SanDisk SD Pus USB Cards

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Mark Norton

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Don't know how well known these are but San Disk make a family of SD cards which contain a built in USB interface. You just fold back the hinged part of the card and plug it into a USB port of your PC.

http://www.sandisk.com/Products/Item(1853)-Shipping%20in%20October-SanDisk_Ultra_II_SD_Plus_USB_2GB.aspx

The 2Gb one is coming in October.

This is especially useful with the R-D1 since it doesn't have a USB port available for downloading and for people with PCs without built in SD card readers.
 
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I've been using the SD plus for 4 months or so. They work great, never had any problem. Its nice not to have to lug around a card reader, plus I can download onto anyones computer. The apparent flimsy construction concerned me at first, but they hold up fine.

Rex
 
had my first sd card failure -- tried one of those $20 / 2gb no-names from Microstore, 1 out of 2 work, 1 just died, sent it back. Sticking to name brands from now on.
 
Ted - not sure what you're saying there - was one of the failed ones the sandisk model?

I've had my sd plus for about as long as Rex. Also no problems. Love it.

allan
 
Hi Allan

Hi Allan

No, Sandisk are great cards. However, I recently tried a couple of no-name generic 1GB SD cards due to the tempting Microstore offer - $20 each, no rebates, and one of them failed. I don't think I'll buy or use generic anymore...

Never have had problems with Sandisk, Lexar, Kingston, PQI, etc. in CF or SD. My recommendation is to keep sticking with name brands.

kaiyen said:
Ted - not sure what you're saying there - was one of the failed ones the sandisk model?

I've had my sd plus for about as long as Rex. Also no problems. Love it.

allan
Click to expand...
 
ok, this is the coolest thing ever! I almost always forget the cable or card reader with my dslr.. Now that I'm switching to a RD1, I can get a couple of these and never have to think about it.
 
This is cool! I have a 1GB version one of these Sandisk cards in my (cough) DSLR. After reading this thread I popped it right into the front USB port on my Dell PC. In 10 seconds it was installed and ready to download data. Where did they hide that funky blue light?

What a useful feature! Now I'll be able to share image files more easily. Kudos, Sandisk!
 
Way cool but is it big enough?

Way cool but is it big enough?

Everybody that sees this thing in action, unanamously says this the the coolest thing since sliced bread. But I can hardly wait for the 2Mg version as the current 1 Meg version only holds 100 RAW shots. And the M8 will hold even less.

Rex
 
Rex - do you mean is 1GB enough? That's kind of a personal workflow question, isn't it?

personally, I think holding more than 100 photos on a single card might be putting too many eggs in one basket. 100 photos is a pretty good number. This applies only to situations in which you'd need RAW (like events). When I shoot JPG (which is fairly often), I don't mind putting 400 photos on my 1GB card.

This is on my dslr if it matters. I don't have an rd1.

allan
 
kaiyen said:
Rex - do you mean is 1GB enough? That's kind of a personal workflow question, isn't it?

... This is on my dslr if it matters....

allan
Click to expand...

First you insult my workflow, then you descend into barbarism.

Repent, Heathen!!

Rex
 
Rex,
Sarcasm completely noted, btw. But I have noticed that a lot of folks here on RFF using the rd1 seem to want giant capacity cards and store like an entire day's worth of shooting on one card. Perhaps I've been too ingrained to the fear of failed cards from hanging out in the wedding forum at PN too much.

anyway. I'd go with the Extreme III SD cards in any case. Noticeably faster for me than the Ultra II's.

allan
 
There are also small multi-card readers available from many sources. I have two different kinds. Effectively makes all SD cards USB capable. Not as sexy as the one mentioned here, but probably cheaper and not much less convenient. Of course, these function as regular 1 or 2 gig drives as well, just like any other drive. What I like about SD cards is that since Toshiba was one of the companies that got together to develop these, my laptop has an SD card slot built in.
 
hm. intruging. perhaps the rd-1 is not capable of the throughput to take advantage of the increase speed capabilitities of the extreme III. On my D70 there is a slight difference, but certainly when I'm pulling 1GB of files off, the extreme III is faster on a consistent basis. And the non-folding (non-plus) extreme III is about the same price as the folding (plus) Ultra II.

allan
 
kaiyen said:
hm. intruging. perhaps the rd-1 is not capable of the throughput to take advantage of the increase speed capabilitities of the extreme III.

allan
Click to expand...

I don't think the RD1 can write fast enough for anything faster than an Ultra II. That being said, I don't know if an Extreme III can download to my computer faster than my Ultra II plus which does not need a reader. My gut feeling is the plus card downloads faster by going directly into the USB bus rather than going thru a card reader. I think card readers slow the process down, especially badly designed ones.

As for trusting hunderds of pictures on one card, I have never had a card failure so I am not sensitive to that issue. But I have never used anything besides Sandisk Ultra's or Extremes. The 2GB version of the Plus will come out in the fall which will hold 200 RD1 raw files. That's all I would ever want for my Epson.

As for the file size of the new M8, does anyone know? Maybe a 2GB card would be about right?

Rex
 
kaiyen said:
Rex,
My laptop has a built-in SD card slot. That's what I'm using for comparison.

allan
Click to expand...

Kaiyen

Are you saying the Extreme III is faster to download thru your built in SD card slot than the Ultra II thru the same slot? If so, how much faster? It takes my laptop about 4 minutes to download a 1 GB Ultra II Plus thru a regular USB port (no card reader required).

Rex
 
Rex,
Yes, through the same slot, I'm noticing faster download times for 1GB. Maybe 30 seconds. I haven't timed it with a watch, but I take a card of each filled with photos and the extreme III is maybe 30 seconds faster. I can do a better test. I have been giving just my subjective experiences only, nothing more.

I am not saying that the Ultra Plus isn't convenient. It _really_ is.

allan
 
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