Customer Reviews

Lexar Media 512 MB 80x Pro Series Compact Flash Card (CF512-80-380)

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3 star:		(1)
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Great card...if you are actually purchasing the "Second Edition". Recent research into the performance of these cf cards revealed some important information. The Lexar 80x Pro Second Edition cards have "...substantially better performance...due to firmware upgrade...". There is some confusion as to which card you may actually be purchasing. Go to: Rob Galbraith.com, and read the article regarding the same/similar packaging of the product; "Lexar on 80X second edition availability", posted 11/11/2004. Lexar is in the process of changing the logo on the packaging of the Second Edition cards, but this will not be apparent until 1st qtr 2005.

Owners of first edition cards can have them exchanged by Lexar for second edition cards of the same capacity by contacting Lexar Professional Tech Support at (510)413-1233 or support@lexar.com. The exchange is free of charge.

The above is courtesy of Rob Galbraith's web site...Thanks Rob!

Before you purchase this card, make sure that your camera supports the Write Acceleration Technology. I purchased Lexar's 40x 256MB card (with Write Acceleration) about a year ago for my Minolta DiMage 7Hi camera, and realized my camera did not support the new technology. The CF card still worked, but there was no increase in speed over other cards.

I checked Lexar's website, and it said that my camera does not support the Write Acceleration technology. The link is here: http://www.lexar.com/digfilm/wa_cf.html

Current (as of this review) cameras supporting WA technology:
- All Kodak Professional cameras and pro camera backs, such as the DCS Pro Back 645, DCS Pro Back Plus, DCS 720x, DCS 760, DCS 760m and DCS 14n
- Nikon D1x, D1h, D-100 (Requires camera firmware upgrade by Nikon. See Nikon's web page for more details) and D2h
- Sanyo DSC-MZ3
- Sigma SD-9
- Sigma SD10
- Pentax *ist D
- Olympus E1

Lexar USB Card Reader (included... note: this was with my 40x card. you may or may not experience the same issue.):
- Works only with Lexar CF Cards. Attempted to use with SanDisk and Kingston CF Cards but did not work. Should not be a problem if you only use Lexar products. However, if you do, consider buying a separate card reader.


For a full breakdown of how many pictures you can take with different card capacities, go to http://www.lexar.com/digfilm/capacity_chart.html

I replaced a Viking 128Mb card with this one and it feels like I bought a brand new camera. It saves the photograph and returns me to photo-taking mode in about ½ a second. Plus it holds 4x as many pictures so I no longer need to lug a laptop computer along on vacation to store our pictures. The price of these high speed cards has really come down lately. No excuse not to have at least a 512Mb one.

If you own a Canon camera, Canon does NOT support WA (Write Acceleration) feature of Lexar's high-speed cards:

http://www.lexar.com/digfilm/wa_cf.html

Current camera partners supporting Write Acceleration Technology:

-Kodak Professional
-Nikon
-Sanyo
-Sigma
-Pentax
-Olympus

Other than that, this is a FAST card, if your camera supports WA, otherwise, it may run at just standard speed and in that case why spend the extra $$$? Look up your camera on the link before you buy.

I'm a working photographer who has been, after several years use, getting write errors on my Lexar Professional CF cards 1 Gb and 2 Gb. I contacted Lexar about what to do and was told that the professional cards have a lifetime warranty and they are now in the process of replacing my cards, after 40K to 50K exposures on each. Quite happy with them.

I purchased these cards on recommendaton of a friend who is a professional photographer that has the same camera that I purchased. The Canon 20D likes these fast cards and it's other capacities which some other point and shoot cameras may not benefit. Check before you buy, as this card works very well with my camera.

I purchased this media card for my Nikon digital camera. The 5.1 mega pixal size doesn't matter. I still manage to get almost 400 digital photographs and hundreds more if I adjust it to 3.2 mega pixels. I would recommend this media card to anyone with a digital camera.

After Amazon got off there (...) and decided to deliver this item, which took 2 weeks, everything has been really good. The 80X speed has helped my camera's performance (Olympus C-8080. Paid $56 dollars for it and am quite satified with purchase.

Excellent CF card!!! The 80x write speed is a major improvement over my old 256MB card with 4x write speed.

Before you purchase anything larger, you should consider at least 3 key factors: (1) determine your actual capacity needs; (2) look at the speed of the Compact Flash card; and (3) choose a reputable brand known for high quality. I use a Canon S500 camera, which takes 5.0MB pictures. I thought that I needed a 1GB card, but after going on vacation, I found that this card holds plenty of photos to fulfill my needs. Generally speaking, it can hold about 190 photos on one card, possibly more if I decrease the resolution. I purchased 2 of these cards to be safe, just in case I either lost the card, damaged it, or if it somehow malfunctioned. Having 2 separate cards, I won't lose my all of my photos if something goes wrong. I can take nearly 400 photos on 2 of these cards. I can't remember the last time I ever took that many photos on one outing. Also look at the speed of the Compact Flash card. This one is amongst the fastest available on the market, even faster than the Ultra II series. Transfer rates on other cards are approximately 25% slower, yet cost about the same. This card is not only a good value, Lexar is a high-quality, reputable company. Generic brands pose a real risk of malfunctioning, which is the last thing you'd want to leave to chance with your prized digital photos.