Customer Reviews

SanDisk Extreme 16 GB SDHC Class 10 Memory Card (SSDSDX3-016G-A31)

5 star:		(54)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(32)

 

 

The card is big, reliable, and fast per the specs & the SanDisk brand name.

The card's speed would be useful in two cases - faster shoot rate when the camera can write 200x in continuous shooting, or faster download to computer when the card reader can read 200x.

Unless you checked either camera or card reader to go beyond 100x (e.g. Canon 450D does 100x top, see card readers in another review), a 16GB SanDisk Ultra II card would be a better deal - you'll get the same performance & card size for less than half the price.

Beware of MemoryMoguls. You may think you are ordering the faster SanDisk 16gb Extreme 30MB/s Edition SDHC High Performance Card (SDSDX3-016G-A31) because that's what's in the item description. But they ship the slower SanDisk Extreme HD Video 16 GB SDHC UHS-1 Memory Card (SDSDRX3-016G-A21)...which is also cheaper. Bait and switch and price gouging!

Even more maddening -- the Amazon rep didn't care! Excerpt of our chat:

Me: Do you need any info about the switch they pulled?

Jayakumar: No, we don't need such information.

Me:really? then how do you prevent them from doing it to other customers? and why would I continue shopping at Amazon if you don't mind your affiliates tricking customers?

Jayakumar:I'm sorry for any misunderstanding caused. I've forward this issue to appropriate department, so that it may not happen again.

Me:Not just a misunderstanding. I've seen feedback from other customers warning of affiliates who substitute faster SD cards with slower ones, and made sure to select an affiliate without these negative comments, and double-checked the product description to ensure I was ordering the faster SD card. And I still ended up with the slower card!

Jayakumar:Yes, I made a note on it.
Is there anything else I can do for you today?
Your chat has been idle for 1 minute. If there isn't anything else I can help you with, I'm going to disconnect this chat.

Don't buy a faster memory card than you really need for your camcorder. This is one case where faster is not better.... it's just faster. Most HD camcorders are designed to work with Class 4 SDHC cards at the camcorders best recording quality.

Installing a faster memory card than your camcorder needs, is not going to make the video quality better, or make the camcorder work better. In fact, installing a faster memory card than the camcorder was designed to work with, may create problems. There are some valid technical reasons for this. As the speed of memory cards goes up, so does the power consumption of the memory card. The increase in power consumption from a Class 4 card to a Class 10 card, can be dramatic. If the camcorder was designed to use Class 4 cards, the added power consumption of a class 10 card, may degrade overall performance. Another concern is that, as speed goes up, so do the levels of electronic noise, and that can be detrimental to overall operation. Faster memory, requires faster clock speeds, and if the memory's supporting electronic circuitry was not designed to work with these faster clocking speeds, that circuitry may not operate as predictably as it does with slower memory. In summary, there are a few really good technical reasons why a faster memory card will perform poorly when it is installed in a camcorder designed to work with much slower memory. Don't do it. The really fast SDHC cards are intended for high megapixel cameras with fast sequential shooting capabilities. The electronics for those types of cameras, have been designed to work with the faster cards.

Lastly, installing faster memory than your camcorder needs, is a waste of money. For Camcorders, you can't go wrong with a SanDisk SDSDHV-016G-A15 16GB Video HD SDHC Card. It is designed to work well with HD camcorders, and it is very reasonably priced.

Ordered on July 8, 2011; received July 14

Supplier: Sold by MemoryMogul and fulfilled by Amazon; MemoryMogul listed on order record as "Progressive Interest Corp."

Ordered: SanDisk 16GB Extreme 30MB/s Edition SDHC High Performance Card (SDSDX3-016G-A31)

Received: SanDisk Extreme HD Video 16 GB SDHC Class 10 Memory Card (SDSDRX3-016G-A21)

Issue: What was described and pictured on the Amazon site was NOT what was received

Resolution: Item returned immediately to Amazon at their expense; will never order from MemoryMogul (Progressive Interest Corp.) again

Buyer Beware!

The SanDisk 16 GB Extreme 30 MB/s Edition SDHC card is by all accounts a great card, but it has been discontinued and it's probably not what you're getting if you order from any of the sellers on Amazon! I contacted several of Amazon's featured merchants for this item, and they all said that they are substituting different cards for this one. SanDisk Support has confirmed that the card has been discontinued, though it may still be available from a small number of vendors.

Unfortunately SanDisk has been quite vague with their product labeling, and so many vendors are not aware of the differences between this card and the other similar SanDisk cards. I did some homework:

The SanDisk 16 GB Extreme 30 MB/s Edition SDHC card (SanDisk item number SDSDX3-016G-A31) is Speed Class 10 and supports transfer speeds of up to 20 MB/sec in HS mode. It supports a SanDisk-proprietary mode that is capable of transfers up to 30 MB/sec in a few Nikon cameras (D90) and in Sandisk's ImageMate Multi-Card USB 2.0 Reader/Writer (speeds have been measured at around 22-27 MB/sec). Other cameras and card readers are probably unable to take advantage of the higher speed mode.

The Sandisk 16 GB Extreme HD Video cards with a 20 MB/s speed designation support transfer rates of up to 20 MB/sec in HS mode. They are Speed Class 6.

The Sandisk 16 GB Extreme HD Video cards with a 30 MB/s speed designation support transfer rates of up to 20 MB/sec in HS mode, and up to 30 MB/sec in UHS mode. They are Speed Class 10 and UHS Speed Class 1. There is a letter "I" printed on the card, which indicates support for the UHS-I specification.

The UHS and non-UHS Extreme HD Video series cards have at times carried the same SanDisk item numbers.


Since very few devices currently support the UHS interface or Sandisk's proprietary 30 MB/s Edition mode, practically speaking, there is probably very little difference between any of these cards. But I haven't seen these cards benchmarked head-to-head in HS mode, so I can't say how their performance compares.

I believe it is best to stay away from vendors who list one product number but ship something different, and given how common counterfeit memory cards are, it may be best to look for a Sandisk-authorized reseller.

Just bought the Canon Vixia HF S100 and this 16GB Extreme III card. the Canon instruction book say its needs a class 4 or higher to record HD (which is whole reason I bought the Canon in the first place...) but for some reason when I insert this card (class 10) I can record in regular mode but not HD. The camcorder says that the card is not compatible with any of the HD recording modes... The card works in regular recording mode and works in my Canon camera (SD 870). My old 4GB Extreme II card works in HD mode in the HFS100.

Not sure what the problem is here... I saw other reviewers using this card with HFS10 which is mechanically the same as the HFS100. I initialized both memory card before using.

Any suggestions? Otherwise I am going to return this card and just buy an Extreme II 32gb for the same money or less.

Thanks

I thought I was ordering the SanDisk Extreme SDHC card, and instead received the SanDisk Extreme HD Video SDHC card. It looks like SanDisk previously made a card entitled SanDisk Extreme HD Video that was 20MB/s and Class 6, which is what people in other reviews are complaining about bait and switch, etc. If I had received that, I would be very upset because it is lower performance. However, the item I received is a newer version of the SanDisk Extreme HD Video card, that is 30MB/s, Class 10, and supports UHS-1. What further confuses this whole situation is that SanDisk's web site is very much out of date, and it's not even clear which product lines they are shipping or not shipping right now. My conclusion is that although I ordered a different product, this product may be better because it supports UHS-1 as denoted by the little "I" next to SDHC on the front of the card (not shown in the photos for many SanDisk Extreme HD Video cards). Luckily, my Nikon D7000 supports UHS-1, but some cameras do not. Bottom line: be very careful shopping for SanDisk SDHC cards on Amazon as the photos, descriptions and items shipped may not match up. In my case, all 3 were different! I give Amazon 1 star for all of this confusion which is easily cleared up. The support rep I spoke with did not seem very interested in fixing the source of the problem.

Amazon is a great place to shop. They took the substituted memory back, no question. Amazon has a problem here, and should stop it. The outfit that I bought this item from through Amazon called themselves Progressive Interest Corp. I had the exact same problem that so many others here have described. They switched from the product that I ordered and substituted the "video" version. I know now that SanDisk has indeed discontinued the 16 GB Class 10 card described for sale here. For that reason I began shopping for the 8 GB version of this product and found that customer reviews of that item too indicate that they are having the same switcheroo pulled on them. Now there are, counting mine, the same complaints about at least three different company names. I would advise anyone not to buy any SanDisk memory product through Amazon at this point. It may not be safe to buy from any of the outfits they have selling SanDisk as of this date, until this problem is fixed. I don't understand Amazon letting this go on. It is obvious from the reviews that this has been going on long enough to have done something by now. I finally got my SanDisk memory from a photo/video company on the northeast coast that has been around a long time. The price for the same SanDisk class 10, 8 GB memory was better anyway, and shipping was free.

This card is a must of you have a HD video recording device. Such is the case with my Canon EOS Rebel T1i. What I noticed right away is that if you don't use a type 6 SD card, you'll run into issues while recording a lenghthy video. This line from Sandisk is actually recommended by Canon within the owners manual. And it works perfectly. I can record in 1080P at 20FPS or 720P at 30FPS, with no issues what so ever. I picked up this for less then what it's currently being sold for, so you may want to wait until it becomes a better value.

Based on my experience and use, I would definitely recommend this for use with HD video cameras. It's worked perfectly for me.

In stead of SanDisk Extreme - SDHC UHS 16GB class 10, I received a Scandisk 4GB class 4 card and it was so poorly packaged it was cracked. Not even close to the description, BoBotechnic is definitely not fulfilling my orders ever again. Amazon you need to get tough with your vendors. I'm off to Best Buy.