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| Date Reviewed: 12/09/2005 |
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Strengths: The clamshell pack that the card came in actually had instructions on how to open it by cutting off the heat sealed outer rim. I never knew that before!
Weaknesses: Write ERROR with card after 6 months of USE
No rebate or discount on the Transcend 8 in 1 card reader.
Summary: 2006-10-10 11:01:34 Price paid:$125.85 + 3.84 shipping -$10 MFG rebate - $5.00 Pricegrabber review rebate
Read speed: 22.5 Mb/sec Write speed: 15 Mb/sec
***UPDATE
I have been using this card in my FX8 for six months. I started to occasionally get write errors while taking videos. Not very often, perhaps 1 in 15. I could not find a bad sector on the card. I am going to RMA it back to Transcend. I will be out the shipping and insurance, but it will be worth it. I may occasionally want to take 22 minutes of video, so a glitch of any kind is not acceptable. I tried using the card clean function on my camera (this is supposed to speed up the card, because after months of use, the card can become slow) and this did not work. I have also tried formatting it via computer a couple times, but I still get the error. Its been 11 days, still no new card from Transcend. Although the Californian I talked to was very nice and said thathte early batch of cards hard some problems, so he would replace mine, no questions asked.*****
Conclusion:
I read all the reviews I could find when deciding which card to buy. What finally swayed me on this one was the price. It couldn’t be touched by Ritek or Corsair or any others except Adata, and I read that Adata wasn’t compatible with some devices. I bought it for my Panasonic FX8K camera, and it takes beautiful 30FPS VGA video, which means it meets the requirements for the cameras write speed of 10MB/sec.
Explanation:
I read somewhere that a person was unhappy with this card because there was a statement in the package that said it would write only 2 Mbyte/sec. Well, there is no such statement.
What he was referring to was the cardboard product insert card onto which the sd card is mounted in its plastic packaging. It’s the one you see in the pictures with the pretty fireworks on it. Believe it or not the packaging swayed me, a design engineer, which was nicer looking than competitors. This swayed me because the card is made in Taiwan. You can tell a lot about a foreign company and how much they will support you after the sale by how they handle their English instructions and marketing. I do wish they would publish read/write speeds somewhere, because as I said earlier, I almost didn’t buy this card. What the misguided reviewer was referring to was a chart on the product insert card that compared SLC to MLC (single level cell vs. multi level cell). Note to Transcend: Put a disclaimer on this chart what says “Do not read this unless you think for a living”. You can’t see the chart until you already buy the card and open up the package. That is unfortunate, because it details many engineering specifications. Actually, I am pleasantly surprised a company would volunteer this information, especially the cost information, to its competitors. The chart title is: SLC vs. MLC Comparison. This is how I knew it was just a general comparison. Here is the information it conveys (the first number in each category is for SLC, the second for MLC): Performance: Read performance: 10MB/s | 7 MB/s * Write performance:2MB/s | 0.5 MB/s* Program/Erase cycles:100K | 10K * ECC requirement: 1 bit | 4 bit* Total weighted Performance: x1 | x0.4 Cost: Chip size: x1 | x0.65 * Production Yield: x1 | x0.9 * Test Cost: x1 | s1.2 * Total Weighted cost: x1 | x 0.7.
This particular card is SLC. They are trying to say: “Look how much nicer SLC is than MLC! Yeah, it costs a little more, but it’s worth it!” I imagine this same card appears in all the SD cards this company sells.
Product details:
The product contains: 1 SD card with plastic case, 1 product insert card, warranty registration card, Quick installation guide in 11 languages, nice full color brochure for other Transcend products.
Manufacturer comments:
This SD card is manufactured through the Asian division of Transcend and sold through Transcend USA. I am fully confident in their support of the products after the sale. The 5-year warranty card ships to Orange, CA. The sales brochure was definitely put together by the US division. Bad grammar shows up in some of their marketing materials and on their website, but it probably won’t be noticed by the majority of the US population!
Features taken from orca.co.uk:
Data transfer rate max to 150X (Read: 20MB/sec, Write 17MB/sec.
- Fully compliant with open industry standards.
- Forward and backward compatibility.
- Built-in ATA interface for easy Plug and Play interoperability.
- Low power consumption.
- Compatibility across many platforms.
- 5-year warranty.
Shopping experience: I purchased this card through Pricegrabber and NewEgg. I placed the order on December 2 with UPS 1-5 day ground shipping ($3.24). It arrived the morning of December 7 because I live in a large city near a UPS hub. Ordering from NewEgg was great, especially the price. 2 Thumbs up. Especially if the rebate check comes in the mail before the 8-10 weeks they say it may take.
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| Date Reviewed: 11/02/2005 |
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 Good Speed Strengths: Speed.
Weaknesses: Quality
Summary: 2005-12-13 18:06:35
Good speed, as I expected, it maxed out my USB 2 reader (turned out like other high speed SD cards).
Unlike the packaging, build quality was as bad other cheap cards. I have now resorted to taping the write protect switch :(
Also, The plastic case that comes was a bit larger than my taste (larger than most other cards).
Probably worth the (low) price though.
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| Date Reviewed: 10/27/2005 |
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Strengths: Plug and play. Very fast. Great price.
Weaknesses: None
Summary: This SD card performed without problem right out of the box. It is compatible with my desktop, notebook, PPC, and MP3 player. They all see it and read and write to it without problem. They claim it is fast and it is compared to my SanDisk 1gb Ultra II. It is warranted for five years and by then it will be totally obsolete anyway.
I am very pleased with the performance and reliability of this card.
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| Date Reviewed: 02/10/2006 |
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Strengths: High speed, 5 year warranty.
Weaknesses: None
Summary: Out of the package this card has worked great. I had a sandisk 33X 1GB chip and it runs circles around it. I use it in my Nikon D50 and it improves the shutter speed like it should be, super quick. On one of the highest resolution settings that I use, I can take 964 6 megapixel pictures. Thats friggin incredible.
75% of People (3/4) found this review helpful. Was this review helpful or unhelpful for you?
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| Date Reviewed: 01/02/2006 |
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Strengths: Extremely fast and durable.
Weaknesses: Some older SD slot components many not read a 2GB card. I had to order a USB (Transcend TS-RD135S 13-in-1 reader) to use, which is conveniently slim, fast, and portable. No fault of SD card though.
Summary: This is one of best SD cards you can buy. I have a Canon SD 450 and considered getting a Sandisk high speed card until I found this one. At 150X speed it's faster than the Sandisk high speed cards and seems very durable. You get the best bang for the buck on this. Transcend is a quality company that has been around for years. I got a great price by using Pricegrabber.com and with 2GB of storage, even at 5megapixel I never have to worry about running out of space for my pictures. I'm a very satisfied customer.
75% of People (3/4) found this review helpful. Was this review helpful or unhelpful for you?
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| Date Reviewed: 12/28/2005 |
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Strengths: High speed, compatibility, 5-year warranty, great support website
Weaknesses: None
Summary: Have been using a card for a while in my new Canon SD550 7.2MP camera. Great speed - ultra fast. Recording pictures, videos - even the highest resolution - works like magic. After purchase found out there is also a 4GB version. I would go with that one next time :-) Recommend to all.
75% of People (3/4) found this review helpful. Was this review helpful or unhelpful for you?
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| Date Reviewed: 07/19/2006 |
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Strengths: 2GB and super fast access speed, what else???
Weaknesses: As far as I've seen, NONE!
Summary: Soon as I popped it into my card reader it read okay, I have a Toshiba Satellite laptop with the built in reader. It also works on my USB 2.0 4-in-1 reader with so much ease that it's ridiculous. Transcend is a great brand for memory. Props to them!
67% of People (2/3) found this review helpful. Was this review helpful or unhelpful for you?
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| Date Reviewed: 11/28/2005 |
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Strengths: Really high speed.
Weaknesses: Need newer version card reader to read the card and get the high speed. But this is not the fault of this card.
Summary: Transcend is a company that keep their word on warrranty.
I have a broken 25x 256mb CF which I bought 4 years ago. After getting the RMA and mailed the card back, they send me a new 45x 256mb CF card without any question. This is the main reason that I bought a new SD card with this brand name.
60% of People (3/5) found this review helpful. Was this review helpful or unhelpful for you?
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| Date Reviewed: 01/03/2006 |
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Strengths: very fast
holds tons of data
Weaknesses: may not be compatible with older equipment
Summary: I didn't run benchmarks, but the read and write speeds seem very fast to me using my usb 2 card reader. I'm using the card in my Pentax Optio camera to good effect. The only thing to watch out for is that some older equipment may not be compatible with 2gb (and higher) cards -- I had to get rid of one of my card readers (an aopen model, iirc).
50% of People (2/4) found this review helpful. Was this review helpful or unhelpful for you?
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| Date Reviewed: 11/03/2005 |
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Strengths: fast
Weaknesses: none
Summary: I espected a high speed card but this one exceeded the expectation. I like it very much and I will recommend it to every one interested in this kind of media.
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| Date Reviewed: 06/21/2006 |
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Strengths: Great Value
Weaknesses: None sofar
Summary: Have been using this card with my Canon Powershot S3 IS for about 1 month. Has worked perfectly so far - in fact I'm going to buy another one. You can now get them for < $50.
Great product!
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| Date Reviewed: 03/09/2006 |
- mjchua
- Member Since:
Mar 2006
View Member's:
Reviews
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Strengths: Super fast! Great customer service @ Transcend!
Weaknesses: NA
Summary: I bought a Canon SD550 camera right when it came out in September/October 2005, along with it I shopped the net for SD cards to get the fastest out there. I had never heard of Transcend before, but since they had a great price (eCost.com) I decided to try the 2GB. A week later I bought a second one for my sister's Treo. This thing is SUPER FAST and works GREAT! One of the SD cards was having issues with the "lock" it would keep reading "lock" even though it was unlocked.. and the RMA went smooth and FAST--Transcend got a replacement to me in less than a week! Definitely love this thing, ready to upgrade to a 4GB!
50% of People (1/2) found this review helpful. Was this review helpful or unhelpful for you?
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| Date Reviewed: 12/12/2005 |
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Strengths: Fast at 150x, great for storing music and pictures on my phone
Weaknesses: none that I notice
Summary: I purchased this card for my Audiovox PPC 6600 and it's great for storing pictures, music, Word & Excel files, etc. Because all of this is stored on the card, the phone operates at peak performance. So far, I have about 14 pictures and about 85 songs loaded and the card is barely even 10% used. Love this card.
50% of People (1/2) found this review helpful. Was this review helpful or unhelpful for you?
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| Date Reviewed: 11/10/2005 |
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Strengths: Fast and good price. Brand Reputation
Weaknesses: nope
Summary: Transcend is a big player in memory industry for over decade, but I guess fairly new to the US market. Their RAM is pretty good, nevr let me down in the past. Now this time I got their high speed SD card. Work with my Panasonic FX9 like a charm! my old Sandisk 250 mb, it's time for u to retire.....
40% of People (2/5) found this review helpful. Was this review helpful or unhelpful for you?
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| Date Reviewed: 11/29/2005 |
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Strengths: fast and reliable with no problems in using right out of the box. Great price too.
Weaknesses: none
Summary: This was the cheapest 2GB SD card I could find! and it works great!! I had no probs using it as it does not need any instalation formating etc. You can use it right out of the box.
33% of People (1/3) found this review helpful. Was this review helpful or unhelpful for you?
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