Customer Reviews

Patriot LX Series 16 GB Class 10 SDHC Flash Memory Card PSF16GSDHC10 (Black)

5 star:		(57)
4 star:		(15)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(13)
1 star:		(27)

 

 

Pros:

*Relatively inexpensive for a Class 10 card.
*Decent benchmark speeds.

Cons:

*Actual in-camera speed noticeably slower.
*Every once in a while, the picture taken becomes corrupted.

Details:

I bought this card for use with my recently purchased Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZS3 10MP Digital Camera with 12x Wide Angle MEGA Optical Image Stabilized Zoom and 3 inch LCD (Blue), which states in the manual that it's best to have a card that has at least 10MB/s transfer speed. Class 10 means that the card is supposed to maintain a minimum write speed of 10MB/s, so I figured this would be a great match, especially having read other reviews of another Patriot LX series card (although only 16GB), stating that it works perfectly with the ZS3.

Prior to getting this card, I had been using a Sandisk SDSDX3-008G-E31 8GB Extreme III SD Card 30MB/s (RETAIL PACKAGE), and I was very happy with its speed, but wanted a higher capacity, so that I can take full advantage of the HD video capabilities of the camera. The Sandisk was only listed as "Class 6" because it was released before the Class 10 spec was released, but it certainly qualifies in benchmark tests, and the equivalent 32GB card (SanDisk Extreme SDHC 32GB Class 10 High Performance Card) costs twice as much as the Patriot LX, while the Panasonic equivalent (Panasonic RP SDW32GU1K - Flash memory card - 32 GB - Class 10 - SDHC) costs nearly three time as much, so the Patriot LX seems like a really good deal.

Curious as to how well it compares to the Sandisk Extreme III, I ran several benchmark tests, and the Patriot LX posted some impressive numbers, performing only marginally slower (tested with CrystalDiskMark)...

Patriot LX 32GB - Read / Write (MB/s)
1000M Sequential - 19.20 / 17.52
512K Random - 18.40 / 1.725
4K Random - 2.384 / 0.015

Sandisk Extreme III 8GB - Read / Write (MB/s)
1000M Sequential - 19.43 / 16.74
512K Random - 19.16 / 4.078
4K Random - 3.673 / 0.031

However, in low-level benchmark tests (using Flash Memory Toolkit), which tests the speed throughout the entire card, the program was unable to perform a write test, citing I/O error.

Patriot LX 32GB
Average read speed: 17.8 MB/s
Minimum read speed: 17.5 MB/s
Maximum read speed: 18.1 MB/s
Write speeds unavailable

Sandisk Extreme III 8GB
Average read speed: 18.2 MB/s
Minimum read speed: 17.6 MB/s
Maximum read speed: 18.4 MB/s
Average write speed: 16.3 MB/s
Minimum write speed: 15.2 MB/s
Maximum write speed: 17.4 MB/s

(So at least according to these benchmarks, the Sandisk doesn't live up to its 30MB/s claims, or even its typical 20MB/s claim.)

But more important than benchmark numbers is how well it actually performs in the camera. Here, the slower speed of the Patriot LX is really noticeable. From basic operations such as turning on the camera, taking pictures in "burst" mode, reviewing pictures in-camera, and deleting pictures, everything seems slower by at least half a second, as compared to the Sandisk.

I didn't know that the card read/write speed affected the camera's start-up time until I got this card. Before, I would turn on the camera, the lens cover would open, then the lens would extract, there would be an audible beep, and the screen would turn on. With the Patriot LX, there would be an extra second or two after the beep, before the screen would turn on. That's a huge problem if you want to catch those spontaneous moments in your life.

The "big" performance test with the camera is the "burst mode," where the camera will shoot pictures continuously at 1.8 frames per second. At the highest quality setting and 10.1 megapixels, the pictures average around 4 megabytes, which means the card needs to sustain a write speed of around 7.2 MB/s, or when the camera's buffer runs out, it will not be able to capture pictures as fast. In my tests, after about 4 or 5 sequential shots, the shooting slows down when using the LX, while the speed is maintained when using the Sandisk. So while the benchmark suggests it should be able to handle it, the reality is that it cannot.

What I've found is that, if I format the card in the camera, then it can sustain the burst speed, but then roughly around 10% of the pictures taken become corrupted, possibly because it cannot handle the speed. In the camera's playback mode, these pictures will not display, the camera will state that only the thumbnail is shown. When they're transferred to your computer, you'll see that the lower part of the corrupted pictures are missing.

HD videos recording in AVCHD Lite, on the other hand, seems to be fine. With the file size being much smaller thanks to the H.264 codec, it probably only needs a sustained writing speed of 2.2 MB/s. But with Motion JPEG, it also runs into problems, which doesn't become apparent until you try to watch the video.

I've contacted Patriot Memory's support via their website, and it's been over 48 hours, but I've yet to hear back from them. Hopefully this was just a "lemon" card, and not all of their "Class 10" cards are like this. I've also read elsewhere, where Patriot Memory's support team suggests that perhaps problems exist with devices not properly supporting the new Secure Digital spec, where Class 10 is defined. This shouldn't be the case for the Panasonic ZS3, however, considering that Panasonic is one of the three companies behind the Secure Digital technology (the other two being Sandisk and Toshiba), the new SD Card spec 3.0 was announced 5/21/2009, while the ZS3 I have is running firmware 1.2, released 6/15/2009--You'd think Panasonic would keep their cameras compatible with their own specs... Hopefully I hear from Patriot Memory soon.

I purchased this card to be used in a DSLR - Nikon D40 and possibly also a D90. I have previously used Transcend cards because they were so inexpensive. The Transcend 8GB Class 6 benchmarked at 16.1/11.2 MB/s read/write.

In anticipation of the higher FPS and larger RAW files of the D90, I purchased one of these Class 10 cards, to see whether I could avoid spending 2-3X as much for Sandisk.

To my surprise, the Patriot was significantly better than the Transcend, at 20.1/17.4 MB/s read/write. This is rather close to the benchmarked (caveat: not by me) write speed of the 30MB/s Extreme III Sandisk (which was rated at 27MB/s read, but only 17.6MB/s write).

For under $30 with free shipping, the Patriot LX SDHC appears to be a great deal.

Today I took my new Canon t2i for a test ride with this memory card. Out of the 60 shots 5 got corrupted.

I have read some of the reviewers posting the the same problem with this card...

If you don't mind missing some of the shots, then this card is cheap and the speed is okay...

I am planning to use this as a back-up card as my Sandisk is on the way... SanDisk 16GB Extreme - SDHC Class 10 High Performance memory card (SDSDX3-016G-P31, Retail Packaging) - NEW 30MB/s version

[I didn't try this for video... but reading some of the latest reviews I fear for the worst... not sure whether I have to keep it or return it]

04/27/2010
Today I used this card to record some video using Canon t2i. Out of the 5 attempts, 2 got corrupted. I think I have bad copy of this card. I am returning it.

05/02/2010
I got SanDisk 16GB card that works fine...

So don't go for this card, or just keep this card as an cheap emergency back-up card...

I bought this card to use for my new Canon Rebel T2I. I mainly bought the T2I for the HD video. As soon as I got it, I started recording video right away. 5 minutes into it, I started getting an error saying that my camera couldn't play back the video. I thought it might have been an error on my part and so I tried again. It worked for a little bit and then the same thing happened. After about 30 minutes, every video I recorded started showing an error. I plugged my memory card into the computer and the videos were corrupt. I couldn't even open them. I thought it might have been a faulty disk so I got a replacement from Amazon. And guess what? Same EXACT thing happened. The first 2 times I recorded video (each was about 2 minutes long), it was fine. Then on my third try and fourth try, the video file was corrupt. I am returning this right away. I just wished I read the reviews more before buying this.

If you don't mind paying extra for a Sandisk, I suggest that's what you do! It might cost double but you are NOT saving money by buying this card.

The reason for my title is simple: do you want to cry after a photo shoot? You will be if you don't have a second card. I have a second card--thankfully. At least now I know that all of my photos aren't ruined.

Let me relate a little story for you. First, I'm sure you're wondering if I've done a little research before purchasing this card. Well, I'd like to actually start there. This card went on sale in the Gold Box and I bought it hoping to save a little money. However, I had already read on this card because I was planning on purchasing a Sandisk Extreme III 16 GB class 10 card, because it seemed more reliable. I had already read the bad reviews about how this card was used with a Canon T1 and T2 on several sites and how it was having trouble with the data. I have a Canon Rebel XSi and thought I had a good chance of it working for me. I figured man there are quite a few bad reviews, but there are also many more good reviews. I usually pay attention to the bad ones. The sale changed my mind. I figured, "Hey, this might be worth trying out at least."

I was wrong.

I've had several SDHC cards before this one. I had several 8GB Transcend cards that I bundled when I sold my last camera, plus a 16GB Transcend card that I retained for my new camera, because it had proven reliable. I still have this card. I was planning on putting it on backup, because it's only a class 6. I wanted something faster.

I was thinking last weekend before I went to the beach with my girlfriend and her son that I was so thankful the Patriot card arrived early. It arrived and I had my girlfriend format the card for me (under my supervision to make sure she got it right) with my camera. We got to the beach and I wanted to try a few shots. Well, I took about 20 random shots and some of them were showing up half-done and some were just showing up with ? on my LCD screen in the review. I figured that I just would not risk it and put my Transcend back in for the weekend. The shots on the Patriot did not come out. All of my Transcend shots (all 700 of them) came out just fine.

I thought to myself, "Self, I should really just take this home and format it on my computer." I did. I went home and as soon as it was in my computer I gave it a good, long format.

Well, today was my nephew's birthday party. Yes, today. As in the date of this review. Again, I decided to try it out and if I had problems with it I would just switch to my Transcend card. I started taking pictures with a fast shutter speed and my reviews were coming up nicely. I didn't have any ? marks this time in my review screen. Everything seemed to be going wonderfully. I took about 300 pictures and I reviewed a couple and I noticed a ?. "Oh no." was all that was running through my mind. I took the card out. I put my Transcend in. I took 97 pictures with my Transcend. All of my Transcend pictures came out fine.

My Patriot pictures? Out of 300 I salvaged about 20 that are going to require editing. I had no indication this time that something was wrong until I had snapped most of my shots.

Yes, I'm very upset. No, I don't want this to happen to you.

You know what the other tab is I have on my Firefox right now? Amazon returns. Don't let yourself get that far.

Bought this card at Frys since it is way cheaper than Sandisk Extreme and needed large fast sdhc card for t2i and had luck with Patriot's RAM memory. Formatted in camera and after taking a couple of pics got E2 error message saying the card was not accessible. Tried turning off camera, removing card, going to format menu screen but still got card not accessible so couldn't even try to reformat it.

I bought one of these and it worked fine. So I decided to buy a second for my second T2i...and files would randomly become corrupted. Luckily this was during tests and not a paying job or I would have been B*#T F#@%(*G Pissed.

I tried the card in my other T2i to make sure it wasn't the T2i and sure enough it did the same thing...random files would not playback "Cannot Playback File" and also wouldn't upload onto my PC so...basically corrupt files.

So...I thought it was just a fluke and sent it back to get the exact same card as a replacement. Took it out to film tonight and voila...same problem.

I have come to realize that the fluke was that the first one I got was actually a decent card...Patriot is now batting 1/3 with me and they just struck out.

For the T2i...pay the extra cash and get a top o' the line one.

I gave it a 2 because the first one I got works fine! I also gave it a 2 because having a faulty memory card shipped to me twice in a row is unacceptable in my mind.

I don't know what Allen P. was talking about. A class 10 card is suppose to be 10 mb/s write. I get 20 mb/s read on this thing, so
uploading the pictures to my computer is pretty fast.
This is an awesome card for the price. I'm using it for my Canon T1i and can fit a whole lot of pictures and over a hour of
HD Video. If you have a DSLR that only takes SD and SDHC, I would highly recommend this card, otherwise you'll probably be better off
with compact flash.

Highly recommended for use on DSLR's and camcorders where speed truly counts in writing data. Patriot makes fine memory products, as I've used plenty of their other offerings in the past, and this high speed SDHC card is no exception. You really can't beat the value compared to other vendors and Patriot backs all of their memory products for life!! One poster noted that this is not a true class 10 card, that is not accurate as the the class 10 standard means that the minimum speed of read or write is 10mbs (class 6 means minimum 6mbs, etc...). This card maintains that standard and actually surpasses the standard many times over in my personal experiences. Overall a very good buy that I would recommend to anyone...

With any memory card I buy I always run a couple tests with it before bringing it on any shoot no matter how insignificant the shoot is. First quick format, then low level format, then record video until the entire card is full. Play back video. Then format and record again to make sure everything still works good. If it passes the test with out any corrupt files or weirdness going on, then the card is allowed to come with me to a shoot.

I've picked up two of these cards thus far. Both passed my testing, so they've both been used on live event shoots (where a corrupt card could mean the difference between being paid and being sued) and they've done great. Currently looking into a double redundancy system because you never know.

Lesson 1: Always test cards before they could potentially lose you money or footage/photos.
Lesson 2: Anything can happen. The MOST expensive, reliable card in the world can still fail. Always cover your butt.