Go With Lexar, But Not On This Card
Pros:
Cheap.
Cons:
SLOW, and apparently no Lexar-proprietary WA (Write Acceleration) Technology found here.
The Bottom Line:
I thought briefly it might be a Lexar counterfeit, but it's probably just some slow memory Lexar got a got a cheap deal on and rebranded... I hope, anyway.
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Overall Rating:
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Author's Review
Unlike most people, I am very picky about my flash memory. I have to be, because my camera is very picky in its highest-quality movie mode. Memory quality will make the difference between me being able to shoot less than a minute vs several minutes continuously.
However, I couldn't resist a local sale on this chip. My camera is designed to be able to take advantage of Lexar's proprietary "Write Acceleration Technology". (Cameras must be designed to be able to take advantage of this feature; mine was the first which could.) I thought every lexar CF card bore it. But there was no mention of WA anywhere on this box. This, despite that Amazon and some other sites list this card as featuring WA. (Update: a much later visit to Lexar's site implies that Write Acceleration is only featured on their Professional series cards.)
Well, I couldn't break one minute of continuous video recording with this chip (not that you won't be able to; depends the camera). It was about as bad as the worst card I've ever used in my camera. I even tried reformatting with different cluster sizes to no effect.
For anyone taking stills, this card should prove durable and Lexar has good support (long distance phone number) and you apparently get a real American when you email them. They actually have my model camera in their lab, and went so far as to test recording length on one of their higher-quality cards for me (they got near 5 minutes, about the best you can get, nearly matching my Microdrive), so I know their higher-quality cards can do more if you need it. This one's not the same.
Like all Lexar flash memory cards, it carries a lifetime warranty. This card is made in China. It came formatted in FAT. It also included a translucent plastic case.
It's not worth it for me to email Lexar to ask if this card really has WA technology. It also wasn't worth it for me to test the transfer speed on this thing in a card reader, sorry. If you're concerned enough about transfer speed to care, you shouldn't be buying this card. As for me, the sweet local sale price couldn't soften the taste of this card for me. This one's going back.
Nu-Image Corporation
