Tri Cities Wa.

[Snuffy2]

Off to Tri Cities to see what I can find to shoot at,

I had a new 16G memory card, about the 2nd time I used it, camera said it might be corrupt, reformat it, still the same thing, guess what? it got filed in trash, have 2 more 16's, the bad one was Sony, if that made a difference, I might trade out a good one for the other Sony 16G out of my camcorder and see if there is a pattern with Sony cards. Anyone ever have issues with Sony?

 

[arlinescott]

I have never had an issue with a Sony card but this does happen on occasion with all different brands. You were right to trash the card because once they throw that error, you will never feel secure in it again, even if it does appear to be ok.

I actually prefer to use 4 or 8 gig cards so that if I do end up with a faulty card, it is only 4 gig lost and the loss is still big, but not as much as losing an entire outings work.

 

[mcsharley]

Rarely is the information on a "corrupt" card (or any other storage device, for that matter) actually "lost". Takes a lot of diligence, and sometimes money, but the content can almost always be recovered.

 

[ront]

I actually prefer this method also!! I also generally just use Sandisk.

Ron


Snuffy2, go shoot the Hydroplane down at Columbia Park.

I actually prefer to use 4 or 8 gig cards so that if I do end up with a faulty card, it is only 4 gig lost and the loss is still big, but not as much as losing an entire outings work.

 

[BobH]

They do go bad, and for no apparent reason at times.

I just bought 4 of the Lexar 16gb. One of the four went bad after the first time I used it. It worked fine, downloaded fine, then when I told the camera to format it, the card wouldn't format, and simply said "Format Card". Tried doing it in the computer and in my other camera, no good.

Thankfully, B&H stands behind what they sell. They issued an RMA and I should have a new one before too long.

The other cards seem to be working fine, admittedly I'm a bit nervous about them for the the moment.

 

[squirl033]

it's amazing how many people think there's actually a big difference between brands like Sandisk and, say, Transcend. the fact is, there are only a handful of die manufacturers world-wide who make flash memory for these applications. most of the flash memory chips for the digital photo industry are made by Toshiba, Samsung, Fujitsu, and one or two others. the companies that make the end product - the CF or SD card that goes in your camera - don't make the actual memory that goes inside it. they just put it all together. so unless you know which manufacturers supply the die for the card maker of your choice, it's a total crap-shoot.

i've been using inexpensive CF cards made by brands like Transcend, Rosewill, and TwinMOS for years, and haven't had a problem with them. several of my CF cards are old Rosewill 1GB cards i got back in 2006 when i bought my first DSLR, and they still work perfectly. I get 'em from Newegg, they're vastly cheaper than brands like Sandisk or Lexar (though Newegg carries those too), and they work every bit as well. i suppose a Sandisk Ultra III might hold up better if i were shooting in the Amazon, or in the arctic, but i just don't need that kind of ruggedness, so the "off brands" work just fine. they're no more susceptible to corrupting than the expensive ones, and as long as you don't drop 'em too many times or run over 'em with your car, they'll do the job just as reliably.

i also make it a point not to put all my eggs in one basket. i'd much rather change memory cards more often than use a single 16GB card or some such thing and have all my shots lost if something unfortunate should happen. i never head out without a spare battery and extra memory cards, so it's never a problem.

 

[BobH]

Rocky,

You're right of course, there aren't a lot of places making the CF cards, so the branding isn't a big deal. Reliability should be about the same from all of them.

What's not the same is speed. I bought some Kingston 4 GB cards a while back since I was on the road and needed some more cards. (I hadn't brought my whole bag, just the camera and a couple cards)

I went to Fred Meyer and the choice was simple. You want CF cards? Fine, here's the only type we have. Want a couple?

So, I popped them into my camera and started shooting. They were so incredibly slow that I could only get about 3 or 4 shots in a burst. They worked fine, no errors, but the speed difference was very noticable.

 

[squirl033]

yeah, speed is one differentiating factor, and Kingston is s-l-o-o-w - at least the 4GB card i have certainly is! i rarely use it unless i've already filled up all my other cards, which is a VERY unusual situation. but most reputable manufacturers are making at least 133x cards these days, and many are at 233-300x. for video, you'd probably be better off with one of the new 600x cards (90Mb/sec), but for most still photography work, anything over 133x should work pretty well. i never buy memory cards at places l ike Freddy's... Newegg is much cheaper, they have a much wider variety, and they ship FAST.

 

[BobH]

> Kingston is s-l-o-o-w - at least the 4GB card i have certainly is!

Yep, that's the same one I have. I didn't figure it would be as fast as my Sandisk Ultra's. I did figure it would be faster than writing to floppy. After using it, I'm not so sure...

> i never buy memory cards at places l ike Freddy's..


Well, I prefer "Toys R Us", but they were closed.

I was in the Tri-Cities, ironic coincidence considering the thread title, eh? Finalizing a job, was supposed to be there one or two days. Packed a week's clothes (not my first rodeo) and grabbed the camera, 18-200 lens and 2 cards. Was shooting for work, so didn't think I'd need much.

Well, after 5 days of work, which ended with "OK, we're going to do what you tell us to do, you're going to watch us do it, and this time, when we're done, WE'RE DONE, do make sure you tell us what you want!" It was the end of the week. It turned out a musician I know was in town that night, so I stuck around for his show. I was about out of memory, it's Friday afternoon, and I'm in the Tri-Cities. If they have a camera shop, I don't know where it's at. So I go to the one place I figure I can get a memory card fairly fast, and that was Freddy's. Considered it to be about like buying a couple rolls of film. The price was right, but the card is amazingly slow.

It's been in my bag since then, in a back pocket, with an invisible tag on it it saying "OK, if all of your other cards are full, and you see Elvis and Bigfoot, using this will be better than nothing, but realize you'll probably only get one shot as slow as it is, so make it good!"

 

[Snuffy2]

Seagulls

went across from Columbia Park this afternoon, tried a few birds in flight, this is the best I could come up with, so so capture but shooting 90 degrees from straight ahead had the challenges, got tilted a little, maybe a whole lot!

C&C please! thanks in advance...

 

[Snuffy2]

Columbia Park

Snuffy2, go shoot the Hydroplane down at Columbia Park.

We were just there this afternoon, but didn't see any Hydroplanes, mostly party time on boats...

We decided this afternoon when out and about, that this is where we are going to move to, hopely this fall or next spring. good scouting for photo shoots!

 

[squirl033]

went across from Columbia Park this afternoon, tried a few birds in flight, this is the best I could come up with, so so capture but shooting 90 degrees from straight ahead had the challenges, got tilted a little, maybe a whole lot!

C&C please! thanks in advance...

captured the gulls pretty well, really all this needs is straightening (easy to do), a touch of sharpening, and a bit more contrast to make things pop a bit...