Others say...

"Good enough for VGA/30fps and 5mp/6mp/7mp* cameras"
Value, size, speed and quality are all good, but you have to know what you need to know if this is the right card for you.


VALUE

First of all, it's priced well for a fast card (12/2007). There are a lot of slower cards out there with more capacity or sized similarly for a bit less, but $18 for an 80x 1GB card isn't bad. Note the value equation (Price versus capacity & speed) is sure to improve in the next 6-12 months.


SIZE

With regards to size, 1GB (or more correctly 1gB**) is roughly a 10-12 minute VGA quality mjpeg/mov/avi video (or closer to 25+ min in mpeg4/divx) or anywhere from 250-300 very high quality (e.g. very low compression 2:1) pictures. For me, it's a good compromise between usable size and safety - large enough for a photo album but not all the pics in 1 album. I bought 2.


SPEED

Now, about the speed, 80x means 80 times the basic read/write speed of 150,000 bits per second (the old audio CD speed standard). Cards that don't claim a speed usually run at less than 20x speed (like 4-8x) for slow applications like MP3 players or data storage. Digital cameras and video need higher speed cards because they have to transfer so much data to clear their working memory to achieve fast burst/follow-up shots and smooth video.

80x speeds will let you take about 3 very high quality pics per second in a 5mp camera, 2.5 fps - 6mp, 2 fps - 7mp. Some cameras can go faster than this, like 3 fps until the card is full of 7mp pics, but a slow card means lower fps. If you need faster speeds, consider Transcends 150x cards - also well priced.


QUALITY

Lastly, I've had no bad cards from Transcend so I have to rate them highly.


OTHER INFO

Some others brands have some attractive features like built-in USB contacts (no adapters!), but it'll cost you (more than double).

SD-HC capacities (greater than 2GB) are offered, but the Class 6 rating (40x or greater) is pretty slow so I'll wait until they have Class 12 or something. Note not all devices support SDHC, but most new high megapixel digital cameras should.

* 7mp cameras with high-speed burst modes may not reach full burst speeds with 80x cards, consider higher speeds if this is important to you.

** It's the old GB (1024 * 1024 * 1024 = 1,073,741,824 Bytes) versus gB (1,000,000,000 Bytes) labelling issue. Probably started with the hard drive manufacturers, but don't quote me on that.


OVERALL

Good cards for my needs and for most point-and-shoots out today.

"Great card"
Great card. Works well. Fast and Cheap. What else could you ask for?

"Provides optimum storage"
This one provides good storage capacity. I am able rewrite again and again without any hastle.

"Good performance, value! "
The 80x cards are just as fast in my DMC-FX50 as the 150x I have.

"Excellent Card"
Have used this for over 2 months now. Very happy and pleased with it. I used it for video also, and recording at the highest camera setting was crisp. No jumping or stuttering due to slow write times. This was using 640x480 at 30FPS.