SanDisk SDSDB-256-A10 256 MB Secure Digital Card (Retail Package)
by SanDisk
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Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of SanDisk SDSDB-256-A10 256 MB Secure Digital Card (Retail Package)
Customer Review: Not all digital devices work with all SD cards
Summary: 4 Stars
There are a number of people leaving reviews here that bash SanDisk, and I'm sure that their experience justifies their opinions. But let me relate my own experience.
I bought a couple of motion-activated trail cameras and bought several Kingston 256MB SD cards for them. I decided on Kingston based on so many favorable reviews of their SD cards on Amazon. But the cameras were not compatible at all with the Kingston cards. The cameras wouldn't power up in the manner that the user manual said they would, I couldn't access the menu screen, none of the set-up buttons worked, and the LCD screens showed things never discussed in the user manual. Things were just generally screwed up, and I wondered if I had received a defective unit.
I called the camera manufacturer and they said that they also had experienced trouble with certain "offbrand" makes of SD cards, but that they hadn't had any trouble with SanDisk. I had never heard that Kingston was considered an offbrand, but I decided to experiment using another manufacturer's SD card. I inserted a SanDisk SD card, and the camera worked beautifully. Perhaps SanDisk adheres more closely to guidelines for cross-compatibility between digital devices, but that was a lesson for me.
Contrary to the experiences of some, I have never had problems with a SanDisk memory card - CF or SD - whereas this is the second time I've had problems with a Kingston memory card - one time it was a 512MB CF card that suddenly went belly-up after not much use, and now their 256MB SD card was having compatibity issues. I'm sticking with Sandisk or Lexar.
Customer Review: Poor product quality - worse customer service
Summary: 1 Stars
You can just read my bottom line, or my entire story below that.Bottom line - spend your money with a company that has an infrastructure. If Sandisk can't even handle RMA's, how competent are they to manufacture high end flash memory components?
I purchased the card as a last minute Christmas gift ... - way to go Amazon!
Card was supposed to come formatted, wasn't. Wouldn't format in any of the 4 devices I tried it in, then Windows format from a command line said there was a bad sector.
After a week of trading emails with Sandisk (try this, try that, did it all already) they said the RMA dept would contact me....in 5-10 business days. It took 12. Guess that says something about their product quality, doesn't it? 12 Business days just to get an RMA number so I could send them the card back on MY NICKEL. They've had the package for a full week now, no word on whether my new card has even been SHIPPED.
A full month later, and all I can say is I've spent my [$$] rebate (which I have not gotten yet, wonder if I will) on shipping their faulty product back to them. Had I not already sent the rebate in, I probably would've just tried to return the item through Amazon, because I don't blame them...but I would've liked to test their return policy, because experiences like this really make you think about purchasing electronics online. Either way, Sandisk will no longer be a product consideration for me, even if someday I have a wonderful working SD card...the customer service is too bad.
My Viking 256MB CF card rocks, though - also bought through Amazon...with no problems whatsoever with very regular usage.
Customer Review: Great card and excellent value
Summary: 5 Stars
I have a Kodak DX4330 and at Best quality 3.1MP, this gives me 203 pictures,
Better quality gives me 366 pictures
Good quality gives me 740 pictures
Other cameras due to compression and quality variations will be different.
Just in case the other readers don't know, the MMC and SD card are the same format. The only difference is two things. The SD card is a little thicker (still seems to fit everywhere an MMC card does) and the SD card has an extra. It has a little slider that allows the user to keep from accidentally deleting or changing items on a card. This also keeps you from taking pictures on the card if you forget to switch it back. But then most cameras or other devices should remind you of this.
The SD aspect to this MMC card also allows me to ensure the safety of my untransferred pictures as well. If I'm passing around my camera at a family gathering, first I slide the securing switch to the "lock" position to be sure no pictures can be deleted. Then I can be sure no one can accidentally delete my pictures. Unless others are aware of this feature, they would find it difficult to delete them unless they knew about this.
The only tough thing about doing this, is remembering to slide the switch back off before I take new pictures. But then my Kodak camera would remind me to do this anyway, if I was not in Review.
Great card, excellent value.
Customer Review: The one I bought is bad !
Summary: 2 Stars
I was buying this item in order to use it as an SD card on my new Garmin ique 3600 GPS.While trying to transfer maps prepared by Palm host "map install" tool, I figured out that once data size exceeds ~110 Mbytes it simply can not be transferred, since there is some timeout.
I thought it is a problem with Garmin map database, but I needed to double check it. So, I simply grouped together 120 Mbytes of mp3 files (each of 6Mbyte). It got hunging out after the 18th file.
So, I can use it as 110 Mbyte card, which I could buy at 50 USD. I have tried to play the mp3 file and after 3 replayes the PDA freezed and I had to reset.
Needless to say that I tried using Lexar's 128 Mbytes SD card that I already bought, and I had no problems replaying the mp3 file.
I also tried writing to it, using the Toshiba SD card reader/writer on my Laptop, and again - not all data was written, though the iQueue software on the iQue3600 accessed the written data (the one I managed to write) and handled it correctly.
Conclusion:
The card I bought mulfunctions on more than one device. At the time being, I am contacting SanDisk support to replace this card. I hope the one I'll get instead is better. If so, I'll try to refine my review.
Customer Review: Doesn't work in Dell Axim or in my Kodak Digital Camera
Summary: 1 Stars
There is a reason why the Sandisk 256 mb card is the cheapest, it has problems. I first purchased it to use in my Dell Axim (Pocket PC). I kept losing the data and having to reformat the card. It seems to have the most problems storing or deleting large files (MP3s, video, ebooks, etc.).I recently bought a new Kodak Digital Camera (DX6340). It uses SD, so thinking maybe the problem with the Sandisk was related to my Axim, I started to use it in my camera. And the same problem happened the first time I used it. I even tried the fancy software to format the card and it doesn't help either.
Needless to say, I am very disappointed. I have learned a difficult lesson, do your homework before purchasing. I researched my digital camera (btw, which I love.... highly recommend the DX6340) and my Pocket PC (ditto on the Axim), I didn't think about memory. I replaced the Sandisk with a Lexar 256 mb SD and it works great in the digital camera and PocketPC. Do some research in user forums on line and you will see that the Sandisk has problems in many devices, especially in PocketPC devices (Ipaq, Toshiba, Palm, Dell Axim, etc.) Based on this, SanDisk should recall this memory and fix the problem.