Customer Reviews

Kingston 4 GB SDHC Class 6 Flash Memory Card SD6/4GB

5 star:		(115)
4 star:		(26)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(23)

 

 

I came here to post my review for the Kingston 8GB Class 6 SDHC Card. Then I realized that several products and reviews had been collected on this page. The Kingston 16 GB SDHC Class 4 Memory Card is also now being sold here. I actually own and use almost all the products listed here except for the 4 GB SDHC card from Kingston. I do have other 4 GB SDHC cards, just not that one. I will try to list as much info as possible to help all those shopping for one of these Kingston memory cards.

The 2 GB, 2 GB Elite Pro, and 2 GB Ultimate Cards

The 2 GB regular SD card from Kingston is pretty comparable to the Sandisk card, which I also own. It's a steady performer at a good price, still only around $10. Just for the sake of clarity, the technical details speed rating of 5 MB/sec read speed and 1.5 MB/sec write speed applies to the basic card. The Elite card is 50x, giving you up to 10 MBs read and 5 MBs write and the Ultimate card basically doubles those numbers.

The only criticism I can list about the basic 2 GB card is that in my Nikon camera I definitely notice the lag after taking pictures. That was the original reason why I stepped up to the Elite Pro and Ultimate Cards. With the Elite Pro I experienced only a mild improvement in the performance, but the Ultimate really gave me a noticeable improvement.

Is it worth it to buy a faster 2 GB card for twice or three times the price? I would actually say "NO" and here's the reason why. 2 GB used to be a lot of storage, but now 8 GB is the benchmark. 16 GB SDHC cards are soon to become common too. Most people who are buying 2 GB cards are doing so because they are basic users or have older devices that can't use larger SDHC cards. For that reason, few people will want to pay the extra cash at the 2 GB size. Get the basic card if you just need the largest compatible card.

My SDHC specific review points

As long as your devices are compatible with the SDHC format, 8 GB is the way to go. Granted 4 GB is a nice size too, but most users who need cards that are SDHC compliant are probably using it for RAW image storage on high end cameras. To me 8 GB capacity on this guy makes it perfect for high capacity storage.

The class 6 speed is the fastest speed available in mass market SDHC cards, meaning that you would have to step up to much more expensive professional rigs to improve upon the speed of this 8 GB card. Class 6 guarantees minimum transfer speeds of 6 MBs, but I've gotten speeds on the order of 20MBs writing and reading! Those are real world numbers I have been able to get. It should be noted that I buy a lot of external hard drives with USB 2.0 speed ratings of 480Mbs that have actual production speeds of less than this guy! That makes this card perfect for professional photographers storing pictures in RAW image formats.

The 8 GB SDHC Class 6 is on par with the Sandisk Extreme III cards that are about $15 more per card on average. If you don't have an SDHC reader, you may opt to get the package with a reader included to download your pics. Sandisk SDSDRX38192 Extreme III SDHC 8GB Card with MicroMate Reader

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

I've had good luck with all my Kingston memory cards. If you only can go up to 2 GB based on your device limits, save the cash and stick with the basic card. If you can use SDHC, the 8 GB SDHC card is awesome as long as your device is SDHC compatible. An SDHC card reader can be bought separately if your PC doesn't have a compatible slot. Make sure you review your needs; 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.

Enjoy!

Kingston has quickly become my least favorite brand of flash memory. Back when digital cameras were new, Kingston was a name I could trust for compatibility and customer service. I have used nothing else in my digital SLR, point 'n shoot, and digital video camera. Early in 2008 I purchased five Kingston sdhc cards. I ran an exhaustive memory test which of course passed. They worked fine in my Pentax K20 digital camera. Later in 2008 I purchased another five Kingston sdhc cards of the identical type. My memory test ran fine. But, when I used them in my camera I was only able to shoot about 5 to 10 photos before the camera reported memory read and write errors on all 5 cards. Switching back to the older batch of memory worked fine.

I emailed Kingston for advice. They chose not to respond. So, I opened an RMA to return the five bad cards. I received a prompt automated email response and I sent the last 5 sdhc cards back. They sent me another five sdhc cards from the SAME LOT. Surprise, they did not work either. This time, I faxed them a letter to advise them of a bad lot of memory, gave them the lot number, and asked if they could help me with my problem. Again, Kingston failed to respond.

I would rather throw these bad memory cards into the trash and loose money rather than let Kingston sell them to another unsuspecting consumer. Something happened at Kingston between Spring of 2008 and Fall of 2008. My guess is they switched their manufacturing process for the worse. Their customer service used to respond to emails but no longer. A lifetime warranty does no good if they only swap your bad memory with more bad memory.

Summary: Kingston Class 6 (6MB/s) card being sold at barely Class 4 (4MB/s) performance, yet it still can't keep up with the real-world performance that an older Panasonic Class 4 SDHC can deliver. I rarely ever leave reviews, but when a major brand misrepresents..

Bottom Line: I am requesting a refund, thank you Amazon! I will also never pay a premium for Kingston memory for my cameras, workstations, or servers, nor would I recommend it to my friends or even strangers! The performance is probably not noticeable in non-streaming applications and smaller digital cameras, so mileage may vary.

Real World: I bought this card for a new handheld Aiptek 1080P GVS video camera and all was perfect at 720P 60fps, then I switched it to 1080P and kept getting an error with the camera stating "slow memory card" within 1-2 seconds of recording.

The camera requirements is only for Class 4, but is compatible with Class 6, I purchased the Class 6 for the extra performance and as a good solid baseline performance against a future generic brand 32GB card purchase.

So I went and found the biggest SDHC card I could find from an old camera, a Panasonic 2GB Class 4, and the camera worked perfectly, swapped back and forth, did a format on the Kingston, same results every time.

So I downloaded H2testw which is primarily a capacity test, but also reports sustained read/write performance. I tested both cards on a Windows system in the camera using the USB cable with the only variable being the SDHC card itself.

To summarize the Kingston website - SDHC cards can be rated different ways by different manufacturers, but a class 4 is supposed to be at least 4MB/s, and a class 6 is at least 6 MB/s. The rating can be based on write speed, read speed which is typically faster than write speed, or some combination referred to as transfer rate. Kingston states that their ratings are based on write performance.

So here are the results which runs for several minutes since it also verifies capacity:

Kingston 4GB Class 6

Warning: Only 3846 of 3850 MByte tested.
Test finished without errors.
You can now delete the test files *.h2w or verify them again.
Writing speed: 3.58 MByte/s
Reading speed: 6.50 MByte/s
H2testw v1.4


Panasonic 2GB Class 4

Warning: Only 1834 of 1921 MByte tested.
Test finished without errors.
You can now delete the test files *.h2w or verify them again.
Writing speed: 3.36 MByte/s
Reading speed: 6.22 MByte/s
H2testw v1.4

I also tested a micro SD 8GB sandisk card from my cell phone that went at 16.1 MB/S writes, 18.3 MB/S reads.

So the difference is that the Kingston is only 6% faster on writes, and 4% faster on reads against a chip where it should be at least 50% faster. I never considered Panasonic a leading brand, let alone the #1 perceived brand.

The bigger difference is that even though overall performance is really about the same, the minimum write performance must be much lower than the average in order to cause a recording error with the camera.

As another reviewer said, the Kingston brand is not what it used to be..

Probably I got the bad one, but this thing broke down twice already, with all my vacation pictures in it, twice gone. Money is not the issue here. But there is no way I can get back those vacation pictures again. Before I used the card I already formatted it with my digital camera so compatibility should not be any issue at all. THe first time it broke down, both my computers cannot recognize it so I ended up has to reformat the card again. The second time it cant be recognized at all leaving the card useless and all the pictures in it unreachable. Save yourself and buy better card. You dont wanna end up losing your pictures just for the sake of this cheapo card. I am warning you, dont be like me, lesson learned the hard way..

Used this for just under 3 weeks in my Canon DSLR. Then it failed with Canon "Err 02". Fortunately I didn't lose any images. I've been happy with Kingston products before, so perhaps I'm unlucky. It's going back!

worked fine at first, then one not so good evening just stoped working camera can't read it, computer can't read it, and all pictures that were there were lost... no more Kingston for me.

Worked for 3 weeks, then "memory error" occurred. Have not heard back from Kingston yet. Unreliable. Junk. Looking into SanDisk

As is always my experience with Kingston they make quality products at a middle price. You can find cheaper as well as more expensive cards with the same storage and speed. I feel they are more consistant than many of their peers.

As for compatibility I have never had an issue.

I have used this card in the following:

Nikon DSLR's
Nikon point & shoots
Canon DSLR
Canon point & shoots
Panasonic Lumix Cameras
HP Computers
Sony Vaio Notebook
Dell Computers
IBM Computers

For me their cards have worked as they should in a wide array of products I own. I think the read/write class 6 are fast and at the moment class 6 is the industry standard.

If you purchase any SD card off Amazon, test it in ALL the items you may use. If any or all of them are NOT compatible you can return it. Amazon has a great return policy and you usually have 30 days. Test the SD card and if you have issues return it and try another or another brand. PNY, Sandisk, Transcend and many others that I have used also worked in all of the above products I listed.

I bought this card along with a Panasonic Lz8 digital camera and much to my chagrin, the card had a memory card reading error. I formatted the card but it did not help. I bought the card for a little over $10 so it's not worth my time to send it back or try to get my money back. I'll chalk it up as a lesson to not buy Kingston Memory again. I have used Sandisk in the past and they work great. I put in an old 512k Sandisk card in my Panasonic Lz8 and it seems to write just as fast as this card. I guess you really do get what you pay for!

Got one and it was working fine until after a couple of weeks it failed to respond. Tried reformatting but the picture from the Camera became corrupt and unusable. Computer could not read or format it and it ended up in the trash bin.