Check this monster out...
- Thread starter rbaker
- Start date
louist
New member
Very nice, but unless I am shooting with a 1Dsmk2, I would be very nervous relying on such a large card for all my photos.
When I am doing a shoot for a client, I make 2 copies of all photos just in case something happens.
However, I suppose these large capacity cards are preparing us all for the days of 18MP being a common sight.
When I am doing a shoot for a client, I make 2 copies of all photos just in case something happens.
However, I suppose these large capacity cards are preparing us all for the days of 18MP being a common sight.
Kinetic
Active member
crazy!
I have a 4G version of this coming in the mail. I currently use a 1 gig, but it fills up after only 187 shots under RAW. I always transfer them over to my laptop as soon as I finish. (I have a 2.8 lb laptop that I carry with me, usually left in the car etc.).
Are these disks prone to losing data?
I have a 4G version of this coming in the mail. I currently use a 1 gig, but it fills up after only 187 shots under RAW. I always transfer them over to my laptop as soon as I finish. (I have a 2.8 lb laptop that I carry with me, usually left in the car etc.).
Are these disks prone to losing data?
louist
New member
[quote[Are these disks prone to losing data?[/quote]
You will hear very mixed reports from every major brand.
I had a 1GB lexar died on me due to electrical failure (around 3mo old, never dropped or handled harshly), all data was non-recoverable and still took Lexar 6wks to replace it.
On the other hand, I have a photog friend who had 2x 4GB Sandisk Ultra 2 died on him, and Sandisk replaced it with standard cards (non-ultra).
I use the PD70x to copy my photos, that way I don't have to carry a laptop.
You will hear very mixed reports from every major brand.
I had a 1GB lexar died on me due to electrical failure (around 3mo old, never dropped or handled harshly), all data was non-recoverable and still took Lexar 6wks to replace it.
On the other hand, I have a photog friend who had 2x 4GB Sandisk Ultra 2 died on him, and Sandisk replaced it with standard cards (non-ultra).
I use the PD70x to copy my photos, that way I don't have to carry a laptop.
BeanAnimal
Premium Member
The cards are immune to physical shock (dropping). They have no moving parts and as long as the contantcs stay clean and the card is not bent or broken, the data will be fine (from a phyical standpoint). This brings is to the question of why they fail?
Pretty simple.
The first reason is POOR quality control (even from the major players). They shove these things out the door as cheap as possible. Silicon memory costs money? Where can you save? Buying cheaper (read less quality control) silicon memory to stuff into your plastic memory case. Save a few more bucks by not putting each unit through extensive tests and you can pass a substantial savings on to the cost concious end user.
Secondly, this type of memory is VERY prone to static electricity. The areas the hold the data do so by keeping a very small electrical charge, static electricity can damage these areas. This may mean loss or corruption of the data, or permanent damage to the disk.
Thirdly, the larger the storage capacity, the larger the chance of failure. As the memory cells become packed tighter and tighter, the disk as a whole is prone to more errors. It also takes more "electricity" to power the card and the read write cycles must work longer to address the proper location on the memory wafer.
Will things get better? I am sure but in small steps. For the cost of these cards, I would buy 8 small ones instead of 1 large one. "Don't put all of your eggs in one basket" comes to mind. A 1 or 2 gig card will provide most folks enough room to shoot without interuption for a reasonable amount of time while still forcing a "card switch" during large shoots and ensuring that a disaster will not negate the whole effort.
Pretty simple.
The first reason is POOR quality control (even from the major players). They shove these things out the door as cheap as possible. Silicon memory costs money? Where can you save? Buying cheaper (read less quality control) silicon memory to stuff into your plastic memory case. Save a few more bucks by not putting each unit through extensive tests and you can pass a substantial savings on to the cost concious end user.
Secondly, this type of memory is VERY prone to static electricity. The areas the hold the data do so by keeping a very small electrical charge, static electricity can damage these areas. This may mean loss or corruption of the data, or permanent damage to the disk.
Thirdly, the larger the storage capacity, the larger the chance of failure. As the memory cells become packed tighter and tighter, the disk as a whole is prone to more errors. It also takes more "electricity" to power the card and the read write cycles must work longer to address the proper location on the memory wafer.
Will things get better? I am sure but in small steps. For the cost of these cards, I would buy 8 small ones instead of 1 large one. "Don't put all of your eggs in one basket" comes to mind. A 1 or 2 gig card will provide most folks enough room to shoot without interuption for a reasonable amount of time while still forcing a "card switch" during large shoots and ensuring that a disaster will not negate the whole effort.
gregr
New member
That's my theory too. Size and weight are non-issues and it's no problem to carry extra cards because they are tiny. I have one 2g card and the rest are one gig. With an 8mp camera I still get over a hundred pics per card- roughly three rolls of film (remember those? :lol: ) and that is plenty for me.
Frisco
Premium Member
That doesn't sound like a very fair statement. Generally manufacturers drop prices in a product lifecycle because the capital equipment cost amortization, yield improvements, capacity and cycle time optimization. You make high margins early in the product life because you can and respond to price erosion and competition when you have to. You typically don't grow a successful business by shipping discrepant and scrap parts.
I just picked up a 4GB Extreme III card for $239 a month or so ago - I'll report back when it dies
BeanAnimal
Premium Member
I fully agree with your statements about the product life cycle and equipment costs, capacity and optimization. I also fully understand that things like X86 CPUs are obsolete (at least 2 years ago during the GHZ wars) before they ever hit the end of the assembly line, let alone the direct channel.
I however respectfully disagree that my statements are not fair.
Todays consumer is motivated by price and price alone. This has created a market where quality and quality control are second to price point. The price point is dictated by price wars and the net result is a lower quality of product across the board. The "price war" is on going and companies like wal-mart and the "internet wholesale pricing" are fueling it like an out of control fire.
Company A sells a poorly engineered product with flaws, bugs and no instructions or standards listing, the product is made overseas and imported legally or even grey market. The price is attractive and the product sells like hotcakes (filter direct RO/DI unit for example, or half of the equipment in this hobby, DVD players, sunglasses.. you name it).
Company B sells a "premium product" but it only has to be marginally better than comapny A. Product B can be sold as "HIGH END", "ESOTERIC", "TOP OF THE LINE"... or whatever buzzword works. The price can be substantially higher, but the quality only marginally better. To put in more R&D, QC or other money into the B product is to flush it down the toilet, as PRODUCT A is selling liek hotcakes because it is cheap and does a somehwat OK job. Add some false advertising, creative use of language and canned reviews, you can sell anything and make a few bucks. Add a tiny bit of quality and you can be "the best" in the industry segement, without really doing much at all. There is no impetutus for the product to be made any better, afterall it would cost to much and not be able to compete with PRODUCT A and B.
If I had a $1.00 for every piece of computer hardware, business telephone equipment, consumer electronics good and other electronic technology that was either DOA or died long before the warranty, I would be have several hundred extra dollars to invest.
Out of 100 sticks of DDR memory, I get about 7 that fail outright, and another 2-3 that die within a year. CPUs, maybe 1 out of 20 are DOA. Avaya telephones, 1 out of 30 have something wrong with them. Avaya Partner processors 1 out of 30 or so malfunctions. Flash memory: I have had 3 bad cards out of about 11 I have purchased over the last 2 years. About 30% of the new Directv units have firmware problems, and I have been through 2 Directv+ units in 2 months. My $2800 Hitachi TV had a bad main board in it. 2 of the 14 DELL optiplex computers I just put in a clients office were faulty, as well as 1 of the 4 laptops. The laptop had a bad motherboard, and the 2 dekstops both had bad HDDs. Speaking of HARD drives, I can show you a 3.5" and 2.5" laptop graveyard on my parts shelf. Every one of them is less than 2 years old and span sizes from 500MB to 200GB. I have a $2500 Sony VAIO laptop that is less than 2 years old and has a burned out backlight inverter, and cam with a keyboard buffer bug. The computer in my brand new FORD f-150 has had to be 'reprogramed' due to a problem with the shift points being corrupt. I have had to buy 3 Plantronics headsets to get (1) that works. I have had 3 paradyn XDSL modems in 2 years, my brother has had 3, and my father has had 2 RCA surfboard modems. Verizon has had to replace my SAMSUNG CDMA phone 4 times due to a call dropping problem, and previous to that I had 3 Motorla TIMEPORTS and 2 V60s, all had malfunctions. This is only a list off the top of my head..... I own an IT consulting and maintenance company. I see enough DOA or prematurely dead computer equipment than you care to know about.
Does your company produce a quality product and strive for high standards, it sounds like from your perspective it does. If only the rest of the companies followed suit.
Bean
I however respectfully disagree that my statements are not fair.
Todays consumer is motivated by price and price alone. This has created a market where quality and quality control are second to price point. The price point is dictated by price wars and the net result is a lower quality of product across the board. The "price war" is on going and companies like wal-mart and the "internet wholesale pricing" are fueling it like an out of control fire.
Company A sells a poorly engineered product with flaws, bugs and no instructions or standards listing, the product is made overseas and imported legally or even grey market. The price is attractive and the product sells like hotcakes (filter direct RO/DI unit for example, or half of the equipment in this hobby, DVD players, sunglasses.. you name it).
Company B sells a "premium product" but it only has to be marginally better than comapny A. Product B can be sold as "HIGH END", "ESOTERIC", "TOP OF THE LINE"... or whatever buzzword works. The price can be substantially higher, but the quality only marginally better. To put in more R&D, QC or other money into the B product is to flush it down the toilet, as PRODUCT A is selling liek hotcakes because it is cheap and does a somehwat OK job. Add some false advertising, creative use of language and canned reviews, you can sell anything and make a few bucks. Add a tiny bit of quality and you can be "the best" in the industry segement, without really doing much at all. There is no impetutus for the product to be made any better, afterall it would cost to much and not be able to compete with PRODUCT A and B.
If I had a $1.00 for every piece of computer hardware, business telephone equipment, consumer electronics good and other electronic technology that was either DOA or died long before the warranty, I would be have several hundred extra dollars to invest.
Out of 100 sticks of DDR memory, I get about 7 that fail outright, and another 2-3 that die within a year. CPUs, maybe 1 out of 20 are DOA. Avaya telephones, 1 out of 30 have something wrong with them. Avaya Partner processors 1 out of 30 or so malfunctions. Flash memory: I have had 3 bad cards out of about 11 I have purchased over the last 2 years. About 30% of the new Directv units have firmware problems, and I have been through 2 Directv+ units in 2 months. My $2800 Hitachi TV had a bad main board in it. 2 of the 14 DELL optiplex computers I just put in a clients office were faulty, as well as 1 of the 4 laptops. The laptop had a bad motherboard, and the 2 dekstops both had bad HDDs. Speaking of HARD drives, I can show you a 3.5" and 2.5" laptop graveyard on my parts shelf. Every one of them is less than 2 years old and span sizes from 500MB to 200GB. I have a $2500 Sony VAIO laptop that is less than 2 years old and has a burned out backlight inverter, and cam with a keyboard buffer bug. The computer in my brand new FORD f-150 has had to be 'reprogramed' due to a problem with the shift points being corrupt. I have had to buy 3 Plantronics headsets to get (1) that works. I have had 3 paradyn XDSL modems in 2 years, my brother has had 3, and my father has had 2 RCA surfboard modems. Verizon has had to replace my SAMSUNG CDMA phone 4 times due to a call dropping problem, and previous to that I had 3 Motorla TIMEPORTS and 2 V60s, all had malfunctions. This is only a list off the top of my head..... I own an IT consulting and maintenance company. I see enough DOA or prematurely dead computer equipment than you care to know about.
Does your company produce a quality product and strive for high standards, it sounds like from your perspective it does. If only the rest of the companies followed suit.
Bean
BeanAnimal
Premium Member
Also sorry to write a book!
Very interesting thread. With the evolution of technology will always come differing opinions.
I personally am very paranoid about keeping all my pics on one memory card, but mainly out of fear of ever losing it!
I personally am very paranoid about keeping all my pics on one memory card, but mainly out of fear of ever losing it!
Similar threads
