You all know it is a fast and dependable card. So I can move on to adding other information. I exclusively use Sandisk these days. I used to also buy Lexar professional cards for years but every Lexar card larger than 32GB in the past year has been flawed by lost files in every shoot. It was impossible not to notice the pattern. Coincidentally, I had two different kinds of new Lexar card readers fail in succession so the easiest answer for me was to stop using that brand and indeed all those problems stopped. I am not saying other companies are immune to problems. This preamble is capped by having a brand new Sandisk card, this card, fail the first time I used it. I have bought many cards over a long time. This was the first incident of its kind for me. I want to share with you the lessons I learned from this surprise.
What happened next was all good. Sandisk cards have a life time warranty (that must be limited in some way) but it applied to this card and also to an ancient 4GB Extreme CF card that finally stopped functioning after many years. The problem with the latter is that they are no longer made to enable giving you a replacement. With the former, Customer Service was excellent and the RMA request process was easy to get a replacement. You need to follow the protocol which involves eliminating the possibility of it being a fake card and provide proof of purchase. I had not registered this card or for that matter most of my cards. That too is necessary, and (blush) sensible. However, I am pleased with the service Sandisk provided in standing behind its products. To be fair to Lexar, I could have sent back the cards and card readers that failed but I do not want Lexar quality replacements. I have lost trust in my individual case. I am not saying that everyone is having this degree of problem with Lexar or that it will happen to you. Sites like Amazon can only offer one individual's experiences at a time. In my case every Lexar card, six in a row, over 32GB was unreliable. That is enough to draw conclusions for my purposes.
The other message in this experience was that knock off cards appear to be a lot more common that I realized. However, there is a practical answer and one that is smart to take even without authentication as the primary goal. In order to catch that right from the beginning, simply register all cards and make sure from the start you have a genuine product with a bonafide identification code number. And of course it pays to be careful where you buy. In my case, I only buy from B&H and Amazon directly, not the partners.
| Special Feature | water_proof, x_ray_proof, temperature_proof, shock_proof |
|---|---|
| Read Speed | 95 Megabytes Per Second |
| Item Weight | 1.8 Grams |
| Write Speed | 90 Megabytes Per Second |
| Hardware Interface | SDXC |
| Secure Digital Association Speed Class | Class 10 |
| Product Dimensions | 1.26"L x 0.08"W |
| RAM | 64 GB |
| Wireless Type | Radio Frequency |
