Has anyone tried the Lexar 4GB SD card?

[rclompus]

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I have been using the 2GB SD Lexar cards with the M8 and am having great success with them. I noticed on B&H Photo's website they have a Lexar 4GB SD (not SDHC).

 

Has any one tried the 4GB Lexar SD card with the M8?

 

Thanks,

 

Richard Clompus

Florida

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[Shootist]

I think I remember a post about them a few months ago. Although B&H lists them as NOT SDHC they are in fact SDHC.

If you do a search for that model number on the Lexar website they don't have any there are standard SD cards. All are SDHC.

[rclompus]

Thanks. I guess the only card folks have had a positive experience with is the 4GB Transcend card. I'll try that one. 2 GB seems too small a card to use for many applications.

 

Richard

[AGeoJO]

Indeed, the Transcend 4GB 150X for sure works; I recently bought 2 of those and use them in combination with two 2GB Sandisk Ultra II. We are definitely spoiled now - during the film days, we could maybe squeeze 38 exposures out of a single 36-exposure roll. After that we had to go through the trouble of puting a new role in. A 2GB card enable us to take 170+ RAW/DNG files seamlessly and we think that it is too small . I am not referring to you but to the (digital) photographing world at large, BTW, including myself, of course .

[James Mitchell]

I've had success with both the Transcend and the RiData 4gb X150 cards.

[ArtZ]

Indeed, the Transcend 4GB 150X for sure works; I recently bought 2 of those and use them in combination with two 2GB Sandisk Ultra II.

 

We had a wonderful evening in Paris today. Sun is back and the light was beautiful for taking pictures. The problem was I forgot my all my SD cards at home! I poped in a shop and they had Trascend 4GB 150X (65 €) so I decided to try it. I don't like "big size" cards just for the obvious security reasons... I prefer to lose 2GB of pictures than 4GB!

 

I took 22 pictures but I had problems. Here they are:

 

1.- The Transcend SD 150X 4GB is much slower than the SanDisk Extreme III or the Transcend 150X 2GB

 

2;- A couple of times, after taking a picture, the M8 didn't stop processing, even if I switched off the camera, ON again, OFF again. The only option was to remove the battery.

 

3.- Twice, when I tried to chimp some pictures, the "Play" button didn't work. I had to try a few times swithching on and off the camera. At one point, I had the message "No picture in the camera" (or something like that inside a red frame). Curious, because I had seen some of the pictures before. I even thought the card was dead. After a while, I managed to see the pictures.

 

4.- The more curious thing was AWB. I always shot DNG+JPEG and ALL the pictures had a wrong AWB. I decided to set WB in manual mode but the colors on the LCD were also wrong.

 

My PDA has a SanDisk Ultra II 1GB. I took the card and I formatted with the M8 (I had a back up in my computer from yesterday). After replacing the Transcend 150X 4GB for the SanDisk 1GB everything become normal. No hung ups, no AWB problems.

 

At home, I tried to read the Transcend 150X with my laptop. All files were there. DNG files were fine but JPEGs WB was dreadful and the pictures blured, like if they were out of focus. Very strange. This doesn't happens with the DNG files.

 

I thought maybe it was a problem with the Transcend itself, but I tried it on the three laptops and it seems to work perfect. I formated in FAT32 and NTFS, copied files, deleted files, created directories... no problem at all.

 

I start to believe that depending on the SD card used on the M8 some other problems come out.

 

Any thoughts?

 

 

PS: Before going shoting, I dropped in at "La Maison du Leica" (100 mts from home) and I bought a "Leather carring strap with shoulder section" 14 455... for 120 euros. Wonderful thing... I was really fed up with the normal strap because it was killing my neck (especially with hot weather and a T-Shirt).

.

[ho_co]

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I've had no problem with the Transcend 4 GB cards, and although they don't seem at all to be high speed, I don't have anything to compare them with.

 

There have been a couple reports of problems with the Transcend 4 GB cards on the forum, including one user who had been a big fan of the cards IIRC, but decided to quit using them completely after one major problem. Nonetheless, my feeling is that there have been many more reports of trouble with 2 GB Sandisk cards--possibly just because so many people use the latter.

 

I say go for the Transcend or the RiData; they're inexpensive for their claimed speed, so even if they no longer work once the M8 conforms to SDHC, you haven't lost much money.

 

 

@Manuel--man, what a memory! Such details on what happened! I'm sorry, I can't volunteer any explanation.

 

But I do notice that only 3.82 GB of space are available on the Transcend 4 GB card. That's 4.5% less than nominal. I don't know how much overhead is needed for other cards, but my guess is that Transcend is using some kind of on-board processing to handle a 4 GB card under a 2 GB SD spec. That might account for why the cards are slower than we expect. (Just a guess--those with understanding will soon shoot down the speculation. )

 

--HC

[ArtZ]

But I do notice that only 3.82 GB of space are available on the Transcend 4 GB card. That's 4.5% less than nominal.

 

Howard,

 

After formating a memory card (or HD) the card size will be reduced. Here's the explanation:

 

A FAT file system is composed of four different sections:

 

1.- The Reserved sectors, located at the very beginning.

 

2.- The FAT Region. This contains two copies of the File Allocation

 

3.- The Root Directory Region. This is a Directory Table that stores information about the files and directories located in the root directory.

 

4.- The Data Region. This is where the actual file and directory data is stored and takes up most of the partition. The size of files and subdirectories can be increased arbitrarily (as long as there are free clusters) by simply adding more links to the file's chain in the FAT. Note however, that clusters are allocated in their entirety, and so if a 1 KB file resides in a 32 KB cluster, 31 KB are wasted.

 

The 4.5% missing in the SD card is taken by the FAT32 system.

 

Regards

.

[carstenw]

Howard, there have been reports of trouble with Sandisk Extreme III 2GB cards (one from me), but I don't recall anyone having had trouble with the Ultra II 2GB cards, USB plug or not?

[AGeoJO]

I thought maybe it was a problem with the Transcend itself, but I tried it on the three laptops and it seems to work perfect. I formated in FAT32 and NTFS, copied files, deleted files, created directories... no problem at all.

 

I start to believe that depending on the SD card used on the M8 some other problems come out.

 

Any thoughts?

 

Manuel, I don't know what to tell you although it is not likely the problems you experienced are not likely caused by the SD card but it cannot be ruled out. I didn't even notice that two Transcend 4GB SD cards are slower than my 2GB Sandisk Ultra II cards. I just got the new cards last week and during my limited usage they seem to be fine. FYI, this particular SD card started to get scarse and the price went up also over here in the US.

[ArtZ]

Manuel, I don't know what to tell you although it is not likely the problems you experienced are not likely caused by the SD card but it cannot be ruled out. I didn't even notice that two Transcend 4GB SD cards are slower than my 2GB Sandisk Ultra II cards. I just got the new cards last week and during my limited usage they seem to be fine. FYI, this particular SD card started to get scarse and the price went up also over here in the US.

 

Joshua, I've been making some tests indoors today. Here's the update:

 

1.- When I use a Transcend 4GB 150x, I have problems at chimping. The play button doesn't respond all times. After a while turning OFF and ON the camera, I always manage to see the pictures.

 

2.- Again, three times I couldn't stop the camera processing. The red light keeps flashing even when I turn the camera off. Only removing the battery will stop the camera processing (or whatever it's doing).

 

3.- I've measured processing times using Transcend 4GB 150x and SanDisk Extreme III 2GB. I find processing with the SanDisk Extreme III is about 30-40% faster. Depends on pictures and ISO.

 

4.- The most incredible thing (I DO agree) is the WB. With the 4GB card WB doesn't work. I don't mean only in AUTO mode. Even if I chose another mode the colors are not good on JPGs.

 

5.- Concerning the blured JPGs, it's another issue. As I use diopter correction in the magnifier (I was using yesterday Megaperls 1.35x magnifier with adjustable dioptric correction), I had incidentally moved the wheel and I didn't focus properly. Nothing to do with the M8 and 4GB card.

 

Concerning the WB issue I suppose (this is just a suspiction) the M8 processor and software are dealing with compatibility hardware issues and, maybe for this reason, (processor busy, internal error...) the camera doesn't apply the good WB parameters.

 

I have also tested the Transcend 4GB SD card with a Canon S80 and with my Digilux-2 (got it back from Solms last week with a new sensor).

 

With the S80 it works perfect. Processing takes about the same time than with a SanDisk Extreme III 2GB and no problems with WB.

 

On the other side, the Digilux-2 will ask me to format the card. When I do it, the D2 will format the card as if it was a 2GB SD card. (179 pictures on RAW mode)

.

[ttriolo]

Howard, there have been reports of trouble with Sandisk Extreme III 2GB cards (one from me), but I don't recall anyone having had trouble with the Ultra II 2GB cards, USB plug or not?

 

I have had nothing but trouble with my two 2GB Sandisk Ultra II's. First, I started getting false "full card" messages at random times and then I discovered that neither of my card readers could read them. My Toshiba HC card from Sam's works fine but not the Sandisks. I'll be staying away from them in the future.

[ho_co]

After formating a memory card (or HD) the card size will be reduced. Here's the explanation: ...

Bravo, Manuel! Thanks for the information. I knew some space was taken for the formatting, but had no idea how it was used. I was just looking for a reason that the 4 GB cards didn't seem as fast as we expected, and my speculation was off base. Thanks again!

the Digilux-2 will ask me to format the card. When I do it, the D2 will format the card as if it was a 2GB SD card. (179 pictures on RAW mode)

You probably are aware that the Digilux 2 was designed before SDHC. The largest available SD cells were 2 GB. Leica also specified that the D-Lux 2 couldn't accept cards larger than 2 GB, though the D-Lux 3 does accept SDHC. But now I'm curious--if the M8 can format an SD card larger than 2 GB, why not the others?

 

Howard, there have been reports of trouble with Sandisk Extreme III 2GB cards (one from me), but I don't recall anyone having had trouble with the Ultra II 2GB cards, USB plug or not?

Carsten, I see Tony has already responded. The reason I've noticed the problem reports with the Ultra II 2 GB cards is that I bought a bunch of them when Calumet had their big sale on them a month or so back.

 

And although I'm personally rather leery of the USB plug variety, I don't think I've seen any reports of problems with them. Looks to me as if people who are using them are very satisfied.

 

--HC

[ttriolo]

Well, I gave it one more try with yet another card reader and low and behold it finally recognized my Ultra II card. A coworker let me borrow his Sandisk Imagemate 12-in-1 and it worked. I ran out and bought one on my lunch hour. I noticed this reader specifically says it's compatible with SDHC cards which those others did not. That may have been the difference. Anyway, it was great knowing I could finally get those stubborn images off the card and onto my HD and burned to a DVD. So, maybe it's not the cards or camera at fault. It may have been an incompatible reader(s) all the time.

[geoff]

Howard,

 

...The 4.5% missing in the SD card is taken by the FAT32 system.

 

 

It is true that formatting any storage medium will claim some space, regardless of whether it's FAT 12, 16, 32 or some other format.

 

However, this is only a partial explanation that represents only a small fraction of the discrepancy between rated and actually reported memory capacity of memory cards.

 

Computer operating systems measure a Megabyte (MB) as equal to 1024 Kilobytes (KB). Memory card manufacturers claim 1000 KB to represent 1 MB and so on. SanDisk even posts a pdf disclaimer to the fact.

 

In actuality this is what is known as a Mebibyte rather than a Megabyte. As memory card capacities increase, the disparity becomes more noticeable. Unfortunately, memory card manufacturers continue to insist that 1,000,000 bytes makes up 1 Megabyte.

 

So accordingly, a 4GB memory card has a capacity of 4,000 MB rather than 4,096 MB and there’s the difference that being observed. 1024 divided into 4000 equals 3.90.

 

 

Geoff

myspace.com/geoffotos

[ArtZ]

Well, I gave it one more try with yet another card reader and low and behold it finally recognized my Ultra II card. A coworker let me borrow his Sandisk Imagemate 12-in-1 and it worked. I ran out and bought one on my lunch hour. I noticed this reader specifically says it's compatible with SDHC cards which those others did not. That may have been the difference. Anyway, it was great knowing I could finally get those stubborn images off the card and onto my HD and burned to a DVD. So, maybe it's not the cards or camera at fault. It may have been an incompatible reader(s) all the time.

 

Tony, as the M8 does not support SDHC cards yet if (and only if) you can read your SD card on compatible SDHC card readers only; this means that the problem comes from the M8. In other words, our M8s write some information on the SD card which cannot be read it with normal SD card readers because they're not SDHC compatible... and this shouldn't happen as SDHC is not implemented yet on the firmware.

 

I don't know if you follow me.

.

[robsteve]

One thing to keep in mind when you get a card that works for everybody else but not for you is there are a lot of counterfeit cards being sold lately.

 

In the case of brands like Transcend and Sandisk, the cards have a liftime warranty, so if in doubt about the fitness of the card, just return the card for replacement.

[ho_co]

In actuality this is what is known as a Mebibyte rather than a Megabyte. As memory card capacities increase, the disparity becomes more noticeable. Unfortunately, memory card manufacturers continue to insist that 1,000,000 bytes makes up 1 Megabyte.

Geoff--Thanks for that explanation! I wondered why cards of say, 4x or 8x wouldn't contain 4x or 8x the images of a smaller card! How is "Mebibyte" pronounced? Probably like the supposed cowboy "mebbe" in the sense of "maybe" as in "Well, mebbe, but ..."?

 

 

Tony, as the M8 does not support SDHC cards yet if (and only if) you can read your SD card on compatible SDHC card readers only; this means that the problem comes from the M8. In other words, our M8s write some information on the SD card which cannot be read it with normal SD card readers because they're not SDHC compatible... and this shouldn't happen as SDHC is not implemented yet on the firmware.

Manuel, that's a good point, and something Tony should be aware of for the future. But in this case, the card-reader's SDHC designation probably simply means that it's a late model.

 

The main thing is that he finally has a card reader that can read his cards! If the M8, the card, the card reader and the computer are all functioning together, there probably isn't a problem with any of them IMHO.

 

--HC

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Hallo,

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[ttriolo]

Tony, as the M8 does not support SDHC cards yet if (and only if) you can read your SD card on compatible SDHC card readers only; this means that the problem comes from the M8. In other words, our M8s write some information on the SD card which cannot be read it with normal SD card readers because they're not SDHC compatible... and this shouldn't happen as SDHC is not implemented yet on the firmware.

 

I don't know if you follow me.

.

 

Yes, I think I follow you Art. It would have been nice if Leica had mentioned anywhere in the manual that a SDHC compatible reader was required. It would have saved me a lot of trouble.

 

Thanks for the response.

[grduprey]

Howard, there have been reports of trouble with Sandisk Extreme III 2GB cards (one from me), but I don't recall anyone having had trouble with the Ultra II 2GB cards, USB plug or not?

 

I've been using the Sandisk extreme III 2GB cards and no problems at all.

 

Gene