Editorial Review

Fully Compatible with SDA 2.0 specification. Suitable for SDHC compliant devices, MLC flash chip with High Speed transfer rate. Perfect for highend digital devices. Please make sure your device can support SDHC format before you purchase! SDHC host devices can use both SD and SDHC memory cards. ... Read more

Reviews

Great affordable SDHC card, March 28, 2008
In the past, I bought a Transcend 8GB SDHC card for my Canon SD1000 camera. I recently bought the Transcend 16GB SDHC for my new Canon SX20IS. Both cards work very well and I've had no problems with it so far. I wanted to take this opportunity to update my review since my original review was also posted (by Amazon) for the 16GB card. This is because the only difference between these two cards is the different capacity. So, if you're in the market for an affordable high quality SDHC card, this may be the one for you. Sorry, I kind of sounded like a used car salesman right there, didn't I? I assure you that I don't work for Transcend. But, here's why I think this card is awesome:

Pros:

-Affordable!

-Large capacity

-Class 6 read/write speed (which is very fast... but is no longer the fastest class available)

-Lifetime warranty (at least that's what the package says :)

-Transcend is a reputable company that's been making memory products for a very long time. ( I swear to the tech Gods that I don't work for them!) Other reputable and reliable memory card companies include Kingston and PNY. All three of these companies have been making memory chips for many, many years.


Cons:

- I can' really think of any "Cons" about this card. But here's the 2 closest things I can come up with right now: (1) "Class 6" is no longer the fastest speed available and (2) This card does NOT make coffee for you in the morning, do your dishes for you, give you compliments when you're having a bad day, or magically improve your photography skills.




IMPORTANT SPECIAL NOTES ABOUT SDHC MEMORY CARDS:

-SDHC cards are not compatible with most older SD cameras, SD devices, or SD card readers.

-SDHC cards are rated by speed using different "classes". There are currently 4 data transfer speed classes available for SDHC cards. These classes are "class 2, class 4, and class 6, and the new class 10. For example, "Class 2" would have the slowest read/write speed while "Class 6" has the fastest read/write speed. So if you have a device in which speed may play a crucial role, make sure you buy a higher "class" SDHC card. Please note that this SDHC card no longer has the fastest read/write speed available. There is now a new class, called "Class 10". Class 6 has a minimum read/write speed of 6MB/sec... while Class 2 has minimum speed rating of 2MB/sec, and Class 4 is 4MB/sec. Starting to see the pattern?


SO WHAT'S THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN "SD CARDS" AND "SDHC CARDS?

SDHC is basically an upgrade to the older SD cards. The reason they upgraded it was to achieve greater data transfer speeds AND capacity than previously possible with normal SD cards... and to do this, they had to redesign the card (which is why it's not compatible with normal SD devices). This was necessary because digital cameras and digital video cameras these days have higher resolutions, which equate to larger file sizes and faster data transfer needs.

Now that many digital cameras also can record HD video, you may consider getting a larger capacity card because video takes much more space than photos. The size of the video varies from camera to camera depending on what resolution and video compression the camera uses. If you plan on taking lots of video (especially HD video), I would consider getting at least a 16GB card. Check your camera specifications to see how many minutes per Gig of memory your camera can capture ...to gauge how big of a memory card you'll want to get to meet your needs.

Special Note on regular SD Cards:
If you primarily take casual photos and don't need a exceptionally fast read/write capable card, you should know that newer cameras that take "SDHC" cards will also work with older normal "SD" cards. These older cards are cheaper than the new SDHC cards, so this may be something to consider. So to sum things up, newer cameras will take SDHC and regular SD cards, but older cameras that use SD cards may not be able to use SDHC cards. This is because newer technology is usually made to be compatible with older technology (the technical term used to describe this is "backwards compatibility") ... but older technology may not have the hardware necessary to run newer tech (technical term used is "obsolete"... just kidding! ;)

I hope I haven't confused everybody by going into this much detail, but I can't help being the nerd that I am. If you are confused, don't hesitate to comment on this post and I will try my best to answer your questions. Also, any feedback is always welcome!

Conclusion: Buy the card if you have a new device that uses SDHC. It rocks! (This message has been approved by the "Duke of New Mexico")

Transcend 4 GB Class 6 SDHC Card - Good Card for SDHC Compatible Devices, May 10, 2008
UPDATE - March 2, 2010: This review was originally written for the 4 GB class 6 SDHC card, but the reviews have been grouped for all class 6 SDHC cards in the 4, 8, 16 and 32 GB sizes. All the cards should perform similarly since they are all class 6 and all made by Transcend. However, I will have to check which cards I have used hands on. I believe I only own the 4GB and 8GB cards. I will update the review further. If you have concerns regarding the 16GB or 32GB sizes, you should seek out the reviews tagged with the product links from those cards.


The Transcend 4GB SDHC CARD (Class 6) is a great card for the price. I was at first a little skeptical about the brand, but I buy way too many memory cards to ignore a good price when I see one. And I'm happy to report that I've experienced decent performance and reliability issues with this card. That's as compared to other cards I own including SanDisk, PNY and Kingston.

As long as your devices are compatible with the SDHC format, this card is a good buy. 4 GB is a nice size though I do prefer 8 GB capacity for high capacity storage.

The class 6 speed is the fastest speed available in mass market SDHC cards. Class 6 guarantees minimum transfer speeds of 6 MBs, but I've gotten speeds up to 20Mbs! That makes this card perfect for storing pictures in RAW image formats.

The Class 6 speed is on par with the Sandisk Extreme III cards that on average are about $15 to $20 more per card. If you don't have an SDHC reader, you may opt to get the package with a reader included to download your pics. If not you can just transfer your pics directly from your camera with your card still inserted. An SDHC card reader can be bought separately if your PC doesn't have a compatible slot.

General SDHC and SD Card Tips

There are a few tips that I've learned the hard way through buying TOO MANY different memory cards.
1. Make sure your device is compatible with the card! Even in regular SD cards, some older electronics aren't compatible with that large of a size (2 GB). In terms of SDHC cards, make sure your camera or other device is SDHC compatible. SDHC is different from regular SD and only newer devices tend to have built-in compatibility
2. Once you install this in your camera or device, you will generally want to format the card with your compatible device's interface. That is because the standard formats for certain devices, particularly Canon, are different from the factory installed format
3. Just like your devices, most computer SD card readers are not compatible with the SDHC format. So use a card reader or download the pictures via USB connection to the camera with the card still installed.
4. For some reason, placing the card in the locked position allows some older laptops to still read it. This is just to be used in a pinch however, and it won't apply to all systems
5. If you did not properly format your card, you may be able to save things to it and then have them "disappear." If this happens to you, make sure you use the software recovery tools BEFORE you try to save anything else to your card. That way, you can retrieve your images without over-writing them.
6. Make sure you know what you are going to use this card for. Once you have set up everything and ensured it's all compatible, you still have to decide on speed. If you are using this for storing RAW images instead of JPEGs or HD video, step up to the faster class 6 speed format if you can afford it.
7. If you are going to pay more for a faster speed, make sure your device can benefit from it. I've read, for example, that Kodak cameras are set to a fixed voltage and cannot go faster than standard speed. So the extra cash spent on Class 4, 5, or 6 is basically wasted.

Conclusion

It's great to have several extra cards on hand just in case. This 4 GB card is a nice performer. If you have a high capacity camera (10 Megapixels or more) and are storing videos or RAW images, the extra cash for the 8GB card is worth it. Or you may want to step up to the larger 16 GB size that is now available.

Enjoy!

Transcend 32 GB SDHC Review, May 25, 2009
Before you drop 120~$ for a SD card ask yourself, Do you really need 32GB card? because the card itself with same specs costs only 35$ for the 16GB version, anyway here is info that might help you

Pros :
1- Class 6 Card the(guaranteed minimum Read/write speed of 6MB/s)
2- My Test Results 18.2-18.5MB/S Read - 11.6-11.8 Write (very stable)
3- Faster than average cards and almost close to top speed SDHC cards
4- 32GB in a single small chip is awesome(You can use it as a portable HD once in a while, i share some stuff with my friends with it sometimes


Cons :
1- Expensive
2- You can get two 16GB cards for around only 70$ and save yourself 50$~
3- Slow write speeds for a 32GB card (Takes forever to fill it with DATA from PC, its not the card fault though , its just the SDHC technology is getting old and slow for 2009 standards , time for newer Tech)

* Important Info

Avoid the Sandisk Ultra Series they never reach the true marketed speed "15MB-20MB/S" its just in theory speed like how everybody knows that USB2 is much slower than its specs, and they are only Class 2 for the 32GB version which will drop frames from your HD video (Plus Class 4 is minimum requirement for shooting in HD ) if you plan to get San disk Card then get the Extreme III Series (but again from my own Tests there read speed is about 20MB not 30MB and the write speed is 14MB/s~ instead of the transcend 11MB/s write speed (Unless you spam shooting pictures with your DSLR you don't "need" faster speed)

I bought This card because i plan to take videos with my HD camcorder that last more 2 Hours, if you do not plan to shoot for longtime then you are better with getting the 16GB card HOWEVER, if you are lazy like my mom and do not plan to transfer DATA from the card to Your computer HD after every trip, then get the 32GB card.or you gonna end up on a trip and a message pops "No memory"

If you plan to shoot for longer time, check your camcorder battery too does it even last that long? so be sure about that before you drop over 100$ for this card

product failed., July 26, 2009
Well, it was great while it lasted. Unfortunately, it did not last long.

Like other reviewers, after <20 use cycles the device failed and I got a "lock" error when, in fact, the write-protection lock was not engaged. Oddly, by engaging the lock (i.e. entering read-only mode) I was able to remove the picture files from the card. Obviously, further use in the camera was impossible; I was also unable to reformat the card (either with my camera or with the SD Associations free software [..]).

This card has a high average rating but I would urge customers to consider the number of 1-star ratings due to complete product failure before they purchase this item.

My Canon loves the 8 GB SDHC card, January 15, 2008
I recently purchased a Canon Powershot A720IS digital camera that is capable of recognizing and using up to 2 TERRABYTES of memory card (in the future) so I wanted to get the largest memory card I could install for now. I wanted to use the camera both on dry land and with an underwater housing for shooting stills and video on dive trips. Camera specs said an 8 GB SDHC card would record one hour of hi res video at 30 fps. Or nearly 2300 hi res stills at 8 megapixels.

A test of the Transcend 8GB SDHC card in the camera ended up shooting 70 minutes of full screen, 30fps digital video that could not be distinguished from my DV camcorder video quality. Playback from the memory card to the TV was so fast & efficient there was never a single "stutter" on the screen. The card speed is genuinely FAST as advertised. Low level formatting of the card allowed for very acceptable rapid-fire sequential still photo shooting speeds when light levels were bright enough that the flash was not needed/used. Something like 2 photos every 3 seconds. Files were flawless in display, both for stills and video.

This product was significantly lower in price than the Kingston 8GB SDHC card I originally bought with the camera. I've used both interchangeably and cannot see any different in the speed or capacity and quality of imagery is identical. For the money I'll stick with Transcend and am looking forward to getting their 16GB card once the price drops substantially below the $100 mark. That would provide nearly 2 1/2 hours of video on my still camera or 4600 highest quality stills. I'm afraid my camcorder will be collecting dust much of the time. A big advantage to video on the card is there are NO MOVING PARTS, e.g. a mini DV tape cassette and camcorder or VCR playback unit needed to dump the video and stills to my Mac for editing and burning DVDs. I just stick the card in the MicroMate USB card reader, plug it in the computer and bingo, ready to sort thru and dump to the hard drive. Since the card is formatted by a Canon camera it automatically boots up the Canon Viewer software too. That should work the same for other brands of still cameras formatting this chip.

The Fastest Card at This Price But..., June 26, 2007
This SDHC card is the fastest one in its price range but it may cause your images to be lost.

I use two of this in a Canon SD750. After the first use, all of the images were lost. (But thank God, I could rescue them with Lexar Image Rescue 2, a program better than its competitors) Then I formated the card(s) in the camera(s) with "low level format" option several times and there has been no problem after that so far.

I can suggest these points to potential owners of this card:
1- Use it very carefully, make backups if possible.
2- Format it several times before the first use with "low level format" option.
3- If you loose your images, don't panic. At this situation, It is very important not to take anymore pictures. If you take pictures after this point, you can overwrite your lost images and there can be no chance to get them back. Connect your card to your computer with a card reader (SDHC Compatible) and rescue them with Lexar Image Rescue.

Excellent Mini Hard Drive equivalent, December 11, 2007
This card is able to hold a complete DVD movie, thousands of songs/photos, or just serve as a backup device for one's files.

It operates very well - I now have purchased 3 and with each use its value becomes more apparent.

One word of caution - even though most laptops and systems have an SD card slot, older computers may not be able to recognize or write to this card. Make sure your system has the ability to read SDHC configured products.

If you do not have an SD slot you can purchase an tiny SD reader (very inexpensive) that plugs into your USB port.

Great value, just be careful..., January 2, 2009
I recently ordered this card as an accessory for my Acer Aspire One netbook PC. The card took a little while to ship, about 8 days, but that wasn't a big deal. The card has lots of space, and the read speeds are quite impressive. I mostly use it to run and store portable software, and it does a very good job at that.

My only complaint is that when I first inserted the card into my PC it attempted to install some adware. The program was from a company called RelevantKnowledge, and they gather your information for market research purposes. Luckily my spyware software picked it up immediately,so I was able to delete it. Afterward I formatted the card, and now I'm happy as can be.

Reliable card, good speeds!, December 4, 2008
Transcend 16 GB SDHC SD Class 6 Flash Memory Card TS16GSDHC6E [Amazon Frustration-Free Packaging]
I have 4 of these cards that I use in my Panasonic HMC-150, a professional grade video camera. I've run read/write tests on all of them and they get about 14 MB/s write speeds and 17.5 MB/s read speeds. Never encountered any errors! These cards are the best bang for your buck, and the frustration free packaging is awesome.

Don't Let This Happen to You....., August 3, 2008
It's great to have 8GB of memory but it is a double edged sword. Today after using this card for only the second time, it failed on me. I lost almost 200 precious images - gone forever. I am what you would call an enthusiast or hobbyist. I love photography and spend every spare minute, which is very seldom these days, pursuing my passion. So I do a fair amount of experimentation. These cards are great when they work - but if they fail you even once - the results can be catastrophic. Maybe I am the unlucky 1 of 250 reviewers with a bad experience with this product, but I feel it is my responsibility to report this to everyone. I hope it never happens to you. It is human nature for me to wonder, if I had spent a few more dollars for a better brand name, would my photos be intact today?

Great affordable SDHC card, March 28, 2008
In the past, I bought a Transcend 8GB SDHC card for my Canon SD1000 camera. I recently bought the Transcend 16GB SDHC for my new Canon SX20IS. Both cards work very well and I've had no problems with it so far. I wanted to take this opportunity to update my review since my original review was also posted (by Amazon) for the 16GB card. This is because the only difference between these two cards is the different capacity. So, if you're in the market for an affordable high quality SDHC card, this may be the one for you. Sorry, I kind of sounded like a used car salesman right there, didn't I? I assure you that I don't work for Transcend. But, here's why I think this card is awesome:

Pros:

-Affordable!

-Large capacity

-Class 6 read/write speed (which is very fast... but is no longer the fastest class available)

-Lifetime warranty (at least that's what the package says :)

-Transcend is a reputable company that's been making memory products for a very long time. ( I swear to the tech Gods that I don't work for them!) Other reputable and reliable memory card companies include Kingston and PNY. All three of these companies have been making memory chips for many, many years.


Cons:

- I can' really think of any "Cons" about this card. But here's the 2 closest things I can come up with right now: (1) "Class 6" is no longer the fastest speed available and (2) This card does NOT make coffee for you in the morning, do your dishes for you, give you compliments when you're having a bad day, or magically improve your photography skills.




IMPORTANT SPECIAL NOTES ABOUT SDHC MEMORY CARDS:

-SDHC cards are not compatible with most older SD cameras, SD devices, or SD card readers.

-SDHC cards are rated by speed using different "classes". There are currently 4 data transfer speed classes available for SDHC cards. These classes are "class 2, class 4, and class 6, and the new class 10. For example, "Class 2" would have the slowest read/write speed while "Class 6" has the fastest read/write speed. So if you have a device in which speed may play a crucial role, make sure you buy a higher "class" SDHC card. Please note that this SDHC card no longer has the fastest read/write speed available. There is now a new class, called "Class 10". Class 6 has a minimum read/write speed of 6MB/sec... while Class 2 has minimum speed rating of 2MB/sec, and Class 4 is 4MB/sec. Starting to see the pattern?


SO WHAT'S THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN "SD CARDS" AND "SDHC CARDS?

SDHC is basically an upgrade to the older SD cards. The reason they upgraded it was to achieve greater data transfer speeds AND capacity than previously possible with normal SD cards... and to do this, they had to redesign the card (which is why it's not compatible with normal SD devices). This was necessary because digital cameras and digital video cameras these days have higher resolutions, which equate to larger file sizes and faster data transfer needs.

Now that many digital cameras also can record HD video, you may consider getting a larger capacity card because video takes much more space than photos. The size of the video varies from camera to camera depending on what resolution and video compression the camera uses. If you plan on taking lots of video (especially HD video), I would consider getting at least a 16GB card. Check your camera specifications to see how many minutes per Gig of memory your camera can capture ...to gauge how big of a memory card you'll want to get to meet your needs.

Special Note on regular SD Cards:
If you primarily take casual photos and don't need a exceptionally fast read/write capable card, you should know that newer cameras that take "SDHC" cards will also work with older normal "SD" cards. These older cards are cheaper than the new SDHC cards, so this may be something to consider. So to sum things up, newer cameras will take SDHC and regular SD cards, but older cameras that use SD cards may not be able to use SDHC cards. This is because newer technology is usually made to be compatible with older technology (the technical term used to describe this is "backwards compatibility") ... but older technology may not have the hardware necessary to run newer tech (technical term used is "obsolete"... just kidding! ;)

I hope I haven't confused everybody by going into this much detail, but I can't help being the nerd that I am. If you are confused, don't hesitate to comment on this post and I will try my best to answer your questions. Also, any feedback is always welcome!

Conclusion: Buy the card if you have a new device that uses SDHC. It rocks! (This message has been approved by the "Duke of New Mexico")

Transcend 4 GB Class 6 SDHC Card - Good Card for SDHC Compatible Devices, May 10, 2008
UPDATE - March 2, 2010: This review was originally written for the 4 GB class 6 SDHC card, but the reviews have been grouped for all class 6 SDHC cards in the 4, 8, 16 and 32 GB sizes. All the cards should perform similarly since they are all class 6 and all made by Transcend. However, I will have to check which cards I have used hands on. I believe I only own the 4GB and 8GB cards. I will update the review further. If you have concerns regarding the 16GB or 32GB sizes, you should seek out the reviews tagged with the product links from those cards.


The Transcend 4GB SDHC CARD (Class 6) is a great card for the price. I was at first a little skeptical about the brand, but I buy way too many memory cards to ignore a good price when I see one. And I'm happy to report that I've experienced decent performance and reliability issues with this card. That's as compared to other cards I own including SanDisk, PNY and Kingston.

As long as your devices are compatible with the SDHC format, this card is a good buy. 4 GB is a nice size though I do prefer 8 GB capacity for high capacity storage.

The class 6 speed is the fastest speed available in mass market SDHC cards. Class 6 guarantees minimum transfer speeds of 6 MBs, but I've gotten speeds up to 20Mbs! That makes this card perfect for storing pictures in RAW image formats.

The Class 6 speed is on par with the Sandisk Extreme III cards that on average are about $15 to $20 more per card. If you don't have an SDHC reader, you may opt to get the package with a reader included to download your pics. If not you can just transfer your pics directly from your camera with your card still inserted. An SDHC card reader can be bought separately if your PC doesn't have a compatible slot.

General SDHC and SD Card Tips

There are a few tips that I've learned the hard way through buying TOO MANY different memory cards.
1. Make sure your device is compatible with the card! Even in regular SD cards, some older electronics aren't compatible with that large of a size (2 GB). In terms of SDHC cards, make sure your camera or other device is SDHC compatible. SDHC is different from regular SD and only newer devices tend to have built-in compatibility
2. Once you install this in your camera or device, you will generally want to format the card with your compatible device's interface. That is because the standard formats for certain devices, particularly Canon, are different from the factory installed format
3. Just like your devices, most computer SD card readers are not compatible with the SDHC format. So use a card reader or download the pictures via USB connection to the camera with the card still installed.
4. For some reason, placing the card in the locked position allows some older laptops to still read it. This is just to be used in a pinch however, and it won't apply to all systems
5. If you did not properly format your card, you may be able to save things to it and then have them "disappear." If this happens to you, make sure you use the software recovery tools BEFORE you try to save anything else to your card. That way, you can retrieve your images without over-writing them.
6. Make sure you know what you are going to use this card for. Once you have set up everything and ensured it's all compatible, you still have to decide on speed. If you are using this for storing RAW images instead of JPEGs or HD video, step up to the faster class 6 speed format if you can afford it.
7. If you are going to pay more for a faster speed, make sure your device can benefit from it. I've read, for example, that Kodak cameras are set to a fixed voltage and cannot go faster than standard speed. So the extra cash spent on Class 4, 5, or 6 is basically wasted.

Conclusion

It's great to have several extra cards on hand just in case. This 4 GB card is a nice performer. If you have a high capacity camera (10 Megapixels or more) and are storing videos or RAW images, the extra cash for the 8GB card is worth it. Or you may want to step up to the larger 16 GB size that is now available.

Enjoy!

Transcend 32 GB SDHC Review, May 25, 2009
Before you drop 120~$ for a SD card ask yourself, Do you really need 32GB card? because the card itself with same specs costs only 35$ for the 16GB version, anyway here is info that might help you

Pros :
1- Class 6 Card the(guaranteed minimum Read/write speed of 6MB/s)
2- My Test Results 18.2-18.5MB/S Read - 11.6-11.8 Write (very stable)
3- Faster than average cards and almost close to top speed SDHC cards
4- 32GB in a single small chip is awesome(You can use it as a portable HD once in a while, i share some stuff with my friends with it sometimes


Cons :
1- Expensive
2- You can get two 16GB cards for around only 70$ and save yourself 50$~
3- Slow write speeds for a 32GB card (Takes forever to fill it with DATA from PC, its not the card fault though , its just the SDHC technology is getting old and slow for 2009 standards , time for newer Tech)

* Important Info

Avoid the Sandisk Ultra Series they never reach the true marketed speed "15MB-20MB/S" its just in theory speed like how everybody knows that USB2 is much slower than its specs, and they are only Class 2 for the 32GB version which will drop frames from your HD video (Plus Class 4 is minimum requirement for shooting in HD ) if you plan to get San disk Card then get the Extreme III Series (but again from my own Tests there read speed is about 20MB not 30MB and the write speed is 14MB/s~ instead of the transcend 11MB/s write speed (Unless you spam shooting pictures with your DSLR you don't "need" faster speed)

I bought This card because i plan to take videos with my HD camcorder that last more 2 Hours, if you do not plan to shoot for longtime then you are better with getting the 16GB card HOWEVER, if you are lazy like my mom and do not plan to transfer DATA from the card to Your computer HD after every trip, then get the 32GB card.or you gonna end up on a trip and a message pops "No memory"

If you plan to shoot for longer time, check your camcorder battery too does it even last that long? so be sure about that before you drop over 100$ for this card

product failed., July 26, 2009
Well, it was great while it lasted. Unfortunately, it did not last long.

Like other reviewers, after <20 use cycles the device failed and I got a "lock" error when, in fact, the write-protection lock was not engaged. Oddly, by engaging the lock (i.e. entering read-only mode) I was able to remove the picture files from the card. Obviously, further use in the camera was impossible; I was also unable to reformat the card (either with my camera or with the SD Associations free software [..]).

This card has a high average rating but I would urge customers to consider the number of 1-star ratings due to complete product failure before they purchase this item.

My Canon loves the 8 GB SDHC card, January 15, 2008
I recently purchased a Canon Powershot A720IS digital camera that is capable of recognizing and using up to 2 TERRABYTES of memory card (in the future) so I wanted to get the largest memory card I could install for now. I wanted to use the camera both on dry land and with an underwater housing for shooting stills and video on dive trips. Camera specs said an 8 GB SDHC card would record one hour of hi res video at 30 fps. Or nearly 2300 hi res stills at 8 megapixels.

A test of the Transcend 8GB SDHC card in the camera ended up shooting 70 minutes of full screen, 30fps digital video that could not be distinguished from my DV camcorder video quality. Playback from the memory card to the TV was so fast & efficient there was never a single "stutter" on the screen. The card speed is genuinely FAST as advertised. Low level formatting of the card allowed for very acceptable rapid-fire sequential still photo shooting speeds when light levels were bright enough that the flash was not needed/used. Something like 2 photos every 3 seconds. Files were flawless in display, both for stills and video.

This product was significantly lower in price than the Kingston 8GB SDHC card I originally bought with the camera. I've used both interchangeably and cannot see any different in the speed or capacity and quality of imagery is identical. For the money I'll stick with Transcend and am looking forward to getting their 16GB card once the price drops substantially below the $100 mark. That would provide nearly 2 1/2 hours of video on my still camera or 4600 highest quality stills. I'm afraid my camcorder will be collecting dust much of the time. A big advantage to video on the card is there are NO MOVING PARTS, e.g. a mini DV tape cassette and camcorder or VCR playback unit needed to dump the video and stills to my Mac for editing and burning DVDs. I just stick the card in the MicroMate USB card reader, plug it in the computer and bingo, ready to sort thru and dump to the hard drive. Since the card is formatted by a Canon camera it automatically boots up the Canon Viewer software too. That should work the same for other brands of still cameras formatting this chip.

The Fastest Card at This Price But..., June 26, 2007
This SDHC card is the fastest one in its price range but it may cause your images to be lost.

I use two of this in a Canon SD750. After the first use, all of the images were lost. (But thank God, I could rescue them with Lexar Image Rescue 2, a program better than its competitors) Then I formated the card(s) in the camera(s) with "low level format" option several times and there has been no problem after that so far.

I can suggest these points to potential owners of this card:
1- Use it very carefully, make backups if possible.
2- Format it several times before the first use with "low level format" option.
3- If you loose your images, don't panic. At this situation, It is very important not to take anymore pictures. If you take pictures after this point, you can overwrite your lost images and there can be no chance to get them back. Connect your card to your computer with a card reader (SDHC Compatible) and rescue them with Lexar Image Rescue.

Excellent Mini Hard Drive equivalent, December 11, 2007
This card is able to hold a complete DVD movie, thousands of songs/photos, or just serve as a backup device for one's files.

It operates very well - I now have purchased 3 and with each use its value becomes more apparent.

One word of caution - even though most laptops and systems have an SD card slot, older computers may not be able to recognize or write to this card. Make sure your system has the ability to read SDHC configured products.

If you do not have an SD slot you can purchase an tiny SD reader (very inexpensive) that plugs into your USB port.

Great value, just be careful..., January 2, 2009
I recently ordered this card as an accessory for my Acer Aspire One netbook PC. The card took a little while to ship, about 8 days, but that wasn't a big deal. The card has lots of space, and the read speeds are quite impressive. I mostly use it to run and store portable software, and it does a very good job at that.

My only complaint is that when I first inserted the card into my PC it attempted to install some adware. The program was from a company called RelevantKnowledge, and they gather your information for market research purposes. Luckily my spyware software picked it up immediately,so I was able to delete it. Afterward I formatted the card, and now I'm happy as can be.

Reliable card, good speeds!, December 4, 2008
Transcend 16 GB SDHC SD Class 6 Flash Memory Card TS16GSDHC6E [Amazon Frustration-Free Packaging]
I have 4 of these cards that I use in my Panasonic HMC-150, a professional grade video camera. I've run read/write tests on all of them and they get about 14 MB/s write speeds and 17.5 MB/s read speeds. Never encountered any errors! These cards are the best bang for your buck, and the frustration free packaging is awesome.

Don't Let This Happen to You....., August 3, 2008
It's great to have 8GB of memory but it is a double edged sword. Today after using this card for only the second time, it failed on me. I lost almost 200 precious images - gone forever. I am what you would call an enthusiast or hobbyist. I love photography and spend every spare minute, which is very seldom these days, pursuing my passion. So I do a fair amount of experimentation. These cards are great when they work - but if they fail you even once - the results can be catastrophic. Maybe I am the unlucky 1 of 250 reviewers with a bad experience with this product, but I feel it is my responsibility to report this to everyone. I hope it never happens to you. It is human nature for me to wonder, if I had spent a few more dollars for a better brand name, would my photos be intact today? ... Read more

Editorial Review

Amazon.com Product DescriptionTranscend 16GB Class 10 SDHC Flash Memory Card (TS16GSDHC10E) - Frustration Free Package

Certified Frustration-Free Packaging
Amazon.com has certified this product's packaging is Frustration-Free. A Frustration-Free Package is easy-to-open and comes without excess packaging materials such as hard plastic "clamshell" casings, plastic bindings, and wire ties. It is exactly the same as a traditionally packaged product--we've just streamlined the packaging to be opened without the use of a box cutter or knife and will protect your product just as well as traditional packaging during shipping. Products with Frustration-Free Packaging can frequently be shipped in their own boxes, without the need for an additional shipping box. Learn more.1 ... Read more

Reviews

Not All Class 10 Cards are Equal, April 11, 2010
UPDATE 9-10 I own 4 of these cards now. I have more of these than any other card I own because the are a very good value for capacity/price/and speed. My initial dissapointment over the lack of super high speed is outweighed by the reality that this card is an exceptional value.

Origional Review:
I purchased this card making the assumption that all class 10 cards had the same read and write speed. This was a poor assumption on my part.

The product photo on Amazon does not have the card's speed printed on it. The card that was shipped shows the front of the card printed with "20MB/s" which is the cards read speed. The cards write speed is only 16MB/s.

I own a SanDisk Extreme III class 10 card that has (up to) 30MB/s read and write speed. My Nikon D-90 that can take advantage of the SanDisk cards speed. The difference is the SanDisk card can capture 100 photos at fine resolution in 24 seconds. The Transcend card captures 66 photos in the same time/resolution.

I reality very few people will ever have the need to drill off 100 photos in 24 seconds, but I can't stand to loose a good shot because the camera is slow while writing to the card and I can't fire the shutter. You can hear this happen at about 4.5 seconds in the video review. This does not happen with the SanDisk class 10 30MB/s card.

A lot can happen in a fraction of a second that can make a shot good or bad and the having ability to fire a lot of shots in rapid succession is important to me.

If you own an SLR that is capable of rapid fire, high-resolution photography you may want to consider the SanDisk Extreme III 30 MB/s card.

If you own a compact digital camera, this card will exceed the capabilities of all of them. For compact cameras the card isn't usually the slowest part of the data write process, it's the camera.

This card is reasonably priced for a class 10 card. Just know what you are getting, what your needs may be, and what else is available. I own other Transcend cards and they have always worked properly without any issues.

The video that I attached shows this card with the same 24 seconds that I gave the SanDisk Card.

To see the SanDisk Extreme III 30MB/s video demo and review on Amazon go to:

Sandisk SDSDX3-008G-E31 8GB Extreme III SD Card 30MB/s (RETAIL PACKAGE)

Fast!, April 8, 2010
I purchased this for use with my new Canon T2i. I use it primarily for shooting full resolution 1080p video, although I shoot stills as well.

The camera choked on the class 4 chip that I originally purchased, but with this one, it is amazing. I can shoot rapidfire 18 megapixel stills (I've tested it up to 30+ shots in a row), and there is no lag. I've never had an error when shooting hi-def video.

Highly recommended! I'm buying another one.

Fast, fast, fast!, March 15, 2010
I bought this card for my Canon T1i. The card I had been using before ordering this one was a Kingston Class 6 micro sd card and it worked well enough for the type of shooting I did. Class 6 was the card speed that Canon recommended when I bought my T1i (Class 10 cards were not yet available) and it seemed fast enough for the way I used my camera - isolated single photos taken at Medium (8 MP) or Large (15 MP) jpg settings and 1280 x 720 video. And while I ocassionally took continuous photos, I had never much exceeded 5-10 photos in a row and had never run into a problem with my Class 6 card.

When I first saw the Class 10 cards I did some experiments with my camera. How many continuous Large photos could I take before the camera slowed down? It turned out to be about 30. And how many RAW photos could I take before the camera slowed down? It turned out to be about 9. SInce I did not generally take any photos in RAW and never needed more than about 10 continuous photos at Large, the Class 6 card seemed more than sufficient for my needs. But I wondered about the speed of the Class 10 cards enough that I finally bought one.

It turns out that the Class 10 card is sufficiently fast that there does not seem to be a reasonable upper limit on single Large photos. I have taken 60 on continuous without an issue. And although I still cannot take more than 9 RAW photos on continuous with the Class 10 card, when I am finished taking those photos the camera no longer displays a Wait - writing pictures screen. The RAW photos get written from the built-in memory to the card so quickly that the camera does not need to display the Wait screen.

So this card is fast! Given the way I take photos this purchase was unnecessary, but still I am glad I bought it. I know I will not run into a situation where speed is an issue with this card.

Transcend vs Sandisk of equal price, July 31, 2010
OK. this card was around $47 for a class 10 16gb. The other card i bought was a Sandisk class 10 8gb for the around same price. I did a 10 sec stop watch test on both cards with my Rebel T1i on raw and the Sandisk was only faster by 1 shot in a 10 sec burst. to me it seems trivial to pay 47 bucks for a Sandisk 8gig when you can get 16 gigs for the same price. yes i know, the Sandisk is good for arctic and desert temperatures... but i live in western NY... not Antarctica or the Sahara. If your looking for a good card, with more gigs for your buck, the Transcend is well worth it.

Slower than slow on Pentax K-x, April 25, 2010
I bought this for my pentax K-x but it would randomly corrupt images. Also, it was slower than my 3+ year old SandDisk Ultra 1GB card. I was told by the seller (Thememstore) that others with the k-x have had the same problems. So apparently it must have something to do with the class 10 part, because since I returned this card I bought a SandDisk Extreme III 4GB Class 6 and it works far better.

Would I recommend this card? Yes, but only to someone who knows that class 10 will work in their camera. I don't fault the card as I think the problem is with the K-x.

DESTROYS DATA -- after working fine for just long enough to fool you!, November 6, 2010
SUMMARY:


DO NOT BUY THIS CARD UNLESS YOU WANT TO PLAY RUSSIAN ROULETTE WITH YOUR DATA. Card worked fine when I bought it, but malfunctioned within the first 400 photos -- malfunctioned so badly that some very technical tools were needed to recover anything at all, and some photos were still permanently lost. Recovering the data requires the attention of a serious data recovery expert or someone with substantial technical knowledge and lots of time.


DETAILS:

I made the mistake buying this card for my camera right before a long trip overseas. It worked fine on the first few dozen shots. I didn't see any improvement in speed over my trusty 1.5-year-old Transcend 8GB Class-6 card, but that was most likely because the camera itself (Canon EOS Rebel 1000D/XSi) could not write images any faster than that (full-size JPEG, continuous shutter mode, roughly did ~2.5-3 images/second on both cards, with no slowdown after the first few shots).

200 shots or so into using this card, I get a sudden mysterious message from the camera when I try to take a new shot -- Card Format Invalid (never saw it in the previous 1.5 years on this camera with 3 other SDHC cards). I look around for a bit, and discover that turning the camera off, pulling the card out and putting it back in is enough to clear the error message, and the previous photos are still visible.

I then make the mistake of assuming the problem is just that -- needing to "reboot" the camera when the card is acting stupid, and nothing else. Over the next 200 or so shots, this problem comes up every 50 shots or so. Then, after yet another "reboot", I notice that the camera's playback function is only showing the last 30 photos!!! Yet it shows that there's only 5.7G of space left on the camera -- the other 2G+ _should_ be taken up by the photos I've shot thus far, but the playback doesn't show them.

And this happens in the middle of a trek through the Peruvian Andes, several days' walk/horse ride from the first village with electricity, let alone a computer (with lots of once-in-a-lifetime shots on the camera). I pull this card out immediately, plug in my backup card, and wait until coming back to civilization to take a look at the card. Sure enough, the card is severely corrupted -- the directory listing is showing a bunch of folders with weird-character names, and only the last ~30 photos are visible from the computer, too!


RECOVERY SUGGESTIONS:

Hopefully you'll read this before buying and will not buy this piece of junk card. If you had the misfortune of running into the same problem and losing your data, read on.

I have now had time to examine what was left on the card, using tools that are not easily usable to people without substantial technical training. I've managed to recover over 90% of my photos, but this was NOT easy, and I suspect that even some shops specializing in data recovery from failed disks may not know how to get your data back -- this is NOT as simple as just undeleting a file!

Non-technical instructions:

1. As soon as you see the FIRST error involving the card format, turn off the camera, pull out the card, and copy all of your photos to a different device (computer/harddrive/whatnot). The earlier you stop using this card, the safer your photos will be.

2. As soon as the first problem happens, move the little plastic slider on the side of the card to the "Lock" position -- this will prevent anything else from being written on the card, which lowers the risk of what's left of your photos being overwritten.

3. If you see directories (aka folders) with weird names when you plug this card into a computer -- or see a huge number of photos missing when you look at them on the camera, take the card out IMMEDIATELY, and take the card to a data recovery shop or a technical expert willing to look at the card in depth. Give them a printout of the explanation below.


Technical details:

At least in my case, the filesystem was indeed somehow damaged, perhaps by the camera deciding to write over the location of the root directory somehow. I took a full disk image of the card, and operated on the disk image only (there were no read errors when making the image, FWIW). Somehow I was lucky enough to have the original _subdirectories_ \DCIM and \DCIM\100CANON survive on the card intact even though the root directory structure now pointed to a different, new, place on the filesystem as \DCIM.

I found the location of the old 100CANON directory on the filesystem by searching for one of the filenames I knew would exist in the old directory, like IMG_7000, across the whole disk image.

I then edited the filesystem (yea, with a hex editor!) to have the new \DCIM directory point to the old 100CANON subdirectory. See the Wikipedia article on FAT32 for a reasonably easy reference on how to find the 4 bytes that need to be edited, and how to calculate the correct updated value.

Mounting the edited disk image (with Linux's 'mount -t loop'), the directory was intact, and all but about 5% of the photos were completely intact as well -- the remainder must have been overwritten after the directory structure got corrupted. Depending on how long it takes the user to notice a problem, of course, much more damage could easily happen to the original data.

Here's one easy hack to see how much you can hope to recover, if you're recovering camera data. The same trick may be useful for locating the JPEGs if the original image-containing directory is no longer intact (good luck with recovery then! I thankfully didn't have to do this). Take any image produced by the same camera, look at its JFIF headers. My camera leaves the string "Canon EOS DIGITAL REBEL XS" in two places in every JPEG it creates, early on in the JFIF header. Search for that string across the whole filesystem. If there's, say, 500 hits, that means you can hope for [easy] recovery of at most 250 photos -- any photo that is missing the JFIF headers will be missing the first chunk of the file, and will make it very hard both to find _and_ to reconstruct the remaining data, if any, into a usable JPEG (I have not tried to do this, at least, and it seems very hard).

Transcend Vs. Sandisk on Panasonic LX5, November 12, 2010
I will be writing this review for both SanDisk Extreme SDHC class 10 8gb and Transcend SDHC class 10 16gb.

I bought SanDisk class 10 and Transcend class 10 for my new Panasonic LX5. I got both card because no one really did a comparison with a compact camera and I was just going crazy trying to see if there is any big difference between the 2 cards.

SanDisk Extreme package box indicated it's water proof, x-ray proof, shock proof, temperature proof. I am not ready to spend $50 to see if it really stand up to it's words. And I don't think normal people would go through the extreme condition in taking pictures or videos.

Cut the story short, I really want to see if there is any difference in writing performance between the 2 cards in a compact camera. There is a continuous burst mode in LX5 and the manual indicated it is only limited by the condition of picture environment and performance of the SD card. Within the mode there are 2 different settings:1) speed priority or 2) picture/quality priority. The shutter speed is much faster with speed priority compare to picture priority.

I first formatted both cards out of box then put each card in series of test(3 rounds each setting for each card) shooting at the same object under same lighting condition. The results:
Speed Priority:
SanDisk Class 10 8gb
22-33 shots before camera stopped to allow the card to catch up with writing.

Transcend Class 10 16gb
22-24 shots before camera stopped to allow the card to catch up with writing.

Picture priority
SanDisk Class 10 8gb
34-46 shots before camera stopped

Transcend Class 10 16gb
27-33 shots before camera stopped


It seems that at a higher shutter speed, both cards performed very similar under the same shooting condition. But at a slower shutter speed the SanDisk definitely out perform Transcend. I hope this little experiment satisfied anyone with curiosity like me. Transcend definitely is a bargain with 16gb and almost half of the price compare to SanDisk. But I am going to use SanDisk Extreme as my primary card and Transcend as backup or on a second camera to ensure i would not miss any shots.

Depend on what you will use it for ..., October 13, 2010
The "C10" is for "minimum sustaining speed" of 10mbps. The sustaining speed is critical if you're using for HD camcorder. There is other brand card that is also c10 but it costs more (2x) for its print of 30mbps on the card. It leads consumers into thinking that the higher price is worth for the 30mbps. However, the 30mbps is the "burst" speed. Burst speed is critical for HD camera and for doing copies. I have a HD camcorder and I'm very satisfied with this card after many hours for recording. I bought this card to do 100% of recording so it is the right price. I would buy the other high price brand card of 30mbps if I will do a lot of picture taking. The bottom line is to buy for the purpose of your usage.

Not very fast, April 14, 2010
On my Panasonic GF1, it's the same speed as a Class 6 Transcend card and much slower than a Class 10 SanDisk Extreme. Buy the Transcend Class 6 if you want to save money or the SanDisk if you wan speed, but skip this one.

Class 10 pricing for Class 6 performance, June 10, 2010
Ran some of my own informal tests of this card pitted against an older well used Transcend Class 6 card. The older cheaper card equalled or beat this "Class 10" card. Shop for the best priced Class 6 card right now or pay the premium for real Class 10 performance.

Test Spec: ThinkPad T61p multi-format internal card reader, Windows 7 x64
Both FAT32 formatted, both Taiwan mfg, sustained speed as reported by Windows.
No multi-tasking during test.

Material: Directory of 697 MB, Mix of Jpegs (~4.4mb/ea) & Nikon RAWs (~8.5mb/ea)
Transcend 4GB SDHC Class 6
Partition detail: 4K Offset/32K Blocks
Averaged 17.5 MB/s read
Averaged 7.3 MB/s write

Transcend 4GB SDHC Class 10 (Formatted by Factory)
Partition detail: 4K Offset/32K Blocks
Averaged 14.5 MB/s read
Averaged 3.7 MB/s write
(Reformatted w/ Windows 7)
Partition detail: 4K Offset/32K Blocks
Averaged 14.5 MB/s read
Averaged 3.7 MB/s write

Material: 2.9GB DVD ISO File
Transcend 4GB SDHC Class 10
Partition detail: 4K Offset/32K Blocks
Averaged 14.8 MB/s read
Averaged 7.1 MB/s write

Transcend 4GB SDHC Class 6
Partition detail: 4K Offset/32K Blocks
Averaged 12.3 MB/s read
Averaged 8.2 MB/s write

Other Card tested:
Transcend 4 GB Class 6 SDHC Flash Memory Card TS4GSDHC6E [Amazon Frustration-Free Packaging]

Not All Class 10 Cards are Equal, April 11, 2010
UPDATE 9-10 I own 4 of these cards now. I have more of these than any other card I own because the are a very good value for capacity/price/and speed. My initial dissapointment over the lack of super high speed is outweighed by the reality that this card is an exceptional value.

Origional Review:
I purchased this card making the assumption that all class 10 cards had the same read and write speed. This was a poor assumption on my part.

The product photo on Amazon does not have the card's speed printed on it. The card that was shipped shows the front of the card printed with "20MB/s" which is the cards read speed. The cards write speed is only 16MB/s.

I own a SanDisk Extreme III class 10 card that has (up to) 30MB/s read and write speed. My Nikon D-90 that can take advantage of the SanDisk cards speed. The difference is the SanDisk card can capture 100 photos at fine resolution in 24 seconds. The Transcend card captures 66 photos in the same time/resolution.

I reality very few people will ever have the need to drill off 100 photos in 24 seconds, but I can't stand to loose a good shot because the camera is slow while writing to the card and I can't fire the shutter. You can hear this happen at about 4.5 seconds in the video review. This does not happen with the SanDisk class 10 30MB/s card.

A lot can happen in a fraction of a second that can make a shot good or bad and the having ability to fire a lot of shots in rapid succession is important to me.

If you own an SLR that is capable of rapid fire, high-resolution photography you may want to consider the SanDisk Extreme III 30 MB/s card.

If you own a compact digital camera, this card will exceed the capabilities of all of them. For compact cameras the card isn't usually the slowest part of the data write process, it's the camera.

This card is reasonably priced for a class 10 card. Just know what you are getting, what your needs may be, and what else is available. I own other Transcend cards and they have always worked properly without any issues.

The video that I attached shows this card with the same 24 seconds that I gave the SanDisk Card.

To see the SanDisk Extreme III 30MB/s video demo and review on Amazon go to:

Sandisk SDSDX3-008G-E31 8GB Extreme III SD Card 30MB/s (RETAIL PACKAGE)

Fast!, April 8, 2010
I purchased this for use with my new Canon T2i. I use it primarily for shooting full resolution 1080p video, although I shoot stills as well.

The camera choked on the class 4 chip that I originally purchased, but with this one, it is amazing. I can shoot rapidfire 18 megapixel stills (I've tested it up to 30+ shots in a row), and there is no lag. I've never had an error when shooting hi-def video.

Highly recommended! I'm buying another one.

Fast, fast, fast!, March 15, 2010
I bought this card for my Canon T1i. The card I had been using before ordering this one was a Kingston Class 6 micro sd card and it worked well enough for the type of shooting I did. Class 6 was the card speed that Canon recommended when I bought my T1i (Class 10 cards were not yet available) and it seemed fast enough for the way I used my camera - isolated single photos taken at Medium (8 MP) or Large (15 MP) jpg settings and 1280 x 720 video. And while I ocassionally took continuous photos, I had never much exceeded 5-10 photos in a row and had never run into a problem with my Class 6 card.

When I first saw the Class 10 cards I did some experiments with my camera. How many continuous Large photos could I take before the camera slowed down? It turned out to be about 30. And how many RAW photos could I take before the camera slowed down? It turned out to be about 9. SInce I did not generally take any photos in RAW and never needed more than about 10 continuous photos at Large, the Class 6 card seemed more than sufficient for my needs. But I wondered about the speed of the Class 10 cards enough that I finally bought one.

It turns out that the Class 10 card is sufficiently fast that there does not seem to be a reasonable upper limit on single Large photos. I have taken 60 on continuous without an issue. And although I still cannot take more than 9 RAW photos on continuous with the Class 10 card, when I am finished taking those photos the camera no longer displays a Wait - writing pictures screen. The RAW photos get written from the built-in memory to the card so quickly that the camera does not need to display the Wait screen.

So this card is fast! Given the way I take photos this purchase was unnecessary, but still I am glad I bought it. I know I will not run into a situation where speed is an issue with this card.

Transcend vs Sandisk of equal price, July 31, 2010
OK. this card was around $47 for a class 10 16gb. The other card i bought was a Sandisk class 10 8gb for the around same price. I did a 10 sec stop watch test on both cards with my Rebel T1i on raw and the Sandisk was only faster by 1 shot in a 10 sec burst. to me it seems trivial to pay 47 bucks for a Sandisk 8gig when you can get 16 gigs for the same price. yes i know, the Sandisk is good for arctic and desert temperatures... but i live in western NY... not Antarctica or the Sahara. If your looking for a good card, with more gigs for your buck, the Transcend is well worth it.

Slower than slow on Pentax K-x, April 25, 2010
I bought this for my pentax K-x but it would randomly corrupt images. Also, it was slower than my 3+ year old SandDisk Ultra 1GB card. I was told by the seller (Thememstore) that others with the k-x have had the same problems. So apparently it must have something to do with the class 10 part, because since I returned this card I bought a SandDisk Extreme III 4GB Class 6 and it works far better.

Would I recommend this card? Yes, but only to someone who knows that class 10 will work in their camera. I don't fault the card as I think the problem is with the K-x.

DESTROYS DATA -- after working fine for just long enough to fool you!, November 6, 2010
SUMMARY:


DO NOT BUY THIS CARD UNLESS YOU WANT TO PLAY RUSSIAN ROULETTE WITH YOUR DATA. Card worked fine when I bought it, but malfunctioned within the first 400 photos -- malfunctioned so badly that some very technical tools were needed to recover anything at all, and some photos were still permanently lost. Recovering the data requires the attention of a serious data recovery expert or someone with substantial technical knowledge and lots of time.


DETAILS:

I made the mistake buying this card for my camera right before a long trip overseas. It worked fine on the first few dozen shots. I didn't see any improvement in speed over my trusty 1.5-year-old Transcend 8GB Class-6 card, but that was most likely because the camera itself (Canon EOS Rebel 1000D/XSi) could not write images any faster than that (full-size JPEG, continuous shutter mode, roughly did ~2.5-3 images/second on both cards, with no slowdown after the first few shots).

200 shots or so into using this card, I get a sudden mysterious message from the camera when I try to take a new shot -- Card Format Invalid (never saw it in the previous 1.5 years on this camera with 3 other SDHC cards). I look around for a bit, and discover that turning the camera off, pulling the card out and putting it back in is enough to clear the error message, and the previous photos are still visible.

I then make the mistake of assuming the problem is just that -- needing to "reboot" the camera when the card is acting stupid, and nothing else. Over the next 200 or so shots, this problem comes up every 50 shots or so. Then, after yet another "reboot", I notice that the camera's playback function is only showing the last 30 photos!!! Yet it shows that there's only 5.7G of space left on the camera -- the other 2G+ _should_ be taken up by the photos I've shot thus far, but the playback doesn't show them.

And this happens in the middle of a trek through the Peruvian Andes, several days' walk/horse ride from the first village with electricity, let alone a computer (with lots of once-in-a-lifetime shots on the camera). I pull this card out immediately, plug in my backup card, and wait until coming back to civilization to take a look at the card. Sure enough, the card is severely corrupted -- the directory listing is showing a bunch of folders with weird-character names, and only the last ~30 photos are visible from the computer, too!


RECOVERY SUGGESTIONS:

Hopefully you'll read this before buying and will not buy this piece of junk card. If you had the misfortune of running into the same problem and losing your data, read on.

I have now had time to examine what was left on the card, using tools that are not easily usable to people without substantial technical training. I've managed to recover over 90% of my photos, but this was NOT easy, and I suspect that even some shops specializing in data recovery from failed disks may not know how to get your data back -- this is NOT as simple as just undeleting a file!

Non-technical instructions:

1. As soon as you see the FIRST error involving the card format, turn off the camera, pull out the card, and copy all of your photos to a different device (computer/harddrive/whatnot). The earlier you stop using this card, the safer your photos will be.

2. As soon as the first problem happens, move the little plastic slider on the side of the card to the "Lock" position -- this will prevent anything else from being written on the card, which lowers the risk of what's left of your photos being overwritten.

3. If you see directories (aka folders) with weird names when you plug this card into a computer -- or see a huge number of photos missing when you look at them on the camera, take the card out IMMEDIATELY, and take the card to a data recovery shop or a technical expert willing to look at the card in depth. Give them a printout of the explanation below.


Technical details:

At least in my case, the filesystem was indeed somehow damaged, perhaps by the camera deciding to write over the location of the root directory somehow. I took a full disk image of the card, and operated on the disk image only (there were no read errors when making the image, FWIW). Somehow I was lucky enough to have the original _subdirectories_ \DCIM and \DCIM\100CANON survive on the card intact even though the root directory structure now pointed to a different, new, place on the filesystem as \DCIM.

I found the location of the old 100CANON directory on the filesystem by searching for one of the filenames I knew would exist in the old directory, like IMG_7000, across the whole disk image.

I then edited the filesystem (yea, with a hex editor!) to have the new \DCIM directory point to the old 100CANON subdirectory. See the Wikipedia article on FAT32 for a reasonably easy reference on how to find the 4 bytes that need to be edited, and how to calculate the correct updated value.

Mounting the edited disk image (with Linux's 'mount -t loop'), the directory was intact, and all but about 5% of the photos were completely intact as well -- the remainder must have been overwritten after the directory structure got corrupted. Depending on how long it takes the user to notice a problem, of course, much more damage could easily happen to the original data.

Here's one easy hack to see how much you can hope to recover, if you're recovering camera data. The same trick may be useful for locating the JPEGs if the original image-containing directory is no longer intact (good luck with recovery then! I thankfully didn't have to do this). Take any image produced by the same camera, look at its JFIF headers. My camera leaves the string "Canon EOS DIGITAL REBEL XS" in two places in every JPEG it creates, early on in the JFIF header. Search for that string across the whole filesystem. If there's, say, 500 hits, that means you can hope for [easy] recovery of at most 250 photos -- any photo that is missing the JFIF headers will be missing the first chunk of the file, and will make it very hard both to find _and_ to reconstruct the remaining data, if any, into a usable JPEG (I have not tried to do this, at least, and it seems very hard).

Transcend Vs. Sandisk on Panasonic LX5, November 12, 2010
I will be writing this review for both SanDisk Extreme SDHC class 10 8gb and Transcend SDHC class 10 16gb.

I bought SanDisk class 10 and Transcend class 10 for my new Panasonic LX5. I got both card because no one really did a comparison with a compact camera and I was just going crazy trying to see if there is any big difference between the 2 cards.

SanDisk Extreme package box indicated it's water proof, x-ray proof, shock proof, temperature proof. I am not ready to spend $50 to see if it really stand up to it's words. And I don't think normal people would go through the extreme condition in taking pictures or videos.

Cut the story short, I really want to see if there is any difference in writing performance between the 2 cards in a compact camera. There is a continuous burst mode in LX5 and the manual indicated it is only limited by the condition of picture environment and performance of the SD card. Within the mode there are 2 different settings:1) speed priority or 2) picture/quality priority. The shutter speed is much faster with speed priority compare to picture priority.

I first formatted both cards out of box then put each card in series of test(3 rounds each setting for each card) shooting at the same object under same lighting condition. The results:
Speed Priority:
SanDisk Class 10 8gb
22-33 shots before camera stopped to allow the card to catch up with writing.

Transcend Class 10 16gb
22-24 shots before camera stopped to allow the card to catch up with writing.

Picture priority
SanDisk Class 10 8gb
34-46 shots before camera stopped

Transcend Class 10 16gb
27-33 shots before camera stopped


It seems that at a higher shutter speed, both cards performed very similar under the same shooting condition. But at a slower shutter speed the SanDisk definitely out perform Transcend. I hope this little experiment satisfied anyone with curiosity like me. Transcend definitely is a bargain with 16gb and almost half of the price compare to SanDisk. But I am going to use SanDisk Extreme as my primary card and Transcend as backup or on a second camera to ensure i would not miss any shots.

Depend on what you will use it for ..., October 13, 2010
The "C10" is for "minimum sustaining speed" of 10mbps. The sustaining speed is critical if you're using for HD camcorder. There is other brand card that is also c10 but it costs more (2x) for its print of 30mbps on the card. It leads consumers into thinking that the higher price is worth for the 30mbps. However, the 30mbps is the "burst" speed. Burst speed is critical for HD camera and for doing copies. I have a HD camcorder and I'm very satisfied with this card after many hours for recording. I bought this card to do 100% of recording so it is the right price. I would buy the other high price brand card of 30mbps if I will do a lot of picture taking. The bottom line is to buy for the purpose of your usage.

Not very fast, April 14, 2010
On my Panasonic GF1, it's the same speed as a Class 6 Transcend card and much slower than a Class 10 SanDisk Extreme. Buy the Transcend Class 6 if you want to save money or the SanDisk if you wan speed, but skip this one.

Class 10 pricing for Class 6 performance, June 10, 2010
Ran some of my own informal tests of this card pitted against an older well used Transcend Class 6 card. The older cheaper card equalled or beat this "Class 10" card. Shop for the best priced Class 6 card right now or pay the premium for real Class 10 performance.

Test Spec: ThinkPad T61p multi-format internal card reader, Windows 7 x64
Both FAT32 formatted, both Taiwan mfg, sustained speed as reported by Windows.
No multi-tasking during test.

Material: Directory of 697 MB, Mix of Jpegs (~4.4mb/ea) & Nikon RAWs (~8.5mb/ea)
Transcend 4GB SDHC Class 6
Partition detail: 4K Offset/32K Blocks
Averaged 17.5 MB/s read
Averaged 7.3 MB/s write

Transcend 4GB SDHC Class 10 (Formatted by Factory)
Partition detail: 4K Offset/32K Blocks
Averaged 14.5 MB/s read
Averaged 3.7 MB/s write
(Reformatted w/ Windows 7)
Partition detail: 4K Offset/32K Blocks
Averaged 14.5 MB/s read
Averaged 3.7 MB/s write

Material: 2.9GB DVD ISO File
Transcend 4GB SDHC Class 10
Partition detail: 4K Offset/32K Blocks
Averaged 14.8 MB/s read
Averaged 7.1 MB/s write

Transcend 4GB SDHC Class 6
Partition detail: 4K Offset/32K Blocks
Averaged 12.3 MB/s read
Averaged 8.2 MB/s write

Other Card tested:
Transcend 4 GB Class 6 SDHC Flash Memory Card TS4GSDHC6E [Amazon Frustration-Free Packaging] ... Read more

Editorial Review

Transcend 16gb SDHC card SD 3.0 SPD class 10 ... Read more

Reviews

Not All Class 10 Cards are Equal, April 11, 2010
UPDATE 9-10 I own 4 of these cards now. I have more of these than any other card I own because the are a very good value for capacity/price/and speed. My initial dissapointment over the lack of super high speed is outweighed by the reality that this card is an exceptional value.

Origional Review:
I purchased this card making the assumption that all class 10 cards had the same read and write speed. This was a poor assumption on my part.

The product photo on Amazon does not have the card's speed printed on it. The card that was shipped shows the front of the card printed with "20MB/s" which is the cards read speed. The cards write speed is only 16MB/s.

I own a SanDisk Extreme III class 10 card that has (up to) 30MB/s read and write speed. My Nikon D-90 that can take advantage of the SanDisk cards speed. The difference is the SanDisk card can capture 100 photos at fine resolution in 24 seconds. The Transcend card captures 66 photos in the same time/resolution.

I reality very few people will ever have the need to drill off 100 photos in 24 seconds, but I can't stand to loose a good shot because the camera is slow while writing to the card and I can't fire the shutter. You can hear this happen at about 4.5 seconds in the video review. This does not happen with the SanDisk class 10 30MB/s card.

A lot can happen in a fraction of a second that can make a shot good or bad and the having ability to fire a lot of shots in rapid succession is important to me.

If you own an SLR that is capable of rapid fire, high-resolution photography you may want to consider the SanDisk Extreme III 30 MB/s card.

If you own a compact digital camera, this card will exceed the capabilities of all of them. For compact cameras the card isn't usually the slowest part of the data write process, it's the camera.

This card is reasonably priced for a class 10 card. Just know what you are getting, what your needs may be, and what else is available. I own other Transcend cards and they have always worked properly without any issues.

The video that I attached shows this card with the same 24 seconds that I gave the SanDisk Card.

To see the SanDisk Extreme III 30MB/s video demo and review on Amazon go to:

Sandisk SDSDX3-008G-E31 8GB Extreme III SD Card 30MB/s (RETAIL PACKAGE)

Fast!, April 8, 2010
I bought this for my pentax K-x but it would randomly corrupt images. Also, it was slower than my 3+ year old SandDisk Ultra 1GB card. I was told by the seller (Thememstore) that others with the k-x have had the same problems. So apparently it must have something to do with the class 10 part, because since I returned this card I bought a SandDisk Extreme III 4GB Class 6 and it works far better.

Would I recommend this card? Yes, but only to someone who knows that class 10 will work in their camera. I don't fault the card as I think the problem is with the K-x.

DESTROYS DATA -- after working fine for just long enough to fool you!, November 6, 2010
SUMMARY:


DO NOT BUY THIS CARD UNLESS YOU WANT TO PLAY RUSSIAN ROULETTE WITH YOUR DATA. Card worked fine when I bought it, but malfunctioned within the first 400 photos -- malfunctioned so badly that some very technical tools were needed to recover anything at all, and some photos were still permanently lost. Recovering the data requires the attention of a serious data recovery expert or someone with substantial technical knowledge and lots of time.


DETAILS:

I made the mistake buying this card for my camera right before a long trip overseas. It worked fine on the first few dozen shots. I didn't see any improvement in speed over my trusty 1.5-year-old Transcend 8GB Class-6 card, but that was most likely because the camera itself (Canon EOS Rebel 1000D/XSi) could not write images any faster than that (full-size JPEG, continuous shutter mode, roughly did ~2.5-3 images/second on both cards, with no slowdown after the first few shots).

200 shots or so into using this card, I get a sudden mysterious message from the camera when I try to take a new shot -- Card Format Invalid (never saw it in the previous 1.5 years on this camera with 3 other SDHC cards). I look around for a bit, and discover that turning the camera off, pulling the card out and putting it back in is enough to clear the error message, and the previous photos are still visible.

I then make the mistake of assuming the problem is just that -- needing to "reboot" the camera when the card is acting stupid, and nothing else. Over the next 200 or so shots, this problem comes up every 50 shots or so. Then, after yet another "reboot", I notice that the camera's playback function is only showing the last 30 photos!!! Yet it shows that there's only 5.7G of space left on the camera -- the other 2G+ _should_ be taken up by the photos I've shot thus far, but the playback doesn't show them.

And this happens in the middle of a trek through the Peruvian Andes, several days' walk/horse ride from the first village with electricity, let alone a computer (with lots of once-in-a-lifetime shots on the camera). I pull this card out immediately, plug in my backup card, and wait until coming back to civilization to take a look at the card. Sure enough, the card is severely corrupted -- the directory listing is showing a bunch of folders with weird-character names, and only the last ~30 photos are visible from the computer, too!


RECOVERY SUGGESTIONS:

Hopefully you'll read this before buying and will not buy this piece of junk card. If you had the misfortune of running into the same problem and losing your data, read on.

I have now had time to examine what was left on the card, using tools that are not easily usable to people without substantial technical training. I've managed to recover over 90% of my photos, but this was NOT easy, and I suspect that even some shops specializing in data recovery from failed disks may not know how to get your data back -- this is NOT as simple as just undeleting a file!

Non-technical instructions:

1. As soon as you see the FIRST error involving the card format, turn off the camera, pull out the card, and copy all of your photos to a different device (computer/harddrive/whatnot). The earlier you stop using this card, the safer your photos will be.

2. As soon as the first problem happens, move the little plastic slider on the side of the card to the "Lock" position -- this will prevent anything else from being written on the card, which lowers the risk of what's left of your photos being overwritten.

3. If you see directories (aka folders) with weird names when you plug this card into a computer -- or see a huge number of photos missing when you look at them on the camera, take the card out IMMEDIATELY, and take the card to a data recovery shop or a technical expert willing to look at the card in depth. Give them a printout of the explanation below.


Technical details:

At least in my case, the filesystem was indeed somehow damaged, perhaps by the camera deciding to write over the location of the root directory somehow. I took a full disk image of the card, and operated on the disk image only (there were no read errors when making the image, FWIW). Somehow I was lucky enough to have the original _subdirectories_ \DCIM and \DCIM\100CANON survive on the card intact even though the root directory structure now pointed to a different, new, place on the filesystem as \DCIM.

I found the location of the old 100CANON directory on the filesystem by searching for one of the filenames I knew would exist in the old directory, like IMG_7000, across the whole disk image.

I then edited the filesystem (yea, with a hex editor!) to have the new \DCIM directory point to the old 100CANON subdirectory. See the Wikipedia article on FAT32 for a reasonably easy reference on how to find the 4 bytes that need to be edited, and how to calculate the correct updated value.

Mounting the edited disk image (with Linux's 'mount -t loop'), the directory was intact, and all but about 5% of the photos were completely intact as well -- the remainder must have been overwritten after the directory structure got corrupted. Depending on how long it takes the user to notice a problem, of course, much more damage could easily happen to the original data.

Here's one easy hack to see how much you can hope to recover, if you're recovering camera data. The same trick may be useful for locating the JPEGs if the original image-containing directory is no longer intact (good luck with recovery then! I thankfully didn't have to do this). Take any image produced by the same camera, look at its JFIF headers. My camera leaves the string "Canon EOS DIGITAL REBEL XS" in two places in every JPEG it creates, early on in the JFIF header. Search for that string across the whole filesystem. If there's, say, 500 hits, that means you can hope for [easy] recovery of at most 250 photos -- any photo that is missing the JFIF headers will be missing the first chunk of the file, and will make it very hard both to find _and_ to reconstruct the remaining data, if any, into a usable JPEG (I have not tried to do this, at least, and it seems very hard).

Transcend Vs. Sandisk on Panasonic LX5, November 12, 2010
The "C10" is for "minimum sustaining speed" of 10mbps. The sustaining speed is critical if you're using for HD camcorder. There is other brand card that is also c10 but it costs more (2x) for its print of 30mbps on the card. It leads consumers into thinking that the higher price is worth for the 30mbps. However, the 30mbps is the "burst" speed. Burst speed is critical for HD camera and for doing copies. I have a HD camcorder and I'm very satisfied with this card after many hours for recording. I bought this card to do 100% of recording so it is the right price. I would buy the other high price brand card of 30mbps if I will do a lot of picture taking. The bottom line is to buy for the purpose of your usage.

Not very fast, April 14, 2010
Ran some of my own informal tests of this card pitted against an older well used Transcend Class 6 card. The older cheaper card equalled or beat this "Class 10" card. Shop for the best priced Class 6 card right now or pay the premium for real Class 10 performance.

Test Spec: ThinkPad T61p multi-format internal card reader, Windows 7 x64
Both FAT32 formatted, both Taiwan mfg, sustained speed as reported by Windows.
No multi-tasking during test.

Material: Directory of 697 MB, Mix of Jpegs (~4.4mb/ea) & Nikon RAWs (~8.5mb/ea)
Transcend 4GB SDHC Class 6
Partition detail: 4K Offset/32K Blocks
Averaged 17.5 MB/s read
Averaged 7.3 MB/s write

Transcend 4GB SDHC Class 10 (Formatted by Factory)
Partition detail: 4K Offset/32K Blocks
Averaged 14.5 MB/s read
Averaged 3.7 MB/s write
(Reformatted w/ Windows 7)
Partition detail: 4K Offset/32K Blocks
Averaged 14.5 MB/s read
Averaged 3.7 MB/s write

Material: 2.9GB DVD ISO File
Transcend 4GB SDHC Class 10
Partition detail: 4K Offset/32K Blocks
Averaged 14.8 MB/s read
Averaged 7.1 MB/s write

Transcend 4GB SDHC Class 6
Partition detail: 4K Offset/32K Blocks
Averaged 12.3 MB/s read
Averaged 8.2 MB/s write

Other Card tested:
Transcend 4 GB Class 6 SDHC Flash Memory Card TS4GSDHC6E [Amazon Frustration-Free Packaging]

Not All Class 10 Cards are Equal, April 11, 2010
UPDATE 9-10 I own 4 of these cards now. I have more of these than any other card I own because the are a very good value for capacity/price/and speed. My initial dissapointment over the lack of super high speed is outweighed by the reality that this card is an exceptional value.

Origional Review:
I purchased this card making the assumption that all class 10 cards had the same read and write speed. This was a poor assumption on my part.

The product photo on Amazon does not have the card's speed printed on it. The card that was shipped shows the front of the card printed with "20MB/s" which is the cards read speed. The cards write speed is only 16MB/s.

I own a SanDisk Extreme III class 10 card that has (up to) 30MB/s read and write speed. My Nikon D-90 that can take advantage of the SanDisk cards speed. The difference is the SanDisk card can capture 100 photos at fine resolution in 24 seconds. The Transcend card captures 66 photos in the same time/resolution.

I reality very few people will ever have the need to drill off 100 photos in 24 seconds, but I can't stand to loose a good shot because the camera is slow while writing to the card and I can't fire the shutter. You can hear this happen at about 4.5 seconds in the video review. This does not happen with the SanDisk class 10 30MB/s card.

A lot can happen in a fraction of a second that can make a shot good or bad and the having ability to fire a lot of shots in rapid succession is important to me.

If you own an SLR that is capable of rapid fire, high-resolution photography you may want to consider the SanDisk Extreme III 30 MB/s card.

If you own a compact digital camera, this card will exceed the capabilities of all of them. For compact cameras the card isn't usually the slowest part of the data write process, it's the camera.

This card is reasonably priced for a class 10 card. Just know what you are getting, what your needs may be, and what else is available. I own other Transcend cards and they have always worked properly without any issues.

The video that I attached shows this card with the same 24 seconds that I gave the SanDisk Card.

To see the SanDisk Extreme III 30MB/s video demo and review on Amazon go to:

Sandisk SDSDX3-008G-E31 8GB Extreme III SD Card 30MB/s (RETAIL PACKAGE)

Fast!, April 8, 2010
I purchased this for use with my new Canon T2i. I use it primarily for shooting full resolution 1080p video, although I shoot stills as well.

The camera choked on the class 4 chip that I originally purchased, but with this one, it is amazing. I can shoot rapidfire 18 megapixel stills (I've tested it up to 30+ shots in a row), and there is no lag. I've never had an error when shooting hi-def video.

Highly recommended! I'm buying another one.

Fast, fast, fast!, March 15, 2010
I bought this card for my Canon T1i. The card I had been using before ordering this one was a Kingston Class 6 micro sd card and it worked well enough for the type of shooting I did. Class 6 was the card speed that Canon recommended when I bought my T1i (Class 10 cards were not yet available) and it seemed fast enough for the way I used my camera - isolated single photos taken at Medium (8 MP) or Large (15 MP) jpg settings and 1280 x 720 video. And while I ocassionally took continuous photos, I had never much exceeded 5-10 photos in a row and had never run into a problem with my Class 6 card.

When I first saw the Class 10 cards I did some experiments with my camera. How many continuous Large photos could I take before the camera slowed down? It turned out to be about 30. And how many RAW photos could I take before the camera slowed down? It turned out to be about 9. SInce I did not generally take any photos in RAW and never needed more than about 10 continuous photos at Large, the Class 6 card seemed more than sufficient for my needs. But I wondered about the speed of the Class 10 cards enough that I finally bought one.

It turns out that the Class 10 card is sufficiently fast that there does not seem to be a reasonable upper limit on single Large photos. I have taken 60 on continuous without an issue. And although I still cannot take more than 9 RAW photos on continuous with the Class 10 card, when I am finished taking those photos the camera no longer displays a Wait - writing pictures screen. The RAW photos get written from the built-in memory to the card so quickly that the camera does not need to display the Wait screen.

So this card is fast! Given the way I take photos this purchase was unnecessary, but still I am glad I bought it. I know I will not run into a situation where speed is an issue with this card.

Transcend vs Sandisk of equal price, July 31, 2010
OK. this card was around $47 for a class 10 16gb. The other card i bought was a Sandisk class 10 8gb for the around same price. I did a 10 sec stop watch test on both cards with my Rebel T1i on raw and the Sandisk was only faster by 1 shot in a 10 sec burst. to me it seems trivial to pay 47 bucks for a Sandisk 8gig when you can get 16 gigs for the same price. yes i know, the Sandisk is good for arctic and desert temperatures... but i live in western NY... not Antarctica or the Sahara. If your looking for a good card, with more gigs for your buck, the Transcend is well worth it.

Slower than slow on Pentax K-x, April 25, 2010
I bought this for my pentax K-x but it would randomly corrupt images. Also, it was slower than my 3+ year old SandDisk Ultra 1GB card. I was told by the seller (Thememstore) that others with the k-x have had the same problems. So apparently it must have something to do with the class 10 part, because since I returned this card I bought a SandDisk Extreme III 4GB Class 6 and it works far better.

Would I recommend this card? Yes, but only to someone who knows that class 10 will work in their camera. I don't fault the card as I think the problem is with the K-x.

DESTROYS DATA -- after working fine for just long enough to fool you!, November 6, 2010
SUMMARY:


DO NOT BUY THIS CARD UNLESS YOU WANT TO PLAY RUSSIAN ROULETTE WITH YOUR DATA. Card worked fine when I bought it, but malfunctioned within the first 400 photos -- malfunctioned so badly that some very technical tools were needed to recover anything at all, and some photos were still permanently lost. Recovering the data requires the attention of a serious data recovery expert or someone with substantial technical knowledge and lots of time.


DETAILS:

I made the mistake buying this card for my camera right before a long trip overseas. It worked fine on the first few dozen shots. I didn't see any improvement in speed over my trusty 1.5-year-old Transcend 8GB Class-6 card, but that was most likely because the camera itself (Canon EOS Rebel 1000D/XSi) could not write images any faster than that (full-size JPEG, continuous shutter mode, roughly did ~2.5-3 images/second on both cards, with no slowdown after the first few shots).

200 shots or so into using this card, I get a sudden mysterious message from the camera when I try to take a new shot -- Card Format Invalid (never saw it in the previous 1.5 years on this camera with 3 other SDHC cards). I look around for a bit, and discover that turning the camera off, pulling the card out and putting it back in is enough to clear the error message, and the previous photos are still visible.

I then make the mistake of assuming the problem is just that -- needing to "reboot" the camera when the card is acting stupid, and nothing else. Over the next 200 or so shots, this problem comes up every 50 shots or so. Then, after yet another "reboot", I notice that the camera's playback function is only showing the last 30 photos!!! Yet it shows that there's only 5.7G of space left on the camera -- the other 2G+ _should_ be taken up by the photos I've shot thus far, but the playback doesn't show them.

And this happens in the middle of a trek through the Peruvian Andes, several days' walk/horse ride from the first village with electricity, let alone a computer (with lots of once-in-a-lifetime shots on the camera). I pull this card out immediately, plug in my backup card, and wait until coming back to civilization to take a look at the card. Sure enough, the card is severely corrupted -- the directory listing is showing a bunch of folders with weird-character names, and only the last ~30 photos are visible from the computer, too!


RECOVERY SUGGESTIONS:

Hopefully you'll read this before buying and will not buy this piece of junk card. If you had the misfortune of running into the same problem and losing your data, read on.

I have now had time to examine what was left on the card, using tools that are not easily usable to people without substantial technical training. I've managed to recover over 90% of my photos, but this was NOT easy, and I suspect that even some shops specializing in data recovery from failed disks may not know how to get your data back -- this is NOT as simple as just undeleting a file!

Non-technical instructions:

1. As soon as you see the FIRST error involving the card format, turn off the camera, pull out the card, and copy all of your photos to a different device (computer/harddrive/whatnot). The earlier you stop using this card, the safer your photos will be.

2. As soon as the first problem happens, move the little plastic slider on the side of the card to the "Lock" position -- this will prevent anything else from being written on the card, which lowers the risk of what's left of your photos being overwritten.

3. If you see directories (aka folders) with weird names when you plug this card into a computer -- or see a huge number of photos missing when you look at them on the camera, take the card out IMMEDIATELY, and take the card to a data recovery shop or a technical expert willing to look at the card in depth. Give them a printout of the explanation below.


Technical details:

At least in my case, the filesystem was indeed somehow damaged, perhaps by the camera deciding to write over the location of the root directory somehow. I took a full disk image of the card, and operated on the disk image only (there were no read errors when making the image, FWIW). Somehow I was lucky enough to have the original _subdirectories_ \DCIM and \DCIM\100CANON survive on the card intact even though the root directory structure now pointed to a different, new, place on the filesystem as \DCIM.

I found the location of the old 100CANON directory on the filesystem by searching for one of the filenames I knew would exist in the old directory, like IMG_7000, across the whole disk image.

I then edited the filesystem (yea, with a hex editor!) to have the new \DCIM directory point to the old 100CANON subdirectory. See the Wikipedia article on FAT32 for a reasonably easy reference on how to find the 4 bytes that need to be edited, and how to calculate the correct updated value.

Mounting the edited disk image (with Linux's 'mount -t loop'), the directory was intact, and all but about 5% of the photos were completely intact as well -- the remainder must have been overwritten after the directory structure got corrupted. Depending on how long it takes the user to notice a problem, of course, much more damage could easily happen to the original data.

Here's one easy hack to see how much you can hope to recover, if you're recovering camera data. The same trick may be useful for locating the JPEGs if the original image-containing directory is no longer intact (good luck with recovery then! I thankfully didn't have to do this). Take any image produced by the same camera, look at its JFIF headers. My camera leaves the string "Canon EOS DIGITAL REBEL XS" in two places in every JPEG it creates, early on in the JFIF header. Search for that string across the whole filesystem. If there's, say, 500 hits, that means you can hope for [easy] recovery of at most 250 photos -- any photo that is missing the JFIF headers will be missing the first chunk of the file, and will make it very hard both to find _and_ to reconstruct the remaining data, if any, into a usable JPEG (I have not tried to do this, at least, and it seems very hard).

Transcend Vs. Sandisk on Panasonic LX5, November 12, 2010
I will be writing this review for both SanDisk Extreme SDHC class 10 8gb and Transcend SDHC class 10 16gb.

I bought SanDisk class 10 and Transcend class 10 for my new Panasonic LX5. I got both card because no one really did a comparison with a compact camera and I was just going crazy trying to see if there is any big difference between the 2 cards.

SanDisk Extreme package box indicated it's water proof, x-ray proof, shock proof, temperature proof. I am not ready to spend $50 to see if it really stand up to it's words. And I don't think normal people would go through the extreme condition in taking pictures or videos.

Cut the story short, I really want to see if there is any difference in writing performance between the 2 cards in a compact camera. There is a continuous burst mode in LX5 and the manual indicated it is only limited by the condition of picture environment and performance of the SD card. Within the mode there are 2 different settings:1) speed priority or 2) picture/quality priority. The shutter speed is much faster with speed priority compare to picture priority.

I first formatted both cards out of box then put each card in series of test(3 rounds each setting for each card) shooting at the same object under same lighting condition. The results:
Speed Priority:
SanDisk Class 10 8gb
22-33 shots before camera stopped to allow the card to catch up with writing.

Transcend Class 10 16gb
22-24 shots before camera stopped to allow the card to catch up with writing.

Picture priority
SanDisk Class 10 8gb
34-46 shots before camera stopped

Transcend Class 10 16gb
27-33 shots before camera stopped


It seems that at a higher shutter speed, both cards performed very similar under the same shooting condition. But at a slower shutter speed the SanDisk definitely out perform Transcend. I hope this little experiment satisfied anyone with curiosity like me. Transcend definitely is a bargain with 16gb and almost half of the price compare to SanDisk. But I am going to use SanDisk Extreme as my primary card and Transcend as backup or on a second camera to ensure i would not miss any shots.

Depend on what you will use it for ..., October 13, 2010
The "C10" is for "minimum sustaining speed" of 10mbps. The sustaining speed is critical if you're using for HD camcorder. There is other brand card that is also c10 but it costs more (2x) for its print of 30mbps on the card. It leads consumers into thinking that the higher price is worth for the 30mbps. However, the 30mbps is the "burst" speed. Burst speed is critical for HD camera and for doing copies. I have a HD camcorder and I'm very satisfied with this card after many hours for recording. I bought this card to do 100% of recording so it is the right price. I would buy the other high price brand card of 30mbps if I will do a lot of picture taking. The bottom line is to buy for the purpose of your usage.

Not very fast, April 14, 2010
On my Panasonic GF1, it's the same speed as a Class 6 Transcend card and much slower than a Class 10 SanDisk Extreme. Buy the Transcend Class 6 if you want to save money or the SanDisk if you wan speed, but skip this one.

Class 10 pricing for Class 6 performance, June 10, 2010
Ran some of my own informal tests of this card pitted against an older well used Transcend Class 6 card. The older cheaper card equalled or beat this "Class 10" card. Shop for the best priced Class 6 card right now or pay the premium for real Class 10 performance.

Test Spec: ThinkPad T61p multi-format internal card reader, Windows 7 x64
Both FAT32 formatted, both Taiwan mfg, sustained speed as reported by Windows.
No multi-tasking during test.

Material: Directory of 697 MB, Mix of Jpegs (~4.4mb/ea) & Nikon RAWs (~8.5mb/ea)
Transcend 4GB SDHC Class 6
Partition detail: 4K Offset/32K Blocks
Averaged 17.5 MB/s read
Averaged 7.3 MB/s write

Transcend 4GB SDHC Class 10 (Formatted by Factory)
Partition detail: 4K Offset/32K Blocks
Averaged 14.5 MB/s read
Averaged 3.7 MB/s write
(Reformatted w/ Windows 7)
Partition detail: 4K Offset/32K Blocks
Averaged 14.5 MB/s read
Averaged 3.7 MB/s write

Material: 2.9GB DVD ISO File
Transcend 4GB SDHC Class 10
Partition detail: 4K Offset/32K Blocks
Averaged 14.8 MB/s read
Averaged 7.1 MB/s write

Transcend 4GB SDHC Class 6
Partition detail: 4K Offset/32K Blocks
Averaged 12.3 MB/s read
Averaged 8.2 MB/s write

Other Card tested:
Transcend 4 GB Class 6 SDHC Flash Memory Card TS4GSDHC6E [Amazon Frustration-Free Packaging] ... Read more

Editorial Review

Lexar 4GB SDHC Class 6 High Speed Card ... Read more

Editorial Review

Fully Compatible with SDA 2.0 specification. Suitable for SDHC compliant devices, MLC flash chip with High Speed transfer rate. Perfect for highend digital devices. Please make sure your device can support SDHC format before you purchase! SDHC host devices can use both SD and SDHC memory cards. ... Read more

Reviews

Great affordable SDHC card, March 28, 2008
In the past, I bought a Transcend 8GB SDHC card for my Canon SD1000 camera. I recently bought the Transcend 16GB SDHC for my new Canon SX20IS. Both cards work very well and I've had no problems with it so far. I wanted to take this opportunity to update my review since my original review was also posted (by Amazon) for the 16GB card. This is because the only difference between these two cards is the different capacity. So, if you're in the market for an affordable high quality SDHC card, this may be the one for you. Sorry, I kind of sounded like a used car salesman right there, didn't I? I assure you that I don't work for Transcend. But, here's why I think this card is awesome:

Pros:

-Affordable!

-Large capacity

-Class 6 read/write speed (which is very fast... but is no longer the fastest class available)

-Lifetime warranty (at least that's what the package says :)

-Transcend is a reputable company that's been making memory products for a very long time. ( I swear to the tech Gods that I don't work for them!) Other reputable and reliable memory card companies include Kingston and PNY. All three of these companies have been making memory chips for many, many years.


Cons:

- I can' really think of any "Cons" about this card. But here's the 2 closest things I can come up with right now: (1) "Class 6" is no longer the fastest speed available and (2) This card does NOT make coffee for you in the morning, do your dishes for you, give you compliments when you're having a bad day, or magically improve your photography skills.




IMPORTANT SPECIAL NOTES ABOUT SDHC MEMORY CARDS:

-SDHC cards are not compatible with most older SD cameras, SD devices, or SD card readers.

-SDHC cards are rated by speed using different "classes". There are currently 4 data transfer speed classes available for SDHC cards. These classes are "class 2, class 4, and class 6, and the new class 10. For example, "Class 2" would have the slowest read/write speed while "Class 6" has the fastest read/write speed. So if you have a device in which speed may play a crucial role, make sure you buy a higher "class" SDHC card. Please note that this SDHC card no longer has the fastest read/write speed available. There is now a new class, called "Class 10". Class 6 has a minimum read/write speed of 6MB/sec... while Class 2 has minimum speed rating of 2MB/sec, and Class 4 is 4MB/sec. Starting to see the pattern?


SO WHAT'S THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN "SD CARDS" AND "SDHC CARDS?

SDHC is basically an upgrade to the older SD cards. The reason they upgraded it was to achieve greater data transfer speeds AND capacity than previously possible with normal SD cards... and to do this, they had to redesign the card (which is why it's not compatible with normal SD devices). This was necessary because digital cameras and digital video cameras these days have higher resolutions, which equate to larger file sizes and faster data transfer needs.

Now that many digital cameras also can record HD video, you may consider getting a larger capacity card because video takes much more space than photos. The size of the video varies from camera to camera depending on what resolution and video compression the camera uses. If you plan on taking lots of video (especially HD video), I would consider getting at least a 16GB card. Check your camera specifications to see how many minutes per Gig of memory your camera can capture ...to gauge how big of a memory card you'll want to get to meet your needs.

Special Note on regular SD Cards:
If you primarily take casual photos and don't need a exceptionally fast read/write capable card, you should know that newer cameras that take "SDHC" cards will also work with older normal "SD" cards. These older cards are cheaper than the new SDHC cards, so this may be something to consider. So to sum things up, newer cameras will take SDHC and regular SD cards, but older cameras that use SD cards may not be able to use SDHC cards. This is because newer technology is usually made to be compatible with older technology (the technical term used to describe this is "backwards compatibility") ... but older technology may not have the hardware necessary to run newer tech (technical term used is "obsolete"... just kidding! ;)

I hope I haven't confused everybody by going into this much detail, but I can't help being the nerd that I am. If you are confused, don't hesitate to comment on this post and I will try my best to answer your questions. Also, any feedback is always welcome!

Conclusion: Buy the card if you have a new device that uses SDHC. It rocks! (This message has been approved by the "Duke of New Mexico")

Transcend 4 GB Class 6 SDHC Card - Good Card for SDHC Compatible Devices, May 10, 2008
UPDATE - March 2, 2010: This review was originally written for the 4 GB class 6 SDHC card, but the reviews have been grouped for all class 6 SDHC cards in the 4, 8, 16 and 32 GB sizes. All the cards should perform similarly since they are all class 6 and all made by Transcend. However, I will have to check which cards I have used hands on. I believe I only own the 4GB and 8GB cards. I will update the review further. If you have concerns regarding the 16GB or 32GB sizes, you should seek out the reviews tagged with the product links from those cards.


The Transcend 4GB SDHC CARD (Class 6) is a great card for the price. I was at first a little skeptical about the brand, but I buy way too many memory cards to ignore a good price when I see one. And I'm happy to report that I've experienced decent performance and reliability issues with this card. That's as compared to other cards I own including SanDisk, PNY and Kingston.

As long as your devices are compatible with the SDHC format, this card is a good buy. 4 GB is a nice size though I do prefer 8 GB capacity for high capacity storage.

The class 6 speed is the fastest speed available in mass market SDHC cards. Class 6 guarantees minimum transfer speeds of 6 MBs, but I've gotten speeds up to 20Mbs! That makes this card perfect for storing pictures in RAW image formats.

The Class 6 speed is on par with the Sandisk Extreme III cards that on average are about $15 to $20 more per card. If you don't have an SDHC reader, you may opt to get the package with a reader included to download your pics. If not you can just transfer your pics directly from your camera with your card still inserted. An SDHC card reader can be bought separately if your PC doesn't have a compatible slot.

General SDHC and SD Card Tips

There are a few tips that I've learned the hard way through buying TOO MANY different memory cards.
1. Make sure your device is compatible with the card! Even in regular SD cards, some older electronics aren't compatible with that large of a size (2 GB). In terms of SDHC cards, make sure your camera or other device is SDHC compatible. SDHC is different from regular SD and only newer devices tend to have built-in compatibility
2. Once you install this in your camera or device, you will generally want to format the card with your compatible device's interface. That is because the standard formats for certain devices, particularly Canon, are different from the factory installed format
3. Just like your devices, most computer SD card readers are not compatible with the SDHC format. So use a card reader or download the pictures via USB connection to the camera with the card still installed.
4. For some reason, placing the card in the locked position allows some older laptops to still read it. This is just to be used in a pinch however, and it won't apply to all systems
5. If you did not properly format your card, you may be able to save things to it and then have them "disappear." If this happens to you, make sure you use the software recovery tools BEFORE you try to save anything else to your card. That way, you can retrieve your images without over-writing them.
6. Make sure you know what you are going to use this card for. Once you have set up everything and ensured it's all compatible, you still have to decide on speed. If you are using this for storing RAW images instead of JPEGs or HD video, step up to the faster class 6 speed format if you can afford it.
7. If you are going to pay more for a faster speed, make sure your device can benefit from it. I've read, for example, that Kodak cameras are set to a fixed voltage and cannot go faster than standard speed. So the extra cash spent on Class 4, 5, or 6 is basically wasted.

Conclusion

It's great to have several extra cards on hand just in case. This 4 GB card is a nice performer. If you have a high capacity camera (10 Megapixels or more) and are storing videos or RAW images, the extra cash for the 8GB card is worth it. Or you may want to step up to the larger 16 GB size that is now available.

Enjoy!

Transcend 32 GB SDHC Review, May 25, 2009
Before you drop 120~$ for a SD card ask yourself, Do you really need 32GB card? because the card itself with same specs costs only 35$ for the 16GB version, anyway here is info that might help you

Pros :
1- Class 6 Card the(guaranteed minimum Read/write speed of 6MB/s)
2- My Test Results 18.2-18.5MB/S Read - 11.6-11.8 Write (very stable)
3- Faster than average cards and almost close to top speed SDHC cards
4- 32GB in a single small chip is awesome(You can use it as a portable HD once in a while, i share some stuff with my friends with it sometimes


Cons :
1- Expensive
2- You can get two 16GB cards for around only 70$ and save yourself 50$~
3- Slow write speeds for a 32GB card (Takes forever to fill it with DATA from PC, its not the card fault though , its just the SDHC technology is getting old and slow for 2009 standards , time for newer Tech)

* Important Info

Avoid the Sandisk Ultra Series they never reach the true marketed speed "15MB-20MB/S" its just in theory speed like how everybody knows that USB2 is much slower than its specs, and they are only Class 2 for the 32GB version which will drop frames from your HD video (Plus Class 4 is minimum requirement for shooting in HD ) if you plan to get San disk Card then get the Extreme III Series (but again from my own Tests there read speed is about 20MB not 30MB and the write speed is 14MB/s~ instead of the transcend 11MB/s write speed (Unless you spam shooting pictures with your DSLR you don't "need" faster speed)

I bought This card because i plan to take videos with my HD camcorder that last more 2 Hours, if you do not plan to shoot for longtime then you are better with getting the 16GB card HOWEVER, if you are lazy like my mom and do not plan to transfer DATA from the card to Your computer HD after every trip, then get the 32GB card.or you gonna end up on a trip and a message pops "No memory"

If you plan to shoot for longer time, check your camcorder battery too does it even last that long? so be sure about that before you drop over 100$ for this card

product failed., July 26, 2009
Well, it was great while it lasted. Unfortunately, it did not last long.

Like other reviewers, after <20 use cycles the device failed and I got a "lock" error when, in fact, the write-protection lock was not engaged. Oddly, by engaging the lock (i.e. entering read-only mode) I was able to remove the picture files from the card. Obviously, further use in the camera was impossible; I was also unable to reformat the card (either with my camera or with the SD Associations free software [..]).

This card has a high average rating but I would urge customers to consider the number of 1-star ratings due to complete product failure before they purchase this item.

My Canon loves the 8 GB SDHC card, January 15, 2008
I recently purchased a Canon Powershot A720IS digital camera that is capable of recognizing and using up to 2 TERRABYTES of memory card (in the future) so I wanted to get the largest memory card I could install for now. I wanted to use the camera both on dry land and with an underwater housing for shooting stills and video on dive trips. Camera specs said an 8 GB SDHC card would record one hour of hi res video at 30 fps. Or nearly 2300 hi res stills at 8 megapixels.

A test of the Transcend 8GB SDHC card in the camera ended up shooting 70 minutes of full screen, 30fps digital video that could not be distinguished from my DV camcorder video quality. Playback from the memory card to the TV was so fast & efficient there was never a single "stutter" on the screen. The card speed is genuinely FAST as advertised. Low level formatting of the card allowed for very acceptable rapid-fire sequential still photo shooting speeds when light levels were bright enough that the flash was not needed/used. Something like 2 photos every 3 seconds. Files were flawless in display, both for stills and video.

This product was significantly lower in price than the Kingston 8GB SDHC card I originally bought with the camera. I've used both interchangeably and cannot see any different in the speed or capacity and quality of imagery is identical. For the money I'll stick with Transcend and am looking forward to getting their 16GB card once the price drops substantially below the $100 mark. That would provide nearly 2 1/2 hours of video on my still camera or 4600 highest quality stills. I'm afraid my camcorder will be collecting dust much of the time. A big advantage to video on the card is there are NO MOVING PARTS, e.g. a mini DV tape cassette and camcorder or VCR playback unit needed to dump the video and stills to my Mac for editing and burning DVDs. I just stick the card in the MicroMate USB card reader, plug it in the computer and bingo, ready to sort thru and dump to the hard drive. Since the card is formatted by a Canon camera it automatically boots up the Canon Viewer software too. That should work the same for other brands of still cameras formatting this chip.

The Fastest Card at This Price But..., June 26, 2007
This SDHC card is the fastest one in its price range but it may cause your images to be lost.

I use two of this in a Canon SD750. After the first use, all of the images were lost. (But thank God, I could rescue them with Lexar Image Rescue 2, a program better than its competitors) Then I formated the card(s) in the camera(s) with "low level format" option several times and there has been no problem after that so far.

I can suggest these points to potential owners of this card:
1- Use it very carefully, make backups if possible.
2- Format it several times before the first use with "low level format" option.
3- If you loose your images, don't panic. At this situation, It is very important not to take anymore pictures. If you take pictures after this point, you can overwrite your lost images and there can be no chance to get them back. Connect your card to your computer with a card reader (SDHC Compatible) and rescue them with Lexar Image Rescue.

Excellent Mini Hard Drive equivalent, December 11, 2007
This card is able to hold a complete DVD movie, thousands of songs/photos, or just serve as a backup device for one's files.

It operates very well - I now have purchased 3 and with each use its value becomes more apparent.

One word of caution - even though most laptops and systems have an SD card slot, older computers may not be able to recognize or write to this card. Make sure your system has the ability to read SDHC configured products.

If you do not have an SD slot you can purchase an tiny SD reader (very inexpensive) that plugs into your USB port.

Great value, just be careful..., January 2, 2009
I recently ordered this card as an accessory for my Acer Aspire One netbook PC. The card took a little while to ship, about 8 days, but that wasn't a big deal. The card has lots of space, and the read speeds are quite impressive. I mostly use it to run and store portable software, and it does a very good job at that.

My only complaint is that when I first inserted the card into my PC it attempted to install some adware. The program was from a company called RelevantKnowledge, and they gather your information for market research purposes. Luckily my spyware software picked it up immediately,so I was able to delete it. Afterward I formatted the card, and now I'm happy as can be.

Reliable card, good speeds!, December 4, 2008
Transcend 16 GB SDHC SD Class 6 Flash Memory Card TS16GSDHC6E [Amazon Frustration-Free Packaging]
I have 4 of these cards that I use in my Panasonic HMC-150, a professional grade video camera. I've run read/write tests on all of them and they get about 14 MB/s write speeds and 17.5 MB/s read speeds. Never encountered any errors! These cards are the best bang for your buck, and the frustration free packaging is awesome.

Don't Let This Happen to You....., August 3, 2008
It's great to have 8GB of memory but it is a double edged sword. Today after using this card for only the second time, it failed on me. I lost almost 200 precious images - gone forever. I am what you would call an enthusiast or hobbyist. I love photography and spend every spare minute, which is very seldom these days, pursuing my passion. So I do a fair amount of experimentation. These cards are great when they work - but if they fail you even once - the results can be catastrophic. Maybe I am the unlucky 1 of 250 reviewers with a bad experience with this product, but I feel it is my responsibility to report this to everyone. I hope it never happens to you. It is human nature for me to wonder, if I had spent a few more dollars for a better brand name, would my photos be intact today?

Great affordable SDHC card, March 28, 2008
In the past, I bought a Transcend 8GB SDHC card for my Canon SD1000 camera. I recently bought the Transcend 16GB SDHC for my new Canon SX20IS. Both cards work very well and I've had no problems with it so far. I wanted to take this opportunity to update my review since my original review was also posted (by Amazon) for the 16GB card. This is because the only difference between these two cards is the different capacity. So, if you're in the market for an affordable high quality SDHC card, this may be the one for you. Sorry, I kind of sounded like a used car salesman right there, didn't I? I assure you that I don't work for Transcend. But, here's why I think this card is awesome:

Pros:

-Affordable!

-Large capacity

-Class 6 read/write speed (which is very fast... but is no longer the fastest class available)

-Lifetime warranty (at least that's what the package says :)

-Transcend is a reputable company that's been making memory products for a very long time. ( I swear to the tech Gods that I don't work for them!) Other reputable and reliable memory card companies include Kingston and PNY. All three of these companies have been making memory chips for many, many years.


Cons:

- I can' really think of any "Cons" about this card. But here's the 2 closest things I can come up with right now: (1) "Class 6" is no longer the fastest speed available and (2) This card does NOT make coffee for you in the morning, do your dishes for you, give you compliments when you're having a bad day, or magically improve your photography skills.




IMPORTANT SPECIAL NOTES ABOUT SDHC MEMORY CARDS:

-SDHC cards are not compatible with most older SD cameras, SD devices, or SD card readers.

-SDHC cards are rated by speed using different "classes". There are currently 4 data transfer speed classes available for SDHC cards. These classes are "class 2, class 4, and class 6, and the new class 10. For example, "Class 2" would have the slowest read/write speed while "Class 6" has the fastest read/write speed. So if you have a device in which speed may play a crucial role, make sure you buy a higher "class" SDHC card. Please note that this SDHC card no longer has the fastest read/write speed available. There is now a new class, called "Class 10". Class 6 has a minimum read/write speed of 6MB/sec... while Class 2 has minimum speed rating of 2MB/sec, and Class 4 is 4MB/sec. Starting to see the pattern?


SO WHAT'S THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN "SD CARDS" AND "SDHC CARDS?

SDHC is basically an upgrade to the older SD cards. The reason they upgraded it was to achieve greater data transfer speeds AND capacity than previously possible with normal SD cards... and to do this, they had to redesign the card (which is why it's not compatible with normal SD devices). This was necessary because digital cameras and digital video cameras these days have higher resolutions, which equate to larger file sizes and faster data transfer needs.

Now that many digital cameras also can record HD video, you may consider getting a larger capacity card because video takes much more space than photos. The size of the video varies from camera to camera depending on what resolution and video compression the camera uses. If you plan on taking lots of video (especially HD video), I would consider getting at least a 16GB card. Check your camera specifications to see how many minutes per Gig of memory your camera can capture ...to gauge how big of a memory card you'll want to get to meet your needs.

Special Note on regular SD Cards:
If you primarily take casual photos and don't need a exceptionally fast read/write capable card, you should know that newer cameras that take "SDHC" cards will also work with older normal "SD" cards. These older cards are cheaper than the new SDHC cards, so this may be something to consider. So to sum things up, newer cameras will take SDHC and regular SD cards, but older cameras that use SD cards may not be able to use SDHC cards. This is because newer technology is usually made to be compatible with older technology (the technical term used to describe this is "backwards compatibility") ... but older technology may not have the hardware necessary to run newer tech (technical term used is "obsolete"... just kidding! ;)

I hope I haven't confused everybody by going into this much detail, but I can't help being the nerd that I am. If you are confused, don't hesitate to comment on this post and I will try my best to answer your questions. Also, any feedback is always welcome!

Conclusion: Buy the card if you have a new device that uses SDHC. It rocks! (This message has been approved by the "Duke of New Mexico")

Transcend 4 GB Class 6 SDHC Card - Good Card for SDHC Compatible Devices, May 10, 2008
UPDATE - March 2, 2010: This review was originally written for the 4 GB class 6 SDHC card, but the reviews have been grouped for all class 6 SDHC cards in the 4, 8, 16 and 32 GB sizes. All the cards should perform similarly since they are all class 6 and all made by Transcend. However, I will have to check which cards I have used hands on. I believe I only own the 4GB and 8GB cards. I will update the review further. If you have concerns regarding the 16GB or 32GB sizes, you should seek out the reviews tagged with the product links from those cards.


The Transcend 4GB SDHC CARD (Class 6) is a great card for the price. I was at first a little skeptical about the brand, but I buy way too many memory cards to ignore a good price when I see one. And I'm happy to report that I've experienced decent performance and reliability issues with this card. That's as compared to other cards I own including SanDisk, PNY and Kingston.

As long as your devices are compatible with the SDHC format, this card is a good buy. 4 GB is a nice size though I do prefer 8 GB capacity for high capacity storage.

The class 6 speed is the fastest speed available in mass market SDHC cards. Class 6 guarantees minimum transfer speeds of 6 MBs, but I've gotten speeds up to 20Mbs! That makes this card perfect for storing pictures in RAW image formats.

The Class 6 speed is on par with the Sandisk Extreme III cards that on average are about $15 to $20 more per card. If you don't have an SDHC reader, you may opt to get the package with a reader included to download your pics. If not you can just transfer your pics directly from your camera with your card still inserted. An SDHC card reader can be bought separately if your PC doesn't have a compatible slot.

General SDHC and SD Card Tips

There are a few tips that I've learned the hard way through buying TOO MANY different memory cards.
1. Make sure your device is compatible with the card! Even in regular SD cards, some older electronics aren't compatible with that large of a size (2 GB). In terms of SDHC cards, make sure your camera or other device is SDHC compatible. SDHC is different from regular SD and only newer devices tend to have built-in compatibility
2. Once you install this in your camera or device, you will generally want to format the card with your compatible device's interface. That is because the standard formats for certain devices, particularly Canon, are different from the factory installed format
3. Just like your devices, most computer SD card readers are not compatible with the SDHC format. So use a card reader or download the pictures via USB connection to the camera with the card still installed.
4. For some reason, placing the card in the locked position allows some older laptops to still read it. This is just to be used in a pinch however, and it won't apply to all systems
5. If you did not properly format your card, you may be able to save things to it and then have them "disappear." If this happens to you, make sure you use the software recovery tools BEFORE you try to save anything else to your card. That way, you can retrieve your images without over-writing them.
6. Make sure you know what you are going to use this card for. Once you have set up everything and ensured it's all compatible, you still have to decide on speed. If you are using this for storing RAW images instead of JPEGs or HD video, step up to the faster class 6 speed format if you can afford it.
7. If you are going to pay more for a faster speed, make sure your device can benefit from it. I've read, for example, that Kodak cameras are set to a fixed voltage and cannot go faster than standard speed. So the extra cash spent on Class 4, 5, or 6 is basically wasted.

Conclusion

It's great to have several extra cards on hand just in case. This 4 GB card is a nice performer. If you have a high capacity camera (10 Megapixels or more) and are storing videos or RAW images, the extra cash for the 8GB card is worth it. Or you may want to step up to the larger 16 GB size that is now available.

Enjoy!

Transcend 32 GB SDHC Review, May 25, 2009
Before you drop 120~$ for a SD card ask yourself, Do you really need 32GB card? because the card itself with same specs costs only 35$ for the 16GB version, anyway here is info that might help you

Pros :
1- Class 6 Card the(guaranteed minimum Read/write speed of 6MB/s)
2- My Test Results 18.2-18.5MB/S Read - 11.6-11.8 Write (very stable)
3- Faster than average cards and almost close to top speed SDHC cards
4- 32GB in a single small chip is awesome(You can use it as a portable HD once in a while, i share some stuff with my friends with it sometimes


Cons :
1- Expensive
2- You can get two 16GB cards for around only 70$ and save yourself 50$~
3- Slow write speeds for a 32GB card (Takes forever to fill it with DATA from PC, its not the card fault though , its just the SDHC technology is getting old and slow for 2009 standards , time for newer Tech)

* Important Info

Avoid the Sandisk Ultra Series they never reach the true marketed speed "15MB-20MB/S" its just in theory speed like how everybody knows that USB2 is much slower than its specs, and they are only Class 2 for the 32GB version which will drop frames from your HD video (Plus Class 4 is minimum requirement for shooting in HD ) if you plan to get San disk Card then get the Extreme III Series (but again from my own Tests there read speed is about 20MB not 30MB and the write speed is 14MB/s~ instead of the transcend 11MB/s write speed (Unless you spam shooting pictures with your DSLR you don't "need" faster speed)

I bought This card because i plan to take videos with my HD camcorder that last more 2 Hours, if you do not plan to shoot for longtime then you are better with getting the 16GB card HOWEVER, if you are lazy like my mom and do not plan to transfer DATA from the card to Your computer HD after every trip, then get the 32GB card.or you gonna end up on a trip and a message pops "No memory"

If you plan to shoot for longer time, check your camcorder battery too does it even last that long? so be sure about that before you drop over 100$ for this card

product failed., July 26, 2009
Well, it was great while it lasted. Unfortunately, it did not last long.

Like other reviewers, after <20 use cycles the device failed and I got a "lock" error when, in fact, the write-protection lock was not engaged. Oddly, by engaging the lock (i.e. entering read-only mode) I was able to remove the picture files from the card. Obviously, further use in the camera was impossible; I was also unable to reformat the card (either with my camera or with the SD Associations free software [..]).

This card has a high average rating but I would urge customers to consider the number of 1-star ratings due to complete product failure before they purchase this item.

My Canon loves the 8 GB SDHC card, January 15, 2008
I recently purchased a Canon Powershot A720IS digital camera that is capable of recognizing and using up to 2 TERRABYTES of memory card (in the future) so I wanted to get the largest memory card I could install for now. I wanted to use the camera both on dry land and with an underwater housing for shooting stills and video on dive trips. Camera specs said an 8 GB SDHC card would record one hour of hi res video at 30 fps. Or nearly 2300 hi res stills at 8 megapixels.

A test of the Transcend 8GB SDHC card in the camera ended up shooting 70 minutes of full screen, 30fps digital video that could not be distinguished from my DV camcorder video quality. Playback from the memory card to the TV was so fast & efficient there was never a single "stutter" on the screen. The card speed is genuinely FAST as advertised. Low level formatting of the card allowed for very acceptable rapid-fire sequential still photo shooting speeds when light levels were bright enough that the flash was not needed/used. Something like 2 photos every 3 seconds. Files were flawless in display, both for stills and video.

This product was significantly lower in price than the Kingston 8GB SDHC card I originally bought with the camera. I've used both interchangeably and cannot see any different in the speed or capacity and quality of imagery is identical. For the money I'll stick with Transcend and am looking forward to getting their 16GB card once the price drops substantially below the $100 mark. That would provide nearly 2 1/2 hours of video on my still camera or 4600 highest quality stills. I'm afraid my camcorder will be collecting dust much of the time. A big advantage to video on the card is there are NO MOVING PARTS, e.g. a mini DV tape cassette and camcorder or VCR playback unit needed to dump the video and stills to my Mac for editing and burning DVDs. I just stick the card in the MicroMate USB card reader, plug it in the computer and bingo, ready to sort thru and dump to the hard drive. Since the card is formatted by a Canon camera it automatically boots up the Canon Viewer software too. That should work the same for other brands of still cameras formatting this chip.

The Fastest Card at This Price But..., June 26, 2007
This SDHC card is the fastest one in its price range but it may cause your images to be lost.

I use two of this in a Canon SD750. After the first use, all of the images were lost. (But thank God, I could rescue them with Lexar Image Rescue 2, a program better than its competitors) Then I formated the card(s) in the camera(s) with "low level format" option several times and there has been no problem after that so far.

I can suggest these points to potential owners of this card:
1- Use it very carefully, make backups if possible.
2- Format it several times before the first use with "low level format" option.
3- If you loose your images, don't panic. At this situation, It is very important not to take anymore pictures. If you take pictures after this point, you can overwrite your lost images and there can be no chance to get them back. Connect your card to your computer with a card reader (SDHC Compatible) and rescue them with Lexar Image Rescue.

Excellent Mini Hard Drive equivalent, December 11, 2007
This card is able to hold a complete DVD movie, thousands of songs/photos, or just serve as a backup device for one's files.

It operates very well - I now have purchased 3 and with each use its value becomes more apparent.

One word of caution - even though most laptops and systems have an SD card slot, older computers may not be able to recognize or write to this card. Make sure your system has the ability to read SDHC configured products.

If you do not have an SD slot you can purchase an tiny SD reader (very inexpensive) that plugs into your USB port.

Great value, just be careful..., January 2, 2009
I recently ordered this card as an accessory for my Acer Aspire One netbook PC. The card took a little while to ship, about 8 days, but that wasn't a big deal. The card has lots of space, and the read speeds are quite impressive. I mostly use it to run and store portable software, and it does a very good job at that.

My only complaint is that when I first inserted the card into my PC it attempted to install some adware. The program was from a company called RelevantKnowledge, and they gather your information for market research purposes. Luckily my spyware software picked it up immediately,so I was able to delete it. Afterward I formatted the card, and now I'm happy as can be.

Reliable card, good speeds!, December 4, 2008
Transcend 16 GB SDHC SD Class 6 Flash Memory Card TS16GSDHC6E [Amazon Frustration-Free Packaging]
I have 4 of these cards that I use in my Panasonic HMC-150, a professional grade video camera. I've run read/write tests on all of them and they get about 14 MB/s write speeds and 17.5 MB/s read speeds. Never encountered any errors! These cards are the best bang for your buck, and the frustration free packaging is awesome.

Don't Let This Happen to You....., August 3, 2008
It's great to have 8GB of memory but it is a double edged sword. Today after using this card for only the second time, it failed on me. I lost almost 200 precious images - gone forever. I am what you would call an enthusiast or hobbyist. I love photography and spend every spare minute, which is very seldom these days, pursuing my passion. So I do a fair amount of experimentation. These cards are great when they work - but if they fail you even once - the results can be catastrophic. Maybe I am the unlucky 1 of 250 reviewers with a bad experience with this product, but I feel it is my responsibility to report this to everyone. I hope it never happens to you. It is human nature for me to wonder, if I had spent a few more dollars for a better brand name, would my photos be intact today? ... Read more

Editorial Review

SDHC (SD High-Capacity) is the new generation of SD cards (Version 2.0). Formatted in FAT32, SDHC cards reach a maximum capacity of 32GB and can fulfill the high-capacity demand of the new SDHC devices such as Casio Exilim Z1000/Z600/S600 cameras, Panasonic DMC-L1 camera, and HP printer A/B. Now you can enjoy a high-quality digital life and store all of your MP3 music files, high-resolution pictures, and video clips in your SDHC card. ... Read more

Reviews

Great affordable SDHC card, March 28, 2008
UPDATE - March 2, 2010: This review was originally written for the 4 GB class 6 SDHC card, but the reviews have been grouped for all class 6 SDHC cards in the 4, 8, 16 and 32 GB sizes. All the cards should perform similarly since they are all class 6 and all made by Transcend. However, I will have to check which cards I have used hands on. I believe I only own the 4GB and 8GB cards. I will update the review further. If you have concerns regarding the 16GB or 32GB sizes, you should seek out the reviews tagged with the product links from those cards.


The Transcend 4GB SDHC CARD (Class 6) is a great card for the price. I was at first a little skeptical about the brand, but I buy way too many memory cards to ignore a good price when I see one. And I'm happy to report that I've experienced decent performance and reliability issues with this card. That's as compared to other cards I own including SanDisk, PNY and Kingston.

As long as your devices are compatible with the SDHC format, this card is a good buy. 4 GB is a nice size though I do prefer 8 GB capacity for high capacity storage.

The class 6 speed is the fastest speed available in mass market SDHC cards. Class 6 guarantees minimum transfer speeds of 6 MBs, but I've gotten speeds up to 20Mbs! That makes this card perfect for storing pictures in RAW image formats.

The Class 6 speed is on par with the Sandisk Extreme III cards that on average are about $15 to $20 more per card. If you don't have an SDHC reader, you may opt to get the package with a reader included to download your pics. If not you can just transfer your pics directly from your camera with your card still inserted. An SDHC card reader can be bought separately if your PC doesn't have a compatible slot.

General SDHC and SD Card Tips

There are a few tips that I've learned the hard way through buying TOO MANY different memory cards.
1. Make sure your device is compatible with the card! Even in regular SD cards, some older electronics aren't compatible with that large of a size (2 GB). In terms of SDHC cards, make sure your camera or other device is SDHC compatible. SDHC is different from regular SD and only newer devices tend to have built-in compatibility
2. Once you install this in your camera or device, you will generally want to format the card with your compatible device's interface. That is because the standard formats for certain devices, particularly Canon, are different from the factory installed format
3. Just like your devices, most computer SD card readers are not compatible with the SDHC format. So use a card reader or download the pictures via USB connection to the camera with the card still installed.
4. For some reason, placing the card in the locked position allows some older laptops to still read it. This is just to be used in a pinch however, and it won't apply to all systems
5. If you did not properly format your card, you may be able to save things to it and then have them "disappear." If this happens to you, make sure you use the software recovery tools BEFORE you try to save anything else to your card. That way, you can retrieve your images without over-writing them.
6. Make sure you know what you are going to use this card for. Once you have set up everything and ensured it's all compatible, you still have to decide on speed. If you are using this for storing RAW images instead of JPEGs or HD video, step up to the faster class 6 speed format if you can afford it.
7. If you are going to pay more for a faster speed, make sure your device can benefit from it. I've read, for example, that Kodak cameras are set to a fixed voltage and cannot go faster than standard speed. So the extra cash spent on Class 4, 5, or 6 is basically wasted.

Conclusion

It's great to have several extra cards on hand just in case. This 4 GB card is a nice performer. If you have a high capacity camera (10 Megapixels or more) and are storing videos or RAW images, the extra cash for the 8GB card is worth it. Or you may want to step up to the larger 16 GB size that is now available.

Enjoy!

Transcend 32 GB SDHC Review, May 25, 2009
Before you drop 120~$ for a SD card ask yourself, Do you really need 32GB card? because the card itself with same specs costs only 35$ for the 16GB version, anyway here is info that might help you

Pros :
1- Class 6 Card the(guaranteed minimum Read/write speed of 6MB/s)
2- My Test Results 18.2-18.5MB/S Read - 11.6-11.8 Write (very stable)
3- Faster than average cards and almost close to top speed SDHC cards
4- 32GB in a single small chip is awesome(You can use it as a portable HD once in a while, i share some stuff with my friends with it sometimes


Cons :
1- Expensive
2- You can get two 16GB cards for around only 70$ and save yourself 50$~
3- Slow write speeds for a 32GB card (Takes forever to fill it with DATA from PC, its not the card fault though , its just the SDHC technology is getting old and slow for 2009 standards , time for newer Tech)

* Important Info

Avoid the Sandisk Ultra Series they never reach the true marketed speed "15MB-20MB/S" its just in theory speed like how everybody knows that USB2 is much slower than its specs, and they are only Class 2 for the 32GB version which will drop frames from your HD video (Plus Class 4 is minimum requirement for shooting in HD ) if you plan to get San disk Card then get the Extreme III Series (but again from my own Tests there read speed is about 20MB not 30MB and the write speed is 14MB/s~ instead of the transcend 11MB/s write speed (Unless you spam shooting pictures with your DSLR you don't "need" faster speed)

I bought This card because i plan to take videos with my HD camcorder that last more 2 Hours, if you do not plan to shoot for longtime then you are better with getting the 16GB card HOWEVER, if you are lazy like my mom and do not plan to transfer DATA from the card to Your computer HD after every trip, then get the 32GB card.or you gonna end up on a trip and a message pops "No memory"

If you plan to shoot for longer time, check your camcorder battery too does it even last that long? so be sure about that before you drop over 100$ for this card

product failed., July 26, 2009
Well, it was great while it lasted. Unfortunately, it did not last long.

Like other reviewers, after <20 use cycles the device failed and I got a "lock" error when, in fact, the write-protection lock was not engaged. Oddly, by engaging the lock (i.e. entering read-only mode) I was able to remove the picture files from the card. Obviously, further use in the camera was impossible; I was also unable to reformat the card (either with my camera or with the SD Associations free software [..]).

This card has a high average rating but I would urge customers to consider the number of 1-star ratings due to complete product failure before they purchase this item.

My Canon loves the 8 GB SDHC card, January 15, 2008
This SDHC card is the fastest one in its price range but it may cause your images to be lost.

I use two of this in a Canon SD750. After the first use, all of the images were lost. (But thank God, I could rescue them with Lexar Image Rescue 2, a program better than its competitors) Then I formated the card(s) in the camera(s) with "low level format" option several times and there has been no problem after that so far.

I can suggest these points to potential owners of this card:
1- Use it very carefully, make backups if possible.
2- Format it several times before the first use with "low level format" option.
3- If you loose your images, don't panic. At this situation, It is very important not to take anymore pictures. If you take pictures after this point, you can overwrite your lost images and there can be no chance to get them back. Connect your card to your computer with a card reader (SDHC Compatible) and rescue them with Lexar Image Rescue.

Excellent Mini Hard Drive equivalent, December 11, 2007
I recently ordered this card as an accessory for my Acer Aspire One netbook PC. The card took a little while to ship, about 8 days, but that wasn't a big deal. The card has lots of space, and the read speeds are quite impressive. I mostly use it to run and store portable software, and it does a very good job at that.

My only complaint is that when I first inserted the card into my PC it attempted to install some adware. The program was from a company called RelevantKnowledge, and they gather your information for market research purposes. Luckily my spyware software picked it up immediately,so I was able to delete it. Afterward I formatted the card, and now I'm happy as can be.

Reliable card, good speeds!, December 4, 2008
Transcend 16 GB SDHC SD Class 6 Flash Memory Card TS16GSDHC6E [Amazon Frustration-Free Packaging]
I have 4 of these cards that I use in my Panasonic HMC-150, a professional grade video camera. I've run read/write tests on all of them and they get about 14 MB/s write speeds and 17.5 MB/s read speeds. Never encountered any errors! These cards are the best bang for your buck, and the frustration free packaging is awesome.

Great affordable SDHC card, March 28, 2008
In the past, I bought a Transcend 8GB SDHC card for my Canon SD1000 camera. I recently bought the Transcend 16GB SDHC for my new Canon SX20IS. Both cards work very well and I've had no problems with it so far. I wanted to take this opportunity to update my review since my original review was also posted (by Amazon) for the 16GB card. This is because the only difference between these two cards is the different capacity. So, if you're in the market for an affordable high quality SDHC card, this may be the one for you. Sorry, I kind of sounded like a used car salesman right there, didn't I? I assure you that I don't work for Transcend. But, here's why I think this card is awesome:

Pros:

-Affordable!

-Large capacity

-Class 6 read/write speed (which is very fast... but is no longer the fastest class available)

-Lifetime warranty (at least that's what the package says :)

-Transcend is a reputable company that's been making memory products for a very long time. ( I swear to the tech Gods that I don't work for them!) Other reputable and reliable memory card companies include Kingston and PNY. All three of these companies have been making memory chips for many, many years.


Cons:

- I can' really think of any "Cons" about this card. But here's the 2 closest things I can come up with right now: (1) "Class 6" is no longer the fastest speed available and (2) This card does NOT make coffee for you in the morning, do your dishes for you, give you compliments when you're having a bad day, or magically improve your photography skills.




IMPORTANT SPECIAL NOTES ABOUT SDHC MEMORY CARDS:

-SDHC cards are not compatible with most older SD cameras, SD devices, or SD card readers.

-SDHC cards are rated by speed using different "classes". There are currently 4 data transfer speed classes available for SDHC cards. These classes are "class 2, class 4, and class 6, and the new class 10. For example, "Class 2" would have the slowest read/write speed while "Class 6" has the fastest read/write speed. So if you have a device in which speed may play a crucial role, make sure you buy a higher "class" SDHC card. Please note that this SDHC card no longer has the fastest read/write speed available. There is now a new class, called "Class 10". Class 6 has a minimum read/write speed of 6MB/sec... while Class 2 has minimum speed rating of 2MB/sec, and Class 4 is 4MB/sec. Starting to see the pattern?


SO WHAT'S THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN "SD CARDS" AND "SDHC CARDS?

SDHC is basically an upgrade to the older SD cards. The reason they upgraded it was to achieve greater data transfer speeds AND capacity than previously possible with normal SD cards... and to do this, they had to redesign the card (which is why it's not compatible with normal SD devices). This was necessary because digital cameras and digital video cameras these days have higher resolutions, which equate to larger file sizes and faster data transfer needs.

Now that many digital cameras also can record HD video, you may consider getting a larger capacity card because video takes much more space than photos. The size of the video varies from camera to camera depending on what resolution and video compression the camera uses. If you plan on taking lots of video (especially HD video), I would consider getting at least a 16GB card. Check your camera specifications to see how many minutes per Gig of memory your camera can capture ...to gauge how big of a memory card you'll want to get to meet your needs.

Special Note on regular SD Cards:
If you primarily take casual photos and don't need a exceptionally fast read/write capable card, you should know that newer cameras that take "SDHC" cards will also work with older normal "SD" cards. These older cards are cheaper than the new SDHC cards, so this may be something to consider. So to sum things up, newer cameras will take SDHC and regular SD cards, but older cameras that use SD cards may not be able to use SDHC cards. This is because newer technology is usually made to be compatible with older technology (the technical term used to describe this is "backwards compatibility") ... but older technology may not have the hardware necessary to run newer tech (technical term used is "obsolete"... just kidding! ;)

I hope I haven't confused everybody by going into this much detail, but I can't help being the nerd that I am. If you are confused, don't hesitate to comment on this post and I will try my best to answer your questions. Also, any feedback is always welcome!

Conclusion: Buy the card if you have a new device that uses SDHC. It rocks! (This message has been approved by the "Duke of New Mexico")

Transcend 4 GB Class 6 SDHC Card - Good Card for SDHC Compatible Devices, May 10, 2008
UPDATE - March 2, 2010: This review was originally written for the 4 GB class 6 SDHC card, but the reviews have been grouped for all class 6 SDHC cards in the 4, 8, 16 and 32 GB sizes. All the cards should perform similarly since they are all class 6 and all made by Transcend. However, I will have to check which cards I have used hands on. I believe I only own the 4GB and 8GB cards. I will update the review further. If you have concerns regarding the 16GB or 32GB sizes, you should seek out the reviews tagged with the product links from those cards.


The Transcend 4GB SDHC CARD (Class 6) is a great card for the price. I was at first a little skeptical about the brand, but I buy way too many memory cards to ignore a good price when I see one. And I'm happy to report that I've experienced decent performance and reliability issues with this card. That's as compared to other cards I own including SanDisk, PNY and Kingston.

As long as your devices are compatible with the SDHC format, this card is a good buy. 4 GB is a nice size though I do prefer 8 GB capacity for high capacity storage.

The class 6 speed is the fastest speed available in mass market SDHC cards. Class 6 guarantees minimum transfer speeds of 6 MBs, but I've gotten speeds up to 20Mbs! That makes this card perfect for storing pictures in RAW image formats.

The Class 6 speed is on par with the Sandisk Extreme III cards that on average are about $15 to $20 more per card. If you don't have an SDHC reader, you may opt to get the package with a reader included to download your pics. If not you can just transfer your pics directly from your camera with your card still inserted. An SDHC card reader can be bought separately if your PC doesn't have a compatible slot.

General SDHC and SD Card Tips

There are a few tips that I've learned the hard way through buying TOO MANY different memory cards.
1. Make sure your device is compatible with the card! Even in regular SD cards, some older electronics aren't compatible with that large of a size (2 GB). In terms of SDHC cards, make sure your camera or other device is SDHC compatible. SDHC is different from regular SD and only newer devices tend to have built-in compatibility
2. Once you install this in your camera or device, you will generally want to format the card with your compatible device's interface. That is because the standard formats for certain devices, particularly Canon, are different from the factory installed format
3. Just like your devices, most computer SD card readers are not compatible with the SDHC format. So use a card reader or download the pictures via USB connection to the camera with the card still installed.
4. For some reason, placing the card in the locked position allows some older laptops to still read it. This is just to be used in a pinch however, and it won't apply to all systems
5. If you did not properly format your card, you may be able to save things to it and then have them "disappear." If this happens to you, make sure you use the software recovery tools BEFORE you try to save anything else to your card. That way, you can retrieve your images without over-writing them.
6. Make sure you know what you are going to use this card for. Once you have set up everything and ensured it's all compatible, you still have to decide on speed. If you are using this for storing RAW images instead of JPEGs or HD video, step up to the faster class 6 speed format if you can afford it.
7. If you are going to pay more for a faster speed, make sure your device can benefit from it. I've read, for example, that Kodak cameras are set to a fixed voltage and cannot go faster than standard speed. So the extra cash spent on Class 4, 5, or 6 is basically wasted.

Conclusion

It's great to have several extra cards on hand just in case. This 4 GB card is a nice performer. If you have a high capacity camera (10 Megapixels or more) and are storing videos or RAW images, the extra cash for the 8GB card is worth it. Or you may want to step up to the larger 16 GB size that is now available.

Enjoy!

Transcend 32 GB SDHC Review, May 25, 2009
Before you drop 120~$ for a SD card ask yourself, Do you really need 32GB card? because the card itself with same specs costs only 35$ for the 16GB version, anyway here is info that might help you

Pros :
1- Class 6 Card the(guaranteed minimum Read/write speed of 6MB/s)
2- My Test Results 18.2-18.5MB/S Read - 11.6-11.8 Write (very stable)
3- Faster than average cards and almost close to top speed SDHC cards
4- 32GB in a single small chip is awesome(You can use it as a portable HD once in a while, i share some stuff with my friends with it sometimes


Cons :
1- Expensive
2- You can get two 16GB cards for around only 70$ and save yourself 50$~
3- Slow write speeds for a 32GB card (Takes forever to fill it with DATA from PC, its not the card fault though , its just the SDHC technology is getting old and slow for 2009 standards , time for newer Tech)

* Important Info

Avoid the Sandisk Ultra Series they never reach the true marketed speed "15MB-20MB/S" its just in theory speed like how everybody knows that USB2 is much slower than its specs, and they are only Class 2 for the 32GB version which will drop frames from your HD video (Plus Class 4 is minimum requirement for shooting in HD ) if you plan to get San disk Card then get the Extreme III Series (but again from my own Tests there read speed is about 20MB not 30MB and the write speed is 14MB/s~ instead of the transcend 11MB/s write speed (Unless you spam shooting pictures with your DSLR you don't "need" faster speed)

I bought This card because i plan to take videos with my HD camcorder that last more 2 Hours, if you do not plan to shoot for longtime then you are better with getting the 16GB card HOWEVER, if you are lazy like my mom and do not plan to transfer DATA from the card to Your computer HD after every trip, then get the 32GB card.or you gonna end up on a trip and a message pops "No memory"

If you plan to shoot for longer time, check your camcorder battery too does it even last that long? so be sure about that before you drop over 100$ for this card

product failed., July 26, 2009
Well, it was great while it lasted. Unfortunately, it did not last long.

Like other reviewers, after <20 use cycles the device failed and I got a "lock" error when, in fact, the write-protection lock was not engaged. Oddly, by engaging the lock (i.e. entering read-only mode) I was able to remove the picture files from the card. Obviously, further use in the camera was impossible; I was also unable to reformat the card (either with my camera or with the SD Associations free software [..]).

This card has a high average rating but I would urge customers to consider the number of 1-star ratings due to complete product failure before they purchase this item.

My Canon loves the 8 GB SDHC card, January 15, 2008
I recently purchased a Canon Powershot A720IS digital camera that is capable of recognizing and using up to 2 TERRABYTES of memory card (in the future) so I wanted to get the largest memory card I could install for now. I wanted to use the camera both on dry land and with an underwater housing for shooting stills and video on dive trips. Camera specs said an 8 GB SDHC card would record one hour of hi res video at 30 fps. Or nearly 2300 hi res stills at 8 megapixels.

A test of the Transcend 8GB SDHC card in the camera ended up shooting 70 minutes of full screen, 30fps digital video that could not be distinguished from my DV camcorder video quality. Playback from the memory card to the TV was so fast & efficient there was never a single "stutter" on the screen. The card speed is genuinely FAST as advertised. Low level formatting of the card allowed for very acceptable rapid-fire sequential still photo shooting speeds when light levels were bright enough that the flash was not needed/used. Something like 2 photos every 3 seconds. Files were flawless in display, both for stills and video.

This product was significantly lower in price than the Kingston 8GB SDHC card I originally bought with the camera. I've used both interchangeably and cannot see any different in the speed or capacity and quality of imagery is identical. For the money I'll stick with Transcend and am looking forward to getting their 16GB card once the price drops substantially below the $100 mark. That would provide nearly 2 1/2 hours of video on my still camera or 4600 highest quality stills. I'm afraid my camcorder will be collecting dust much of the time. A big advantage to video on the card is there are NO MOVING PARTS, e.g. a mini DV tape cassette and camcorder or VCR playback unit needed to dump the video and stills to my Mac for editing and burning DVDs. I just stick the card in the MicroMate USB card reader, plug it in the computer and bingo, ready to sort thru and dump to the hard drive. Since the card is formatted by a Canon camera it automatically boots up the Canon Viewer software too. That should work the same for other brands of still cameras formatting this chip.

The Fastest Card at This Price But..., June 26, 2007
This SDHC card is the fastest one in its price range but it may cause your images to be lost.

I use two of this in a Canon SD750. After the first use, all of the images were lost. (But thank God, I could rescue them with Lexar Image Rescue 2, a program better than its competitors) Then I formated the card(s) in the camera(s) with "low level format" option several times and there has been no problem after that so far.

I can suggest these points to potential owners of this card:
1- Use it very carefully, make backups if possible.
2- Format it several times before the first use with "low level format" option.
3- If you loose your images, don't panic. At this situation, It is very important not to take anymore pictures. If you take pictures after this point, you can overwrite your lost images and there can be no chance to get them back. Connect your card to your computer with a card reader (SDHC Compatible) and rescue them with Lexar Image Rescue.

Excellent Mini Hard Drive equivalent, December 11, 2007
This card is able to hold a complete DVD movie, thousands of songs/photos, or just serve as a backup device for one's files.

It operates very well - I now have purchased 3 and with each use its value becomes more apparent.

One word of caution - even though most laptops and systems have an SD card slot, older computers may not be able to recognize or write to this card. Make sure your system has the ability to read SDHC configured products.

If you do not have an SD slot you can purchase an tiny SD reader (very inexpensive) that plugs into your USB port.

Great value, just be careful..., January 2, 2009
I recently ordered this card as an accessory for my Acer Aspire One netbook PC. The card took a little while to ship, about 8 days, but that wasn't a big deal. The card has lots of space, and the read speeds are quite impressive. I mostly use it to run and store portable software, and it does a very good job at that.

My only complaint is that when I first inserted the card into my PC it attempted to install some adware. The program was from a company called RelevantKnowledge, and they gather your information for market research purposes. Luckily my spyware software picked it up immediately,so I was able to delete it. Afterward I formatted the card, and now I'm happy as can be.

Reliable card, good speeds!, December 4, 2008
Transcend 16 GB SDHC SD Class 6 Flash Memory Card TS16GSDHC6E [Amazon Frustration-Free Packaging]
I have 4 of these cards that I use in my Panasonic HMC-150, a professional grade video camera. I've run read/write tests on all of them and they get about 14 MB/s write speeds and 17.5 MB/s read speeds. Never encountered any errors! These cards are the best bang for your buck, and the frustration free packaging is awesome.

Don't Let This Happen to You....., August 3, 2008
It's great to have 8GB of memory but it is a double edged sword. Today after using this card for only the second time, it failed on me. I lost almost 200 precious images - gone forever. I am what you would call an enthusiast or hobbyist. I love photography and spend every spare minute, which is very seldom these days, pursuing my passion. So I do a fair amount of experimentation. These cards are great when they work - but if they fail you even once - the results can be catastrophic. Maybe I am the unlucky 1 of 250 reviewers with a bad experience with this product, but I feel it is my responsibility to report this to everyone. I hope it never happens to you. It is human nature for me to wonder, if I had spent a few more dollars for a better brand name, would my photos be intact today? ... Read more

Editorial Review

Fujifilm's FinePix J40 will be a hit with those who demand a compact that's affordable, easy-to-use and produces great images. Not only does it feature the latest technology, such as Scene Recognition AUTO and Face Detection, but it's very stylish too, with a petite slim-line frame and high-gloss, double coated veneer finish. With 12 megapixels, pin-sharp 3x Fujinon optical zoom lens, and a huge 3.0-inch LCD screen, the FinePix J40 will deliver fantastic pictures with minimal effort. Offering wide photographic versatility, a new Panoramic Shooting mode allows users to create stunning shots of sweeping landscapes and large groups of people. Just slip it in your pocket and go and have fun! ... Read more

Reviews

Great camera for the price, November 5, 2010

Nice camera, some new gripes! Update:11-29-2010, October 27, 2010

Superior value for money, October 25, 2010

Good camera for the price, November 21, 2010

Fuji FinePix J40 12 MP Digital Camera - a nice little camera!, November 15, 2010

This compact, accessible, and intuitive performer is a tremendous value., November 13, 2010

great for taking pics of kids on the move!, November 28, 2010
My daughter is a shaker and a mover. Getting a good pic of her was nearly impossible unless we found a means to keep her still. This camera by far beats my digital Sony camera which recently stopped working. The flash does not cause the pics to be white washed and the pics are also perfectly clear whether it's the photographer or the subjects that are moving! For the price and ease of use (uneducated in photography) this camera exceeds my expectations. I've never owned a Fuji, only sony and kodak, but they have won my heart. Now i just need to find a decent carrying case.

Little automatic camera, November 23, 2010
My girlfriend picked this camera: she liked the price, and how it looked. The camera is pleasant to look at and to hold in hands, it features nice finish and easy to use interface. The zoom equivalent is 32 - 96 mm.

There is a bunch of scene modes, including a panorama mode for stitching two or three side-by-side pictures together automatically (the camera displays a part of the previous image so you can overlay the next image in the viewfinder).

A thirds grid can be turned on on the screen to assist in picture framing.

There is an easy access to macro mode, self timer (10 and 2 sec), and flash mode (auto, always on, always off, and red eye reduction [auto only]).

In manual scene mode the camera lets you select ISO sensitivity, exposure compensation, white balance, and adds two more flash settings (slow sync and red eye slow sync).

The camera does not detect portrait orientation automatically, but there is a menu option to rotate pictures after taking.

J40 - Great Value!, November 29, 2010
I recently purchased the FinePix J40 and I am very happy with my purchase. I bought this camera over some other budget cameras offered on Amazon last week because of the rechargeable battery and thin metal body.

I bought a similar camera last year and one of the features that my wife loves the most is the SR-Auto mode. This allows the camera to detect one of 6 different scenes that you might be shooting. She finds this particularly useful taking pictures of our daughter, closeups or landscapes.

We got back our first set of photos from Thanksgiving and the photos are very clear and colorful.

We took lots of photos from the time we got the camera through Thanksgiving and didn't have to recharge the battery!

I would recommend this to anybody looking for a quality camera at a great deal.

Excellent camera for the price!, October 28, 2010

Editorial Review

The all-new Flip UltraHD video camera, now with image stabilization and a new slimmer design, combines Flip Video's signature shoot-and-share simplicity with better-than-ever HD. Simply power on and press record to start capturing up to 2 hours of incredible HD video. When you're done recording, just connect the flip-out USB arm to a PC or Mac and use pre-loaded FlipShare software to organize, edit and share your videos. The new UltraHD also works with Designed for Flip products, a new expanded accessory line from Flip Video and partner companies. ... Read more

Reviews

The Best Flip once again so far...., September 22, 2010
This is now my 3rd Flip camera (they are all still in operation, I just can't help upgrading when a higher quality product hits the market). I always fall in love with my new Flip video camera and this one is no exception - I prefer the design of the Ultra HD over the Mino because of the larger screen, and the new 3rd generation is noticeably thinner than last year's model which makes it lighter and easier to hold. HUGE HUGE HUGE improvement in video quality on the 3rd generation model - image stabilization and now 60 frames per seconds (FPS) compared to 30 FPS in the previous HD model. This 60 FPS results in noticeably higher quality video and the ability to zoom more effectively. This model comes with a rechargeable battery pack so you can charge via your usb port on your computer, or if you are traveling and don't have access to USB the Flip Ultra also allows you to put 3 AA batteries for videographers who are "on the go."

Another A++ product from the folks up in San Francisco who design this product. Go out and get one - it's time for an Upgrade to the 3rd generation of Flip!!!!

The Best Flip once again so far...., September 22, 2010
This review is very similar to the review that I gave for the Flip Slid HD when it first came out. (Please see that review also...)

I have been a Flip camera user since they released the first gen. Flip Mino HD (not the new metallic model). I loved the camera. For what I needed it for it was everything I wanted. I soon became addicted to the Flip cameras and needed to purchase the newest one every time they came out.

I currently own the Flip Mino HD (1st gen) Flip Ultra HD (2nd Gen) Flip Slide HD, and now the Flip Ultra HD (3rd Gen with Flip Port). I also own a Canon GL2 and Vixia 30 video cameras and a Canon Xi digital SLR.


I got home from school on Tuesday and found my brand new Flip Ultra HD waiting for me. I had about 20 minutes to open the package, look and set up the features (time, date, etc.) before I had to leave for marching band rehearsal. During rehearsal I did some test shooting and I was very impressed with the quality of this camera, but I was worried about a few features.

I was reluctant at first to purchase this camera because of the 60fps feature. I did own a Kodak Zi8 and the 720p 60fps setting didn't not import into Final Cut Pro. I had to take it into compressor or some other software and change the file extension in order for Final Cut Pro to import it. Of course this causes a decrease in quality.

I was also reluctant because of the image stabilization feature. When image stabilization is added to a camera (of this size) video quality usually suffers. I know flips can be very shaky if you do not have a well trained hand. After a few hours a playing you will figure out the right movements that the camera can incorporate so your video will not come out shaky.

I don't use my Flip Slide HD because of the omni directional microphone. I can not record loud situations because the microphone distorts. This is my biggest fault with the Slide HD. I was a little concerned with the new Flip Ultra HD that it would have the same problem even though it uses a different microphone, but what really sold me on this new Flip was the accessories and the FLIP PORT.

Right off the bat I noticed all of the new accessories that they are pushing for the Flips, the aquapacks, the igo chargers, and my favorite is the magnetic Bower Wide Angel Lens. Flip and Cisco have finally started listening to its customers, but what put it over the top for me was Blue Microphones. Blue Microphones makes vintage and out of this world recording, studio, usb microphones. I own one of their USB Microphones called the Snow Ball and the quality of that microphone is amazing. When I found out that Blue Microphones was making a microphone (mikey) for the new Flip to be used with the new Flip Port, I purchased mine right away.

So the Review...

The Ultra HD has always been my favorite because of its size. I think the bigger it is the better control you will have and the less shaky video you will produce. The new Ultra HD is smaller, but not that much. It feels good in your hands. The controls and the screen are in the same place. It is a nice fit in your hand.

I was very shocked at how well the image stabilization worked. If you have used a flip before this one you know that the slightest movement will create shaky video. You can tell that this one has image stabilization. It still can produce shaky video but it might take a big jolt to do it.

The 60 fps was great. It was much clearer video and with the image stabilization it made everything much smoother and clearer in the view finder, even in low light situations. I did check when I got home and the 60fps does import right into Final Cut Pro for editing without any compression. (Probably cause the videos are in MP4 format)

Overall I think this is the best Flip Camera out on the market. I like this one better than the Mino because of the touch screen controls. Sometimes pressing the touch screen controls on the Mino will cause the camera to shake.

I hope this review was helpful. Please feel free to leave comments or questions.

See my comparison of my Flip Cameras below.


Flip Mino HD - Good Microphone (2nd out of all of them), doesn't have as wide as a shooting angle as the Ultra's. Very small in the hand, at times hard to control.

Flip Ultra HD (2nd Gen) - Good Microphone (3rd out of all of them) Wide Angle for shooting, Feels good in the hand, sturdy, wont break if dropped. Double A batteries only last a few hours, rechargeable battery pack has short life span. Unit can get hot when charging - may even shut down.

Flip Slide HD - Poor Microphone (in loud situations) - its omni directional so it picks up all around the Flip not just in the front like the others. (4th out of all of them) Touch controls are better than the Flip Mino, however this has no hard buttons. The Slide does have the largest storage capacity and is second in video quality only to the new Flip Ultra HD.

Flip Ultra HD (3rd Gen Flip Port) - Widest Angle for shooting, feels the best in the hand, has the Best Microphone and currently I believe has the best video quality. This also is the only unit that has the new Flip Port.


Thanks

Nick

HUGE improvement for the Flip - sleeker design, much higher video quality, September 27, 2010
This is now my 3rd Flip camera (they are all still in operation, I just can't help upgrading when a higher quality product hits the market). I always fall in love with my new Flip video camera and this one is no exception - I prefer the design of the Ultra HD over the Mino because of the larger screen, and the new 3rd generation is noticeably thinner than last year's model which makes it lighter and easier to hold. HUGE HUGE HUGE improvement in video quality on the 3rd generation model - image stabilization and now 60 frames per seconds (FPS) compared to 30 FPS in the previous HD model. This 60 FPS results in noticeably higher quality video and the ability to zoom more effectively. This model comes with a rechargeable battery pack so you can charge via your usb port on your computer, or if you are traveling and don't have access to USB the Flip Ultra also allows you to put 3 AA batteries for videographers who are "on the go."

Another A++ product from the folks up in San Francisco who design this product. Go out and get one - it's time for an Upgrade to the 3rd generation of Flip!!!!

Great Basic Camera, somewhat lacking features for power users, November 7, 2010

Do the some of the reviewers work for FLIP?, October 2, 2010
I can't help but notice that the most stellar reviews are not from steady Amazon reviewers and have only reviewed FLIP products (for the most part). I am hoping that these reviews are not a product of shameless internal promotion. That said, even if this is the case, the FLIP is definitely convenient. The website (flipshare) definitely takes the difficulty quotient out of the picture. I bought the 3G only b/c I gave my 2G to a family member, and inertia (already being a member of their site) rears its passive head so I went with what is familiar.

So I re-starred my review due to comments-- And since I just got the flip, I wasn't able to fully review it initially and had given it lower star rating. However, I can say I've used it now for all of a month or two and thus far it seems pretty much the same as the 2nd Generation flip. Sure, there is supposed to be an added feature for image stabilization, but it's really not noticeable (IMO). The 3rd generation is also a tad thinner than the 2nd generation, but, again, not noticeable-- at all. Thus, I would recommend the 2nd generation over the 3rd generation, in part because there is no noticeable difference, and in part because the 2nd generation is so much cheaper! I'd say this new generation is ok... not great, not bad, just fine/so so. I'm not wowed by the new 3G version.

Two things to note: 1) HDMI cables are NOT included (for the 2G or 3G versions).
2) The FLIP Ultra HD is Mac compatible.

Many other mini HD camcorders are not fully Mac compatible. This may be a reason to go with the Ultra HD Flip.

VERY IMPORTANT TO NOTE: DO NOT, I REPEAT, DO NOT GET THE ONE HOUR FLIP. THE VIDEO QUALITY IS SOOOOO AWFUL THAT I WANT TO HURL IT AGAINST THE WALL. I bought the 1 hour 3rd generation flip as a backup, and just pulled it out b/c my son broke the 3rd generation 2 hour flip. I started taping him, and could not even see his features up close. It is the worst video quality ever. And when I say ever, I am not exaggerating. I am so upset, mad, frustrated. How can they even put this product on the market given its rediculously awful quality? I hate it. B/c of this 1 hour flip quality, I am going to try another brand. I don't care how easy it is to upload into the flipshare... At this point, I am too angry. Also, I see that Cisco people troll amazon to respond to all the reviews. Caveat Emptor. buyer beware.

Hard to recommend with so many gadgets w/video in market now, October 27, 2010

Warning about Flip Port, October 7, 2010
I'm a Flip lover, have had four of them and immediately got this new model because of the Flip Port and possibility of hooking up external mics. I was surprised to see how close it was to the tripod screw. I've tried it on four tripods and every one blocks access to the Flip Port. In other words, the only way to use the Flip Port is in handheld mode; no tripod. For video casting and similar uses, that's a strange design flaw. I asked Flip customer support and they have no tripods that would allow access to the port. It's a real head scratcher and something to consider if the Flip Port is your reason for making the purchase.

Great Compact Video Camera, September 21, 2010
Really like the camera, and I'm not having short battery life like the other reviewer. Can't put an exact time on it but spent plenty of time recording, playback and just plain messing around on the battery right out of the box. still working on second charge after at least 30 minutes. Anyway, camera seems to work really well in low light situations. Overall I couldn't be happier, unless the camera came with an HDMI cable.

Even more impressive than the last Flip., October 2, 2010
This Flip UltraHD camcorder is even more impressive than the last one. As usual with Flips, it's the ideal thing for any family hoping to videotape the kids, friends, events, etc. First of all, it's completely idiot proof: when you get the box, there is absolutely no assembly required. Your first guess about which buttons are the power switch, record button, and USB connector release will be correct; great intuitive design. The device looks and feels great (as other reviewers have mentioned) and easily fits in your hand comfortably for long periods of time (unlike my blackberry). It is a bit larger than the last one, which helps it fit snugly in the hand, though it takes a little bit more space in your pocket. It turns on and off instantly (unlike my home computer or cell phone) so you don't have to wait long to start recording that precious, fleeting moment.

The screen is large and the HD video is amazing on big-screen playback. The new 60 frames per second is noticeably better, and pretty much as smooth as you'll ever need. (Frames change twice as fast as than the eye can see, so it seems super-smooth to the human eye -- I did a bit of research!) Image quality continues to be excellent, and not too shaky/bouncy. The new image stabilization seems to remove some vibrations (like when videotaping a baby laughing in a driving car) but I didn't notice a major difference indoors since it can't remove the effects of the larger hand tilting movements (caused by my running around stepping on toys while following the baby around). The USB connector is a bit different, on the side instead of the top, which makes it easier to connect to a laptop. Otherwise it's the same: convenient, easy to connect, and you don't have to go running to find any special USB connector cable (like my old digital camera). The audio is still good, picking up faint background sounds that I hadn't even noticed at the time of recording and picking up simultaneous music and voices with great quality. The 2-hour battery life is more than I ever use, so it's great. There is a new battery pack (very easy to install if you've ever had a cell phone), but it doesn't seem to change anything for better or worse.

The Flip Video software continues to set the standard. It is ridiculously easy to setup, automatically starts when I plug in the camcorder, and makes it completely obvious how to download the videos, play back, freeze frames to make photos, and share. And it's fast-- not much waiting for videos to load up (like other video players). It's all in an easy-to-use, well-organized (by video date) layout very similar to the iPod control panel. I wish all software was this easy to use.

I highly recommend this device-- it's the most impressive Flip yet, and well worth the investment.

Great at video capture, but doesn't compete w/other products, November 3, 2010

Getting Better, October 2, 2010
I got this new model Flip because I have shakey hands. I have the previous model and have my wife shoot most of the videos since mine are usually too shaky. When I saw the new model had image stabilization I ordered one. I still can't shoot as steadily as my wife, but there is a definate improvement in my videos. Panning results are also much better since the capture rate has been upped to 60 fps. I haven't used the camera enough to know what kind of battery life to expect, but I ordered some Eneloop rechargeable batteries to carry as a backup power source. I do this as well with my other Flip, but it uses AAs rather than AAAs like the new Flip does.
I feel the Flip cameras would be easier to handle if they coulde be held horizontally, but that's only because I have to use both hands due to my tremors. Most people can operate the camera with one hand. I'm assuming the shape is just right for them. I liked the last model well enough to buy this newest version and have been pleased with the improvements. I ordered the camera from Amazon.com and got free overnight shipping. I recieved it the following afternoon and was shooting some nice fall videos the next day. ... Read more

Editorial Review

Caselogic TBC-302 Ultra Compact Camera Case with Storage (Black) ... Read more

Reviews

Nice snug fit for Canon S90, October 14, 2009
This little case is the perfect size for my new Polaroid digital camera. It has a handy little zippered pocket big enough to store an extra battery and/or SD cards. It also came with a 'caribiner' type belt clip. Plus, I like that it's orange, just like my camera. The price is right too!

Nice snug fit for Canon S90, October 14, 2009
I tried several cases for my new Canon S90 and this case had the best snug fit for the S90 without being too snug. It will provide a modest level of protection for the camera without adding unnecessary bulk. The outer pocket will hold an extra battery and/or memory card.

It saved my camera, December 22, 2009
I recently purchased a Canon S90 to complement my 5DmkII on a safari in Tanzania. Throughout the trip I had the S90 on my belt for quick and easy access; the case isn't bulky and seemed to protect the camera well enough from the occasional knock as the land cruiser hit big bumps.

On my last day in Tanzania I was walking through the streets of Arusha when suddenly I felt a hard tug that almost spun me around. I turned to see a man starting to flee. I started off in pursuit--concerned more about the memory card than the camera itself--but after a few steps realized the camera was still at my side, only a slight rip in the strap indicating anything had happened.

Recommended as a sturdy carrying case with a reasonable amount of padding for impact protection (you won't want to drop it from very high or expose it to strong blows).

Nice generic, cheap case for the S90, January 14, 2010
This case happens to be a good fit for the Canon S90. If you're hiking or are on vacation, it'll get you that crucial amount of padding plus room for 1 or 2 spare batteries and SD card. I particularly like the fact that the belt loop is fixed (not a clip), so once you put it on, you can be confident that it stays on, no matter which woods you're cutting your way through. Use a wider belt if you have one, the case wiggles a little with slim belts.

If you're out in Metropolis though, the "outdoor factor" may be just a tad over the edge. You can remove the metal hook and cut off the bright label with sharp scissors, but it'll still look a bit too dorky for, say, the opera or sushi gathering. For such occasions, you'll do better with Canon's PSC900 Deluxe Leather Case.

Snug fit for DMC-ZS7, June 26, 2010
I read this was a good case to get for the Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZS7 so I ordered one at the same time I ordered my camera.

I got them on the same day and was happy.

I like the case, it is padded and has a little pocket in the front, but I was hoping the pocket was a little bigger. You can't really fit anything in there.. maybe a SD card, but it can't have to bulky a case and there is no way a battery will fit in there.

As for the camera, I liked it at first, it has a snug fit and seemed perfect, but then I realized how unperfect it was. I put the wrist band on it and all the sudden it was way to hard to close, I was afraid I'd scratch it trying to get it zipped. I found a way around this by turning the camera backwards facing away from the pocket.

Another thing I noticed and I HATED was when it was turned the right way with the wrist band on (not sure about without it.. only noticed after I put it on) is that the fit was TO tight that sometimes when zipping it up the zipper hits the on off switch and tries to turn it on.. which isn't good cuz the lense has no where to go! Again, turning it backwards seems to help with this, but I still have to be real careful when putting it up to avoid hitting it...

I like the snug fit but at the same time I wish it was a little bit bigger, I'm afraid if I am in to big of a hurry I might accidently hit the camera with the zipper or something.

Perfect for a Canon S95, November 3, 2010
This case has the perfect fit for a Canon S95, and the outer pocket holds a spare battery and memory card. The belt loop and carabiner are both secure.

Perfect fit in my pocket (For a Canon SD4000), July 15, 2010
I just purchased a Canon SD4000 and wanted a good case to secure the camera. I went with Caselogic TBC-302 and I love the fit.
I had many different cases and every time I get frustrated of keeping the camera in the case because it doesn't fit in my pocket.
Usually, I would just keep the case in my bag and the camera in my pocket.

The TBC-302 size fits comfortably in a regular pair of jeans.
Enough room for a spare battery and SD card.

Perfect size for my Polaroid Digital Camera, May 14, 2010
This little case is the perfect size for my new Polaroid digital camera. It has a handy little zippered pocket big enough to store an extra battery and/or SD cards. It also came with a 'caribiner' type belt clip. Plus, I like that it's orange, just like my camera. The price is right too!

Perfect little case, July 19, 2010
I bought this case to replace my old CaseLogic case because it didn't have a spare pocket to hold small accessories. This case is small and light enough so that I can carry it around all day without noticing it that much, but it is has enough room and padding so that it carries my camera (Panasonic FH20), a spare battery, and a SD card and it protects my camera if I drop it.

I would recommend this case to anyone looking for the perfect travel case for their ultra compact camera.

Good case for Lumix, July 9, 2010
Purchased this on advise from other reviews for the Panasonic Lumix ZS7 I purchased. Case holds the camera and an extra battery in the main section, and the memory chips in the small section. Has a loop to be attached to your belt. It is very small and a tight fit for the above, but it is perfect for what I wanted. Sturdy construction and has a little bit of padding to keep the camera secure. Perfect case for this camera and the few esstentials you need to bring along.

Caselogic TBC Camera Case, December 1, 2010
Bought this for my new Canon PowerShot SD1400IS 14.1 MP Digital Camera with 4x Wide Angle Optical Image Stabilized Zoom and 2.7-Inch LCD (Black) and everything i.e. extra batteries x 2 camera cable and camera itself fits in there. Good product. ... Read more

Editorial Review

e SD High Capacity (SDHC) 4GB flash card is SanDisk's newest format and capacity SD card. SanDisk cards give you plenty of room to capture and store all your precious photos, safely and securely. Fast, and built to last, you can count on SanDisk cards to be ready when you are, every day. Store high quality photos, videos, music and more with this high storage capacity (4 GB) and super, Class 2, speed performance.Not all devices support SDHC 4.0GB cards. Please contact your device manufacturer for details. To ensure compatibility, look for the SDHC Logo on the product or packaging of your new camera or digital camcorder. ... Read more

Reviews

Beware, March 8, 2008
This is a must for loading music to listen to on my Palm TX. But BEWARE of eek Technoligies and buying at this price. They wanted $13.20 for shipping a 2 oz memory card? Buy from someone else even if it is a few dollars more and pay reasonable shipping rates. Don't be fooled by their cheap price they make it up 2x in shippoing charges. When I saw it I cancelled my order..

Make sure you can read it., December 24, 2007
Standard SD and SDHC cards look identical in size and shape, only SDHC-compatible products will be able to accept the new SDHC cards. SanDisk differentiates its new cards with the new SDHC logo on the card and retail package.

Now my web research finds that at the time of its release Wes Brewer, vice president of consumer product marketing at SanDisk, said, "In order to provide the easiest and most compatible solution for 4GB and larger capacity SDHC cards in the market, SanDisk chose to bundle its new MicroMate USB 2.0 SD/SDHC compatible card reader, which normally retails for $19.99, with this new card."

Note this deal does not include a reader.

In my case the device I bought it for can read it. Without the dedicated reader my year old HP computer cannot .

expensive SHIPPING!, March 23, 2008
I played around with the prices on this and found out several things. If I order this item, $11 in shipping costs is added by the third party supplier! If I get the 2G version, even two of them, those qualify for free shipping from Amazon and come out much cheaper. So check your prices on these before ordering. My hunch is that you can probably pick this 4G up cheaper at your local electronics/computer store...

Beware! does not work in many cameras, September 5, 2008
Finding that this product does not work in my one year old Canon camera I contacted the company and was given a list of cameras which do support it. This list belongs on the product description at the Amazon site. Besides the nuisance, I'll be out the $4.50 shipping cost for shipping an item requiring .59 cents postage.

Worked fine until it didn't work, December 15, 2008
I purchased this card five months ago and used it without incident. I was happy with the amount of space on the card. Suddenly today, for no apparent reason, a message came up saying "memory card error". I cannot access the photos on my card with my external card reader. I cannot use the card in my camera. The photos on the card are lost, and that makes me quite sad.

NOT compatible with Canon Powershot 590IS, September 9, 2008
The Sandisk site says this disk is compatible, and the user manual for the Canon Powershot 590IS says the camera can use SD or SDHC memory cards, so I assumed this card would be compatible. It wasn't. The camera says "memory card locked!" even when the card is unlocked. I'm giving this a one star rating because everything I looked at says this card is compatible, but it wasn't. For the Sandisk compatiblity site (which, of course, recommends their most expensive 32 and 16G cards first), see http://www.sandisk.com/Compatibility/Device(8725)-Canon-PowerShot_A590_IS.aspx . I haven't found a site so far that specifically recommends one card over another for this model of camera.

Love it!, May 6, 2008
I love it, it works as promised, and holds well over 30 minutes of video. Pops in and out of camera easily. It's a great product and worth the extra money over the 2.0 GB one.

Two thumbs up!

Works fine, October 29, 2007
Bought for a new camera and works fine. Many older SD card units won't handle 4GB and larger cards so make sure that yours will. If you are buying this for a PC there are USB adapters for these larger cards.

Great, April 3, 2008
This is a great addition to a digital camera if you shoot video clips.
Just make sure that the digital camera supports SD cards over 2Gb. You can usually be confident it will work if the device is labeled SD HC compliant (SD HC is the 4-32Gb standard). It may work in other devices (my Kodak camera is not labeled for SD HC but the card works.)

Never been disappointed, March 26, 2008
I've bought a bunch of these. Always worked well. Don't know about the 8mb cards, but the 4mb cards are a dream. ... Read more

Editorial Review

Performance and capacity redefined with Kingston's SD High-Capacity memory cards.

Starting at 4GB, SDHC cards offer larger-volume data storage and optimized recording performance with support for FAT 32 file formats. In addition, Kingstonâ?TMs SDHC cards use new speed "class" ratings known as Class 2, 4 and 6 that deliver a minimum data transfer rate for optimum performance with SDHC devices.

Although identical in size to todays standard SD card, the new SDHC cards are designed differently and are only recognized by SDHC host devices. To ensure compatibility, look for the SDHC logo on cards and host devices (cameras, camcorders, etc.).

For added reliability and durability, our solid-state SDHC memory cards are built of nonvolatile memory components and have no moving parts that could wear out or break. All cards are 100-percent tested and are backed by a lifetime warranty and free live technical support. ... Read more

Reviews

Kingston quality, massive storage, what's not to love?, December 2, 2008
There are some things to consider before buying this particular card or any other 32gb SDHC card on the market:

1. This is NOT an ideal card for a digital SLR like a D80, D90, Rebel XT, etc... That is because it is a class 4 device. The class of a SDHC cards has to do with how fast they read and write files, not how much storage they have. For a digital SLR, you should purchase a class 6 SDHC card most of the time. Class 6 cards will allow you to take 'bursts' of photos and not be limited by the card's capacity to write them. Also class 4 cards are slower reading data, meaning they will take longer to upload files to your computer. Upload speed is convenient, especially when loading large batches of files.

2. This card has far more storage than most people will need for their digital camera. Unless you like to keep all your photos on a SDHC card and never move them to your computer, or are a high volume photographer, there is very little need for more than about 8gb of storage space for most caeras. The possible exception to this is if you have a professional SLR that shoots files in the 16-20mb range--but if you do, you'll likely want a class 6 card anyway. If all you intend to use this card for is a digital camera, save yourself a lot of money and buy a PNY 8GB SDHC Card. If you're worried about running out of space on a vacation, buy a few of them. Otherwise you run the risk of having 'all your eggs in one basket.' If one card fails, you lose all your pictures instead of only a portion of them.

This card is fantastic for use in a video camcorder capable of writing to an SDHC card. (Check with the manual first to insure that a class 4 card will be fast enough first). It is also perfect as extra storage for an ultra portable computer or net book like the Asus EEE pc. Another great application would be as added storage to a personal media player or MP3 player equipped with a SDHC slot such as the Cowon D2.

There are other good 32gb SDHC cards on the market, some at cheaper price points than the Kingston card. IMHO, brand matters very little with something like a SDHC card, since they all are made pretty much the same way. None of the brands currently offering them (Transcend, PNY, Kingston) have high fail rates with their other products, so I believe they are all pretty similar. What you decide to buy will depend on whether you trust a particular brand, or who has the lowest price. All of them will work equally well.

Very Big, September 8, 2008
PREFACE:

I bought this card for extra disk space on my Asus EeePC netbook. I needed as much space as possible to supplement the very small SSD hard drive. I needed something with large capacity and relatively fast file transfer time.

PROS:

It shares the largest SD capacity on the market today with few others (Panasonic, Sandisk, and PNY) and is a quality name that I have had a good history with in the past. Its file transfer time is similar to the SSD drive in my machine so it basically acts as a second SSD for me at less than a quarter of the price!

CONS:

Its not the cheapest 32gb SD card(PNY) nor the fastest(Panasonic) but its good quality with a decent transfer rate.

CONCLUSION:

I'm very happy with its performance and capacity. I would like to see the price come down a bit, but that's the price of getting electronics of this caliber.

That's my input, take it or leave it :)

Good for the money, but don't expect fast speeds., December 8, 2007
Excellent for the price. I give it a 4/5 because it performs slower than expected from a C4 SDHC card. I also have a Sandisk EIII 2GB. Although it doesn't have the class ratings because it's not SDHC, the Sandisk outperforms the Kingston in both read/write.

My test scenario: Using a Nikon D80 taking 6 shots continuously. The Kingston took considerably longer to write contents from the Nikon D80 buffer.

If you're looking for a high speed card in a similar scenario, then look elsewhere. However, if you want a good card and no particular need for speed, then I recommend getting.

does the job, but not good enough..., December 23, 2009
I have this card. This is extremely fast card. I did a test on my laptop sd slot writing 6 gb files onto the card. Average speed was 5mb per second. that was more than it rated for.

If it was a little faster..., January 19, 2008
I contemplated a 4 star rating, but when you buy the card, you know that it is a "class 4" card, which means it's supposed to transfer files at at least 4GB/s. If it's crucial and you can afford it, you could get the "class 6" card, which would make a difference when transferring large amounts of data.

In short:
*Pros:*
- Capacity. You can get more capacity, but this is a bout the best size/price ratio.
- Price. Again, 8GB and 4GB cards have the best size/price ratio.
*Cons:*
- SDHC. This is not really a con if you have new equipment, but SDHC is a newer standard, so you have to make sure you have the right equipment - SDHC IS NOT THE SAME AS SD!!
- Speed. It's not "slow", but if you've had fast cards you'll notice the difference. Of course, you know this from the "Class 4" rating, so it's also not really a con.

I've owned 2 Kingston SD cards. The oldest of them is about 3 years old and is still as reliable and good as when I first got it, so I have reason to believe this card will last for a while.

My older Kingston 50X SD card is about twice as fast as this card, but it's only 1GB, so I needed more GB's to capture more video. This card would be just about perfect if it was faster. When I say that, I don't mean that the card is slow - my Vista machine can use it for ReadyBoost and camera performance is good. Just know that ReadyBoost can only use 4GB of memory, so you'll have 4GB of memory just sitting unused if you use it for this purpose.

Primarily, I use this card for recording video clips and pictures with my Canon cameras, SD800IS and A710IS. For that purpose the card is great. I haven't noticed any lag when taking 7.1 Mega-pixel pictures (which range from 1MB to about 4MBs) or full screen VGA video (640x480). Here's some general advice for these cameras in particular, but it applies to most cameras:
1. Don't record more than about 10 minutes of video at a time because the file size goes over 1GB, but this depends on the camera and video format, not the card itself.
2. You might want to get an external card reader, if you don't have an internal card reader. You'll be fine transferring files directly from the camera if you only take a few snapshots and short videos. But if you plan on truly using all 8GB and transferring them at once, do yourself a favor and get a card reader. Most cameras are not meant to read/transfer files at fast speeds (even if they're USB 2.0 capable), and at least with the SD800IS, I could not transfer files over 500MB. Once I used a memory card reader, transferring was a breeze.

Although reading times are fast enough (between 4-8MB/s), writing is a bit slower - it tops out at about 4MB/s, which is good enough for the "Class 4" rating and fast enough to capture pictures without (noticeable) lag in my cameras.
It's a great card for the price; just make sure you understand what you're buying.

Don't be swayed by idiot customers.., February 25, 2008
The Kingston 4gb SDHC memory card, like all other Kingston products, is an exceptional piece of equipment. I use it with my Canon SD1000 and I get nothing but blazing fast write times and no headaches. Make sure your device supports SDHC because if not, it will not work. This is a key reason why people are left "unsatisfied" by what they get, not because of the product, but because they did not do their homework.

Buyers, you should really take note that, most reviews on any site about not only Kingston, but other great brands, is heavily altered by idiot customers leaving comments to attack the site that sold them the items. So don't quickly judge an product based on how many stars it has, because honestly, you cannot take that into consideration unless you have read every review posted.

great value at $22, December 3, 2007
The price of the SD4/4GB card jumps around a lot here. It is a great value at $22. Not so hot at $40. Wait a while and it may go down again. Note that only newer SD devices can use the 4GB SDHC cards. Older cameras, etc. can only use regular SD cards up to 2GB. If you're not sure, check your owner's manual or contact your manufacturer. Also, older SD card readers will not work with SDHC cards, but SDHC card readers are available for about $10 on amazon.com

Unreliable - Disappearing Pictures, December 12, 2008
I had this card in a Panasonic DMC-TZ5 camera for about a month, and in that time the card experienced a "read error" on three separate occasions that resulted in all the pictures currently on the card disappearing. I called Panasonic customer service and the first question they asked was what brand card I had. When I told them Kingston, they advised me to get a new card, as nearly everyone who complained about disappearing pictures (in any model camera) had a Kingston card. I'd much rather spend a little more money and actually have my pictures!

A great bargain, and didn't fill up after 1000 pics!, January 21, 2009
I like our point and shoot camera to be low thought-low effort (big SD card, high capacity rechargeable battery, reliable point and shoot performance, etc.), and this 16 gig card coupled with our Canon SD770 has been a great combination. Almost 1000 pics on our vacation to Punta Cana, and the card wasn't filled (I could do the math, but I don't want to).

The card has been reliable, worked fine in a card reader, and I'd make the purchase again. I can't believe this little card holds 1000's of times more information than information storage from only a short time ago, and cost me ~$20. Amazing!

Kingston quality, massive storage, what's not to love?, December 2, 2008
There are some things to consider before buying this particular card or any other 32gb SDHC card on the market:

1. This is NOT an ideal card for a digital SLR like a D80, D90, Rebel XT, etc... That is because it is a class 4 device. The class of a SDHC cards has to do with how fast they read and write files, not how much storage they have. For a digital SLR, you should purchase a class 6 SDHC card most of the time. Class 6 cards will allow you to take 'bursts' of photos and not be limited by the card's capacity to write them. Also class 4 cards are slower reading data, meaning they will take longer to upload files to your computer. Upload speed is convenient, especially when loading large batches of files.

2. This card has far more storage than most people will need for their digital camera. Unless you like to keep all your photos on a SDHC card and never move them to your computer, or are a high volume photographer, there is very little need for more than about 8gb of storage space for most caeras. The possible exception to this is if you have a professional SLR that shoots files in the 16-20mb range--but if you do, you'll likely want a class 6 card anyway. If all you intend to use this card for is a digital camera, save yourself a lot of money and buy a PNY 8GB SDHC Card. If you're worried about running out of space on a vacation, buy a few of them. Otherwise you run the risk of having 'all your eggs in one basket.' If one card fails, you lose all your pictures instead of only a portion of them.

This card is fantastic for use in a video camcorder capable of writing to an SDHC card. (Check with the manual first to insure that a class 4 card will be fast enough first). It is also perfect as extra storage for an ultra portable computer or net book like the Asus EEE pc. Another great application would be as added storage to a personal media player or MP3 player equipped with a SDHC slot such as the Cowon D2.

There are other good 32gb SDHC cards on the market, some at cheaper price points than the Kingston card. IMHO, brand matters very little with something like a SDHC card, since they all are made pretty much the same way. None of the brands currently offering them (Transcend, PNY, Kingston) have high fail rates with their other products, so I believe they are all pretty similar. What you decide to buy will depend on whether you trust a particular brand, or who has the lowest price. All of them will work equally well.

Very Big, September 8, 2008
PREFACE:

I bought this card for extra disk space on my Asus EeePC netbook. I needed as much space as possible to supplement the very small SSD hard drive. I needed something with large capacity and relatively fast file transfer time.

PROS:

It shares the largest SD capacity on the market today with few others (Panasonic, Sandisk, and PNY) and is a quality name that I have had a good history with in the past. Its file transfer time is similar to the SSD drive in my machine so it basically acts as a second SSD for me at less than a quarter of the price!

CONS:

Its not the cheapest 32gb SD card(PNY) nor the fastest(Panasonic) but its good quality with a decent transfer rate.

CONCLUSION:

I'm very happy with its performance and capacity. I would like to see the price come down a bit, but that's the price of getting electronics of this caliber.

That's my input, take it or leave it :)

Good for the money, but don't expect fast speeds., December 8, 2007
Excellent for the price. I give it a 4/5 because it performs slower than expected from a C4 SDHC card. I also have a Sandisk EIII 2GB. Although it doesn't have the class ratings because it's not SDHC, the Sandisk outperforms the Kingston in both read/write.

My test scenario: Using a Nikon D80 taking 6 shots continuously. The Kingston took considerably longer to write contents from the Nikon D80 buffer.

If you're looking for a high speed card in a similar scenario, then look elsewhere. However, if you want a good card and no particular need for speed, then I recommend getting.

does the job, but not good enough..., December 23, 2009
I didnt realize how fast the point and shoot cameras are getting sooo many megapixels until I started looking for a good one for my mom... This card is no good for a 12 megapixel camera! It takes way too long to save each picture slowing down how fast you're able to take consecutive pictures! Go for the Sandisk extreme cards and dont look back!

I only have SLR cameras, and use the San Disk extreme cards because speed is crucial! Dont cheap out on a card after buying a nice camera, or you'll be sorry! Thats the first thing i noticed when showing her how to use her new Canon Point and Shoot camera is how SLOWWWWWWWW it took to save each photo before I could take another.. If waiting a few seconds between each picture is a non-issue, buy all means save some money and buy this card.

Bottom line: You're wasting your money buying this card to use in a high resolution point and shoot, which they all seem to be now days. Just too slow!

Fast Card, November 21, 2007
I have this card. This is extremely fast card. I did a test on my laptop sd slot writing 6 gb files onto the card. Average speed was 5mb per second. that was more than it rated for.

If it was a little faster..., January 19, 2008
I contemplated a 4 star rating, but when you buy the card, you know that it is a "class 4" card, which means it's supposed to transfer files at at least 4GB/s. If it's crucial and you can afford it, you could get the "class 6" card, which would make a difference when transferring large amounts of data.

In short:
*Pros:*
- Capacity. You can get more capacity, but this is a bout the best size/price ratio.
- Price. Again, 8GB and 4GB cards have the best size/price ratio.
*Cons:*
- SDHC. This is not really a con if you have new equipment, but SDHC is a newer standard, so you have to make sure you have the right equipment - SDHC IS NOT THE SAME AS SD!!
- Speed. It's not "slow", but if you've had fast cards you'll notice the difference. Of course, you know this from the "Class 4" rating, so it's also not really a con.

I've owned 2 Kingston SD cards. The oldest of them is about 3 years old and is still as reliable and good as when I first got it, so I have reason to believe this card will last for a while.

My older Kingston 50X SD card is about twice as fast as this card, but it's only 1GB, so I needed more GB's to capture more video. This card would be just about perfect if it was faster. When I say that, I don't mean that the card is slow - my Vista machine can use it for ReadyBoost and camera performance is good. Just know that ReadyBoost can only use 4GB of memory, so you'll have 4GB of memory just sitting unused if you use it for this purpose.

Primarily, I use this card for recording video clips and pictures with my Canon cameras, SD800IS and A710IS. For that purpose the card is great. I haven't noticed any lag when taking 7.1 Mega-pixel pictures (which range from 1MB to about 4MBs) or full screen VGA video (640x480). Here's some general advice for these cameras in particular, but it applies to most cameras:
1. Don't record more than about 10 minutes of video at a time because the file size goes over 1GB, but this depends on the camera and video format, not the card itself.
2. You might want to get an external card reader, if you don't have an internal card reader. You'll be fine transferring files directly from the camera if you only take a few snapshots and short videos. But if you plan on truly using all 8GB and transferring them at once, do yourself a favor and get a card reader. Most cameras are not meant to read/transfer files at fast speeds (even if they're USB 2.0 capable), and at least with the SD800IS, I could not transfer files over 500MB. Once I used a memory card reader, transferring was a breeze.

Although reading times are fast enough (between 4-8MB/s), writing is a bit slower - it tops out at about 4MB/s, which is good enough for the "Class 4" rating and fast enough to capture pictures without (noticeable) lag in my cameras.
It's a great card for the price; just make sure you understand what you're buying.

Don't be swayed by idiot customers.., February 25, 2008
The Kingston 4gb SDHC memory card, like all other Kingston products, is an exceptional piece of equipment. I use it with my Canon SD1000 and I get nothing but blazing fast write times and no headaches. Make sure your device supports SDHC because if not, it will not work. This is a key reason why people are left "unsatisfied" by what they get, not because of the product, but because they did not do their homework.

Buyers, you should really take note that, most reviews on any site about not only Kingston, but other great brands, is heavily altered by idiot customers leaving comments to attack the site that sold them the items. So don't quickly judge an product based on how many stars it has, because honestly, you cannot take that into consideration unless you have read every review posted.

great value at $22, December 3, 2007
The price of the SD4/4GB card jumps around a lot here. It is a great value at $22. Not so hot at $40. Wait a while and it may go down again. Note that only newer SD devices can use the 4GB SDHC cards. Older cameras, etc. can only use regular SD cards up to 2GB. If you're not sure, check your owner's manual or contact your manufacturer. Also, older SD card readers will not work with SDHC cards, but SDHC card readers are available for about $10 on amazon.com

Unreliable - Disappearing Pictures, December 12, 2008
I had this card in a Panasonic DMC-TZ5 camera for about a month, and in that time the card experienced a "read error" on three separate occasions that resulted in all the pictures currently on the card disappearing. I called Panasonic customer service and the first question they asked was what brand card I had. When I told them Kingston, they advised me to get a new card, as nearly everyone who complained about disappearing pictures (in any model camera) had a Kingston card. I'd much rather spend a little more money and actually have my pictures!

A great bargain, and didn't fill up after 1000 pics!, January 21, 2009
I like our point and shoot camera to be low thought-low effort (big SD card, high capacity rechargeable battery, reliable point and shoot performance, etc.), and this 16 gig card coupled with our Canon SD770 has been a great combination. Almost 1000 pics on our vacation to Punta Cana, and the card wasn't filled (I could do the math, but I don't want to).

The card has been reliable, worked fine in a card reader, and I'd make the purchase again. I can't believe this little card holds 1000's of times more information than information storage from only a short time ago, and cost me ~$20. Amazing! ... Read more

Editorial Review

4GB SDHC Class 4 Flash Card ... Read more

Reviews

Kingston quality, massive storage, what's not to love?, December 2, 2008
There are some things to consider before buying this particular card or any other 32gb SDHC card on the market:

1. This is NOT an ideal card for a digital SLR like a D80, D90, Rebel XT, etc... That is because it is a class 4 device. The class of a SDHC cards has to do with how fast they read and write files, not how much storage they have. For a digital SLR, you should purchase a class 6 SDHC card most of the time. Class 6 cards will allow you to take 'bursts' of photos and not be limited by the card's capacity to write them. Also class 4 cards are slower reading data, meaning they will take longer to upload files to your computer. Upload speed is convenient, especially when loading large batches of files.

2. This card has far more storage than most people will need for their digital camera. Unless you like to keep all your photos on a SDHC card and never move them to your computer, or are a high volume photographer, there is very little need for more than about 8gb of storage space for most caeras. The possible exception to this is if you have a professional SLR that shoots files in the 16-20mb range--but if you do, you'll likely want a class 6 card anyway. If all you intend to use this card for is a digital camera, save yourself a lot of money and buy a PNY 8GB SDHC Card. If you're worried about running out of space on a vacation, buy a few of them. Otherwise you run the risk of having 'all your eggs in one basket.' If one card fails, you lose all your pictures instead of only a portion of them.

This card is fantastic for use in a video camcorder capable of writing to an SDHC card. (Check with the manual first to insure that a class 4 card will be fast enough first). It is also perfect as extra storage for an ultra portable computer or net book like the Asus EEE pc. Another great application would be as added storage to a personal media player or MP3 player equipped with a SDHC slot such as the Cowon D2.

There are other good 32gb SDHC cards on the market, some at cheaper price points than the Kingston card. IMHO, brand matters very little with something like a SDHC card, since they all are made pretty much the same way. None of the brands currently offering them (Transcend, PNY, Kingston) have high fail rates with their other products, so I believe they are all pretty similar. What you decide to buy will depend on whether you trust a particular brand, or who has the lowest price. All of them will work equally well.

Very Big, September 8, 2008
PREFACE:

I bought this card for extra disk space on my Asus EeePC netbook. I needed as much space as possible to supplement the very small SSD hard drive. I needed something with large capacity and relatively fast file transfer time.

PROS:

It shares the largest SD capacity on the market today with few others (Panasonic, Sandisk, and PNY) and is a quality name that I have had a good history with in the past. Its file transfer time is similar to the SSD drive in my machine so it basically acts as a second SSD for me at less than a quarter of the price!

CONS:

Its not the cheapest 32gb SD card(PNY) nor the fastest(Panasonic) but its good quality with a decent transfer rate.

CONCLUSION:

I'm very happy with its performance and capacity. I would like to see the price come down a bit, but that's the price of getting electronics of this caliber.

That's my input, take it or leave it :)

Good for the money, but don't expect fast speeds., December 8, 2007
I didnt realize how fast the point and shoot cameras are getting sooo many megapixels until I started looking for a good one for my mom... This card is no good for a 12 megapixel camera! It takes way too long to save each picture slowing down how fast you're able to take consecutive pictures! Go for the Sandisk extreme cards and dont look back!

I only have SLR cameras, and use the San Disk extreme cards because speed is crucial! Dont cheap out on a card after buying a nice camera, or you'll be sorry! Thats the first thing i noticed when showing her how to use her new Canon Point and Shoot camera is how SLOWWWWWWWW it took to save each photo before I could take another.. If waiting a few seconds between each picture is a non-issue, buy all means save some money and buy this card.

Bottom line: You're wasting your money buying this card to use in a high resolution point and shoot, which they all seem to be now days. Just too slow!

Fast Card, November 21, 2007
I have this card. This is extremely fast card. I did a test on my laptop sd slot writing 6 gb files onto the card. Average speed was 5mb per second. that was more than it rated for.

If it was a little faster..., January 19, 2008
I contemplated a 4 star rating, but when you buy the card, you know that it is a "class 4" card, which means it's supposed to transfer files at at least 4GB/s. If it's crucial and you can afford it, you could get the "class 6" card, which would make a difference when transferring large amounts of data.

In short:
*Pros:*
- Capacity. You can get more capacity, but this is a bout the best size/price ratio.
- Price. Again, 8GB and 4GB cards have the best size/price ratio.
*Cons:*
- SDHC. This is not really a con if you have new equipment, but SDHC is a newer standard, so you have to make sure you have the right equipment - SDHC IS NOT THE SAME AS SD!!
- Speed. It's not "slow", but if you've had fast cards you'll notice the difference. Of course, you know this from the "Class 4" rating, so it's also not really a con.

I've owned 2 Kingston SD cards. The oldest of them is about 3 years old and is still as reliable and good as when I first got it, so I have reason to believe this card will last for a while.

My older Kingston 50X SD card is about twice as fast as this card, but it's only 1GB, so I needed more GB's to capture more video. This card would be just about perfect if it was faster. When I say that, I don't mean that the card is slow - my Vista machine can use it for ReadyBoost and camera performance is good. Just know that ReadyBoost can only use 4GB of memory, so you'll have 4GB of memory just sitting unused if you use it for this purpose.

Primarily, I use this card for recording video clips and pictures with my Canon cameras, SD800IS and A710IS. For that purpose the card is great. I haven't noticed any lag when taking 7.1 Mega-pixel pictures (which range from 1MB to about 4MBs) or full screen VGA video (640x480). Here's some general advice for these cameras in particular, but it applies to most cameras:
1. Don't record more than about 10 minutes of video at a time because the file size goes over 1GB, but this depends on the camera and video format, not the card itself.
2. You might want to get an external card reader, if you don't have an internal card reader. You'll be fine transferring files directly from the camera if you only take a few snapshots and short videos. But if you plan on truly using all 8GB and transferring them at once, do yourself a favor and get a card reader. Most cameras are not meant to read/transfer files at fast speeds (even if they're USB 2.0 capable), and at least with the SD800IS, I could not transfer files over 500MB. Once I used a memory card reader, transferring was a breeze.

Although reading times are fast enough (between 4-8MB/s), writing is a bit slower - it tops out at about 4MB/s, which is good enough for the "Class 4" rating and fast enough to capture pictures without (noticeable) lag in my cameras.
It's a great card for the price; just make sure you understand what you're buying.

Don't be swayed by idiot customers.., February 25, 2008
I like our point and shoot camera to be low thought-low effort (big SD card, high capacity rechargeable battery, reliable point and shoot performance, etc.), and this 16 gig card coupled with our Canon SD770 has been a great combination. Almost 1000 pics on our vacation to Punta Cana, and the card wasn't filled (I could do the math, but I don't want to).

The card has been reliable, worked fine in a card reader, and I'd make the purchase again. I can't believe this little card holds 1000's of times more information than information storage from only a short time ago, and cost me ~$20. Amazing!

Kingston quality, massive storage, what's not to love?, December 2, 2008
There are some things to consider before buying this particular card or any other 32gb SDHC card on the market:

1. This is NOT an ideal card for a digital SLR like a D80, D90, Rebel XT, etc... That is because it is a class 4 device. The class of a SDHC cards has to do with how fast they read and write files, not how much storage they have. For a digital SLR, you should purchase a class 6 SDHC card most of the time. Class 6 cards will allow you to take 'bursts' of photos and not be limited by the card's capacity to write them. Also class 4 cards are slower reading data, meaning they will take longer to upload files to your computer. Upload speed is convenient, especially when loading large batches of files.

2. This card has far more storage than most people will need for their digital camera. Unless you like to keep all your photos on a SDHC card and never move them to your computer, or are a high volume photographer, there is very little need for more than about 8gb of storage space for most caeras. The possible exception to this is if you have a professional SLR that shoots files in the 16-20mb range--but if you do, you'll likely want a class 6 card anyway. If all you intend to use this card for is a digital camera, save yourself a lot of money and buy a PNY 8GB SDHC Card. If you're worried about running out of space on a vacation, buy a few of them. Otherwise you run the risk of having 'all your eggs in one basket.' If one card fails, you lose all your pictures instead of only a portion of them.

This card is fantastic for use in a video camcorder capable of writing to an SDHC card. (Check with the manual first to insure that a class 4 card will be fast enough first). It is also perfect as extra storage for an ultra portable computer or net book like the Asus EEE pc. Another great application would be as added storage to a personal media player or MP3 player equipped with a SDHC slot such as the Cowon D2.

There are other good 32gb SDHC cards on the market, some at cheaper price points than the Kingston card. IMHO, brand matters very little with something like a SDHC card, since they all are made pretty much the same way. None of the brands currently offering them (Transcend, PNY, Kingston) have high fail rates with their other products, so I believe they are all pretty similar. What you decide to buy will depend on whether you trust a particular brand, or who has the lowest price. All of them will work equally well.

Very Big, September 8, 2008
PREFACE:

I bought this card for extra disk space on my Asus EeePC netbook. I needed as much space as possible to supplement the very small SSD hard drive. I needed something with large capacity and relatively fast file transfer time.

PROS:

It shares the largest SD capacity on the market today with few others (Panasonic, Sandisk, and PNY) and is a quality name that I have had a good history with in the past. Its file transfer time is similar to the SSD drive in my machine so it basically acts as a second SSD for me at less than a quarter of the price!

CONS:

Its not the cheapest 32gb SD card(PNY) nor the fastest(Panasonic) but its good quality with a decent transfer rate.

CONCLUSION:

I'm very happy with its performance and capacity. I would like to see the price come down a bit, but that's the price of getting electronics of this caliber.

That's my input, take it or leave it :)

Good for the money, but don't expect fast speeds., December 8, 2007
Excellent for the price. I give it a 4/5 because it performs slower than expected from a C4 SDHC card. I also have a Sandisk EIII 2GB. Although it doesn't have the class ratings because it's not SDHC, the Sandisk outperforms the Kingston in both read/write.

My test scenario: Using a Nikon D80 taking 6 shots continuously. The Kingston took considerably longer to write contents from the Nikon D80 buffer.

If you're looking for a high speed card in a similar scenario, then look elsewhere. However, if you want a good card and no particular need for speed, then I recommend getting.

does the job, but not good enough..., December 23, 2009
I didnt realize how fast the point and shoot cameras are getting sooo many megapixels until I started looking for a good one for my mom... This card is no good for a 12 megapixel camera! It takes way too long to save each picture slowing down how fast you're able to take consecutive pictures! Go for the Sandisk extreme cards and dont look back!

I only have SLR cameras, and use the San Disk extreme cards because speed is crucial! Dont cheap out on a card after buying a nice camera, or you'll be sorry! Thats the first thing i noticed when showing her how to use her new Canon Point and Shoot camera is how SLOWWWWWWWW it took to save each photo before I could take another.. If waiting a few seconds between each picture is a non-issue, buy all means save some money and buy this card.

Bottom line: You're wasting your money buying this card to use in a high resolution point and shoot, which they all seem to be now days. Just too slow!

Fast Card, November 21, 2007
I have this card. This is extremely fast card. I did a test on my laptop sd slot writing 6 gb files onto the card. Average speed was 5mb per second. that was more than it rated for.

If it was a little faster..., January 19, 2008
I contemplated a 4 star rating, but when you buy the card, you know that it is a "class 4" card, which means it's supposed to transfer files at at least 4GB/s. If it's crucial and you can afford it, you could get the "class 6" card, which would make a difference when transferring large amounts of data.

In short:
*Pros:*
- Capacity. You can get more capacity, but this is a bout the best size/price ratio.
- Price. Again, 8GB and 4GB cards have the best size/price ratio.
*Cons:*
- SDHC. This is not really a con if you have new equipment, but SDHC is a newer standard, so you have to make sure you have the right equipment - SDHC IS NOT THE SAME AS SD!!
- Speed. It's not "slow", but if you've had fast cards you'll notice the difference. Of course, you know this from the "Class 4" rating, so it's also not really a con.

I've owned 2 Kingston SD cards. The oldest of them is about 3 years old and is still as reliable and good as when I first got it, so I have reason to believe this card will last for a while.

My older Kingston 50X SD card is about twice as fast as this card, but it's only 1GB, so I needed more GB's to capture more video. This card would be just about perfect if it was faster. When I say that, I don't mean that the card is slow - my Vista machine can use it for ReadyBoost and camera performance is good. Just know that ReadyBoost can only use 4GB of memory, so you'll have 4GB of memory just sitting unused if you use it for this purpose.

Primarily, I use this card for recording video clips and pictures with my Canon cameras, SD800IS and A710IS. For that purpose the card is great. I haven't noticed any lag when taking 7.1 Mega-pixel pictures (which range from 1MB to about 4MBs) or full screen VGA video (640x480). Here's some general advice for these cameras in particular, but it applies to most cameras:
1. Don't record more than about 10 minutes of video at a time because the file size goes over 1GB, but this depends on the camera and video format, not the card itself.
2. You might want to get an external card reader, if you don't have an internal card reader. You'll be fine transferring files directly from the camera if you only take a few snapshots and short videos. But if you plan on truly using all 8GB and transferring them at once, do yourself a favor and get a card reader. Most cameras are not meant to read/transfer files at fast speeds (even if they're USB 2.0 capable), and at least with the SD800IS, I could not transfer files over 500MB. Once I used a memory card reader, transferring was a breeze.

Although reading times are fast enough (between 4-8MB/s), writing is a bit slower - it tops out at about 4MB/s, which is good enough for the "Class 4" rating and fast enough to capture pictures without (noticeable) lag in my cameras.
It's a great card for the price; just make sure you understand what you're buying.

Don't be swayed by idiot customers.., February 25, 2008
The Kingston 4gb SDHC memory card, like all other Kingston products, is an exceptional piece of equipment. I use it with my Canon SD1000 and I get nothing but blazing fast write times and no headaches. Make sure your device supports SDHC because if not, it will not work. This is a key reason why people are left "unsatisfied" by what they get, not because of the product, but because they did not do their homework.

Buyers, you should really take note that, most reviews on any site about not only Kingston, but other great brands, is heavily altered by idiot customers leaving comments to attack the site that sold them the items. So don't quickly judge an product based on how many stars it has, because honestly, you cannot take that into consideration unless you have read every review posted.

great value at $22, December 3, 2007
The price of the SD4/4GB card jumps around a lot here. It is a great value at $22. Not so hot at $40. Wait a while and it may go down again. Note that only newer SD devices can use the 4GB SDHC cards. Older cameras, etc. can only use regular SD cards up to 2GB. If you're not sure, check your owner's manual or contact your manufacturer. Also, older SD card readers will not work with SDHC cards, but SDHC card readers are available for about $10 on amazon.com

Unreliable - Disappearing Pictures, December 12, 2008
I had this card in a Panasonic DMC-TZ5 camera for about a month, and in that time the card experienced a "read error" on three separate occasions that resulted in all the pictures currently on the card disappearing. I called Panasonic customer service and the first question they asked was what brand card I had. When I told them Kingston, they advised me to get a new card, as nearly everyone who complained about disappearing pictures (in any model camera) had a Kingston card. I'd much rather spend a little more money and actually have my pictures!

A great bargain, and didn't fill up after 1000 pics!, January 21, 2009
I like our point and shoot camera to be low thought-low effort (big SD card, high capacity rechargeable battery, reliable point and shoot performance, etc.), and this 16 gig card coupled with our Canon SD770 has been a great combination. Almost 1000 pics on our vacation to Punta Cana, and the card wasn't filled (I could do the math, but I don't want to).

The card has been reliable, worked fine in a card reader, and I'd make the purchase again. I can't believe this little card holds 1000's of times more information than information storage from only a short time ago, and cost me ~$20. Amazing! ... Read more

Editorial Review

It's all about the power of contrast. Color that defies convention. Sleek, gentle curves that merge art and technology into a camera designed to inspire. The PowerShot SD1300 IS Digital ELPH Camera captures your world as much as it expresses your originality, with bold innovations that include remarkable Low Light performance. Everything looks right. Hold it...and everything feels right, too.

FEATURES:

• 28mm wide-angle lens, 4x optical zoom and Optical Image Stabilizer - The Canon commitment to innovation defines the excitement of the PowerShot SD1300 IS Digital ELPH with its 28mm wide-angle lens and 4x optical zoom that makes it easy to get the inspiring, emotive close-ups that will make your images lasting keepsakes.
• Smart AUTO mode intelligently selects from 18 settings - Just set the Canon PowerShot SD1300 IS to Smart AUTO and you're ready for maximum enjoyment from your picture-taking every time. It's a relaxing and satisfying way to shoot because you can completely concentrate on your subject knowing that the camera has the technical details covered. Advanced Canon technology intelligently analyzes your situation and shooting conditions. Then it automatically selects an appropriate setting from 18 specially defined settings. So whether you're photographing flowers, a captivating sunset, or your friends at the park, you can be confident that you're getting dramatic, memorable images.
• Shooting Modes - Advanced presets for the best possible photos under certain conditions. With 15 Shooting Modes, you're ready for whatever shot comes your way.
• 12.1-megapixel resolution makes it a breeze to print large size images - With the PowerShot SD1300 IS, dramatic, personal pictures have never been easier to shoot and share. This 12.1-megapixel camera lets you create impressive, large photos of family and f ... Read more

  Reviews

  It is classy and it takes great pictures, March 13, 2010
  I will try to share some things I have discovered about this camera, ( these are just my thoughts ), I hope they might help a little.
  
  Some things I am compairing to a canon SD1200 and the SD940,
  I do not use the viedo enough to judge that part of the cameras.
  
  * No memory card included with this camera*.
  
  * Some will miss the viewfinder that the SD1200 has.
  
  * Some will miss the HD 720p in the movie mode that the SD940,SD1400 has, The SD1300 has 640x480 at 30fps like the canon SD1200, G11 and S90.
  
  * The SD1300 has ( no optical zoom while recording video ) just digital zoom.
  
  * There is a date feature on the SD1300, see below
  
  
  The flat button arangement is the same as the SD1200 all but the ( power button ) on top is larger and easier to turn on and off, I like that but be careful it does not come on in your pocket or in your soft camera case.
  
  * You get a 2.7inch very clear LCD screen that has a (very good and wide viewing angle in all directions).
  
  A 28mm x 112mm lens, a little better than the 35 x 105 on the SD1200 ( But no view finder on the SD1300 ).
  
  I have not had any trouble using any of the buttons even with my big old hands. They are a tad larger than on the SD940 and SD1400.
  
  * The SD1300 is very easy to use and small enough to carry every place you go for those spontaneous grand kid pictures like the SD 1200 was .
  Just a very good basic camera.
  
  
  
  
  I like that the mic for the video is in the front of the camera instead of being on the top (where I put my finger) like the canon SD970 and others, it picks up less finger movement noise being in the front.
  
  * Very fast start up time of just over 1 sec.
  
  I can not tell any difference in shot to shot or flash shot to shot times between the SD1300 and the SD1200,
  which is ( 2secs with out the flash ), and 3 to 4secs with the flash on, (( up to 6secs for full flash recharge )).
  
  (Update > Some of review sites(C-NET) are getting around 2.7 to 3 seconds for the SD1300 between shots with out the flash so I grabed the two cameras and tryed the two again(SD1300 SD1200) with and with out the flash on and I had the same results both ways, I used program mode both times and they would focus and recharge the flash evenly also...)
  
  Shutter lag is good for a canon point and shoot but if you ( pre focus ) that will help even more.
  
  I never tested the continuous shooting( but see my battery test) but canon says it is 0.9 per sec where the sd 1200 is 1.4 shots per sec, if that is important to you. UPDATE > The 1200 does seem to be faster, quicker than the 1300 in continuous mode, how much I dont know but you can tell the difference...
  
  I did test the battery (NB-6L same battery as SD1200) by using continuous shooting mode ( with the flash on ) and got well over 400 pictures and it was taking ( 1 picture every 2 seconds or less in the continuous mode( flash on ) if that helps you out on the continuous shooting part, and when I turned the flash off it seemed to be very fast coming from a small canon point and shoot world.
  
  * (Battery life). In real life I get around 300 or more pictures with some of them using the flash, your still need a second battery for a backup.
  
  ** A nice backup battery is a (power2000) for canon NB-6L (1200mAh)$19.00. I have used them for years.
  I really like the battery charger that comes with the camera, it is small and charges quickley.
  Some set back the brightness of the LCD a couple of notches to save some battery. I think your new battery will do better after the first couple of charges.
  
  * 10/30/2010 At the Columbus zoo we shot 350 pictures and a lot of them with flash on with one charge...
  
  
  ** Very good image quality keeping the iso at 200 and below.
  I am getting about the same image quality as the SD 1200 which is very good for this small size point and shoot camera.
  
  * As point and shoots get better we often try and compare them to digital SLRs ( speed,noise, ISOs, picture quality ) but because of the point and shoots very small sensors and craming all those mega pixels into them it is just asking to much of the little cameras....
  Fewer pixels mean there's more room on the sensor and the individual pixels can be made larger, making the camera better able to record low-noise images in low-light situations.
  
  This is just me, but I like using the program mode and 100iso best and I try not to use the auto mode indoors ((auto works good outdoors in good light though, Lighting is everything, it's the most important thing I've learned so far ( I think?? ).
  Indoors alot of times auto seems to want to use a very high iso to get low light photos, but this just results in more noise, which makes your pictures look noisy grainy or snowy looking on larger prints, ( it might be ok for a 4x6 or 5x7 prints).
  * I use program mode and set the iso to (( 100 ))in good light conditions or 200 iso in poorer light , for the best image quality indoors with out all noise in the picture.
  * Portrait mode does better indoors than auto in keeping the iso down. It uses 200iso and below. not bad...
  For some reason canon has done this with all there newer point and shoot cameras the last year or two, and again this is just me),
  You may be happy with the pictures you take in auto mode and people have posted alot of very good pictures on this site using auto mode check them out, I am just saying if you have a problem try this and see if it helps, just something for you to try if your having trouble.
  
  They also have taken away the supper fine quality option for the last year or two, you just have fine and normal now, I miss the supper fine option...
  
  With the SD1200 and SD940 I would use program mode and auto iso but when trying to do that with the SD1300 it wants to go to 500iso or higher some times where the SD1200 and SD940 would go to 250iso ,go figure? The more I use this camera the more I find myself useing ( 100iso in program mode ) in good light conditions indoors or outdoors). Again indoors you might have to use 200 to get the picture you like...
  
  
  
  
  
  
  * A lot of the review sites blow there pictures way up and look for defects, your likely to only make 5x7 or 8x10s and not see (what they see).
  If you are going to make larger prints or need a better (low light camera) and still stay in a point and shoot you could go with a canon SD4000, S90, S95 or the bigger G11, G12, but (much more money I know)! Just keep the iso down at 200 and below and you will do fine...)
  
  
  
  * The SD1300 seems to have a nice sharp lens even at the telephoto end of the zoom.
  
  Highlights sometimes tend to blow out in very bright sun (direct light source) as with all small cameras(small sensor) this size, you can see this in some of the pictures I posted on this sight for the 1300. ( But to be fair my G11 does this also ).
  
  I do not use I-Contrast in the program mode while shooting, some times in play back I will try it but I am not a big fan of it even then, it will brighten the picture up in dark areas but seems to increase the noise a little, again this is just me alot of people seem to like it and have good luck with it see what you think...
  In auto mode you have no controll of I-Contrast and can not turn it off or on...
  
  * I just realy like the colors in the pictures that the canon cameras produce, again thats just me thinking out loud.
  
  Not much problem with red eye in pictures useing the SD1300 unless in a very dim lit room and there are some times when it can not modify or fix it in red-eye correction, I have many small canon cameras and it is no worse or better with red eye than the rest of my cameras.
  
  * The menu screens are large and easy to read and use.*
  
  The SD1300 has a touch more style, larger LCD and a little more virsatle lens than the SD1200, but the 1200 is also a very good camera.
  
  The SD1300 does have a weak battery door cover like the SD1200.
  
  * You do not get a SD card with the camera.
  A 4gb card class 4 or class 6 would be a good place to start (if your going to use the movie mode any at all ).
  You could get by with a 2gb if not using the video mode much.
  A 4gig SD card would be good for 1,231 pictures.
  
  * If your new to this digital camera stuff remember to low level format the SD card first thing.
  ( Save your pictures first, doing this will also erase all your pictures. )
  
  
  
  * I have used the SD1300 for about 10 months now and is holding up very well.
  
  * There is a date feature on the SD1300, it shows up on the right side at the bottom of the picture.
  You can see it when reviewing the photo...
  Push menu button and scroll down, it is the very last idem there, You have 3 choices,(off), (date), (date and time)...
  When you go to take your picture your screen will have the word (DATE) on the screen above the iso reading, right side at bottom so you will know it is on...
  
  
  
  
  
  I carry my camera in a little phone case that has a belt clip not a loop for fast & easy on and off the belt..
  I definitely recommend picking up a small camera case for protection, watch out for cases using velco,the velco likes to grab ahold of you camera strap and not let go.
  I also like the lowepro Apex 20 AW CASE it has room for spare battery,sd card cable, cleaning cloth).
  (The Lowepro Napoli 20 case is very nice but no room for spare battery on this one).
  
  * Casecrown ( SD1300IS 12 MP Digital Camera Carrying CaseCrown Black ) < I like this one alot > Canon PowerShot SD1300IS 12 MP Digital Camera Carrying CaseCrown Compact Travel Case (Black) Canon PowerShot SD1300IS 12 MP Digital Camera Carrying CaseCrown Compact Travel Case (Crimson)<< < See my reviews on these two if you have the time, I really think they are sharp...
  
  (Case Logic QPB-201 EVA Molded Compact Camera Case (Black), I have never used one but it seems nice...)
  Be carefull of some of the canon cases, the metal magnet catch on the flap might scratch the camera takeing it out of the case (just my thoughts).. I am sure some people like them and have good luck with them, this is just my opinion, The canon case I have has no room for a spare sd card or spare battery if that would help you any.
  The Caselogic QPB-1 Compact Digital Camera Case (Black/Gray)that Robert Tobert has in his review seems very nice.
  
  
  In the menu mode I set the I S mode to continous.
  The display overlay to grid lines(the grid lines help me take straighter pictures, you may use it for the 1/3 rule also).
  I set review to 2seconds,
  AF-assist beam to on,
  Review info to off,
  Lens retract to 0 seconds.
  White ballance to auto, if this would be of any help to you...
  
  I like to set the AF (auto focas) frame to center instead of face AiAF and just shoot (focas) on the persons eyes, this is found in the main menu setting, Again this is just me dont take this advice to the bank.
  
  
  
  I posted some pictures on this site ( see customer images ) for the SD1300, to give you some idea about how your pictures would look (color - sharpness - moving shots - noise in pictures - zooms - modes - cropped pictures), if that would help. (( Please if they are not helpful vote them down and I will delete those, I need to delete a lot of them, please help me out here, Thanks...)
  * ( Most everybodys pictures are down for the silver camera at this time , but will be back up shortly they said...
  You can see my pictures for this camera by going to my profile page and click see all images, if you have the time.
  
  If you have any questions I will try to answer them the best I can, no camera is perfect...well not many. But like John Crim said in his review at $109 the SD1300 is a great bargain...
  
  My favorite point & shoot was a canon SD550, SD850, I thought the SD1100 was a very good looking camera but never had a chance to use one, what was your fav canon SD...
  
  
  I mostly take pictures of bear in the Smokey Mountians (CADES COVE) and love chaseing the grand kids around taking their pictures. ( And this year the Outter Banks NC ).
  
  *Merry Christmas and very happy holidays*, and if you can get some practice time in with your new camera so your pictures might be the best that they can be for the holidays. And remember to charge those batters.
  
  
  
  
  
  

  The best camera to have..., May 21, 2010
  I purchased this camera as a replacement to my Canon PowerShot SD600. The main reason I chose to replace it was for the IS feature. When I purchased to SD600 it was on sale and the IS features on cameras were an expensive option on upgraded models. I have to say the feature performs as expected. Obviously it's not going to do much if there is a lot of camera shake, but it does the job for what it's intended to do. Picture quality is excellent. Low light does well despite the reviews I've heard. Manual settings do just as well as auto settings. I like the playback button that lets you review pics rather than having to switch the camera into another mode. When taking multiple shots the lag time between pics is minimal. Videos work well with it but there is that pesky no in and out zoom during a video. Sound quality was surprisingly good with video mode as well. It takes outdoor video well with little wind noise. I was a bit cautious about buying a camera with no viewfinder as my last camera had one, but let's face it, I hardly used it when I had it. Insisting on a camera with a viewfinder also significantly limited my choices for point and shoots. I'm satisfied with no viewfinder and this camera is exactly what I expect in a good point and shoot. I considered the SD1200IS since it was on sale and a little less expensive but I figured for a few extra features, it's worth the extra $50. Battery life is great! Even under moderate to heavy use it lasted all night and part of the next day. I'd suggest always having another battery pack as a backup though as you never know when you might need it. I would recommend this camera to anyone looking for a quality point and shoot. For the price I don't think you can ask for much more in a compact digital camera.

  Lens flare problem...but if you get a decent copy it might work., March 28, 2010
  Our copy of the 1300 has a flare problem while a direct light source is in the picture- a top to bottom light streak appears in the image. We have tried everything from white balance setting, to angles, to color. In every image there is a VERY visible vertical 'ghost' flare from top to bottom. It is only fixed by using the flash (which is inadequate in modest sized rooms) or shielding the lens from the light source with your hand. In video mode it is almost impossible to avoid, and it looks terrible. I think (hope) this is a bad copy and not indicative of Canon quality in point and shoots. We have some decent experience with photography, so I don't think it's user error. Definitely expected more for the money and from Canon.
  
  Update:
  After a little more playing around with the 1300 we decided to return it. The lens flare was not as bad after reviewing the still images but it was still there, and the movies were still not acceptable quality. While back at the store the decision was whether or not to get another of the same copy or try a different model. Opted for the different model after remembering the issues with other Canon point and shoots. Took home the Nikon S4000 and have been happy with it so far. Nikon Coolpix S4000 12 MP Digital Camera with 4x Optical Vibration Reduction (VR) Zoom and 3.0-Inch Touch-Panel LCD (Silver)
  
  Here is a comparison of the two after about a week:
  
  Pros from Canon 1300:
  -Familiar Canon menus and more simple menu similar to Canon's SLR's.
  -Power button, shutter release and zoom ring were all in a comfortable layout and good spot for my hands, which aren't huge for a guy, but I just can't comfortably hold Canon's 780,940,1400 point and shoot bodies for long.
  - This is nerdy, but the 1300 is capable of using the SDXC cards, a step up from SDHC, that will become a standard sooner or later.
  -AutoFocus was pretty good for point and shoot, but not what I would call lightning fast.
  -12 MP and a decent image sensor, which is about the best a point and shoot can benefit from anyway.
  -The battery is removed from the camera to charge in a wall adaptor, which means you can carry spare batteries and keep the camera free to use.
  
  Cons from the 1300:
  -More expensive than comparable cameras.
  -First copy I had ended up with a lens issue. Nit- picky I know, but when you pay for the best you want the best. This spooked me away from returning it for the same model, and started my looking elsewhere.
  -No noticeable improvements over Canon cameras released in the last two years. Tech specs are better, but hard to see the benefits over say the 1200 model.
  
  Pros from the Nikon:
  -More features, and for a better overall value than the Canon (same price, but better value). Body is similar size, and the power, zoom and shutter release are all same location as the Canon.
  -Super cool touch screen, which is maybe a bit unnecessary, but hey, it's cool.
  -Fast start up, for those "Wow, look at that!" moments.
  -Tons of auto shooting modes (maybe too many) but handy if you are a person that wants the camera to think for you.
  
  Cons from Nikon:
  -AutoFocus can lag a bit if you are zoomed in.
  -720p video is really not that great. The ISO, or the write ability/speed of the camera to its sensor is not good enough to make the 720p work in room lighting conditions (haven't tried in outdoor light yet). The resolution is top to bottom 720p alright, but the picture is grainy because the camera's little sensor just can't handle that much that fast in moderate to poor light. This is a biggy too, because some people may buy a point shoot with 720p just to get HD. Our copy of this camera is better indoors at the next lower video setting, 640x480.
  -You must plug in the camera to charge it. Can't take the battery out to charge.
  
  Hopefully this long update is helpful. I didn't want to jump all over this little camera for a flaw and then not give further explanation. I think the Canon is a fair 3 stars, but not really better than that. After all, this is just a point and shoot, and for what it's supposed to be, it's fair at it.
  

  Another Home Run By Canon, March 31, 2010
  Nobody does digital point and shoot as well as Canon in my opinion, and the SD1300IS is just another example of maximum feature/functionality in tiny little package. I have owned or still own the Canon S3IS, S5IS & Rebel XS. Those three cameras are Ginormous compared with the SD1300IS.
  
  I bought this camera for my wife to carry in her purse so she can shoot pictures and video of the kids while they're out and about, or when she drops in on them at their school. No camera bag needed, this camera fits in a zipped interior pocket of her purse.
  
  I gave it to her and she was able to successfully power it on/off, shoot pictures, shoot video, zoom, delete bad shots, and navigate the menu system without referring to the manual. The point here is if you currently own a Canon point and shoot and are looking for an upgrade, the learning curve on the SD1300IS is almost zero. If you've never owned a Canon point and shoot, you will figure this one out very easily.
  
  The 12MP pictures are stunning, but to be honest I can't tell the difference between the ones that are 12MP and the ones that are 8MP on my Canon S5IS. The pictures the Rebel XS takes are a notch above the others, definitely a noticeable difference there.
  
  The video quality is 30fps 640x480 (plenty), same as my S5IS. The image stabilization is a must for this to be of any use, and works like a champ. A 4GB SDHC card holds about 32 minutes worth of video, 8GB 64 minutes, 16GB more than 2 hours! The video is very easy to transfer to your computer and burn to a DVD or upload to Facebook using the included USB cable. There is also an included cable that allows you to play video on your TV via the yellow video cable port.
  
  The appearance of the camera is so cool. I bought my wife the green one, and it looks great. I like how the lens completely retracts into the body and covers itself with a protective layer. A handy camera strap is also included, which is good because this thing is so small I could see it slipping out of your hands.
  
  All in all, a very easy to use, functional, attractive camera that I have no hesitation recommending!
  
  

  You can never go wrong with a Canon, March 15, 2010
  I purchased this camera after my Canon A540 Powershot lost its shutter button because I dropped it on a marble floor. I wanted a Canon because I've always been happy with them. Got the SD1300 SI and have to say, I love it! I took pictures of my dog running through wildflowers in the wooded area near my home. They look awesome! The pictures were clear, crisp and vivid. What I like about the Canon is that it is versatile to the owner. It's easy to use when you want it to be, but it has all the settings available if you want to be "artsy." I mostly use the Program setting because it allows me to set the ISO and flash balances, but I sometimes use the auto options provided. I tried them all on the SD1300 and it was good, even better than my A540 (which I still love and plan on repairing).
  
  I recommend this camera if you want something compact with plenty of options.

  Feels solid and takes great pics!, August 30, 2010
  C'mon, guys! It's a point and shoot micro camera, not the Hubble Telescope so don't expect D-SLR build and features from this little cool baby. The lens is good, the handling is good, on/off is good, it fits in my back pants pocket. I keep the strap on it so I can pull it out quickly. I also put a screen protector on the LCD to protect it from scratches. Due to all the scrathces on the plastic sheet, I change the protector every few months. I replaced my older canon SD700IS with the new SD1300 since I wanted a new pocket camera. I use my Nikon D-SLR for all my heavier shoots but always keep my mini Canon in my pocket just in case. You can't go wrong for $179. This is first camera I've had without a view finder but I'm told that change is good and I shouldn't drug myself to overcome the lack of the peephole. Yes, I used to be a pro. And remember the adage, "It's the photographer, stupid, not just the camera." Oh yeah, the reason I didn't get the SD1400 is that I'm an old timer and need buttons to push rather than a touch screen.

  It is classy and it takes great pictures, March 13, 2010
  I will try to share some things I have discovered about this camera, ( these are just my thoughts ), I hope they might help a little.
  
  Some things I am compairing to a canon SD1200 and the SD940,
  I do not use the viedo enough to judge that part of the cameras.
  
  * No memory card included with this camera*.
  
  * Some will miss the viewfinder that the SD1200 has.
  
  * Some will miss the HD 720p in the movie mode that the SD940,SD1400 has, The SD1300 has 640x480 at 30fps like the canon SD1200, G11 and S90.
  
  * The SD1300 has ( no optical zoom while recording video ) just digital zoom.
  
  * There is a date feature on the SD1300, see below
  
  
  The flat button arangement is the same as the SD1200 all but the ( power button ) on top is larger and easier to turn on and off, I like that but be careful it does not come on in your pocket or in your soft camera case.
  
  * You get a 2.7inch very clear LCD screen that has a (very good and wide viewing angle in all directions).
  
  A 28mm x 112mm lens, a little better than the 35 x 105 on the SD1200 ( But no view finder on the SD1300 ).
  
  I have not had any trouble using any of the buttons even with my big old hands. They are a tad larger than on the SD940 and SD1400.
  
  * The SD1300 is very easy to use and small enough to carry every place you go for those spontaneous grand kid pictures like the SD 1200 was .
  Just a very good basic camera.
  
  
  
  
  I like that the mic for the video is in the front of the camera instead of being on the top (where I put my finger) like the canon SD970 and others, it picks up less finger movement noise being in the front.
  
  * Very fast start up time of just over 1 sec.
  
  I can not tell any difference in shot to shot or flash shot to shot times between the SD1300 and the SD1200,
  which is ( 2secs with out the flash ), and 3 to 4secs with the flash on, (( up to 6secs for full flash recharge )).
  
  (Update > Some of review sites(C-NET) are getting around 2.7 to 3 seconds for the SD1300 between shots with out the flash so I grabed the two cameras and tryed the two again(SD1300 SD1200) with and with out the flash on and I had the same results both ways, I used program mode both times and they would focus and recharge the flash evenly also...)
  
  Shutter lag is good for a canon point and shoot but if you ( pre focus ) that will help even more.
  
  I never tested the continuous shooting( but see my battery test) but canon says it is 0.9 per sec where the sd 1200 is 1.4 shots per sec, if that is important to you. UPDATE > The 1200 does seem to be faster, quicker than the 1300 in continuous mode, how much I dont know but you can tell the difference...
  
  I did test the battery (NB-6L same battery as SD1200) by using continuous shooting mode ( with the flash on ) and got well over 400 pictures and it was taking ( 1 picture every 2 seconds or less in the continuous mode( flash on ) if that helps you out on the continuous shooting part, and when I turned the flash off it seemed to be very fast coming from a small canon point and shoot world.
  
  * (Battery life). In real life I get around 300 or more pictures with some of them using the flash, your still need a second battery for a backup.
  
  ** A nice backup battery is a (power2000) for canon NB-6L (1200mAh)$19.00. I have used them for years.
  I really like the battery charger that comes with the camera, it is small and charges quickley.
  Some set back the brightness of the LCD a couple of notches to save some battery. I think your new battery will do better after the first couple of charges.
  
  * 10/30/2010 At the Columbus zoo we shot 350 pictures and a lot of them with flash on with one charge...
  
  
  ** Very good image quality keeping the iso at 200 and below.
  I am getting about the same image quality as the SD 1200 which is very good for this small size point and shoot camera.
  
  * As point and shoots get better we often try and compare them to digital SLRs ( speed,noise, ISOs, picture quality ) but because of the point and shoots very small sensors and craming all those mega pixels into them it is just asking to much of the little cameras....
  Fewer pixels mean there's more room on the sensor and the individual pixels can be made larger, making the camera better able to record low-noise images in low-light situations.
  
  This is just me, but I like using the program mode and 100iso best and I try not to use the auto mode indoors ((auto works good outdoors in good light though, Lighting is everything, it's the most important thing I've learned so far ( I think?? ).
  Indoors alot of times auto seems to want to use a very high iso to get low light photos, but this just results in more noise, which makes your pictures look noisy grainy or snowy looking on larger prints, ( it might be ok for a 4x6 or 5x7 prints).
  * I use program mode and set the iso to (( 100 ))in good light conditions or 200 iso in poorer light , for the best image quality indoors with out all noise in the picture.
  * Portrait mode does better indoors than auto in keeping the iso down. It uses 200iso and below. not bad...
  For some reason canon has done this with all there newer point and shoot cameras the last year or two, and again this is just me),
  You may be happy with the pictures you take in auto mode and people have posted alot of very good pictures on this site using auto mode check them out, I am just saying if you have a problem try this and see if it helps, just something for you to try if your having trouble.
  
  They also have taken away the supper fine quality option for the last year or two, you just have fine and normal now, I miss the supper fine option...
  
  With the SD1200 and SD940 I would use program mode and auto iso but when trying to do that with the SD1300 it wants to go to 500iso or higher some times where the SD1200 and SD940 would go to 250iso ,go figure? The more I use this camera the more I find myself useing ( 100iso in program mode ) in good light conditions indoors or outdoors). Again indoors you might have to use 200 to get the picture you like...
  
  
  
  
  
  
  * A lot of the review sites blow there pictures way up and look for defects, your likely to only make 5x7 or 8x10s and not see (what they see).
  If you are going to make larger prints or need a better (low light camera) and still stay in a point and shoot you could go with a canon SD4000, S90, S95 or the bigger G11, G12, but (much more money I know)! Just keep the iso down at 200 and below and you will do fine...)
  
  
  
  * The SD1300 seems to have a nice sharp lens even at the telephoto end of the zoom.
  
  Highlights sometimes tend to blow out in very bright sun (direct light source) as with all small cameras(small sensor) this size, you can see this in some of the pictures I posted on this sight for the 1300. ( But to be fair my G11 does this also ).
  
  I do not use I-Contrast in the program mode while shooting, some times in play back I will try it but I am not a big fan of it even then, it will brighten the picture up in dark areas but seems to increase the noise a little, again this is just me alot of people seem to like it and have good luck with it see what you think...
  In auto mode you have no controll of I-Contrast and can not turn it off or on...
  
  * I just realy like the colors in the pictures that the canon cameras produce, again thats just me thinking out loud.
  
  Not much problem with red eye in pictures useing the SD1300 unless in a very dim lit room and there are some times when it can not modify or fix it in red-eye correction, I have many small canon cameras and it is no worse or better with red eye than the rest of my cameras.
  
  * The menu screens are large and easy to read and use.*
  
  The SD1300 has a touch more style, larger LCD and a little more virsatle lens than the SD1200, but the 1200 is also a very good camera.
  
  The SD1300 does have a weak battery door cover like the SD1200.
  
  * You do not get a SD card with the camera.
  A 4gb card class 4 or class 6 would be a good place to start (if your going to use the movie mode any at all ).
  You could get by with a 2gb if not using the video mode much.
  A 4gig SD card would be good for 1,231 pictures.
  
  * If your new to this digital camera stuff remember to low level format the SD card first thing.
  ( Save your pictures first, doing this will also erase all your pictures. )
  
  
  
  * I have used the SD1300 for about 10 months now and is holding up very well.
  
  * There is a date feature on the SD1300, it shows up on the right side at the bottom of the picture.
  You can see it when reviewing the photo...
  Push menu button and scroll down, it is the very last idem there, You have 3 choices,(off), (date), (date and time)...
  When you go to take your picture your screen will have the word (DATE) on the screen above the iso reading, right side at bottom so you will know it is on...
  
  
  
  
  
  I carry my camera in a little phone case that has a belt clip not a loop for fast & easy on and off the belt..
  I definitely recommend picking up a small camera case for protection, watch out for cases using velco,the velco likes to grab ahold of you camera strap and not let go.
  I also like the lowepro Apex 20 AW CASE it has room for spare battery,sd card cable, cleaning cloth).
  (The Lowepro Napoli 20 case is very nice but no room for spare battery on this one).
  
  * Casecrown ( SD1300IS 12 MP Digital Camera Carrying CaseCrown Black ) < I like this one alot > Canon PowerShot SD1300IS 12 MP Digital Camera Carrying CaseCrown Compact Travel Case (Black) Canon PowerShot SD1300IS 12 MP Digital Camera Carrying CaseCrown Compact Travel Case (Crimson)<< < See my reviews on these two if you have the time, I really think they are sharp...
  
  (Case Logic QPB-201 EVA Molded Compact Camera Case (Black), I have never used one but it seems nice...)
  Be carefull of some of the canon cases, the metal magnet catch on the flap might scratch the camera takeing it out of the case (just my thoughts).. I am sure some people like them and have good luck with them, this is just my opinion, The canon case I have has no room for a spare sd card or spare battery if that would help you any.
  The Caselogic QPB-1 Compact Digital Camera Case (Black/Gray)that Robert Tobert has in his review seems very nice.
  
  
  In the menu mode I set the I S mode to continous.
  The display overlay to grid lines(the grid lines help me take straighter pictures, you may use it for the 1/3 rule also).
  I set review to 2seconds,
  AF-assist beam to on,
  Review info to off,
  Lens retract to 0 seconds.
  White ballance to auto, if this would be of any help to you...
  
  I like to set the AF (auto focas) frame to center instead of face AiAF and just shoot (focas) on the persons eyes, this is found in the main menu setting, Again this is just me dont take this advice to the bank.
  
  
  
  I posted some pictures on this site ( see customer images ) for the SD1300, to give you some idea about how your pictures would look (color - sharpness - moving shots - noise in pictures - zooms - modes - cropped pictures), if that would help. (( Please if they are not helpful vote them down and I will delete those, I need to delete a lot of them, please help me out here, Thanks...)
  * ( Most everybodys pictures are down for the silver camera at this time , but will be back up shortly they said...
  You can see my pictures for this camera by going to my profile page and click see all images, if you have the time.
  
  If you have any questions I will try to answer them the best I can, no camera is perfect...well not many. But like John Crim said in his review at $109 the SD1300 is a great bargain...
  
  My favorite point & shoot was a canon SD550, SD850, I thought the SD1100 was a very good looking camera but never had a chance to use one, what was your fav canon SD...
  
  
  I mostly take pictures of bear in the Smokey Mountians (CADES COVE) and love chaseing the grand kids around taking their pictures. ( And this year the Outter Banks NC ).
  
  *Merry Christmas and very happy holidays*, and if you can get some practice time in with your new camera so your pictures might be the best that they can be for the holidays. And remember to charge those batters.
  
  
  
  
  
  

  The best camera to have..., May 21, 2010
  ...is one you'll have with you. The nice thing about the Canon ELPH series is they easily fit into your pocket, are well built/designed, don't cost a lot, come with a boatload of features, and take great pictures. The SD1300, the latest in the ELPH line continues in that tradition, adding considerable additional sophistication and sacrificing some useful functionality in the interest of cutting cost.
  
  It is a small camera and carries with it the baggage that comes with the convenience of having to carry so little baggage. (sorry, couldn't resist) None of the issues raised, given that they comes as part of the convenience trade-off made me consider anything other than the 5-star rating this camera deserves.
  
  - Many of the functions are only accessible through menus, sometimes several levels deep. The good new is the Automatic and scene modes are pretty good (as long as you spend a few minutes reviewing what they really do). This camera is not intended to be used in aperture or shutter priority, let alone full manual.
  
  - The battery life might be shorter than you expect. That's a trade-off for having a camera that's small and light; you get a battery that is small and light. One thing you can do is get a spare battery. That is good advice for any camera. Another thing that will help is to keep the display off as much as possible. That means using the monitor as little as possible. The "sad" part is that Canon chose to drop the optical viewfinder in this model. That means a camera that is simpler and less expensive to make but will go through batteries quicker because you must use the display when taking picture.
  
  - The camera response is a bit slow for effectively capturing children and pets. The trick for doing that is to either have a great sense of timing and a shutter that reacts instantly or a reasonably fast ( > 4x / sec ) burst mode. This camera has neither.
  
  Some other suggestions that apply:
  
  - Use the lowest ISO available given your requirement for either aperture or shutter speed. To avoid getting technical, higher ISO always introduces higher noise. At issue is when it becomes noticeable. In newer dSLR cameras you can get over 1000, maybe well over depending on the camera, before the noise becomes noticeable. For this camera keeping it at or below 200 is a good idea.
  
  - Don't use in-camera sharpening. Digital pictures will almost always benefit from sharpening but you are better off doing it with a photo editing program. Computer-based algorithms tend to be more sophisticated and you can better judge the results on your monitor as opposed to the camera LCD.
  
  - If you want more vivid colors and have the choice use sRGB instead of Adobe RGB. While you get fewer colors they are distributed over a wider range. They are also render better on computer monitors, many commercial labs, and any other place your pictures are likely to show up.
  
  Finally, I've found the Caselogic QPB-1 Compact Digital Camera Case (Black/Gray) is just the right size for this camera. It's semi-rigid so you get a fair amount of protection but doesn't add a lot of bulk. It's made even better by using one of these, Nite Ize SB1-2PK-01 Size-1 S-Biner, Black, 2-Pack, to secure it to a belt loop.
  

  Canon PowerShot SD1300IS, April 4, 2010
  I purchased this camera as a replacement to my Canon PowerShot SD600. The main reason I chose to replace it was for the IS feature. When I purchased to SD600 it was on sale and the IS features on cameras were an expensive option on upgraded models. I have to say the feature performs as expected. Obviously it's not going to do much if there is a lot of camera shake, but it does the job for what it's intended to do. Picture quality is excellent. Low light does well despite the reviews I've heard. Manual settings do just as well as auto settings. I like the playback button that lets you review pics rather than having to switch the camera into another mode. When taking multiple shots the lag time between pics is minimal. Videos work well with it but there is that pesky no in and out zoom during a video. Sound quality was surprisingly good with video mode as well. It takes outdoor video well with little wind noise. I was a bit cautious about buying a camera with no viewfinder as my last camera had one, but let's face it, I hardly used it when I had it. Insisting on a camera with a viewfinder also significantly limited my choices for point and shoots. I'm satisfied with no viewfinder and this camera is exactly what I expect in a good point and shoot. I considered the SD1200IS since it was on sale and a little less expensive but I figured for a few extra features, it's worth the extra $50. Battery life is great! Even under moderate to heavy use it lasted all night and part of the next day. I'd suggest always having another battery pack as a backup though as you never know when you might need it. I would recommend this camera to anyone looking for a quality point and shoot. For the price I don't think you can ask for much more in a compact digital camera.

  Lens flare problem...but if you get a decent copy it might work., March 28, 2010
  Our copy of the 1300 has a flare problem while a direct light source is in the picture- a top to bottom light streak appears in the image. We have tried everything from white balance setting, to angles, to color. In every image there is a VERY visible vertical 'ghost' flare from top to bottom. It is only fixed by using the flash (which is inadequate in modest sized rooms) or shielding the lens from the light source with your hand. In video mode it is almost impossible to avoid, and it looks terrible. I think (hope) this is a bad copy and not indicative of Canon quality in point and shoots. We have some decent experience with photography, so I don't think it's user error. Definitely expected more for the money and from Canon.
  
  Update:
  After a little more playing around with the 1300 we decided to return it. The lens flare was not as bad after reviewing the still images but it was still there, and the movies were still not acceptable quality. While back at the store the decision was whether or not to get another of the same copy or try a different model. Opted for the different model after remembering the issues with other Canon point and shoots. Took home the Nikon S4000 and have been happy with it so far. Nikon Coolpix S4000 12 MP Digital Camera with 4x Optical Vibration Reduction (VR) Zoom and 3.0-Inch Touch-Panel LCD (Silver)
  
  Here is a comparison of the two after about a week:
  
  Pros from Canon 1300:
  -Familiar Canon menus and more simple menu similar to Canon's SLR's.
  -Power button, shutter release and zoom ring were all in a comfortable layout and good spot for my hands, which aren't huge for a guy, but I just can't comfortably hold Canon's 780,940,1400 point and shoot bodies for long.
  - This is nerdy, but the 1300 is capable of using the SDXC cards, a step up from SDHC, that will become a standard sooner or later.
  -AutoFocus was pretty good for point and shoot, but not what I would call lightning fast.
  -12 MP and a decent image sensor, which is about the best a point and shoot can benefit from anyway.
  -The battery is removed from the camera to charge in a wall adaptor, which means you can carry spare batteries and keep the camera free to use.
  
  Cons from the 1300:
  -More expensive than comparable cameras.
  -First copy I had ended up with a lens issue. Nit- picky I know, but when you pay for the best you want the best. This spooked me away from returning it for the same model, and started my looking elsewhere.
  -No noticeable improvements over Canon cameras released in the last two years. Tech specs are better, but hard to see the benefits over say the 1200 model.
  
  Pros from the Nikon:
  -More features, and for a better overall value than the Canon (same price, but better value). Body is similar size, and the power, zoom and shutter release are all same location as the Canon.
  -Super cool touch screen, which is maybe a bit unnecessary, but hey, it's cool.
  -Fast start up, for those "Wow, look at that!" moments.
  -Tons of auto shooting modes (maybe too many) but handy if you are a person that wants the camera to think for you.
  
  Cons from Nikon:
  -AutoFocus can lag a bit if you are zoomed in.
  -720p video is really not that great. The ISO, or the write ability/speed of the camera to its sensor is not good enough to make the 720p work in room lighting conditions (haven't tried in outdoor light yet). The resolution is top to bottom 720p alright, but the picture is grainy because the camera's little sensor just can't handle that much that fast in moderate to poor light. This is a biggy too, because some people may buy a point shoot with 720p just to get HD. Our copy of this camera is better indoors at the next lower video setting, 640x480.
  -You must plug in the camera to charge it. Can't take the battery out to charge.
  
  Hopefully this long update is helpful. I didn't want to jump all over this little camera for a flaw and then not give further explanation. I think the Canon is a fair 3 stars, but not really better than that. After all, this is just a point and shoot, and for what it's supposed to be, it's fair at it.
  

  Another Home Run By Canon, March 31, 2010
  Nobody does digital point and shoot as well as Canon in my opinion, and the SD1300IS is just another example of maximum feature/functionality in tiny little package. I have owned or still own the Canon S3IS, S5IS & Rebel XS. Those three cameras are Ginormous compared with the SD1300IS.
  
  I bought this camera for my wife to carry in her purse so she can shoot pictures and video of the kids while they're out and about, or when she drops in on them at their school. No camera bag needed, this camera fits in a zipped interior pocket of her purse.
  
  I gave it to her and she was able to successfully power it on/off, shoot pictures, shoot video, zoom, delete bad shots, and navigate the menu system without referring to the manual. The point here is if you currently own a Canon point and shoot and are looking for an upgrade, the learning curve on the SD1300IS is almost zero. If you've never owned a Canon point and shoot, you will figure this one out very easily.
  
  The 12MP pictures are stunning, but to be honest I can't tell the difference between the ones that are 12MP and the ones that are 8MP on my Canon S5IS. The pictures the Rebel XS takes are a notch above the others, definitely a noticeable difference there.
  
  The video quality is 30fps 640x480 (plenty), same as my S5IS. The image stabilization is a must for this to be of any use, and works like a champ. A 4GB SDHC card holds about 32 minutes worth of video, 8GB 64 minutes, 16GB more than 2 hours! The video is very easy to transfer to your computer and burn to a DVD or upload to Facebook using the included USB cable. There is also an included cable that allows you to play video on your TV via the yellow video cable port.
  
  The appearance of the camera is so cool. I bought my wife the green one, and it looks great. I like how the lens completely retracts into the body and covers itself with a protective layer. A handy camera strap is also included, which is good because this thing is so small I could see it slipping out of your hands.
  
  All in all, a very easy to use, functional, attractive camera that I have no hesitation recommending!
  
  

  You can never go wrong with a Canon, March 15, 2010
  I purchased this camera after my Canon A540 Powershot lost its shutter button because I dropped it on a marble floor. I wanted a Canon because I've always been happy with them. Got the SD1300 SI and have to say, I love it! I took pictures of my dog running through wildflowers in the wooded area near my home. They look awesome! The pictures were clear, crisp and vivid. What I like about the Canon is that it is versatile to the owner. It's easy to use when you want it to be, but it has all the settings available if you want to be "artsy." I mostly use the Program setting because it allows me to set the ISO and flash balances, but I sometimes use the auto options provided. I tried them all on the SD1300 and it was good, even better than my A540 (which I still love and plan on repairing).
  
  I recommend this camera if you want something compact with plenty of options.

  Feels solid and takes great pics!, August 30, 2010
  Bought the SD1300 specifically to have a small camera while traveling across the country following Route 66! (I have a Canon S5IS which I took to Germany and Italy, but found it inconvenient to carry daily.) THIS camera takes exceptional pictures and video, is convenient to carry and the battery lasts for DAYS before needing a charge. On a week trip to Maryland I did find the VIDEOS I shot at full zoom were blurry, but I didn't notice it until I downloaded them to view on my computer. Only for that reason did I not give it 5 stars. Full zoom PICTURES are fine. I love using the SD Card to directly download pictures (but then, that's a positive point of my computer). I did purchase an extra 4gb SD card but have not had to use it yet. (I have over 600 pictures and probably 40 minutes of video on the first one.) I do suggest purchasing a camera case of some sort for protection. I found one at Target which is just a padded cloth type, and it prevents the camera from getting scratched up in my purse but doesn't take up much room. I do put the strap over my wrist while shooting because it is so small you can drop it easily. Buying from Amazon.com allows me to purchase a really GREAT product saving the tax I would pay at a retailer, and it ships for FREE. It's well worth the price, and I see it's even dropped $10 from the July 2 price. Pick your favorite color and buy it if you're looking for a small, convenient camera that takes great pics at a reasonable price.

  Great but beauty flaws, August 27, 2010
  I took this camera to my over-America road trip. The camera saw pretty hard conditions - 99 degrees of heat, dropping into sand, 3000 pictures over 3 weeks. It just went on-off all the time, I put a weight of a full year of use onto it over 3 weeks.
  
  Works great. Amazing photos, it is easy to use, automatic regimes like macro work brilliant. Even through car windows on a speed of 70mph, it takes pictures like standing on a place. You could never tell they are made from a car ride. Brilliant photos, great camera.
  
  1 minus. Beauty flaws come up quickly. It is easy to scratch it and after 3 weeks of use, it looked rubbish. Like a 3 year old camera. I have never seen this before. So if you are interested in aesthetics, buy some other camera. If you want to have awesome, truly brilliant pictures from a small and compact camera, buy this one. Photos wise it is the best you could buy, if you like to hang out and show your fancy equipment in a big crowd, this camera is not looking fancy over longer period of time.

  Great camera but bad lens mechanism, November 10, 2010
  The little Canons have been great cameras. The picture quality is phenomenal as is the ease of use. The issue is that my SD1100 and SD1300 both had lenses that froze halfway out after the warrantly period was over. The expense to fix it is half the price of a new camera.

  It's a Point n Shoot, Not Meant to be the Hubble Telescope!, June 21, 2010
  C'mon, guys! It's a point and shoot micro camera, not the Hubble Telescope so don't expect D-SLR build and features from this little cool baby. The lens is good, the handling is good, on/off is good, it fits in my back pants pocket. I keep the strap on it so I can pull it out quickly. I also put a screen protector on the LCD to protect it from scratches. Due to all the scrathces on the plastic sheet, I change the protector every few months. I replaced my older canon SD700IS with the new SD1300 since I wanted a new pocket camera. I use my Nikon D-SLR for all my heavier shoots but always keep my mini Canon in my pocket just in case. You can't go wrong for $179. This is first camera I've had without a view finder but I'm told that change is good and I shouldn't drug myself to overcome the lack of the peephole. Yes, I used to be a pro. And remember the adage, "It's the photographer, stupid, not just the camera." Oh yeah, the reason I didn't get the SD1400 is that I'm an old timer and need buttons to push rather than a touch screen. ... Read more

Editorial Review

Heads up, adrenaline junkies. The KODAK Zx3 PlaySport Pocket Video Camera has as much appetite for adventure as you do. And it’s not afraid to get wet. This audacious little camera can plunge up to 10 ft. under water and capture the entire experience in full 1080p HD. And you don’t need to worry about blurry footage when things get a little shaky. With built-in image stabilization, the Zx3 will stay steady as a rock. From the waves, to the slopes, to the mud-soaked trails, this baby was made for the extremes. Bring your adventures to life with the Zx3. The real Kodak moment happens when you share. The bundle includes a Black PlaySport Video Camera, Grippable Tripod, 4G Memory Card, and Remote Control. ... Read more

Reviews

Nice small & rugged, HD Pocket video camera, April 11, 2010
OK lets start off with this camera is $149 keep that in mind.

The 5.3MP still photos are fairly good, not to bad, but remember this is a video camera first
a dedicated 5MP still photo camera will take much better photos, but again hey these aren't to shabby it just depends on what your trying to do. Quick shots here and there...excellent and better than any cell phone I've had. At a wedding where you want crystal clear and sharp photos....well not so much.

The HD video camera is pretty nice, easy to use and I was just stunned at the digital zoom.
It actually works and works well, not to blocky or grainy...more so at the extreme 4x level but at 2x to about 3x the camera compensated nicely and actually cleared up the image...not sure how they do it, but they do.




As others have noted, with rapid movement of the camera you will notice your image jumps or shakes.
Now remember what I told you to keep in mind $149. Yes it does have that little "feature", but it's not
a $299 video camera with a higher quality lens and CCD. Slow down, don't go from left to right or up and
down at 100MPH and it's not bad. Moving images within the video are fine, it's just if you move the camera
itself very rapidly you will notice it.

I tried the 3 HD video modes, and it also has a standard resolution mode as well that I did not try.
I compared all 3 with and with out the image stabilization on which did not seem to improve or degrade the
image at all.

At 720p 30 fps - Not to bad, noticed the jumpyness or shakyness of the image as I moved left to right in my test,
but slow down and it's not to bad.

At 720p 60 fps - Now were getting better, really not bad at all, again not $300 video camera good, but
pretty darn nice, and clearer and the shakyness of the video smoothed out a bunch, again slow down in your
movements for best quality.

At 1080p 30fps - Nice quality...really nice, but the jumpyness of the video is back, you have to take it a bit
slower but nice quality all in all.

I did not try the underwater mode, but assume it works as advertised everything else has so far.

Now I throughly loved the fact that there are no CD's with this camera, nothing in the box to load.
You simply plug in the provided USB cable and the software...every bit of it and all the drivers you need for
the camera are built right in and install on your PC from the camera...this is an excellent feature, I always
misplace the CD's and have to download from the website anyhow.

Speaking of downloading from the website ... this camera is flash upgradeable with new firmware I went to the
Kodak website and found that there was an upgrade I could download to correct a few minor anomalies that they
found...cool so hopefully this camera gets even more corrections in the near future and maybe a feature update
someday?

I also loved the fact that ALL the cables came with the camera. HDMI, USB, and Component video cables...
All of them... they can charge you at least $10 for each individual cable, but they give them to you with
the camera for $149, now how great is that ?!?!

As at least one other reviewer has said, yes - there is no case or protective sleeve that comes with the camera,
but I would take the cables over a case anyday, you know what ever they included it wouldn't be what you wanted.
Either they gave you a sleeve and you wanted a case for your accessories or they gave you a case and you didn't
want to carry all the accessories so you go out and buy yourself a protective sleeve or pouch. So just go get what you want ...
I myself purchased the Kodak Case that Amazon recommended to me .... also a nice purchase, perfect size not to big,
not to small and has a little accessory area that you can carry one of the cables and a spare battery if you need.

This camera feels rugged and well built. It's easy to use, lots of features like image stabilization and face
tracking, it comes with all the cables, free software that's always with you in the camera, and costs only $149.

So not to bad at all, and my conclusion is this if your looking for a sharp and crisp still photo camera drop the
$100 just for that and buy one, if your looking for a excellent video quality camera drop the $300 just for that
and buy one. But....If your looking for a pretty nice, simple and decent quality camera that does it all and
is rugged enough to go out in the rain or underwater drop $149 and buy this one.

I've included a video I compiled and edited down to show the different resolutions and the photos. Keep in mind
that while your viewing that this is an flv file and the actual quality that the camera will give you will be
much higher than what I was able to upload to Amazon, meaning you'll get better quality than what you see on here.

Great little camera, excellent underwater!, March 27, 2010
I shot this using the Kodak PlaySport while snorkeling off of Ixtapa, Mexico. The water wasn't the clearest, but I did get pretty good results. It looked really great in the pool. It also looks great above water! I use it at my son's baseball games and I have been amazed at the quality. Hands down the best thing about this camera is the size. It's so easy to slip in a pocket and just carry around. Great little vacation camera. My only complaint is that the control wheel is a little small. I would often accidentally stop recording while trying to zoom in or out. You get used to it though and it is a minor annoyance. I highly recommend this camera.

Best Water Proof HD Video and Still Camera., March 9, 2010
I am a Canon diehard fan. But Canon does not have anything that compares to Kodak Playsport HD waterproof pocket video camera. At 1080P the video recording is acceptable. But, at 720p and 60 frames per second this camera rocks, the results are great. I have used it around and in water, the blue filter helps under water. I am planning to use this for our Disney World vacation this year in the Water Parks.

This camera takes 5MP HD Stills, so now I have a camera that can take video and stills on demand wet or dry. I have other camera's in the same category like Flip and Samsung both do not compare, even at 720p 60 frames per second. $150.00 pricetag is also very affordable.

Easy to carry, very user friendly to move files from the camera to the computer or directly to Youtube. Nightvision would be nice but most of my recordings will be in Daylight. Bottom line great camera and I have no cons to talk about.

Great video quality- with a fatal flaw, March 20, 2010
I was, and still am, blown away by the quality recording I am getting off of this compact and rugged little camera. the 1080 setting can be a little blurry and choppy, but it is still better than most other compact camcorders I have used. The 720/60 frames setting is wonderful. I was astounded at the smoothness of the video, as well as the quality. Here's the trouble though, and hopefully not indicative of a larger issue.

I recorded an event for about 45 minutes, and after I was through, I looked back at the camera. The record light was still on, the screen still showing a live preview, but the recorded time number had stopped at about 37 minutes. All the controls were unresponsive. Not even the power button worked. After about 5 minutes, I had no choice but to remove the battery to shut the camera off. I turned it back on, and was shown an exclamation point where the video I had just shot was. The video would not play. I removed the 8gb SD card and plugged it directly into my computer, and the file size of the last video shot was only 67MB, not nearly high enough for 37 minutes of 720p @ 60frames per second. I am still unable to get even that fragment to play.

Color me heart-broken.


As I said, I hope this is not a sign of a larger, or more common, problem. But until I hear otherwise, I wouldn't use this camera when you really, really want to make sure you end up with a copy of the video (wedding, birthday, mat mitzvah, divorce, whatever).

Wow! Blown away!, March 9, 2010
I've been waiting for this to be released for several months, and was surprised when I got the notice that the ship date was moved up by a month. I've had this camera only for around 12 hours but have spent a few hours with it so far, and it was definitely worth waiting for. I considered the Flip Mino but decided to wait for this to come out because of the ability to use SD cards and also to remove and change the battery somewhat inexpensively.
I'm really glad I waited, and here's why.

* Picture quality is fantastic. I've uploaded some things to Youtube, and the picture was crystal clear.
* Sound - The mic picked up a nice variety of sounds from office sounds (people typing,etc) to a loud surprise party with clarity.
* Size - It's really small. It's wide and flat. Fits in my jeans pocket and in my shirt pocket as well.
* Battery - I'm waiting to see how long it lasts, but it charged in around an hour and 45 minutes when plugged in to the wall.
* Software - I'm pretty impressed. It's simple but it does pretty much what I'll need it to do. I spent around 30 minutes messing around with it. The video uploaded quickly.It allowed for basic editing, color correction and enhancement,etc. It allows direct upload to Facebook,Youtube,Twitter,and Vimeo.
* Build Quality - It's sturdy. Not heavy but definitely "solid". I like the rubberized surface, I can imagine it will be easier to hold when it's wet. I'm very excited to be able to film my daughter swimming from inside the pool!

We own a traditional video camera but it's rarely used because it's big and bulky, the battery life stinks, and making it work with the computer is almost impossible. The Kodak is a natural companion for the diaper bag and I look forward to recording many future memories with it.

The closest to a negative may just be due to the format itself. I used the Kodak software and burned a standard def dvd from a 1080p source and the video looked awful. Very "blocky". I assumed it would at least be "dvd quality" but it's barely VHS. Of course, I could just be doing something wrong. If I figure it out, I'll revise this review!

Other than that issue, I love this thing! The other camera is going to be sold soon, this is all we need!

The Kodak Zx3 is an utter delight and totally heavenly., April 27, 2010
Over Christmas, my wife decided to award my awesomeness by getting me a Zi6. I loved this camera like a fat kid likes cake and took it with me everywhere that I went. Suddenly, my daughter was living her own personal Truman Show and everyone on my Facebook friends list was subject to video after video that I'd shot just about anywhere that we were of her being cute.

Not even a half a year had passed before I was totally devoted to the idea of the Zi6 but still wanting something with a little more horsepower under the hood (Image Stabilization, Facial Detection, Backlight Suppression). I was planning to go with the Zi8 but then I found this little bad boy. The Zx3 is essentially like the dashing, more adventurous midget version of the Zi8. It has the Zi8's guts but in a pint sized, water-proof body.

Pros:

1. Its freaking waterproof! In my opinion, this is almost 100% necessary with a camera that you carry around with you all the time. I'm often too stupid to come in out of the rain so the mere fact that this camera can take the moisture makes it a perfect fit for me.

2. Facial Detection, it works! The camera does an outstanding job of metering from whoever's grill that I happen to be getting all up in while using it. There's a noticeable lag when panning from the shadows to some sun-worshiping hippy but it's not that much. Maybe 1/3 of a second.

3. The image stabilization keeps my shots steady even when I'm jogging behind my 4 year old little girl as she goes from one place to the other being totally riot. It's digital instead of optical so it isn't perfect but it's still a far cry better than the Zi6. It��s definitely a welcome upgrade as my footage no longer looks quite so much like every scene in Cloverfield.

4. I don't use the backlight suppression as much as I thought that I would (mostly don't need it) but its nice having it there.

5. I personally think that the low light performance of this camera is quite crunk! I've read lots of other reviews with people complaining about it but these folks probably complain that they don't get a side of caviar whenever they order a drive through happy meal. It's a pocket-sized camera. In my opinion, the Zx3 has the best low light resolution that you're going to find without upgrading to anything larger and more financially damaging to your checking account.

Cons

1. The thing runs on a proprietary battery so, unlike the Zi6 there's no more relying on AA's and Viagra to keep me going all day long. Kodak says that you'll get 90 minutes out of a full charge but they're lying to you like a bunch of dirty liars. Expect an hour without previewing.

2. Oddly, the 1080p recording mode doesn't make that much of a difference. The Zi6 maxed out at 720p and definitely got a worse picture than this Zx3 but that's mainly due to the internal processing differences between to two devices. It's not really a complaint, I guess. I've just found that 720p at 60fps is just as good or better than 1080p at 30fps.

3. This camera's lack of a macro mode makes it impossible for me to film my fungal infections to email to my doctor for diagnosis.

4. No case was provided! :( WTF Kodak? My Zi6 came with a case. True, it wasn't a very good case but it was there and I loved it! This one doesn't have one. I'm currently using one of my kid's unmatched socks to keep the screen and lens from getting scratched while it's in my pocket. Why does Kodak want me to be so ghetto?

5. The codec records in the .mov file format. This format is big and really annoying to edit in as it eats up processing power and makes your computer stupid. Know going into this that you're going to have to convert your files into a more manageable format before splicing together the next Citizen Kane.

All in all, I'd say that the Zx3 is pretty much the most amazing thing that I've owned ever since my wife got me my Zi6. The better image quality alone makes it worth the $150 that I paid for it but it's also waterproof! My wife didn't know that before I dropped it into my koi pond. The look on her face alone was priceless and worth every dollar spent.

A Fine and Versatile Video Camcorder, Exceptionally Easy-to-Use, April 7, 2010

Excellent Camera for Wet Sports, April 23, 2010
End Result: The video attached here was shot at 720p, 60 frames per second, uploaded and processed by youtube.com, then downloaded and posted to this review to show the quality of the final results you can achieve online. The camera will shoot even higher resolution at 1080p.

Overall: I have been using this tiny camera hard now for eight months, and I have almost nothing but praise for it. It's the size of a cell phone, shoots HD, has image stabilization, contains software for making movies and uploading them to YouTube and other social media site, is rugged, water proof, and best of all, shoots better video than the Flip cameras. The "almost" is minor, in that most users shooting for more than 20 minutes in the wild will want a second battery. It really is best-of-class in tiny video cams, and nothing else comes close to its environmental ruggedness. Buy it. Have a blast. Kodak did it right.

Hardware: I purchased the Black PlaySport ($150), the Kodak High-Speed 16 GB 60x Class 4 SDHC Flash Memory Card ($40), the Kodak 1706290 Resilient 1 Camera Case ($7), and a tiny flexi-leg tripod ($6). The camera comes with a wrist strap, USB charger, USB cable to connect to your computer or charger, and an HDMI cable for your HD TV. The enclosed user's guide is minimal in its explanation of the controls, and does not include shooting tips, but the camera is so simple to operate that you really don't need much more. All components worked flawlessly out of the box. The leash runs through a strong hole in the camera body, and you can use the wrist strap or even run a long leash to your belt for extended-arm shooting while paddling or skiing. I attach the tiny tripod to my life jacket with a leash, and do most of my shooting with the tripod stuffed in the life jacket's breast pocket and camer facing forward.

Charging: Initial charging and all my subsequent charges via USB took about 20 minutes. The USB cable has a standard plug on one end, and a micro-SUB on the other, which is great for me, because my Blackberry car charger also uses a micro-USB. When I shoot intermittently, turning the camera on and off a lot to save battery, I am getting 20-30 minutes of video at 720P at 60 frames per second. You can shoot while charging, which is great for the car or indoors where you have wall power. If you plan to do lots of outdoor shooting, get at least one spare battery. Charging and HDMI ports are on the right side of the camera behind a gasketed waterproof door. The battery and flash card are on the left side of the camera behind a separate gasketed door. Both doors seal very well if you keep the gaskets clean.

Controls: The center select button is used to start and stop shooting, take a still picture, or start and stop playback. Surrounding it is a black control ring that lets you choose from 720P, 720P-60FPS, 1080P or still shots. When shooting, the ring lets you zoom in and out, displaying the zoom level in a red bar-graph on the display. The ring also allows you to choose settings for underwater, sound, image stabilization, and other options. The top left thumb button selects shooting mode. The second button selects playback mode. The third button is the trash-can. The fourth button lets you set the camera's options. The controls make sense and are easy to use, even with light gloves on.

Start and Stop: When you start shooting video, the camera emits a quick chirp, and when you stop it emits a lower tone chirp, neither of which appear on the video itself. This audible feedback is wonderful when you are shooting blind, which I often do by stuffing the camera on a tiny tripod into my lifejacket pocket while kayaking. The camera takes about three seconds to power up when off, and it automatically turns off after about 4 minutes of no shooting to conserve battery life. I love that feature!

Shooting: The camera has an F2.8, 5.54mm lens, and software that tracks and focuses on faces (switchable). I frequently hold the camera in hand, arm extended, and shoot myself from the front, side, or even over-the-shoulder. The focal length is perfect for self-portrait shooting and narration. The zoom works nicely, though occasionally jumps slightly as it approaches full zoom. Image stabilization really helps when at full zoom - big kudos to Kodak for this feature. It also helps when shooting trail running with arm extended.

Video quality: The video quality is excellent, and to my eyes, far better than that of the various Flip cameras. When I shoot calm subjects, I use 702P at 30 frames per second, which gives great results with a minimum of memory use. When I shoot action with a lot of subject motion or camera motion, I switch to 60 frames per second, and the results are stunningly good. The camera responds reasonably quickly to light level changes, such as panning up and down between a bright sky and dark ground, but you may see about 1/3 of a second of under or over exposure s the camera responds. If you zoom all the way in with the digital zoom - it's not an optical zoom - the picture will become slightly bluer and fuzzier, since you are using a smaller area of the sensor chip.

Image stabilization: I shoot sea kayaking videos, which contain lots of water movement as well as camera movement, and the image stabilization works pretty well. If you start seeing "jumpiness", such as when you rapidly pan, turn off image stabilization and it will get smoother. If, on the other hand, you are not panning, but simply trying to hold your palsied, shaking hand steady, turn on image stabilization and the result is very good.

Uploading to your computer: The first time you plug the camera into your computer it detects that the ArcSoft software is not installed and ask you to install it. The software is located in the camera; there is no external CD to lose, which is brilliant. Once installed, the software is extremely easy to use to select and upload shots and clips from the camera to your computer.

Making movies: The software lets you easily make movies by dragging and dropping clips into a sequence. Clips can be edited so you only get the good stuff, and you can tweak the light and color levels. You can add transitions, music, voice-over and even text frames with a variety of fonts, font sizes and colors. This is not a full-featured editing studio, but rather one that is incredibly easy to use for things like YouTube, Facebook and burn-to-DVD videos. You can save the "project", which contains all the settings for your move in an editable format, so you can come back later and add that missing scene and delete uncle Ed's belch.

Uploading to social media: The same software allows you to upload to a whole variety of social media, including YouTube, Facebook and Twitter, and burn your video to DVD. The upload process automatically formats the movie for best results on the particular social media you select. It then connects to your account and uploads the movie. I regularly upload 720P videos to YouTube. YouTube then automatically converts the upload to 360P, 480P and 720P, and lets viewers select the speed that works best on their computer/connection. You can see uploaded examples, each labeled with the shooting resolution and speed - search youtube for "erikhy". (Note that these videos are from someone who has never shot ANY video before getting this camera.)

I'm in love with this camera for travel and adventure shooting.

Kodak Playsport Hands on Review, April 19, 2010
Just a basic hands on review of the playsport.

Great for Outdoor shooting...4 issues to watch out for. B- grade, May 19, 2010
***HAD TO RETURN ONE AND GET A REPLACEMENT, READ BELOW!!***

I must preface this by saying that I have a FLIP Mino video recorder which I liked but wanted to get something that does HD video.

I have had the Kodak PlaySport for about 1 month now and used it numerous times in outdoor and indoor settings. I actually had 2 PlaySport units because I had to return the original unit and get a replacement through Amazon for some issues explained below.

So, I must say this little unit look very promising when I first got it. I really like the look and feel of the unit. It fits in my hand very nicely and it has a nice weight to it. The Playsport definitely feels more rugged than the Flip Mino.



So What I liked about the PlaySport:

1) Great rugged feel. This was a major plus over the Flip mino. The curves of the PlaySport body feel much nicer than the boxy body of the Flip.

2) Great outdoor Video and Images. Well, this is the main reason to get an Camera right? The outdoor images I took are as good if not better than some point and shoot Canon/Sony cameras I have. The great thing to is, the pictures are formatted for my 42in HDTV and look incredible. The outdoor video is better than I expected from a pocket HD cam and much better than the Flip (although it's not HD).

3) I love the fact that it comes with all the accessories like an HDMI cable. Also it uses a standard USB cable to charge and COMES WITH A WALL CHARGER!! The major selling point of the Flip was the flip out USB but I hated it because you had to use it to charge through your computer, not the wall.

4) The removable battery and memory is awesome in case you are on a trip or at an event where you go over the battery and memory capacity (which has happened to me with the 60min Flip).


Some flaws for you to look for/be aware of:

1) the big white record button in the middle was a little loose. What I mean by this is that when you press the button it can stick to your thumb and rattles just a little. I recorded OK but sometimes it felt like the button could have fallen out. This turned out to be issolated to that first unit because my replacement wasn't like this.

2) The battery door and the hdmi port door were pretty loose on the first unit. I would be a bit afraid to take that one in the water. My replacement unit was a bit better but one of the doors is slightly loose.

3) Battery life didn't seem very good or the indicator is not very accurate. In fact, after charging the Playsport over night and then using for about 5 minutes it will often show that the battery only has 3/4 power left. But after 1hr of use it only was about 1/2 power used. I purchased a spare battery and it seems to be different. So maybe the battery that came with the unit is faulty?

4) Indoor pictures are pretty bad. There is no flash or video light. The indoor pictures are very noisy (grainy) and blur is a major issue. Quality wise, it is on par, or maybe worse than my smartphone camera. Keep in mind, this is a small lens and we can't expect fabulous pictures from it. I have a SLR for my indoor pics so I'm not so worried about it...however, if you are expecting to use this as a party-cam out on the town in dimly lit restaurants and bars...it will disappoint you.

5) The major one...while shooting video indoors or low light, I noticed a gray haze and splotchy dark marks (one noticeable one in the bottom center) on the image in the screen as well as in the final recording...almost like the lens was dirty. I cleaned the lens but it didn't change anything. I started testing in different environments and noticed THIS ONLY HAPPENED IN LOW LIGHT/INDOOR situations. I could get the gray haze/ dark spots to go away by pointing the camera to a brighter area of the room or out a window into daylight then back to a low light area. This happens in all of the video settings (WVGA,720p,1080p). I found this to be the case with both the original unit I had and the replacement unit Amazon sent me. I also went to Best Buy to look at there display unit and found it to be the same. When You point it at a white wall indoors what I am talking about will be very clear to see. I have since read some user posting similar problems on Amazon.

So, bottom line:

I will be keeping the PlaySport because the outdoor video and pictures are excellent and the price was right. I will use it indoors but will keep my expectations low on the results. For the price, and what is available out in the market, this camera is probably the best option available. Just make sure your unit doesn't have the built quality issues I had.

Nice small & rugged, HD Pocket video camera, April 11, 2010
OK lets start off with this camera is $149 keep that in mind.

The 5.3MP still photos are fairly good, not to bad, but remember this is a video camera first
a dedicated 5MP still photo camera will take much better photos, but again hey these aren't to shabby it just depends on what your trying to do. Quick shots here and there...excellent and better than any cell phone I've had. At a wedding where you want crystal clear and sharp photos....well not so much.

The HD video camera is pretty nice, easy to use and I was just stunned at the digital zoom.
It actually works and works well, not to blocky or grainy...more so at the extreme 4x level but at 2x to about 3x the camera compensated nicely and actually cleared up the image...not sure how they do it, but they do.




As others have noted, with rapid movement of the camera you will notice your image jumps or shakes.
Now remember what I told you to keep in mind $149. Yes it does have that little "feature", but it's not
a $299 video camera with a higher quality lens and CCD. Slow down, don't go from left to right or up and
down at 100MPH and it's not bad. Moving images within the video are fine, it's just if you move the camera
itself very rapidly you will notice it.

I tried the 3 HD video modes, and it also has a standard resolution mode as well that I did not try.
I compared all 3 with and with out the image stabilization on which did not seem to improve or degrade the
image at all.

At 720p 30 fps - Not to bad, noticed the jumpyness or shakyness of the image as I moved left to right in my test,
but slow down and it's not to bad.

At 720p 60 fps - Now were getting better, really not bad at all, again not $300 video camera good, but
pretty darn nice, and clearer and the shakyness of the video smoothed out a bunch, again slow down in your
movements for best quality.

At 1080p 30fps - Nice quality...really nice, but the jumpyness of the video is back, you have to take it a bit
slower but nice quality all in all.

I did not try the underwater mode, but assume it works as advertised everything else has so far.

Now I throughly loved the fact that there are no CD's with this camera, nothing in the box to load.
You simply plug in the provided USB cable and the software...every bit of it and all the drivers you need for
the camera are built right in and install on your PC from the camera...this is an excellent feature, I always
misplace the CD's and have to download from the website anyhow.

Speaking of downloading from the website ... this camera is flash upgradeable with new firmware I went to the
Kodak website and found that there was an upgrade I could download to correct a few minor anomalies that they
found...cool so hopefully this camera gets even more corrections in the near future and maybe a feature update
someday?

I also loved the fact that ALL the cables came with the camera. HDMI, USB, and Component video cables...
All of them... they can charge you at least $10 for each individual cable, but they give them to you with
the camera for $149, now how great is that ?!?!

As at least one other reviewer has said, yes - there is no case or protective sleeve that comes with the camera,
but I would take the cables over a case anyday, you know what ever they included it wouldn't be what you wanted.
Either they gave you a sleeve and you wanted a case for your accessories or they gave you a case and you didn't
want to carry all the accessories so you go out and buy yourself a protective sleeve or pouch. So just go get what you want ...
I myself purchased the Kodak Case that Amazon recommended to me .... also a nice purchase, perfect size not to big,
not to small and has a little accessory area that you can carry one of the cables and a spare battery if you need.

This camera feels rugged and well built. It's easy to use, lots of features like image stabilization and face
tracking, it comes with all the cables, free software that's always with you in the camera, and costs only $149.

So not to bad at all, and my conclusion is this if your looking for a sharp and crisp still photo camera drop the
$100 just for that and buy one, if your looking for a excellent video quality camera drop the $300 just for that
and buy one. But....If your looking for a pretty nice, simple and decent quality camera that does it all and
is rugged enough to go out in the rain or underwater drop $149 and buy this one.

I've included a video I compiled and edited down to show the different resolutions and the photos. Keep in mind
that while your viewing that this is an flv file and the actual quality that the camera will give you will be
much higher than what I was able to upload to Amazon, meaning you'll get better quality than what you see on here.

Great little camera, excellent underwater!, March 27, 2010
I shot this using the Kodak PlaySport while snorkeling off of Ixtapa, Mexico. The water wasn't the clearest, but I did get pretty good results. It looked really great in the pool. It also looks great above water! I use it at my son's baseball games and I have been amazed at the quality. Hands down the best thing about this camera is the size. It's so easy to slip in a pocket and just carry around. Great little vacation camera. My only complaint is that the control wheel is a little small. I would often accidentally stop recording while trying to zoom in or out. You get used to it though and it is a minor annoyance. I highly recommend this camera.

Best Water Proof HD Video and Still Camera., March 9, 2010
I am a Canon diehard fan. But Canon does not have anything that compares to Kodak Playsport HD waterproof pocket video camera. At 1080P the video recording is acceptable. But, at 720p and 60 frames per second this camera rocks, the results are great. I have used it around and in water, the blue filter helps under water. I am planning to use this for our Disney World vacation this year in the Water Parks.

This camera takes 5MP HD Stills, so now I have a camera that can take video and stills on demand wet or dry. I have other camera's in the same category like Flip and Samsung both do not compare, even at 720p 60 frames per second. $150.00 pricetag is also very affordable.

Easy to carry, very user friendly to move files from the camera to the computer or directly to Youtube. Nightvision would be nice but most of my recordings will be in Daylight. Bottom line great camera and I have no cons to talk about.

Great video quality- with a fatal flaw, March 20, 2010
I was, and still am, blown away by the quality recording I am getting off of this compact and rugged little camera. the 1080 setting can be a little blurry and choppy, but it is still better than most other compact camcorders I have used. The 720/60 frames setting is wonderful. I was astounded at the smoothness of the video, as well as the quality. Here's the trouble though, and hopefully not indicative of a larger issue.

I recorded an event for about 45 minutes, and after I was through, I looked back at the camera. The record light was still on, the screen still showing a live preview, but the recorded time number had stopped at about 37 minutes. All the controls were unresponsive. Not even the power button worked. After about 5 minutes, I had no choice but to remove the battery to shut the camera off. I turned it back on, and was shown an exclamation point where the video I had just shot was. The video would not play. I removed the 8gb SD card and plugged it directly into my computer, and the file size of the last video shot was only 67MB, not nearly high enough for 37 minutes of 720p @ 60frames per second. I am still unable to get even that fragment to play.

Color me heart-broken.


As I said, I hope this is not a sign of a larger, or more common, problem. But until I hear otherwise, I wouldn't use this camera when you really, really want to make sure you end up with a copy of the video (wedding, birthday, mat mitzvah, divorce, whatever).

Wow! Blown away!, March 9, 2010
I've been waiting for this to be released for several months, and was surprised when I got the notice that the ship date was moved up by a month. I've had this camera only for around 12 hours but have spent a few hours with it so far, and it was definitely worth waiting for. I considered the Flip Mino but decided to wait for this to come out because of the ability to use SD cards and also to remove and change the battery somewhat inexpensively.
I'm really glad I waited, and here's why.

* Picture quality is fantastic. I've uploaded some things to Youtube, and the picture was crystal clear.
* Sound - The mic picked up a nice variety of sounds from office sounds (people typing,etc) to a loud surprise party with clarity.
* Size - It's really small. It's wide and flat. Fits in my jeans pocket and in my shirt pocket as well.
* Battery - I'm waiting to see how long it lasts, but it charged in around an hour and 45 minutes when plugged in to the wall.
* Software - I'm pretty impressed. It's simple but it does pretty much what I'll need it to do. I spent around 30 minutes messing around with it. The video uploaded quickly.It allowed for basic editing, color correction and enhancement,etc. It allows direct upload to Facebook,Youtube,Twitter,and Vimeo.
* Build Quality - It's sturdy. Not heavy but definitely "solid". I like the rubberized surface, I can imagine it will be easier to hold when it's wet. I'm very excited to be able to film my daughter swimming from inside the pool!

We own a traditional video camera but it's rarely used because it's big and bulky, the battery life stinks, and making it work with the computer is almost impossible. The Kodak is a natural companion for the diaper bag and I look forward to recording many future memories with it.

The closest to a negative may just be due to the format itself. I used the Kodak software and burned a standard def dvd from a 1080p source and the video looked awful. Very "blocky". I assumed it would at least be "dvd quality" but it's barely VHS. Of course, I could just be doing something wrong. If I figure it out, I'll revise this review!

Other than that issue, I love this thing! The other camera is going to be sold soon, this is all we need!

The Kodak Zx3 is an utter delight and totally heavenly., April 27, 2010
Over Christmas, my wife decided to award my awesomeness by getting me a Zi6. I loved this camera like a fat kid likes cake and took it with me everywhere that I went. Suddenly, my daughter was living her own personal Truman Show and everyone on my Facebook friends list was subject to video after video that I'd shot just about anywhere that we were of her being cute.

Not even a half a year had passed before I was totally devoted to the idea of the Zi6 but still wanting something with a little more horsepower under the hood (Image Stabilization, Facial Detection, Backlight Suppression). I was planning to go with the Zi8 but then I found this little bad boy. The Zx3 is essentially like the dashing, more adventurous midget version of the Zi8. It has the Zi8's guts but in a pint sized, water-proof body.

Pros:

1. Its freaking waterproof! In my opinion, this is almost 100% necessary with a camera that you carry around with you all the time. I'm often too stupid to come in out of the rain so the mere fact that this camera can take the moisture makes it a perfect fit for me.

2. Facial Detection, it works! The camera does an outstanding job of metering from whoever's grill that I happen to be getting all up in while using it. There's a noticeable lag when panning from the shadows to some sun-worshiping hippy but it's not that much. Maybe 1/3 of a second.

3. The image stabilization keeps my shots steady even when I'm jogging behind my 4 year old little girl as she goes from one place to the other being totally riot. It's digital instead of optical so it isn't perfect but it's still a far cry better than the Zi6. It��s definitely a welcome upgrade as my footage no longer looks quite so much like every scene in Cloverfield.

4. I don't use the backlight suppression as much as I thought that I would (mostly don't need it) but its nice having it there.

5. I personally think that the low light performance of this camera is quite crunk! I've read lots of other reviews with people complaining about it but these folks probably complain that they don't get a side of caviar whenever they order a drive through happy meal. It's a pocket-sized camera. In my opinion, the Zx3 has the best low light resolution that you're going to find without upgrading to anything larger and more financially damaging to your checking account.

Cons

1. The thing runs on a proprietary battery so, unlike the Zi6 there's no more relying on AA's and Viagra to keep me going all day long. Kodak says that you'll get 90 minutes out of a full charge but they're lying to you like a bunch of dirty liars. Expect an hour without previewing.

2. Oddly, the 1080p recording mode doesn't make that much of a difference. The Zi6 maxed out at 720p and definitely got a worse picture than this Zx3 but that's mainly due to the internal processing differences between to two devices. It's not really a complaint, I guess. I've just found that 720p at 60fps is just as good or better than 1080p at 30fps.

3. This camera's lack of a macro mode makes it impossible for me to film my fungal infections to email to my doctor for diagnosis.

4. No case was provided! :( WTF Kodak? My Zi6 came with a case. True, it wasn't a very good case but it was there and I loved it! This one doesn't have one. I'm currently using one of my kid's unmatched socks to keep the screen and lens from getting scratched while it's in my pocket. Why does Kodak want me to be so ghetto?

5. The codec records in the .mov file format. This format is big and really annoying to edit in as it eats up processing power and makes your computer stupid. Know going into this that you're going to have to convert your files into a more manageable format before splicing together the next Citizen Kane.

All in all, I'd say that the Zx3 is pretty much the most amazing thing that I've owned ever since my wife got me my Zi6. The better image quality alone makes it worth the $150 that I paid for it but it's also waterproof! My wife didn't know that before I dropped it into my koi pond. The look on her face alone was priceless and worth every dollar spent.

A Fine and Versatile Video Camcorder, Exceptionally Easy-to-Use, April 7, 2010

Excellent Camera for Wet Sports, April 23, 2010
End Result: The video attached here was shot at 720p, 60 frames per second, uploaded and processed by youtube.com, then downloaded and posted to this review to show the quality of the final results you can achieve online. The camera will shoot even higher resolution at 1080p.

Overall: I have been using this tiny camera hard now for eight months, and I have almost nothing but praise for it. It's the size of a cell phone, shoots HD, has image stabilization, contains software for making movies and uploading them to YouTube and other social media site, is rugged, water proof, and best of all, shoots better video than the Flip cameras. The "almost" is minor, in that most users shooting for more than 20 minutes in the wild will want a second battery. It really is best-of-class in tiny video cams, and nothing else comes close to its environmental ruggedness. Buy it. Have a blast. Kodak did it right.

Hardware: I purchased the Black PlaySport ($150), the Kodak High-Speed 16 GB 60x Class 4 SDHC Flash Memory Card ($40), the Kodak 1706290 Resilient 1 Camera Case ($7), and a tiny flexi-leg tripod ($6). The camera comes with a wrist strap, USB charger, USB cable to connect to your computer or charger, and an HDMI cable for your HD TV. The enclosed user's guide is minimal in its explanation of the controls, and does not include shooting tips, but the camera is so simple to operate that you really don't need much more. All components worked flawlessly out of the box. The leash runs through a strong hole in the camera body, and you can use the wrist strap or even run a long leash to your belt for extended-arm shooting while paddling or skiing. I attach the tiny tripod to my life jacket with a leash, and do most of my shooting with the tripod stuffed in the life jacket's breast pocket and camer facing forward.

Charging: Initial charging and all my subsequent charges via USB took about 20 minutes. The USB cable has a standard plug on one end, and a micro-SUB on the other, which is great for me, because my Blackberry car charger also uses a micro-USB. When I shoot intermittently, turning the camera on and off a lot to save battery, I am getting 20-30 minutes of video at 720P at 60 frames per second. You can shoot while charging, which is great for the car or indoors where you have wall power. If you plan to do lots of outdoor shooting, get at least one spare battery. Charging and HDMI ports are on the right side of the camera behind a gasketed waterproof door. The battery and flash card are on the left side of the camera behind a separate gasketed door. Both doors seal very well if you keep the gaskets clean.

Controls: The center select button is used to start and stop shooting, take a still picture, or start and stop playback. Surrounding it is a black control ring that lets you choose from 720P, 720P-60FPS, 1080P or still shots. When shooting, the ring lets you zoom in and out, displaying the zoom level in a red bar-graph on the display. The ring also allows you to choose settings for underwater, sound, image stabilization, and other options. The top left thumb button selects shooting mode. The second button selects playback mode. The third button is the trash-can. The fourth button lets you set the camera's options. The controls make sense and are easy to use, even with light gloves on.

Start and Stop: When you start shooting video, the camera emits a quick chirp, and when you stop it emits a lower tone chirp, neither of which appear on the video itself. This audible feedback is wonderful when you are shooting blind, which I often do by stuffing the camera on a tiny tripod into my lifejacket pocket while kayaking. The camera takes about three seconds to power up when off, and it automatically turns off after about 4 minutes of no shooting to conserve battery life. I love that feature!

Shooting: The camera has an F2.8, 5.54mm lens, and software that tracks and focuses on faces (switchable). I frequently hold the camera in hand, arm extended, and shoot myself from the front, side, or even over-the-shoulder. The focal length is perfect for self-portrait shooting and narration. The zoom works nicely, though occasionally jumps slightly as it approaches full zoom. Image stabilization really helps when at full zoom - big kudos to Kodak for this feature. It also helps when shooting trail running with arm extended.

Video quality: The video quality is excellent, and to my eyes, far better than that of the various Flip cameras. When I shoot calm subjects, I use 702P at 30 frames per second, which gives great results with a minimum of memory use. When I shoot action with a lot of subject motion or camera motion, I switch to 60 frames per second, and the results are stunningly good. The camera responds reasonably quickly to light level changes, such as panning up and down between a bright sky and dark ground, but you may see about 1/3 of a second of under or over exposure s the camera responds. If you zoom all the way in with the digital zoom - it's not an optical zoom - the picture will become slightly bluer and fuzzier, since you are using a smaller area of the sensor chip.

Image stabilization: I shoot sea kayaking videos, which contain lots of water movement as well as camera movement, and the image stabilization works pretty well. If you start seeing "jumpiness", such as when you rapidly pan, turn off image stabilization and it will get smoother. If, on the other hand, you are not panning, but simply trying to hold your palsied, shaking hand steady, turn on image stabilization and the result is very good.

Uploading to your computer: The first time you plug the camera into your computer it detects that the ArcSoft software is not installed and ask you to install it. The software is located in the camera; there is no external CD to lose, which is brilliant. Once installed, the software is extremely easy to use to select and upload shots and clips from the camera to your computer.

Making movies: The software lets you easily make movies by dragging and dropping clips into a sequence. Clips can be edited so you only get the good stuff, and you can tweak the light and color levels. You can add transitions, music, voice-over and even text frames with a variety of fonts, font sizes and colors. This is not a full-featured editing studio, but rather one that is incredibly easy to use for things like YouTube, Facebook and burn-to-DVD videos. You can save the "project", which contains all the settings for your move in an editable format, so you can come back later and add that missing scene and delete uncle Ed's belch.

Uploading to social media: The same software allows you to upload to a whole variety of social media, including YouTube, Facebook and Twitter, and burn your video to DVD. The upload process automatically formats the movie for best results on the particular social media you select. It then connects to your account and uploads the movie. I regularly upload 720P videos to YouTube. YouTube then automatically converts the upload to 360P, 480P and 720P, and lets viewers select the speed that works best on their computer/connection. You can see uploaded examples, each labeled with the shooting resolution and speed - search youtube for "erikhy". (Note that these videos are from someone who has never shot ANY video before getting this camera.)

I'm in love with this camera for travel and adventure shooting.

Kodak Playsport Hands on Review, April 19, 2010
Just a basic hands on review of the playsport.

Great for Outdoor shooting...4 issues to watch out for. B- grade, May 19, 2010
***HAD TO RETURN ONE AND GET A REPLACEMENT, READ BELOW!!***

I must preface this by saying that I have a FLIP Mino video recorder which I liked but wanted to get something that does HD video.

I have had the Kodak PlaySport for about 1 month now and used it numerous times in outdoor and indoor settings. I actually had 2 PlaySport units because I had to return the original unit and get a replacement through Amazon for some issues explained below.

So, I must say this little unit look very promising when I first got it. I really like the look and feel of the unit. It fits in my hand very nicely and it has a nice weight to it. The Playsport definitely feels more rugged than the Flip Mino.



So What I liked about the PlaySport:

1) Great rugged feel. This was a major plus over the Flip mino. The curves of the PlaySport body feel much nicer than the boxy body of the Flip.

2) Great outdoor Video and Images. Well, this is the main reason to get an Camera right? The outdoor images I took are as good if not better than some point and shoot Canon/Sony cameras I have. The great thing to is, the pictures are formatted for my 42in HDTV and look incredible. The outdoor video is better than I expected from a pocket HD cam and much better than the Flip (although it's not HD).

3) I love the fact that it comes with all the accessories like an HDMI cable. Also it uses a standard USB cable to charge and COMES WITH A WALL CHARGER!! The major selling point of the Flip was the flip out USB but I hated it because you had to use it to charge through your computer, not the wall.

4) The removable battery and memory is awesome in case you are on a trip or at an event where you go over the battery and memory capacity (which has happened to me with the 60min Flip).


Some flaws for you to look for/be aware of:

1) the big white record button in the middle was a little loose. What I mean by this is that when you press the button it can stick to your thumb and rattles just a little. I recorded OK but sometimes it felt like the button could have fallen out. This turned out to be issolated to that first unit because my replacement wasn't like this.

2) The battery door and the hdmi port door were pretty loose on the first unit. I would be a bit afraid to take that one in the water. My replacement unit was a bit better but one of the doors is slightly loose.

3) Battery life didn't seem very good or the indicator is not very accurate. In fact, after charging the Playsport over night and then using for about 5 minutes it will often show that the battery only has 3/4 power left. But after 1hr of use it only was about 1/2 power used. I purchased a spare battery and it seems to be different. So maybe the battery that came with the unit is faulty?

4) Indoor pictures are pretty bad. There is no flash or video light. The indoor pictures are very noisy (grainy) and blur is a major issue. Quality wise, it is on par, or maybe worse than my smartphone camera. Keep in mind, this is a small lens and we can't expect fabulous pictures from it. I have a SLR for my indoor pics so I'm not so worried about it...however, if you are expecting to use this as a party-cam out on the town in dimly lit restaurants and bars...it will disappoint you.

5) The major one...while shooting video indoors or low light, I noticed a gray haze and splotchy dark marks (one noticeable one in the bottom center) on the image in the screen as well as in the final recording...almost like the lens was dirty. I cleaned the lens but it didn't change anything. I started testing in different environments and noticed THIS ONLY HAPPENED IN LOW LIGHT/INDOOR situations. I could get the gray haze/ dark spots to go away by pointing the camera to a brighter area of the room or out a window into daylight then back to a low light area. This happens in all of the video settings (WVGA,720p,1080p). I found this to be the case with both the original unit I had and the replacement unit Amazon sent me. I also went to Best Buy to look at there display unit and found it to be the same. When You point it at a white wall indoors what I am talking about will be very clear to see. I have since read some user posting similar problems on Amazon.

So, bottom line:

I will be keeping the PlaySport because the outdoor video and pictures are excellent and the price was right. I will use it indoors but will keep my expectations low on the results. For the price, and what is available out in the market, this camera is probably the best option available. Just make sure your unit doesn't have the built quality issues I had.

... Read more

Editorial Review

It's all about the power of contrast. Color that defies convention. Sleek, gentle curves that merge art and technology into a camera designed to inspire. The PowerShot SD1300 IS Digital ELPH Camera captures your world as much as it expresses your originality, with bold innovations that include remarkable Low Light performance. Everything looks right. Hold it...and everything feels right, too.

FEATURES:

• 28mm wide-angle lens, 4x optical zoom and Optical Image Stabilizer - The Canon commitment to innovation defines the excitement of the PowerShot SD1300 IS Digital ELPH with its 28mm wide-angle lens and 4x optical zoom that makes it easy to get the inspiring, emotive close-ups that will make your images lasting keepsakes.
• Smart AUTO mode intelligently selects from 18 settings - Just set the Canon PowerShot SD1300 IS to Smart AUTO and you're ready for maximum enjoyment from your picture-taking every time. It's a relaxing and satisfying way to shoot because you can completely concentrate on your subject knowing that the camera has the technical details covered. Advanced Canon technology intelligently analyzes your situation and shooting conditions. Then it automatically selects an appropriate setting from 18 specially defined settings. So whether you're photographing flowers, a captivating sunset, or your friends at the park, you can be confident that you're getting dramatic, memorable images.
• Shooting Modes - Advanced presets for the best possible photos under certain conditions. With 15 Shooting Modes, you're ready for whatever shot comes your way.
• 12.1-megapixel resolution makes it a breeze to print large size images - With the PowerShot SD1300 IS, dramatic, personal pictures have never been easier to shoot and share. This 12.1-megapixel camera lets you create impressive, large photos of family and f ... Read more

  Reviews

  It is classy and it takes great pictures, March 13, 2010
  ...is one you'll have with you. The nice thing about the Canon ELPH series is they easily fit into your pocket, are well built/designed, don't cost a lot, come with a boatload of features, and take great pictures. The SD1300, the latest in the ELPH line continues in that tradition, adding considerable additional sophistication and sacrificing some useful functionality in the interest of cutting cost.
  
  It is a small camera and carries with it the baggage that comes with the convenience of having to carry so little baggage. (sorry, couldn't resist) None of the issues raised, given that they comes as part of the convenience trade-off made me consider anything other than the 5-star rating this camera deserves.
  
  - Many of the functions are only accessible through menus, sometimes several levels deep. The good new is the Automatic and scene modes are pretty good (as long as you spend a few minutes reviewing what they really do). This camera is not intended to be used in aperture or shutter priority, let alone full manual.
  
  - The battery life might be shorter than you expect. That's a trade-off for having a camera that's small and light; you get a battery that is small and light. One thing you can do is get a spare battery. That is good advice for any camera. Another thing that will help is to keep the display off as much as possible. That means using the monitor as little as possible. The "sad" part is that Canon chose to drop the optical viewfinder in this model. That means a camera that is simpler and less expensive to make but will go through batteries quicker because you must use the display when taking picture.
  
  - The camera response is a bit slow for effectively capturing children and pets. The trick for doing that is to either have a great sense of timing and a shutter that reacts instantly or a reasonably fast ( > 4x / sec ) burst mode. This camera has neither.
  
  Some other suggestions that apply:
  
  - Use the lowest ISO available given your requirement for either aperture or shutter speed. To avoid getting technical, higher ISO always introduces higher noise. At issue is when it becomes noticeable. In newer dSLR cameras you can get over 1000, maybe well over depending on the camera, before the noise becomes noticeable. For this camera keeping it at or below 200 is a good idea.
  
  - Don't use in-camera sharpening. Digital pictures will almost always benefit from sharpening but you are better off doing it with a photo editing program. Computer-based algorithms tend to be more sophisticated and you can better judge the results on your monitor as opposed to the camera LCD.
  
  - If you want more vivid colors and have the choice use sRGB instead of Adobe RGB. While you get fewer colors they are distributed over a wider range. They are also render better on computer monitors, many commercial labs, and any other place your pictures are likely to show up.
  
  Finally, I've found the Caselogic QPB-1 Compact Digital Camera Case (Black/Gray) is just the right size for this camera. It's semi-rigid so you get a fair amount of protection but doesn't add a lot of bulk. It's made even better by using one of these, Nite Ize SB1-2PK-01 Size-1 S-Biner, Black, 2-Pack, to secure it to a belt loop.
  

  Canon PowerShot SD1300IS, April 4, 2010
  Nobody does digital point and shoot as well as Canon in my opinion, and the SD1300IS is just another example of maximum feature/functionality in tiny little package. I have owned or still own the Canon S3IS, S5IS & Rebel XS. Those three cameras are Ginormous compared with the SD1300IS.
  
  I bought this camera for my wife to carry in her purse so she can shoot pictures and video of the kids while they're out and about, or when she drops in on them at their school. No camera bag needed, this camera fits in a zipped interior pocket of her purse.
  
  I gave it to her and she was able to successfully power it on/off, shoot pictures, shoot video, zoom, delete bad shots, and navigate the menu system without referring to the manual. The point here is if you currently own a Canon point and shoot and are looking for an upgrade, the learning curve on the SD1300IS is almost zero. If you've never owned a Canon point and shoot, you will figure this one out very easily.
  
  The 12MP pictures are stunning, but to be honest I can't tell the difference between the ones that are 12MP and the ones that are 8MP on my Canon S5IS. The pictures the Rebel XS takes are a notch above the others, definitely a noticeable difference there.
  
  The video quality is 30fps 640x480 (plenty), same as my S5IS. The image stabilization is a must for this to be of any use, and works like a champ. A 4GB SDHC card holds about 32 minutes worth of video, 8GB 64 minutes, 16GB more than 2 hours! The video is very easy to transfer to your computer and burn to a DVD or upload to Facebook using the included USB cable. There is also an included cable that allows you to play video on your TV via the yellow video cable port.
  
  The appearance of the camera is so cool. I bought my wife the green one, and it looks great. I like how the lens completely retracts into the body and covers itself with a protective layer. A handy camera strap is also included, which is good because this thing is so small I could see it slipping out of your hands.
  
  All in all, a very easy to use, functional, attractive camera that I have no hesitation recommending!
  
  

  You can never go wrong with a Canon, March 15, 2010
  Bought the SD1300 specifically to have a small camera while traveling across the country following Route 66! (I have a Canon S5IS which I took to Germany and Italy, but found it inconvenient to carry daily.) THIS camera takes exceptional pictures and video, is convenient to carry and the battery lasts for DAYS before needing a charge. On a week trip to Maryland I did find the VIDEOS I shot at full zoom were blurry, but I didn't notice it until I downloaded them to view on my computer. Only for that reason did I not give it 5 stars. Full zoom PICTURES are fine. I love using the SD Card to directly download pictures (but then, that's a positive point of my computer). I did purchase an extra 4gb SD card but have not had to use it yet. (I have over 600 pictures and probably 40 minutes of video on the first one.) I do suggest purchasing a camera case of some sort for protection. I found one at Target which is just a padded cloth type, and it prevents the camera from getting scratched up in my purse but doesn't take up much room. I do put the strap over my wrist while shooting because it is so small you can drop it easily. Buying from Amazon.com allows me to purchase a really GREAT product saving the tax I would pay at a retailer, and it ships for FREE. It's well worth the price, and I see it's even dropped $10 from the July 2 price. Pick your favorite color and buy it if you're looking for a small, convenient camera that takes great pics at a reasonable price.

  Great but beauty flaws, August 27, 2010
  I took this camera to my over-America road trip. The camera saw pretty hard conditions - 99 degrees of heat, dropping into sand, 3000 pictures over 3 weeks. It just went on-off all the time, I put a weight of a full year of use onto it over 3 weeks.
  
  Works great. Amazing photos, it is easy to use, automatic regimes like macro work brilliant. Even through car windows on a speed of 70mph, it takes pictures like standing on a place. You could never tell they are made from a car ride. Brilliant photos, great camera.
  
  1 minus. Beauty flaws come up quickly. It is easy to scratch it and after 3 weeks of use, it looked rubbish. Like a 3 year old camera. I have never seen this before. So if you are interested in aesthetics, buy some other camera. If you want to have awesome, truly brilliant pictures from a small and compact camera, buy this one. Photos wise it is the best you could buy, if you like to hang out and show your fancy equipment in a big crowd, this camera is not looking fancy over longer period of time.

  Great camera but bad lens mechanism, November 10, 2010
  The little Canons have been great cameras. The picture quality is phenomenal as is the ease of use. The issue is that my SD1100 and SD1300 both had lenses that froze halfway out after the warrantly period was over. The expense to fix it is half the price of a new camera.

  It is classy and it takes great pictures, March 13, 2010
  I will try to share some things I have discovered about this camera, ( these are just my thoughts ), I hope they might help a little.
  
  Some things I am compairing to a canon SD1200 and the SD940,
  I do not use the viedo enough to judge that part of the cameras.
  
  * No memory card included with this camera*.
  
  * Some will miss the viewfinder that the SD1200 has.
  
  * Some will miss the HD 720p in the movie mode that the SD940,SD1400 has, The SD1300 has 640x480 at 30fps like the canon SD1200, G11 and S90.
  
  * The SD1300 has ( no optical zoom while recording video ) just digital zoom.
  
  * There is a date feature on the SD1300, see below
  
  
  The flat button arangement is the same as the SD1200 all but the ( power button ) on top is larger and easier to turn on and off, I like that but be careful it does not come on in your pocket or in your soft camera case.
  
  * You get a 2.7inch very clear LCD screen that has a (very good and wide viewing angle in all directions).
  
  A 28mm x 112mm lens, a little better than the 35 x 105 on the SD1200 ( But no view finder on the SD1300 ).
  
  I have not had any trouble using any of the buttons even with my big old hands. They are a tad larger than on the SD940 and SD1400.
  
  * The SD1300 is very easy to use and small enough to carry every place you go for those spontaneous grand kid pictures like the SD 1200 was .
  Just a very good basic camera.
  
  
  
  
  I like that the mic for the video is in the front of the camera instead of being on the top (where I put my finger) like the canon SD970 and others, it picks up less finger movement noise being in the front.
  
  * Very fast start up time of just over 1 sec.
  
  I can not tell any difference in shot to shot or flash shot to shot times between the SD1300 and the SD1200,
  which is ( 2secs with out the flash ), and 3 to 4secs with the flash on, (( up to 6secs for full flash recharge )).
  
  (Update > Some of review sites(C-NET) are getting around 2.7 to 3 seconds for the SD1300 between shots with out the flash so I grabed the two cameras and tryed the two again(SD1300 SD1200) with and with out the flash on and I had the same results both ways, I used program mode both times and they would focus and recharge the flash evenly also...)
  
  Shutter lag is good for a canon point and shoot but if you ( pre focus ) that will help even more.
  
  I never tested the continuous shooting( but see my battery test) but canon says it is 0.9 per sec where the sd 1200 is 1.4 shots per sec, if that is important to you. UPDATE > The 1200 does seem to be faster, quicker than the 1300 in continuous mode, how much I dont know but you can tell the difference...
  
  I did test the battery (NB-6L same battery as SD1200) by using continuous shooting mode ( with the flash on ) and got well over 400 pictures and it was taking ( 1 picture every 2 seconds or less in the continuous mode( flash on ) if that helps you out on the continuous shooting part, and when I turned the flash off it seemed to be very fast coming from a small canon point and shoot world.
  
  * (Battery life). In real life I get around 300 or more pictures with some of them using the flash, your still need a second battery for a backup.
  
  ** A nice backup battery is a (power2000) for canon NB-6L (1200mAh)$19.00. I have used them for years.
  I really like the battery charger that comes with the camera, it is small and charges quickley.
  Some set back the brightness of the LCD a couple of notches to save some battery. I think your new battery will do better after the first couple of charges.
  
  * 10/30/2010 At the Columbus zoo we shot 350 pictures and a lot of them with flash on with one charge...
  
  
  ** Very good image quality keeping the iso at 200 and below.
  I am getting about the same image quality as the SD 1200 which is very good for this small size point and shoot camera.
  
  * As point and shoots get better we often try and compare them to digital SLRs ( speed,noise, ISOs, picture quality ) but because of the point and shoots very small sensors and craming all those mega pixels into them it is just asking to much of the little cameras....
  Fewer pixels mean there's more room on the sensor and the individual pixels can be made larger, making the camera better able to record low-noise images in low-light situations.
  
  This is just me, but I like using the program mode and 100iso best and I try not to use the auto mode indoors ((auto works good outdoors in good light though, Lighting is everything, it's the most important thing I've learned so far ( I think?? ).
  Indoors alot of times auto seems to want to use a very high iso to get low light photos, but this just results in more noise, which makes your pictures look noisy grainy or snowy looking on larger prints, ( it might be ok for a 4x6 or 5x7 prints).
  * I use program mode and set the iso to (( 100 ))in good light conditions or 200 iso in poorer light , for the best image quality indoors with out all noise in the picture.
  * Portrait mode does better indoors than auto in keeping the iso down. It uses 200iso and below. not bad...
  For some reason canon has done this with all there newer point and shoot cameras the last year or two, and again this is just me),
  You may be happy with the pictures you take in auto mode and people have posted alot of very good pictures on this site using auto mode check them out, I am just saying if you have a problem try this and see if it helps, just something for you to try if your having trouble.
  
  They also have taken away the supper fine quality option for the last year or two, you just have fine and normal now, I miss the supper fine option...
  
  With the SD1200 and SD940 I would use program mode and auto iso but when trying to do that with the SD1300 it wants to go to 500iso or higher some times where the SD1200 and SD940 would go to 250iso ,go figure? The more I use this camera the more I find myself useing ( 100iso in program mode ) in good light conditions indoors or outdoors). Again indoors you might have to use 200 to get the picture you like...
  
  
  
  
  
  
  * A lot of the review sites blow there pictures way up and look for defects, your likely to only make 5x7 or 8x10s and not see (what they see).
  If you are going to make larger prints or need a better (low light camera) and still stay in a point and shoot you could go with a canon SD4000, S90, S95 or the bigger G11, G12, but (much more money I know)! Just keep the iso down at 200 and below and you will do fine...)
  
  
  
  * The SD1300 seems to have a nice sharp lens even at the telephoto end of the zoom.
  
  Highlights sometimes tend to blow out in very bright sun (direct light source) as with all small cameras(small sensor) this size, you can see this in some of the pictures I posted on this sight for the 1300. ( But to be fair my G11 does this also ).
  
  I do not use I-Contrast in the program mode while shooting, some times in play back I will try it but I am not a big fan of it even then, it will brighten the picture up in dark areas but seems to increase the noise a little, again this is just me alot of people seem to like it and have good luck with it see what you think...
  In auto mode you have no controll of I-Contrast and can not turn it off or on...
  
  * I just realy like the colors in the pictures that the canon cameras produce, again thats just me thinking out loud.
  
  Not much problem with red eye in pictures useing the SD1300 unless in a very dim lit room and there are some times when it can not modify or fix it in red-eye correction, I have many small canon cameras and it is no worse or better with red eye than the rest of my cameras.
  
  * The menu screens are large and easy to read and use.*
  
  The SD1300 has a touch more style, larger LCD and a little more virsatle lens than the SD1200, but the 1200 is also a very good camera.
  
  The SD1300 does have a weak battery door cover like the SD1200.
  
  * You do not get a SD card with the camera.
  A 4gb card class 4 or class 6 would be a good place to start (if your going to use the movie mode any at all ).
  You could get by with a 2gb if not using the video mode much.
  A 4gig SD card would be good for 1,231 pictures.
  
  * If your new to this digital camera stuff remember to low level format the SD card first thing.
  ( Save your pictures first, doing this will also erase all your pictures. )
  
  
  
  * I have used the SD1300 for about 10 months now and is holding up very well.
  
  * There is a date feature on the SD1300, it shows up on the right side at the bottom of the picture.
  You can see it when reviewing the photo...
  Push menu button and scroll down, it is the very last idem there, You have 3 choices,(off), (date), (date and time)...
  When you go to take your picture your screen will have the word (DATE) on the screen above the iso reading, right side at bottom so you will know it is on...
  
  
  
  
  
  I carry my camera in a little phone case that has a belt clip not a loop for fast & easy on and off the belt..
  I definitely recommend picking up a small camera case for protection, watch out for cases using velco,the velco likes to grab ahold of you camera strap and not let go.
  I also like the lowepro Apex 20 AW CASE it has room for spare battery,sd card cable, cleaning cloth).
  (The Lowepro Napoli 20 case is very nice but no room for spare battery on this one).
  
  * Casecrown ( SD1300IS 12 MP Digital Camera Carrying CaseCrown Black ) < I like this one alot > Canon PowerShot SD1300IS 12 MP Digital Camera Carrying CaseCrown Compact Travel Case (Black) Canon PowerShot SD1300IS 12 MP Digital Camera Carrying CaseCrown Compact Travel Case (Crimson)<< < See my reviews on these two if you have the time, I really think they are sharp...
  
  (Case Logic QPB-201 EVA Molded Compact Camera Case (Black), I have never used one but it seems nice...)
  Be carefull of some of the canon cases, the metal magnet catch on the flap might scratch the camera takeing it out of the case (just my thoughts).. I am sure some people like them and have good luck with them, this is just my opinion, The canon case I have has no room for a spare sd card or spare battery if that would help you any.
  The Caselogic QPB-1 Compact Digital Camera Case (Black/Gray)that Robert Tobert has in his review seems very nice.
  
  
  In the menu mode I set the I S mode to continous.
  The display overlay to grid lines(the grid lines help me take straighter pictures, you may use it for the 1/3 rule also).
  I set review to 2seconds,
  AF-assist beam to on,
  Review info to off,
  Lens retract to 0 seconds.
  White ballance to auto, if this would be of any help to you...
  
  I like to set the AF (auto focas) frame to center instead of face AiAF and just shoot (focas) on the persons eyes, this is found in the main menu setting, Again this is just me dont take this advice to the bank.
  
  
  
  I posted some pictures on this site ( see customer images ) for the SD1300, to give you some idea about how your pictures would look (color - sharpness - moving shot