Customer Reviews

SanDisk Ultra Compact Flash 2GB Card (SDCFH-002G-A11) (Retail Package)

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3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(14)

 

 

With fast shooting high mega pixel cameras, the CF card can be a major performance factor. Why have one of these cameras and use a card that cannot keep up? When I bought my 8.2 mp Canon 20D, I decided it was time to get a second CF card so the research started.

The Ultra II cards write with a minimum of 9 mb/sec. and read at 10 mb/sec. These fast write speeds are desirable with large image files. There are cameras with buffers to hold images while writing to the card during continuous shots. At some point if the card cannot write fast enough, your camera will stop shooting until the buffer clears enough room.

This card has a high impact rating. For example; if you were to accidentally drop this card 10-foot up to then hit the floor, this card is rated to sustain the fall without damage.

Sometimes the trade off on price comes from power consumption. Lower priced cards may use more power to do the same job as this card. The low power consumption of this card means a longer battery life.

People generally want to know how many images a card will hold. This is a difficult question to answer and greatly depends on both the card and the camera it is used in. The number of images this card will hold on my 20D also depends on the settings used. Let me provide a few settings and image counts for an idea of what this card holds.

Shooting Raw w/ISO 100 - 221 images
Shooting Raw w/ISO 800 - 206 images
Shooting Large jpeg - 479 images
Shooting Medium jpeg - 825 images
Shooting Small jpeg over 999 images (the 20D cannot provide counts above 999)

I use both a 1GB and a 2GB card shooting primarily raw images. Sometimes the 1GB card is more than adequate, but other times I could easily fill the 1GB card quickly. There have been many days where I have taken 200-300 pictures without the opportunity to transfer my images. The 2GB card not only gives me more storage space, but also permits me to change the card in a slow moment before it completely fills up. It is truly aggravating to lose a shot because your card filled up. For these reasons I tend to prefer the 2GB cards. When considering the card size, one should attempt to balance convenience with capacity. Having one card for all your images may be convenient, but it is also putting all your eggs in one basket.

Worried about reliability? It's backed with a lifetime limited warranty outside Europe. The warranty excludes any defects, malfunctions, performance failures or damages to the card resulting from use in other than its normal and customary manner, misuse, accident or neglect; or improper alterations or repairs.

PROS:
Reliable
Fast read/write
Impact resistant
Low power consumption
Backed by a lifetime limited warranty

CONS:
None

Two gigabytes in a pretty fast CF card for well under $100 (March 2006) is a pretty darned good deal. I have used this card constantly in my Nikon D70s with excellent results. While there may be faster cards, this one is plenty fast, and allows my Nikon to shoot approximately 258 RAW shots. Pretty impressive. While pros may notice a difference in image saving speed in situations involving top-of-the-line pro digital cameras and rapid-fire sports shots and the like, most amateurs will not, and most digital cameras probably cannot save images as fast as this card anyway, causing the camera, not the CF card, to be the bottleneck.

Right now 2 Gigabytes seems to be at the "sweet spot" of price/performance for these cards, and here Sandisk has produced an excellent product. I have used Sandisk CF cards for years and found them to be reliable and quick. This 2GB card is an excellent value.

Remember Goldilocks and the Three Bears story? In DSLR and CompactFlash cards story, run-of-the-mill discount memory cards are too slow. Top-of-the-line memory cards are faster than necessary. SanDisk's Ultra II series is just right.

Ask professional photographers which memory cards they use, they will probably answer Lexar and/or SanDisk. With increasing number of DSLR enthusiasts shooting in RAW format, which consumes between 5 to 15 MB (generally 1 MB per megapixel), the demand for high capacity and high performance memory card is higher than ever.

For Canon DSLR photographers, SanDisk has been more ideal choice. Although the problem should be fully resolved by now, there was an issue where Lexar's high speed CompactFlash memory cards sometimes lost images against Canon DSLRs. Sealing the deal is SanDisk Ultra II's excellent performance and lower price.

My DSLR is Canon Digital Rebel XTi, where each RAW consumes nearly 10 MB. In continuous shooting mode, the camera's internal buffer can hold 9 RAWs at 3 frames per second. With slower memory card, it can shoot 10 RAWs at 3 fps. With faster memory card such as Ultra II, it can shoot 12 RAWs at 3 fps. Here's the kicker. Even with faster SanDisk Extreme IV and Lexar Professional 133x memory cards, it did not exceed 12 RAWs.

On paper, SanDisk's Ultra II series is only so so. At 9 MB/sec for write and 10 MB/sec for read, it is 4 times slower than Extreme IV's 40 MB/sec for read and write ratings. Yet they perform nearly the same. What gives? The limitation lies in DSLR's CompactFlash interface. On Rob Galbraith's CF/SD Performance Database, none of the cameras exceeded 10 MB/sec. In fact, most DSLRs peaked at 8 MB/sec. In other words, SanDisk's Ultra II represents the real world maximum for DSLR use.

What about capacity? As I write this, 2 GB offers highest capacity per dollar. The trend will undoubtedly change and I am certain by next year, 4 GB will offer greater bang for the buck. Fearful of memory card failure, which does happen from time-to-time (particularly in challenging weather condition), many photographers prefer to carry multiple lower capacity memory cards vs. one large capacity memory card. Use your own judgment, budget, shooting style to determine which is right for you. As far as the performance is concerned, SanDisk's Ultra II series is just right for your DSLR.

I'm using the Ultra for my Canon 5D which is a memory hog with it's 12 Megapixel Digital Pictures coming in at 3 Frames per second on occasion. This makes the difference. I use the standard Sandisk and they work just fine, but those extra seconds of waiting are killer sometimes (especially downloading pics to my PC!). I got one of the best prices I've seen on Amazon and am already looking at my next one or two Ultra's here.

This card is working very well with my Canon 20d. It is fairly fast. My camera is set for continuous mode and I haven't had any problems when taking multiple pictures in just a few seconds. Response time between shots is fast. I just ordered another one.
If you're looking for a nice CF card that will work well and you don't want to spend Big $, then this is the one.

The SanDisk 2GB Ultra II is hitting a sweet spot in terms of capacity, speed and price. Last I checked the price for one of these was under $80. I now own two of them.

I use these cards in a Canon 20D digital camera. Since I shoot RAW images write speed is critical. The Ultra II cards do an admirable job keeping up with the RAW images. In contrast, my standard SanDisk cards are painfully slow in my 20D! On a recent trip I filled up my 2GB card and had to switch to using my three 512MB standard SanDisk cards. Their write speed was so slow compared to the Ultra II I was frequently forced to wait while the camera said "BUSY". Hence my purchase of a second 2GB Ultra II.

My advice: If you're shooting a 6MP, 8MP or larger camera in RAW mode get the fastest cards you can. SanDisk Ultra II seems just about the right speed.

Rob Galbraith has a great web site with a database of CF cards and their read/write speeds when used in different cameras. Look up your camera and the cards you're thinking of buying to make sure the performance will be good.

I am a professional photographer. I own several of the SanDisk Compact Flash cards, using them with an Olympus E-20 camera (used for a studio portrait camera) and an Olympus DSLR which I use on location. The SanDisk Ultra II CF card is actually faster than the buffer write on the E-20 and a good match for the DSLR. This latest purchase was due to a price decrease on the card and the sensible practice of purchasing extra memory cards when sales are on. I prefer the 2Gb cards because there is less data to lose if a card should fail. (None has to date.) The Ultra II is a fast and reliable CF card. Unless you need the extra speed of the SanDisk Extreme III or IV (and don't mind the higher price that goes with it), I highly recommend the SanDisk Ultra II.

Pros: Excellent product. Good value.

Cons: None

Boys and girls here is the deal. When digital cameras first came out the cards were pretty spendy. In fact, I can remember when I worked for Viking Components and the first mega promotion we did was a dollar per megabyte sale here on Amazon.com. It was wildly popular because it was a crazy low price point. Yes, that was when a 256MB CF card sold for two fifty six dollars.

Now you can buy 2GB+ cards for under a hundred bucks. They are inexpensive, cheap, no cuesta mucho dinero, etc. My advise now is to buy the highest quality card you can find for under $100 and crank up the settings on your digital camera to the highest JPEG setting possible. Get the most out of your digital camera and flash card. You spent hundreds if not over a thousand bucks on your digital camera so utilize its full potential with a decent card.

Personally, I prefer the SanDisk Ultra II brand now. Sure there are some personal reasons involved, but mostly they just have a really good quality product.

Bought this for my Canon Digital Rebel XT--holds tons of pictures and doesn't slow my camera down at all.

This is a great CF card. With my Rebel XT, I had over 500 available pictures. On my recent trip I didn't have to worry about changing CF cards and missing shots. Lots of storage here and quick! It was practically instant write so no delays in shooting pictures. I'll definitely buy more of these 2GB CF cards.