SDHC cards - do you get what you pay for?

Ticklemouse

Hello lovely people

Bought myself a Panasonic FZ150 this weekend :j so need some Class 10 sdhc cards. I previously have bought most of my peripherals from 7dayshop but a friend and his work colleagues have had problems with 7day's own brand cards. Will go and peruse mymemory although it seems I have missed the best offers.

So - are certain brands better than others in terms or reliability and longevity? What do you photographers recommend? I think I'd rather have 2 x 16GB cards than 1 x 32GB card .... but I am open to persuasion.

Thanks
TM x

Mista_C

I tend to stick to Kingston, Transcend or Sandisk cards myself. I use them for the camera, and various PC booting needs.

fwor

In my experience you can't infer much from the brand name on the outside.

I've opened up a couple (one Sandisk, the other I can't remember the make) and both had Samsung memory inside.

One thing to be sure to do - test every flash memory card you get with h2testw or F3 before using it. Faulty modules are not uncommon - even with well-known makes - and you'll only find out when you discover that your photos aren't where the camera thought it was putting them...

S0litaire

Also a good quality Class 6 or 8 can be as good or better than a standard quality Class10

Most of the speed rating are to do with "reading from the card" not writing to it.

Dave_C_2

Err.. Use a card recommended by the the manufacture (Panasonic) for this camera. Should be a list in the camera user guide.

I say this because my old point and shoot Nikon didn't support Lexar cards, which were cheap at the time, but annoyingly didn't work.

In theory you should be safe with Panasonic:)

Dave

Ticklemouse

Thanks all

I have no idea how to test them fwor .. something else to learn about.

I didn't want to blindly go down the Panasonic route and pay over the odds to find that everyone in "the know" recommends a or b, that cost 1/4 of the price. I've mainly used sandisk in the past but never an HC card. I'll have to test the card reader in my PC too although that's not an insurmountable problem if they don't work.

spannerzone

Also be wary of fake SD cards , they look very genuine and often the seller has no idea it's a fake.

The problem is that they might show up as an 8GB card but in reality they're smaller and allow you to keep adding photos that might overwrite earlier pics.

Google "Fake SD cards" and you'll see

nearlyrich

I have Sandisk, Kingston and various other brands in a variety of sizes 2gb to 16gb most of mine have come from 7 day shop and apart from one clip falling off one of the most expensive one's I haven't had many problems. I always format my cards in the camera and then test that they work, nothing worse than finding your cards won't work when the shot of the month is just there.

sevlow

I know some main brands such as sandisc and kingston offer lifetime warrany on their products. This requires you to register your cards on their site which has the added advantage that they verify the serial number and confirm that the card is genuine.