Tag Archives: memory

Detecting Fake SanDisk Compact Flash Memory Cards

fake SanDisk Compact Flash cardYou know the old saying, if it seems too good to be true it probably is. Have you bought a SanDisk flash memory card off eBay lately? Got a bargain deal? Better check you haven’t been scammed with a Fake SanDisk Compact Flash card

This page details a fake SanDisk Compact Flash card that I purchased from eBay, and provides information to allow you to easily identify fake SanDisk cards.

I bought the card on eBay, from a seller who has been a member of eBay for nearly 5 years,
and with about 140 positive feedback ratings.
The item was labelled as “Sandisk Ultra II 2GB compact flash card“, with the
description saying it was a
brand new sandisk Ultra II 2GB Compact flash cards complete all with retail packaging, manafacturers warranty etc“.

The price was very good….in fact, too good to be true, as I found out.

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SanDisk announce Extreme IV CompactFlash cards

I am quite a fan of SanDisk compact flash products, I use three Ultra II cards (and gave away one of the same as the Picture A Day Challenge Prize). Up to now I haven’t purchased the higher speed and capacity Extreme III but now SanDisk have superseded even that with the new Extreme IV. As SanDisk are usually measured as the fastest Compact Flash cards around this should rock.

More info in the Press Release

SanDisk Extreme® IV line of CompactFlash® digital film cards for professional photographers. The line is targeted at photographers who require the highest possible performance and the largest capacities for their medium format and high-end digital single lens reflex (SLR) cameras. The SanDisk Extreme IV cards are available in capacities of up to 8-gigabytes (GB)1 and deliver minimum read and write speeds of 40 megabytes per second (MB/sec.)2 making these the fastest flash memory cards in the world. This exceptionally fast card speed is critical when shooting large numbers of high-resolution images.

When do you need the speed? Sports events and shooting scenarios where targets will be fast moving, where you will be using continuous rapid fire approach benefits by clearing the buffer faster with swifter writes. Also if you shoot RAW where you have higher file sizes the transfer to your computer is usually speeded up. For normal shooting the older cards would suffice although I do find there is a reliability improvement by buying the more expensive disks, I have only had failures so far on cheaper products.

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Memory Card Data Recovery Tool

Download Squad points to a tool that allows you to recover lost photographs from dodgy memory cards, CD-ROMs or your hard drive

PhotoRec is an open source multi-platform app intended to help you recover photos from corrupted media like memory cards

Luckily for me I have yet to experience this problem, I’m glad I heard about this software now rather than when I really need it!

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Beware eBay Memory Card Scam

Buyer beware, as always. First there was the “buy the box, not the contents” scam where people thought they were buying a product at a knock-down price where what they were really buying was the packaging. Now dodgy eBay sellers are changing the labels of memory cards to artificially boost their value. Standard advice, if it seems too good to be true it usually is.

Counterfeit Flash Drives Plague eBay

Lately there has been a huge increase in the number of counterfeit flash drives on eBay. Sellers claim to be selling large drives (e.g 8GB) from name brand companies, like Sony, but they are actually 64MB drives that have been re-labeled. These drives usually break within a few weeks of being purchase. Please digg this to stop the scammers!

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