Remember When You Had To Take Out A Bank Loan To Buy CF Cards?

[russellsnr]

Hi, Was just looking for some new CF/SD cards and how times change, remember how much a 512 MB card used to cost when they first came out? Now a 64GB as little as £8.39 or a 128GB at £14.39 how times change!!! Russ.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Ultra-HD-Vi...ct_top?ie=UTF8

[Shadowman]

Not really but do remember when a computer set you back a few paychecks; especially if you wanted a ….wait for it...Pentium processor.

[Manfred M]

If that is all you are paying for these cards, I would have to assume that they are likely counterfeit or low quality cards with very slow read / write speeds. I remember reading that a significant proportion of the cards offered for sale by on-line retailers like eBay fall into that group. The old suggestion that if the price looks too good to be true, then one should be very, very suspicious.

For many years I have stuck with cards produced by the likes of SanDisk and Lexar from reputable retailers like B&H Photo in New York City and they have served me well (I have never lost an images). These are still running in the range of $US 60 - $US 100 for 64GB and 128GB respectively for CF cards.

[DanK]

I agree with Manfred. I only use reputable brands. Almost all of mine are SanDisk, and I have never had a failure, even after many years of use. As a rule of thumb, I also assume that any prices substantially cheaper than those by the largest reputable discounters is something to stay away from.

By way of comparison, at B&H, a SanDisk 64GB Extreme PRO UHS-I SDXC memory card currently costs $19, which is about £15. Still very cheap compared to the past, of course.

I used to use Amazon as another price check, but no longer. Based on articles that have appeared in the American press and my own experience, I no longer trust their quality control or their screening for counterfeit goods.

[rpcrowe]

I use Adorama and B&H as a price check on other offers. My experience is that if an offer is significantly cheaper than these two retailers, then there "MAY" be something fishy about the offer.

B&H has come out with free shipping for many items and if you use their credit card for purchasing from them, sales tax is not charged. Since sales tax in California hovers in the area above 8% (depending on your local taxes) that is a significant savings for me when I purchase a big ticket item like a lens or a camera body...

Although B&H has been slammed with a couple of law suits over the last few years. These suits did not impact the consumer... I still have confidence n both of the above retailers...

[xpatUSA]

Some card failure statistics here (see video):

https://fstoppers.com/poll/how-often...ly-fail-289251

An unknown (to me) card's mean-time-between-failures (para. 2.4.4):

https://docs-emea.rs-online.com/webd...6b815d5fe3.pdf

At an MTBF of 3,000,000 hrs, the probability of one sample working for 8 hrs of operation is, theoretically:

e to the minus 8/3000000 = 0.999997333 ... pretty high - a lot better than the probability of surviving a commute unscathed, I reckon.

https://ftp.automationdirect.com/pub...and%20MTBF.pdf

Mark Twain might not have agreed ...

[DanK]

That MTF is the manufacturer's claim about their own, using a method they don't describe. did they turn the current off and on, for example, and how often? And they neglected to include a failure rate.

More relevant, I think, is Tony Northrup's data. There are a lot of problems, including the use of the wrong denominator in several cases, but the key number is that almost half of his respondents reported at least one card failure. Unfortunately, it is in the comparison of brands that his math really becomes questionable, IMHO.

[xpatUSA]

That [MTBF] is the manufacturer's claim about their own, using a method they don't describe.

They quote this calculation method:

https://www.aldsoftware.com/download...alculation.htm

did they turn the current off and on, for example, and how often?

Do you really expect an answer to that?

And they neglected to include a failure rate.

The failure rate can be calculated readily from the MTBF, as can be the MTTF.

More relevant, I think, is Tony Northrup's data. There are a lot of problems, including the use of the wrong denominator in several cases, but the key number is that almost half of his respondents reported at least one card failure. Unfortunately, it is in the comparison of brands that his math really becomes questionable, IMHO.

Be that as it may, if I go out for an hour to shoot some pics, I have zero expectation of even an off-brand card failure. My expectation of a camera/lens failure is much higher than that.

[Manfred M]

MTBF is a statistical calculation that is for the population of cards, rather than an individual card.

One card failure that sticks in my mind is having bought a new card for a trip to Iceland. I had used it for a few weeks and had assumed that it was going to be fine. We flew to Iceland via Boston and it failed at Logan airport while I was shooting there. Fortunately I was able to buy a replacement at one of the rip-off prices shops at the airport, otherwise would have been down to using the backup card I had brought for the trip.

I've had about three private label SD cards fail; two Patriot branded ones and one that branded Verbatim, but was manufactured by a third party. I've only bought Lexar and SanDisk ever since and none of those have failed

[xpatUSA]

I've had about three private label SD cards fail; two Patriot branded ones and one that branded Verbatim, but was manufactured by a third party. I've only bought Lexar and SanDisk ever since and none of those have failed

I've had a few card failures, both CF and SD. Don't recall makes or quantity but several were broken by my Sigma cameras: for example, battery dying while writing to the card. In other words, they were not random card failures as implied by MTBF per se.

[jerryk1949]

I recently bought a new 16 GB San Disk SD card for $10.00. I always use the Scan Disk brand have always had good luck with their brand!

[KaydenTrevino]

I totally feel you! I remember shelling out big bucks for a tiny CF card back in the day.