Is there a reason not to get a class 10 card?

I have been following this thread and am considering changing my stance on which cards I buy. Like many others, I have been using cheaper Kingston and Transend cards. I am now considering purchasing some Sandisk cards. Amazon has the 16gb Ultra Class 4 cards for fairly cheap. It seems the extreme cards are class 6, while the Ultra is 4. I know I only need class 4 for my HMC40 and 150, but is there any other benefit to purchasing the Extreme over the Ultra....minus the class/speed difference? Thanks!
 
AGMedia said:
There are Delkin card failures reported -- but to Delkin's credit they came forward and stated that there was a problem with various cards they sell when used with the HMC150 and they offered some kind of resolution.
Click to expand...

mmm good thing I saw this.
I use the Delkin Class 10 for my Canon 60D and was going to buy the same for my HMC.
I called Canon and they say it's best to use Class 6 or higher which is why I went with the 10.

Since HMC 150 requires Class 4, I'll just go with a Class 6 instead of 10 and save some bread - brand name of course...
 
Two ideas I reccommend. Test your brand new cards before you go out on a shoot. Don't assume checking playback in your camera during a shoot that you are good to go. I had a new Kingston 8gb card fail at the end of the day after checking playback numerous times. This was the first of over 300 kingston cards to fail in 2 years. When I check playback I dump the footage to a drive to confirm I got it.
 
Tom's Hardware Guide tested SDHC cards

Tom's Hardware Guide tested SDHC cards

Tom's Hardware Guide at http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/compactflash-sdhc-class-10,2574.html rated SDHC cards a while ago for speed and throughput. Unfortunately they did not test for reliability. This higher speed won't help the camcorder write any faster, it will just let you copy to the PC faster. I think the variances shown in the test demonstrates that the card don't all have exactly the same parts in them. This could also reflected in differences in reliability. I am still look for a reliability test from someone.
 
zaarc said:
I ended up going with Transcend class 10 cards and did not have any problems with them yet. i am not saying that memory cards never fail, but i have seen something good and something bad about every brand out there, except maybe for the EXTREMEs. A lot of problems can be avoided by careful card management. i suspect that there is a lot of operator error generating bad reviews. I read somewhere that formatting too often shortens the life of the card. So i got into the habit of just clearing files after the first use, and then reformatting every OTHER time. not sure if that helps or not, but it seems to make sense. i do think you need to reformat once in a while in order to keep the card from getting fragmented. reformatting (at least in the HMC150) is faster than deleting files, but since it might cause a longevity problem, i dont do it all the time. HOWEVER, if you think about it, you really should be using brand new cards for each new paid job. If we were using tape or film, we would certainly need new stock for each project. If you were to budget 150 dollars for a handful of 16GB cards that could end up giving you 30 or more hours of footage by the time you go through them all 4 or 5 times, you are still way ahead of the game compared to buying that much tape or film. That is being super conservative, but im just saying that we shouldnt complain if a card fails after several dozen passes.
Click to expand...
I watched the vasst dvd that came with my camera and he recommends formatting and not deleting. Although he mentions that simply deleting can result in a whole bunch of little misc files clogging up your card as a reason, and I don't remember if that was his only reason. I'm going to disagree completely with using a new card for every project. I recently lost footage after using a brand new card. I tested it out before going to the shoot and it checked out. I then checked my footage several times throughout. When I got home to offload the footage, I got the check card error and everything was gone. I'll never use a card again unless I've used it several times.

Bucknfl said:
Two ideas I reccommend. Test your brand new cards before you go out on a shoot. Don't assume checking playback in your camera during a shoot that you are good to go. I had a new Kingston 8gb card fail at the end of the day after checking playback numerous times. This was the first of over 300 kingston cards to fail in 2 years. When I check playback I dump the footage to a drive to confirm I got it.
Click to expand...

The failure I mentioned above was a Kingston. I have written them off completely now.

I have seen this SD card discussion many times on many forums now. They all go the same way. Someone says they swear by the cheap transcend cards. Someone else says transcend is crap. Someone says only use premium sandisk or panasonic. Someone else says the premium cards are overrated. I went through this when trying to decide what harddrive to buy (several times actually). Reading through reviews on newegg or other sites, I came to the conclusion that they all have about the same number of complaints of DOA drives or failures after a couple months. Eventually you just have to jump in and pick something. There's always the chance of failure. Go with what you're comfortable with and make the most educated decision you can.

Of course this would all be solved if panasonic would just include a second SD card slot and allow redundant recording.
 
I use Transcend for the HMC150, and ADATA for Canon 7D. All class 6 or better.
In a pinch i've used Sandisk, and had trouble with them on the 7D.
My sister inlaw had problems with them as well.

I do not feel SanDisk are better. They have not been better for me, only more expensive.
 
I use 16GB Patriot Class 6 and now Class 10 (only because class 10's were on sale and no class 6's in stock) and Panasonic 16GB Class 10.

I have seen a difference in reliability in favor of the Patriot cards over the Panasonic. I have had only one problem with Patriot, I used it so much iy developed a small crack and a piece of it broke off. Cam would not read it after that, but that is after using it extensively in still cams and vieo cams foe a couple years.

I have had problems with the Panasonic 16GB Class 6, but not the Class 10.

I definately prefer the Patriots for paid work, because I know they will be reliable. Just picked up another pair of their "LX Clas 10 chips, shot a job this afternoon with them. No issues at all.
 
Sewolla, what issues did you have with the Panny, cards? I've used only Panny tapes and now swear by the Panny cards in which I have invested in quite a few.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top