Customer Reviews

SanDisk SDXD-512-A10 512MB xD Picture Card (Retail Package)

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

 

 

This Sandisk SDXD-512 xD card is a "standard" xD card. The xD "Picture Card" flash card comes in three flavors: standard (up to 512MB), Type M (512MB, 1GB, 2GB), and Type H (512MB or 1GB). The "H" stands for "high speed" and is the latest format allowing in theory for reads and writes up to 3 times as fast as Type M cards. Interestingly, Type M xD cards are 20% slower than "standard" 256MB or 512MB xD cards. For capacity 512MB or above, you won't find any more standard xD's; you'll find only M or H ones.

To see if your Fujifilm or Olympus camera is compatible with an M or H card, go to their websites and check out the compatibility charts. (Amazon doesn't allow links so I can't include them here but you can e-mail me if you can't find the compatibility charts.)

Sandisk xD cards are, in general, reliable, as long as you stay with 512MB or lower. Another caveat is when you buy a Sandisk (or Fujifilm or Olympus) xD in store, be sure to get a package that's marked "Made in Japan." Only two companies actually manufacture the xD cards: Toshiba of Japan and Samsung of South Korea. Samsung cards, in my experience, have serious quality problems and *WILL* fail sooner rather than later. Toshiba ones are much more reliable; none of my Toshiba-made cards have failed even under heavy usage. Therefore, you should never trust xD cards that are marked "Made in S. Korea." Be sure to shop around until you find Toshiba ("made in Japan") cards. This tip will save you lots of precious memories and from lots of headaches later on. Unfortuantely, this verification is hard to do when you shop on Amazon or online; I can only say "good luck"! At least you have 30 days to return or exchange when you buy from Amazon.

The xD format is an excellent option for digital camera storage. Why? Speed/Size/Storage Capacity

The xD-Picture Card has one of the fastest read/write speeds on the market. Higher speeds can greatly enhance the user's experience with a product. For example, a photographer can take new pictures or view existing images more quickly with the xD-Picture Card media than with other, slower media formats.

The xD-Picture Card was designed to use minimal power. Users will benefit from the convenience and savings of longer battery life on a single charge.

Small size (about the size of a penny), means smaller devices with lots of storage (512MB available now and plans to go to 8GB!)

I like this format (I've used CF and SmartMedia) and appreciate new technology.

why pay such a premium for the 512 meg size? If you use the dollar-per-meg calculation, it's easy to see why getting two 256 meg cards is a better approach. Not only will you have some change in your pocket but you won't have all your eggs in one digital basket should you lose the card. (Is that possible? Ask me!)

Buyer beware !! I ordered two of these units, expecting the STANDARD version, as pictured AND described.

"Works with all xD enabled devices" and "Compatible to all Olympus and Fuji xD-compatible digital cameras "

Instead, I received two "M" units, which will NOT work in some older digital cameras, like Fiji. Amazon DID refund my money, but it took them a month.

The description listed specifically says "Embedded Panorama feature for digital cameras with panoramic functionality." This is wrong. This card does not support Olympus camera panoramic features.

I ordered this product, the standard xD card, from this very page. When I received it, just as Best Buy had done twice already, I received the M-type card. I do not know what is so hard for retailers to comprehend about advertising correctly and sending the correct product to customers. I am very frustrated with Amazon at the moment, especially after I called to speak to someone to resolve it quickly, and I wound up speaking to someone who could not speak good English and just repeated everything I said to him while he looked it up online. It was very frustrating and poor customer service. Now, I am waiting for Amazon to email me back. After this experience, I am unsure how likely I will be to order from Amazon again unless they ship me the correct item immediately.

Good and fast card, very small. Pricing compared to SD-cards not very different any more, so no reason any more to buy not a camera with xD-cards...

The mfgr's promo text says it's fast, but anyone who's ever done even an informal test knows it's dog-slow. In fact, xD is THE slowest-reading/writing media still developed. It's also one of the (if not THE) most expensive per MB, along with Sony's "Memory Stick" (now branching out into even more costly "Pro", "Secure" and "Select" subformats, hopefully helping to wake Sony-worshipers up (Sony is no longer king, folks; the 90's are LONG over. Keep an eye on Samsung - but that's another review - for the best these days).

xD's one benefit: It's small; almost TOO small, and really easy to lose, only coming in black. Fuji and Olympus are the ones to blame, clearly hoping to retain unwitting users who end up forced into xD's incompatibility and expense with one of both mfgrs' wide selection of xD-only digicams. Olympus briefly made cameras with both xD and SmartMedia compatibility, hoping the 128MB limit of SM would funnel users toward xD. Most of those users, to Olympus' dismay, chose five or six SmartMedia cards because they were cheap, and because they could at least be read by most (if not all) media readers, unlike xD, which even now very few readers bother to support.

Oddly enough, Secure Digital (SD) is almost as small, and is one of the FASTEST reading and writing formats in active development. Lots of cameras, MP3 players and other media devices use SD. What uses xD Picture Cards? Cameras. Fuji and Olympus cameras, to be exact. Nothing else of any real popularity. It's unfortunate, but there are a lot of consumer digicam owners who have been humped into a format that has no good reason to exist.

Advice: If you bought a digicam without extensive knowledge of formats as many have done, watch and wait for deep rebates before buying your xD card(s) and be sure to get an xD card branded by the same mfgr as your camera, as (at least with Olympus) any other manufacturer's xD card (even Fuji) won't allow the 'Panoramic' mode to be used. Believe it or not, the camera actually checks the card for the Olympus header information and makes 'Panoramic' mode unavailable if it's not there. Is there any legitimate reason for this? No. None whatsoever. If panoramic photos aren't important to you, at least you've got a few other choices. If underhanded mfgr tactics are unacceptable to you, remember this when you're shopping for your next digicam.

For that matter, when you're shopping for your next digicam, look for fast and cheap media support from mfgrs that attract customers with innovation, compatibility and performance instead of the ones who rope new users and then attempt to chain them up in the backyard using format-inertia. As an illustration of lack of faith in their own format, even Olympus and Fuji know better than to cripple their top-shelf Prosumer/SLR digicams with the all-around speed and price loser that is xD; Both companies' best cameras ALL use CompactFlash, the oldest, cheapest-per-MB, highest-capacity and most popular format. For best speed, compatibility and prices, make your next camera one that uses CompactFlash or SD (Secure Digital) cards. If you enjoy your xD camera (as I once did), take solace knowing that rebates are offered quite regularly. Watch out for them and take advantage!

Just wanted to let everyone know that Amazon had these listed at a much better price 10 days ago... I put one on order and was told originally 1-3 weeks.

Next thing I know I get notified 3-4 weeks. So I decided to hold out. 10 days later I get an e-mail indicating they are cancelling my order due to a pricing issue.

I have waited 10 days already and just find this out.. totally not cool service.

Next time I will look elsewhere and advise everyone else to do the same.

5 year warranty on the product looks attractive.. better off buy a 256 MB Fuji card at Walmart for $99 and submitting the $25 rebate on this one... Rebate for thru 12/31/03

Nice to have enough memory to support the video mode whenever you need it, but why doesn't it support Olympus Panorama mode? It's even branded Olympus (same card as the Fuji branded one), but neither support the Panorama mode in my Olympus C-730.