Memory-Card Reviews

I love my Olympus D-370, but it takes just too long to get the images to my computer. I read or heard some where that card readers where the way to go, so I got the Simpletech Flashlink... since I already use their SM cards. Works perfectly... gets images to my computer fast! Plus, it frees up my Olympus to take more pictures!

I highly recommend this product for anyone who has had it with the time it normally takes to upload photos from a digital camera. With the Flashlink Smart Media Reader I'm able to upload photos much faster than before and now I don't have to worry about running the battery down on my camera or tying up my computer.
Installation was very simple - just run the disk that comes with it and plug it in to the USB port.

I noticed that several other reviewers have mentioned problems with the plug and play functionallity of this reader when using windows XP. Well, I have used this on two different computers, both running XP and have had no problem whatsoever. I plug it in, the computer recognizes the reader and its all go from there. I think this is a perfectly good reader, it works well and it is reasonablly priced. Thank you for taking the time to read my little 'ol opinion.

I recently received a Fuji Finepix F601 as a gift; the giver, a professional photographer, included a Fuji 128MB Smart Media Card as a matter of course. Thank goodness he knew what he was doing in terms of storage needs, at least -- the 601 only comes with a 16MB card, which on the 601 is only enough for 5 images at the highest recording level. If you're getting a compatible Fuji, Olympus, or other-brand camera, you really need the highest storage card possible.

But it turns out these cards are fragile, and fingerprints can short them out or cause problems with the camera or reader being able to access their contents. So the best way to keep them around forever is to get a 128 MB card and never remove it! Ideally, then, this should be a solution coupled with the purchase or ownership of a camera which interfaces directly (USB or firewire) with the PC, so there won't be a need to remove the card. Ever. That security, and the ability to store over a hundred 8x10 print-quality pix on one wafer-thin card, makes the bigger sized card easily worth the extra cost if you're getting a Fuji or other-brand digital camera.

As for brand...well, after trying a Fuji and a Viking card, and checking the wiring stats on both, it turns out the brand names of Smart Cards have almost nothing to do with quality (with the exception of one minor function on Olympus cameras which only Olympus cards do). These are, for all intents and purposes, interchangable -- so buying the cheapest one out there is the best bet. And, although amazon.com inexplicably doesn't include rebate savings when listing card costs unless you're looking at the actual page for the actual product, with rebates, the Viking card IS the cheapest Smart Media brand on the market -- by a factor of about 10% or more. With no complaints and lots of joyful picture taking happening in my house, I therefore give SimpleTech five stars for the basic product...but take away one star for a higher cost. Sorry, SimpleTech.

This is the only film that I know of that you can take out of your digital camera,down load it on to your computer, reinsert it and be ready to take more pictures at any time! You don't have to worry about exposing the film, or the bulkyness in your pocket when you carry an extra, should you not want to carry your camera case with you.It stores alot of pictures without having to worry about running to the store for a roll of film because you just ran out.I have four 128 MB smart media cards by Simple Tech.

I'm using this smartmedia with my Samsung Digimax 200. Although I relate this phenomenon to the smartmedia format per-se, it does make your camera slower. After using this card it took nearly 26 seconds for the camera to be ready to take a shot. That includes initialization and flash charge. This is way much longer than with the original 8MB card. So it's not that this particular brand is bad, but the higher capacity the card has, more you'll have to wait to initialize your camera.
Besides that, this was a great purchase, along with a simpletech smartmedia USB 2.0 reader.

WHEN THE WRITINH/READING SPEEP DOSE MATTER TO YOU

1. FAST: This is my third SD car and this card is much fast than my other two SD cards(viking &Toshiba)

You need a card which can read and write fast so you dont miss any shot when taking pictures.

2. Courty of orgin : This card is made in Japan

My previous experience with SimpleTech's 128 MB SD card was what drove me to buy the same brand, but double the MB's. There is nothing but good words to say about SimpleTech's SD cards. They are dependable. The brochure it comes with says not to let the battery run down or you might risk losing the data or have it get fragmented. That hasn't happened in my camera at all. There are cheaper SD cards out there, but why risk losing important data? Dependability is worth the extra 20 or 30 bucks.

Got this one after returning a Sandisk 256 Mb Ultra II SD card (died after a few days of very minimal use), and this one works great. No problems since buying it a couple months ago. Using in in a Minolta Dimage Z1.

I was waiting for a good deal on a 128MB secure digital card and the offer for this card came through my gold box coupon. I decided to give it a try since the price was so right, even without the rebate offer.
I tried it out on my Kodak digital camera (DX4330) and it worked fine right from the start. With the card formatted, the camera said I had only about 103 pictures at the highest quality (3.1M pixels). But I think the camera just gives worst case scenario. I ended up taking about 175 test pictures at the high resolution. I downloaded the test pictures onto my computer and examined them carefully - they looked great with no problems whatsoever. Also, the total size of all 175 pictures was around 123MB. Guess I lost about 5MB, but I think that's expected. (With the same camera and a 64MB card, I never get more than 62MB of total pictures captured).
Sent in for my rebate and will update here when I get it. Even without the rebate I think that this was a great buy!
Update on rebate - got it about 8 weeks later. Took a little long, but it finally came. Really glad I decided to try this out!

I was waiting for a good deal on a 128MB secure digital card and the offer for this card came through my gold box coupon. I decided to give it a try since the price was so right, even without the rebate offer.
I tried it out on my Kodak digital camera (DX4330) and it worked fine right from the start. With the card formatted, the camera said I had only about 103 pictures at the highest quality (3.1M pixels). But I think the camera just gives worst case scenario. I ended up taking about 175 test pictures at the high resolution. I downloaded the test pictures onto my computer and examined them carefully - they looked great with no problems whatsoever. Also, the total size of all 175 pictures was around 123MB. Guess I lost about 5MB, but I think that's expected. (With the same camera and a 64MB card, I never get more than 62MB of total pictures captured).
Sent in for my rebate and will update here when I get it. Even without the rebate I think that this was a great buy!

This is a very good sd card and is a great size for its value. I am using it with the panasonic sv-av20 digital cam and it works perfect for it. plays mp3s great, and can handle video very well. Overall great SD card!

Spent time looking at http://www.DPReview.com and this card was rated at the top of consumer flash cards along with Viking's "high speed" cards. As shown in the technical details, it is guaranteed to 26x write speed, but it actually benchmarks higher on the DPReview in a variety of read/write tests. There are professional compactflash cards on the market that offer 40 and 50x write speeds but they are generally cost prohibitive. For my Canon S230, I get excellent speed and much longer battery life than the PNY card i originally used. The only slow-down I experienced was with movie mode, it took about 10 seconds to write a 640x480 movie to the card. And with sequential shoooting (~2 pictures/sec) the camera would have to recover after 10 pictures (another 10 second delay).

I have a Canon Powershot G3 & this card works MUCH faster than the included 32MB card. I would recommend this card, especially since it helps extend battery life.