Saturday, February 18, 2012

Transcend 16GB Class 10 SDHC Memory Card Review


UPDATE 9-10 I own 4 of these cards now. I have more of these than any other card I own because they are a very good value for capacity/price/and speed. My initial disappointment over the lack of super high speed is outweighed by the reality that this card is an exceptional value.

If you own a compact digital camera, or SD/HD video camera, this card will exceed the capabilities of all of them. For compact cameras the card isn't usually the slowest part of the data write process, it's the camera.
This card unloads very quickly with a 20MB/s read speed. You will need a SDHC card reader if you don't have one. A standard SD card reader will not read a HC (high capacity) card. (sd memory cards)

These cards make great gifts. I have given several of the 8 Gig cards as gifts and have received appreciation and great comments from all the recipients.

UPDATED REVIEW:
I purchased this card making the assumption that all class 10 cards had the same read and write speed. This was a poor assumption on my part. In order for a card to qualify for class 10 speed the card needs to be certified to have 10MB/s write and read speed. Some manufacturers classify their cards at a slower speed even though they qualify for a higher class. SanDisk make some cards that would qualify for class 10 and rates them as class 6.

The product photo on Amazon does not have the card's speed printed on it. The card that was shipped shows the front of the card printed with "20MB/s" which is the cards read speed. The cards write speed is 16MB/s.

I own a SanDisk Extreme III class 10 card that has (up to) 30MB/s read and write speed. My Nikon D-90 that can take advantage of the SanDisk cards speed. The difference is the SanDisk card can capture 100 photos at fine resolution in 24 seconds. The Transcend card captures 66 photos in the same time/resolution. (Transcend 16GB Class 10 SDHC)

I reality very few people will ever have the need to drill off 100 photos in 24 seconds, but I can't stand to lose a good shot because the camera is slow while writing to the card and I can't fire the shutter. You can hear this happen at about 4.5 seconds in the video review. This does not happen with the SanDisk class 10 30MB/s card.

If you own an SLR that is capable of rapid fire, high-resolution photography you may want to consider the SanDisk Extreme III 30 MB/s card. It is expensive.

This card is reasonably priced for a class 10 card. Just know what you are getting, what your needs may be, and what else is available. I own other Transcend cards and they have always worked properly without any issues.

The video that I attached shows this card with the same 24 seconds that I gave the SanDisk Card.