Emergency Question: CF Cards for China

G

Grumpwurst

Member
Staff member
OK.....

I may be leaving for China in a week and I need to stockpile up on CF cards in case I don't have time to dump them each night. ; I know Roger would strongly urge me to purchase UDMA cards, but I'm looking at the LEXAR and the UDMA 8GB is about the price of what I'd pay for 2 LEXAR Platinum II's

I'm thinking UDMA isn't that important for this expedition, so I'm open to suggestions, but this purchase will need to be made today or tomorrow since I may (if everything works out logistically) be leaving next wednesday.

My goal is to have as many GB's as possible on quality cards (that won't die on me while there) so that I can take pictures without concern and not worry about dumping them onto my computer at night
 
Re: Emergency Question: Compact Flash for China

I have a PNY UDMA[nb]Not available from B&H[/nb] card enroute to me, but I won't have a test for you before you leave...

The Ultra IIs from Sandisk and the Lexar Platinum IIs should do fine. ; Although the Transcend brand is also gaining strength.

I'm trying to find which manufacturers use the double layer manufacturing method because it's cheaper and less reliable than the single layer one....
 
I don't know of any specific deals, but usually the best way to get cheap memory is find some cheap Sandisk Extreme (III or IV) on Abes of Maine, buy 3 cards, use LOYALTY10 coupon and Bing.com cashback, and mail in the rebate for a VISA card. ; I don't know of any specific deals right now, but I have made a hefty (for me at least) sum on eBay following this strategy. ;
 
If you don't need speed, Office Depot has SanDisk Ultra II 4 Gb cards on sale this week.
 
i would buy sandisc or lexar for this trip, based on what you asked.
the speed will not matter while you are taking the pictures, just when you offload them to the computer. either of those brands at any speed will allow you to stockpile the cards and not worry about running out of memory, "memories", or money.
 
I have SanDisk Extreme IIIs (4 & 8 GB) and IVs (2GB), last one purchased was an Extreme III 8GB (need more of those). ; No failures and all are fast enough for my Canon 40D.
 
buy the cheapest transcend 8gb cards you can find, they will be plenty fast enough, and i've had many transcend cards, both 4gb and 8gb, and no failures, come to think of it, if you want to borrow a stack of 4gb cards for the trip pm me, i have 8 of them i can lend, all transcend
 
Another vote for Transcend from me. ; I'm currently using a pair of Transcend 16GB cards. ; Just the 133x speed. ; They're not particularly fast, they test about as fast for write speed as a Sandisk Ultra II. ; But they read much faster, which is at least useful for when it comes time to offload them. ; In truth, for my uses I think the fast read speed is more useful than a fast writing speed. ; And they're cheap. ; I think they have UDMA, although only their higher end models have UDMA emblazoned on the label.

My telling you that I've had no failures with my two cards is statistically meaningless for you. ; I don't know what the actual failure rates of these cards are. ; But they seem to be reasonably popular, and if you don't demand high performance they're the best bang for the buck that I know of.

I think they are MLC memory, but I don't think that means less reliability as such. ; I think it means less durability. ; By which I mean life time measured in write cycles. ; For photographers I think the life span in write cycles on these cards is still well beyond what we're likely to reach, and so far beyond anything you're ever going to use in a single trip that it's not worth your worrying over it. ; It also means slower performance. ; But oddly the Transcend 300x cards use SLC, but their 600x model uses MLC. ; At least according to the descriptions on Newegg.
 
"PolynesianMedic" said:
Congrats Ray! I am so happy for you two! ; I am sure that you are enjoying your trip. ; When are you coming home?
Click to expand...

Jeff,

We leave December 3rd. ; If you check my facebook page, I uploaded some pictures from today when we were finally introduced to Kai in Zhengzhou, China.
 
I'll check that out when I get the ability to look at Facebook. ; I am at work, and it is locked out, but I can't wait to get home and check it out.
 
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