Customer Reviews

Transcend 16 GB 133x CompactFlash Memory Card TS16GCF133

5 star:		(28)
4 star:		(17)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(13)

 

 

This card surprised me. I expected it to be considerably slower than my Sandisk Ultra II cards. But once I got a high speed card reader that let me access the full performance of the cards I found that it's actually considerably faster for reading, and only fractionally slower for writing.

I get between 5-7 megabytes per second in my write speed tests, which is roughly on par with what I get from my Ultra II cards. But in read performance I got speeds of almost 30 megabytes a second. Compared to around 10 for the Ultra II.

I should specify that this was with a UDMA capable card reader, the Lexar Pro UDMA reader, among the fastest USB 2.0 card readers out there. Performance on gear that isn't UDMA compatible may be different.

There certainly are faster cards out there, if you're willing to pay for them. For comparison, a fast enough camera can achieve three times the write speed of this card with a card that costs around $85 for an 8 gigabyte model. But you need to ask yourself if you both need that kind of speed and have gear capable of utilizing it.

If you're not in the habit of routinely filling the buffer of your camera, if you don't find yourself constantly having to wait for your camera to write enough data to the card for you to be able to take just one more picture, and you're not currently using high end, high speed cards, this is a card to consider.

Four stars out of consideration for the price/performance and capacity ratio. It's not the fastest card out there, but for the price it offers performance and capacity that's hard to beat.

Other reviewers have trashed this CF card because of speed issues. The one I bought performs as well as any other 133X CF I own (others by SanDisk, Kingston & a 4gig Transcend). I can shoot blazing fast bursts with my new Sony DSLR A700. Totally meets my needs. Maybe it's a bit below the needs for CF computing - but for a camera it's very nice. And I get 2700+ photos in Fine mode at 12.2 megapixels a shot!

I bought this item at the same time as a 16gb Sandisk Extreme III card for use in an EOS 1DS mark III camera. Since it is a 133x cark I had high hopes it would be nearly as fast at half the price but, alas, it took 50% longer to transfer the same files.

i have been a long time fan of the 5th generation ipod video, but it is far from perfect as is, and the one i have had no problem proving that. i earned an ipod video for labour as it was broken and i had an interest in fixing it. when i got my christmas money, i saw that i had enough to buy all the parts i wanted to for a whole ipod restoration! so i went on buying a battery (here on amazon) screen(ebay) and a u2 editon case kit (ebay) and a few other things. while looking for a new hdd for this ipod, i came across a device that will eliminate the hdd for a cf card and it iwas only $10 on dealextreme,and that by using a cf card, i would never have a disc error again! so after seeing that my hunt for a good, high storage, ata-compatible cf card began, and shortly ended later here on Amazon! who would have imagined that the best price wasn't a cheap chinese copy on ebay and was rather on Amazon, and with a good brand name to boot? i wasnt buying this for a high speed pc's ssd, nor for a dslr high quality camera. it was a way to soup up my ipod, and it worked flawlessly! i like that it uses only brand name NAND flash memory (or so it claims) but i think that any type that worked would suffice for my humble use. this one was only 14.9gb, but hey, who cares? i got what i payed for. and what i payed for was quality on the real cheap. wish they labeled it 15gb tho. would be a more true to spec statement. might as well just move the whole market on to a 15gb,30gb,60gb standard. oh well. not Transends fault. and btw, Transend is truely a fitting name. they really transend expectations with all i have purchased from them. no BS and no nothing. thier stuff has yet to fail me,and if it does, i will post that it has here on this very review, along with the rigors i put it though to do so.

I bought this CF card, thinking a performance - price balance. I have been using it since 1 month ago in my Nikon D300 and I'm impressed with the speed of this memory card. I have been able to shoot burst of RAW pictures, without having to stop because the D300 buffer is full while writing to the card. I feel almost no difference when using my other SanDisk Extreme IV CF memory. The huge capacity of 16 GB is just fantastic, specially when you want to save RAWs and TIFFs files.

Pros: Very fast, huge space, no issues when formatting the card in the camera, good price deal.

Cons: none

I really recommend this Transcend CF

I purchased this card to add to my arsenal of other cards. I had read on various reviews here about intermittent problems with this card generating errors. Having used Transcend and Kingston cards for YEARS and YEARS, going back all the way to 2001 and my FujiFinepix S1 Pro, And never having had a problem I went ahead and ordered.

I received the card, formatted it in the D700, and tested it by just popping off a bunch of shots (about 30) shooting Raw + jpeg on my D700.

Lo and behold, out of about 32 shots, TWO NEF (raw files) were unreadable in lightroom. Hmmmm.

I then pulled out my D300. I formatted the card in the D300, Set it to the same capture jpeg+raw shot another thirty or so shots. And again I had ONE bad NEF file when I uploaded to LR3. How weird is that?

I then inserted the card back into the D700, formatted it in the camera. This time I set it to capture ONLY raw (NEF) files. Popped off another forty shots. Had yet ANOTHER (1) bad NEF file.

I immediately contacted Amazon for a return authorization. I received it within two hours from Overstock.com which is who shipped me the card, and a few moments ago this morning (3/10) the card is on it's way back courtesy of OS.com prepaid mailer which was emailed to me within two hours of reporting the problem.

I'm very, very surprised at the problems with the card. I've used Transcent (8G) cards for years and years and have yet to lose a single image. I also use Kingston, and Lexar -- all 8G cards as well with no problems at all. I have never, ever had a card do this.

I must say that I'm very impressed as usual with the service from both Amazon, and it's other sellers. I've yet to have a problem with a return.

Hope this helps.

This card came as a kit with my canon 50d. It's a good/large capacity card for a good/low price. It's a little bit slower than my Sandisk Extreme III 8Gb card but has twice the capacity for half price. It writes fast enough at 3 frames/sec burst but not fast enough at 6.3 frames/sec burst. Unless you need that many frames/sec, I'd recommend this card

I am a professional photographer that uses the Transcend 16GB compact flash daily in a number of Canon dSLR's, including the 5D, 5D mark II, 20D and 1Ds mark II.

Within 90 days of purchase, the card could not be read in my card reader under either XP or OS X. Inserted the card in the 5D Mark II, it could not be read. Tried to format, and it said it could not format the card with the camera.

Buyer beware, you get what you pay for with compact flash. This is the first and last time I use anything other than SanDisk Extreme cards. I haven't had a single SanDisk card fail in five years of daily use across 10 cards from 1-8GB.

Initially I was a little concerned purchasing this card, as I have always stuck to Sandisk, for its reliability and speed.

This card equals and possibly betters the Sandisk in all departments. A very reliable product IMHO, and at a better price than some of the higher end name brands.

I haven't had any problems with this cards when shooting stills, but recording video from a DSLR is spotty. The card needs to be able to write data faster to make it good for video.