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“New” Sandisk Ultra in Hoodman on EX1?
I did some fairly exhaustive research regarding SxS adapter options before biting the bullet on a Hoodman, but now that I have the stuff in hand, I realize I still have more questions. Unfortunately, all the information seems to change so fast that it’s hard to keep up! What I came away with, at the time, was that the Sandisk Ultra II 16GB was one of the best bets, as lately Transcends have become hit or miss. Some also reported that the Sandisks were now iffy too, but I saw far fewer of those posts. I actually wanted to just buy the Hoodman Raw card to have them stand behind it, but at the time I bought the adapter, they and the usual resellers I use were out of stock (it looks like B&H has the 16GB back in stock at the moment).
So I went ahead and ordered a 16GB Sandisk Ultra II class 4 from Abe’s of Maine who were selling them for half the price of the local bricks-and-mortar places. Well, much to my disappointment, when it arrived today I see that it is clearly labeled just “Ultra” and not “Ultra II.” However, the UPC is the same as the Ultra IIs, and I see that even the Sandisk site says they are “formerly known as Ultra II”
( https://shop.sandisk.com/store/sdiskus/en_US/DisplayProductDetailsPage/productID.103445700 )My worry, though, is that even though this card is *supposed* to be the same, might I get bitten by the “newer batch of cards that don’t work” issue? Has anyone tried one of these “Utlra, formerly known as Ultra II” 16GB cards in a Hoodman adapter in an EX1? I don’t have the camera with me at the moment to test it, and I’m just wondering if anyone knows before I tear open the package.
Thanks,
— Matt
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3 Replies
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Yes things change very fast.
Lately it seem ATP ProMax are the most reliable Class 6 cards. Otherwise I hear Class 10 are reliable. The card manufacturers keep changing their manufacturing process.
I got lucky with 2 32GB Ultra II Class 2 cards (they preceded the Class 4 cards) in Jan 2009. I know of one other person who bought the same cards at the same place I got mine about a week later and also reports they’re still reliable. The went out of stock within days after his purchase.
Lately I tried 2 Sandisk Extreme Class 10 16GB cards and they’ve been rock solid as well.
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I’ve been very pleased with the Hoodman cards. Hundreds of hours and not a single problem. Of course, I don’t want to jinx myself but I do try and handle the cards and adapters with extreme care. I don’t have the Transcend cards but I do have a few other brands and they have had no issues either. I would hope that if the card claims a certain speed and cannot deliver that speed, they would replace it or refund the price.
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In regards to the “New” Sandisk rebatched Ultra II class 4 memory cards, well, SanDisk have changed the packaging and renamed them. eg., SanDisk Extreme class 10 used to be called SanDisk Extreme III. They might have changed their firmware as well…possibly slightly to accommodate sustained HD recording at higher bits.
Ultra II (Ultra now) will read at 20 MB/s and write at roughly around 12 MB/s so they are fast enough to record with. But speed isn’t everything.
Unlike Transcend cards, the SanDisk Ultra class 4 cards, don’t produce any media errors during recording when testing, what I have been reported is, they fail in the off camera workflow, which I can’t replicate or precisely put my finger on.
But as Will said, if you are going to treat it carefully and with care, in relation to workflow eg., leave the SD card in the adapter, use an USB reader to ingest the footage to your PC or laptop…and afterwards, correctly dismount it from the computer, you should be ok, even with SanDisk Ultra. This is not gospel but just pure advice, because everyone works their own way, and this is where is gets really tricky working out any issues users have with SDHC cards. However, you should know, they are not a professional grade memory card so they won’t be as robust and durable as SanDisk Extreme class 10, RAW or ATP ProMax… ..
I just like to comment in regards to Transcend 16GB…Today I received a Transcend 16GB memory card with a red stripe on it (I bought exactly the same memory card 12mths ago which still works without any issue)…The sample today came from a UK client who had issues with media errors. I conducted tests and compared it to my original card, and not only did I get media errors on all different brands of adapters with different chipsets but as well, this particular card was far slower in write than my existing card. The packaging was different (cheaper looking)…and the memory’s casing of the card was rather substandard compared to my original one.
As well, I was quite disappointed the way Transcend have lowered the write time on it, obviously to accommodate the class 10 arrival.MxM Express
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