and a half years from the "tales of woe" I've seen, Patriot and A-Data enjoyed the greatest failure/data loss of them all, followed closely by Dane-Elec. I haven't seen a lot on Lexar but had one of their CF cards and a "thumb" drive fail suddenly without warning. Transcend seems to be about the best of the "bargain brands" but I've seen just enough in the way of "problem reports" on those to cause me to not take a chance.

The two brands that have the best record for reliability are SanDisk and Hoodman RAW. About a year ago there were quite a few complaints concerning SanDisk 32GB CF media used in the Canon 7D but ultimately that was tracked down to firmware. The next firmware update solved the problem. Only other SanDisk complaints I saw involved media that turned out to be counterfeit (SanDisk is the most counterfeited media on the market which tells us something), and a few cases with genuine media that was put in the camera immediately after purchase without being formatted. Worked for awhile but eventually got corrupted.

Format in camera before first use and for each new project thereafter.

aras said:
Adata again worked for me it might not for others ( cant see why ) butt is cheap.
Click to expand...

That's why...cheap. You don't get what you don't pay for...
 
I've used Transcend 8GB cards for several years without a hitch, but my recently-bought 16GB Transcend had a hardware controller failure mid-shoot just before Xmas :(
 
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