Product Description: Ultra Performance 80X (Ultra Speed) Secure Digital cards is the best choice for your digital cameras and other handheld device. Different from other manufacture, Transcend insists on using only original SLC (Single-Level-Cell) NAND Flash chips that have a higher write speed, lower power consumption, and superior durability compared with Secure Digital cards made with MLC (Multi-Level-Cell) chips.
Not 80x, but fast. I used HDtune 2.52 to measure the performance of a few SD cards. The Transend 1GB 80x was the fastest with 9.0MB/s transfer. I wish more companies would publish reasonable performance numbers. Just for comparison, the Sandisk Ultra II 1GB (which cost me more!) delivered 6.4 MB/sec.
Transcend all the way! I've found the product to be quite good. I use an int'l card and many other sites denied my order as a result. Transcend however accepts Int'l credit cards. The card itself works well, i will however advise to go for a higher speed, perhaps 150x, but performance is ok, and 1GB is enough room! I have a Canon Powershot A400 and the camera runs well with the new card.
Works Great with Nikon D40 I bought this card because it was a high speed, low cost, 1 GByte card. Its performance has been perfect. I'm completely satisified. There is no reason to pay more. The lowest price was here on Amazon.
Good enough for VGA/30fps and 5mp/6mp/7mp* cameras Value, size, speed and quality are all good, but you have to know what you need to know if this is the right card for you.
VALUE
First of all, it's priced well for a fast card (12/2007). There are a lot of slower cards out there with more capacity or sized similarly for a bit less, but $18 for an 80x 1GB card isn't bad. Note the value equation (Price versus capacity & speed) is sure to improve in the next 6-12 months.
SIZE
With regards to size, 1GB (or more correctly 1gB**) is roughly a 10-12 minute VGA quality mjpeg/mov/avi video (or closer to 25+ min in mpeg4/divx) or anywhere from 250-300 very high quality (e.g. very low compression 2:1) pictures. For me, it's a good compromise between usable size and safety - large enough for a photo album but not all the pics in 1 album. I bought 2.
SPEED
Now, about the speed, 80x means 80 times the basic read/write speed of 150,000 bits per second (the old audio CD speed standard). Cards that don't claim a speed usually run at less than 20x speed (like 4-8x) for slow applications like MP3 players or data storage. Digital cameras and video need higher speed cards because they have to transfer so much data to clear their working memory to achieve fast burst/follow-up shots and smooth video.
80x speeds will let you take about 3 very high quality pics per second in a 5mp camera, 2.5 fps - 6mp, 2 fps - 7mp. Some cameras can go faster than this, like 3 fps until the card is full of 7mp pics, but a slow card means lower fps. If you need faster speeds, consider Transcends 150x cards - also well priced.
QUALITY
Lastly, I've had no bad cards from Transcend so I have to rate them highly.
OTHER INFO
Some others brands have some attractive features like built-in USB contacts (no adapters!), but it'll cost you (more than double).
SD-HC capacities (greater than 2GB) are offered, but the Class 6 rating (40x or greater) is pretty slow so I'll wait until they have Class 12 or something. Note not all devices support SDHC, but most new high megapixel digital cameras should.
* 7mp cameras with high-speed burst modes may not reach full burst speeds with 80x cards, consider higher speeds if this is important to you.
** It's the old GB (1024 * 1024 * 1024 = 1,073,741,824 Bytes) versus gB (1,000,000,000 Bytes) labelling issue. Probably started with the hard drive manufacturers, but don't quote me on that.
OVERALL
Good cards for my needs and for most point-and-shoots out today.
Great card Great card. Works well. Fast and Cheap. What else could you ask for?
Anything Goes Trivia
Trevor
Megaton Man
