SD Memory Cards - Are They Graded?

[Formaleins]

Just wondering if any one knows how they select these SD Memory cards when they pack them up to sell them? I got a free card with a camera recently and it is branded as a Sandisk 32GB Ultra, checking online it probably is not the best card out there for what I need - Full RAW 24M photos and Full HD Video at 60FPS - (No I haven't got round to 4K yet, as 1080P is confusing enough when you get to my age)

 

Anyway, I ran some tests on the card and it came up with some strange results - not quite what I expected. The general consensus for this ULTRA card is for a read speed of around 20MB/s and a write speed a little bit slower around 15-18MB/s. When I tested the card I am getting around 95MB/s read speed, but the write speed is reasonably accurate around 16-18 MB/s. This makes me wonder whether Sandisk just grade their memory and downrate the less capable memory to fit into various categories.

 

The 95MB/s read is typical of their flagship SD, the Extreme Pro, however the write speed is typical of the ULTRA.

 

Anyone have the same experience? Anyone lucky enough to get one that slipped through and gave them the Extreme read and write for the price of the ULTRA?

 

I have not seen any problems yet with this card (I have only recorded short full HD footage up to now, nothing more than 10 minutes in duration) but there is no issue at present and it seems to handle RAW files at full resolution in the same way. I must admit that I did think that it was reading REALLY quickly when I was transferring the RAW images to the PC using the USB 3.0 Card reader.

 

Anyway, just to be on the safe side I have ordered the SANDISK 64GB Extreme Pro which is supposed to read at 95MB/s and be capable of writing at over 45MB/s - I guess the read / write problems will be highlighted depending upon the read/ write buffer size of the actual camera used, som maybe it won't show up until the buffer gets full?

 

Cheers.

[janclaes47]

Ultra Line
The Ultra line of products is a step up from entry level products. This product line includes SD/SDHC/SDXC cards, microSD/microSDHC/microSDXC cards, Memory Stick Pro Duo (MSPD) and CompactFlash cards. Ultra products have moderate transfer speeds and are suitable for shuttling many files from one computer to another and mid level cameras or phones. There several revisions of Ultra line products. The transfer speeds can range from 10MB/s to 80MB/s.

[Formaleins]

4 minutes ago, janclaes47 said:

Ultra Line
The Ultra line of products is a step up from entry level products. This product line includes SD/SDHC/SDXC cards, microSD/microSDHC/microSDXC cards, Memory Stick Pro Duo (MSPD) and CompactFlash cards. Ultra products have moderate transfer speeds and are suitable for shuttling many files from one computer to another and mid level cameras or phones. There several revisions of Ultra line products. The transfer speeds can range from 10MB/s to 80MB/s.

Thanks, very interesting the range of transfer speeds within the one product line. I guess it is the same tech. as in the SSD products, the larger the capacity the better the transfer speeds seem to be. Like I say, I have not ran into any issues yet and I have no intention of recording 4K so I will probably keep this card as a back up and use the Extreme Pro version for the main card just to be on the safe side. I was surprised to see those horrible little Micro Versions are cheaper than the SD Format - However, I hate those things, they are so small I cannot even see how to fit them. Then of course you have to have those terrible adapters with that slifding switch / protection thing on the side - The one that never works, the one that makes your card totally unprotected or totally inaccessible! Horrible.

Edited December 27, 2018 by Formaleins

[rodknock]

the cards come in different class's, higher number is better class10

[Formaleins]

6 minutes ago, rodknock said:

the cards come in different class's, higher number is better class10

Yes, I stick with Class 10 for what I need. However the new classifications being added are a bit confusing - UHS 1 or 3 and the newer Video Class the V6 - V30...….some are capable of 8K Video!

 

The one I ordered is here -

 

https://www.lazada.co.th/-i11088433-s13855903.html?urlFlag=true&mp=1

Edited December 27, 2018 by Formaleins

[scottiejohn]

Have a look at this link as to different types/usage;

https://www.howtogeek.com/189897/how-to-buy-an-sd-card-speed-classes-sizes-and-capacities-explained/

[Formaleins]

1 minute ago, scottiejohn said:

Have a look at this link as to different types/usage;

https://www.howtogeek.com/189897/how-to-buy-an-sd-card-speed-classes-sizes-and-capacities-explained/

thanks!

[NanLaew]

I think the trick is to ignore the 'ultra', 'gold', 'extreme pro', 'extra' and any other moniker on ANY brand of SD card and simply check the small number inside a C that is stamped on each one. The higher the Class number, the higher the spec, higher price and more suitable for dual-lens dash cams that are recording 2 parallel streams, front and back. Of course the Thai market is chock-full of fakes, especially SD cards that come bundled with something more expensive, so it's all a bit of a lottery.

 

With regard if these are manufactured to order, the manufacturing spec for (example) the 'Extreme' is tight but the final labeling is only determined after final testing. It is the nature of things that there always a small percentage of SD's that perform better/faster regardless of being made exactly the same way and with the same elements as a slightly slower one from the same batch. The manufacturer hasn't spent any extra money for this special-grade but does apply a markup on the retail price and labels it 'Extreme II'.

 

Edited December 27, 2018 by NanLaew

[Formaleins]

2 minutes ago, NanLaew said:

I think the trick is to ignore the 'ultra', 'gold', 'extreme pro', 'extra' and any other moniker on ANY brand of SD card and simply check the small number inside a C that is stamped on each one. The higher the Class number, the higher the spec, higher price and more suitable for dual-lens dash cams that are recording 2 parallel streams, front and back. Of course the Thai market is chock-full of fakes, especially SD cards that come bundled with something more expensive, so it's all a bit of a lottery.

 

With regard if these are manufactured to order, the manufacturing spec for (example) the 'Extreme' is tight but the final labeling is only determined after final testing. It is the nature of things that there always a small percentage of SD's that perform better/faster regardless of being made exactly the same way and with the same elements as a slightly slower one from the same batch. The manufacturer hasn't spent any extra money for this special-grade but does apply a markup on the retail price and labels it 'Extreme II'.

 

Thai market is full of fakes - Tell me about it! I paid almost 600 Baht (luckily online via Lazada so they were sent back) for 4 x AA Eneloop batteries. They did not look real when they arrived, just something not quite right. When I went over the packaging it had " Technology by Eneloo"  instead of Eneloop! But how many people have been scammed by these ba$tard$?

 

I reported the seller twice in e mails and feedback to Lazada, guess what? Yes, they did nothing, they are still selling their fake crap today. One of the Thai Visa posters pointed me in the right direction, the Panasonic shop on Lazada, got the real Mcoy for another 150 Baht. Small price to pay when you are looking for specific items that only the genuine article will do the trick.

 

When my SD Card arrives it is going straight on my Crystaldiskmark and my Flashchk program, if it doesn't stand up to the claims, it is going straight back.

[Mavideol]

38 minutes ago, Formaleins said:

Thai market is full of fakes - Tell me about it! I paid almost 600 Baht (luckily online via Lazada so they were sent back) for 4 x AA Eneloop batteries. They did not look real when they arrived, just something not quite right. When I went over the packaging it had " Technology by Eneloo"  instead of Eneloop! But how many people have been scammed by these ba$tard$?

 

I reported the seller twice in e mails and feedback to Lazada, guess what? Yes, they did nothing, they are still selling their fake crap today. One of the Thai Visa posters pointed me in the right direction, the Panasonic shop on Lazada, got the real Mcoy for another 150 Baht. Small price to pay when you are looking for specific items that only the genuine article will do the trick.

 

When my SD Card arrives it is going straight on my Crystaldiskmark and my Flashchk program, if it doesn't stand up to the claims, it is going straight back.

lazada is affiliated with chinese alibaba.... what do u expect????

[Nyezhov]

18 minutes ago, Mavideol said:

lazada is affiliated with chinese alibaba.... what do u expect????

If it comes from China, Chances are its fake

[Formaleins]

14 minutes ago, Mavideol said:

lazada is affiliated with chinese alibaba.... what do u expect????

To be honest, I really do not mind so called "Fakes" when the price reflects the quality. I get pi$$ed when people try to pass off everyday items as genuine when they are not - confused? Let me explain.

The fake baby milk in China - I totally agree with their government, line those up that are responsible and shoot the b@$tards.

Fake medication, again, shoot them.

Fake DVD's, games etc. depends on price.

Fake high end goods - take for an example, the fake Rolex watches you get in China, they are selling them on the street for maybe 10 or 20 Quai, it is pretty obvious you are not getting a bargain Rolex at a heavy discount. But, everyone knows where they stand and if you decide to buy it, all well and good. You get a cheap watch, they get a few bucks in their pocket and no one is hurting Rolex as you would never be buying the real thing anyway.

I expect that a large international online seller like Amazon and Lazada to sell genuine items, and, if they allow fakes on their, then it should be clear - Some advertisers already do this on Lazada - They add "Not Original" next to the price and description. That seems fair to me. Not everyone can afford a real Rolex, those people that can afford it should be able to buy the genuine article with peace of mind. Those people who could only ever dream about owning a real Rolex, well, I see nothing wrong in having the fakes available at the fake price as long as they are clear that they are fake

 

That is about my take on things, maybe my logic is warped? Who cares.

[Formaleins]

8 minutes ago, Nyezhov said:

If it comes from China, Chances are its fake

That used to be the case, but a lot has changed. There are a lot of products sold from China that are very real. The Chinese are now making the real products for other companies and often a lot of this product ends up going out the back door and sold online.

If you get involved in contract manufacture, often the company making the items for their customer fronts the money on a 30 day terms with their  component supplier. If production was a little slack, then there really is not much to stop the factory using up some of their inventory that they have already bought and making a few extra products that they then sell themselves out of the back door without their customer knowing.

 

The other thing worth noting too however, is the quality of the product being manufactured in China. If you were manufacturing over there as I was back in the '90's boy was it rough! You had to put 100 times the checks an QA functions in place as you did in Europe, every item that you used had to be qualified for suitability. It was a nightmare. 

This was simply down to the fact that they had never worked to these type of standards in general and it was all new to them. Move ahead to today and there is a huge divide in China. You still have the old school who never change and generally manufacture fakes or just cheap junk. They will always be there and always survive as long as there are poorer people that buy their products.

The other side of China has come on leaps and bounds and manufacture to the same standards or even higher than we did in Europe. The big difference in China these days is that they no longer need to simply copy things. They now have the skills and tech. base (that we basically gave them and taught them) to manufacture their own products and in some cases make just as good a job as any European company and in many cases these days, they do a better job.

 

Just take a look at someone like Boeing, they are manufacturing now in China. Take a look at Airbus, they have just completed their 400th Plane in their Tanjin factory. Take a look at the Chinese company / conglomerate C.A.S.I.L and you will see just how advanced China has become. They have done this in 20 years! imagine what is going to happen in the next 20?

[Nyezhov]

7 minutes ago, Formaleins said:

If production was a little slack, then there really is not much to stop the factory using up some of their inventory that they have already bought and making a few extra products that they then sell themselves out of the back door without their customer knowing.

With the same quality control?

 

Boeings and phones arent the same as batteries and memory cards

[jackdd]

The main difference with SD cards is the write speed, not so much the read speed

I always buy Sandisk, they have a reasonable price and are available everywhere, and buy them like this:

Don't really care about speed: Sandisk Ultra

A card with a good speed which is high enough for every normal task including burst photos and recording 4k: Sandisk Extreme

You want the fastest card so that you can take burst photos even faster: Sandisk Extreme Pro

[dddave]

One of the difficulties in determining if a memory card is genuine is that even though a fake, marked 64gb may actually only be 4gb, when you put it in your device, it will read something like "62gb available storage" as it is easy for the counterfeiters to program that in.  I found it wasn't easy to actually determine if a card was genuine or not.  Most of the programs for doing this available online can take a very long time per card as they have to write to each sector of the card. It can take hours per card.  Does anybody reading this know a faster method?

I had bought a couple of new devices and bought a variety of 64 & 128 gb cards from Lazada.  All the Kingstons and Samsung Evo's I bought were fakes.  

[scottiejohn]

9 hours ago, dddave said:

I found it wasn't easy to actually determine if a card was genuine or not.

Download a free programme called "ChipGenius" and you will soon know!

 

Edited December 30, 2018 by scottiejohn

[scooterboy]

^ Thanks - very useful info!  ????

[robblok]

On 12/29/2018 at 10:38 PM, dddave said:

One of the difficulties in determining if a memory card is genuine is that even though a fake, marked 64gb may actually only be 4gb, when you put it in your device, it will read something like "62gb available storage" as it is easy for the counterfeiters to program that in.  I found it wasn't easy to actually determine if a card was genuine or not.  Most of the programs for doing this available online can take a very long time per card as they have to write to each sector of the card. It can take hours per card.  Does anybody reading this know a faster method?

I had bought a couple of new devices and bought a variety of 64 & 128 gb cards from Lazada.  All the Kingstons and Samsung Evo's I bought were fakes.  

I bought cards from lazada too, the expensive ones as i had a gopro 6 and wanted a fast 128gb card.. no fakes but I did not go for the cheapest card. I looked at the shops rating too. Maybe that is part of your problem wanting the cheapest and expecting that its real (not that i endorse cheating like that but its usually folks who want to buy from the most cheapest shop that get stung)