Cheap 1gb Ultra II

[Digitalwave]

Well I've been using my 2gb Ultra II for a while now and I like it. It's never let me down and 2gb is usually more than enough. The time came though that I need a backup card to feel comfortable in the field.

I hopped on ebay and saw a 1gb Ultra II at $10.50 ending in 3 minutes. Skimmed it, looks good, seller has good feedback. Ended up winning it for less than $13. Shipping is a laughable $17 of course, but for $30 shipping, its a good deal for a brand new in box card retailing at $55!

The seller's name is infofashion. It seems like he starts his auctions at 99 cents. When I recieve the card next week I will report back and let you know how the seller and the product are.

[blonde]

i will keep my fingers crossed for you. after the recent wave of fake sandisk cards on ebay, i would not take a chance no matter how cheap the price is. however, it is very possible that the guy is honest and that is a real card..

[Transonic]

You gotta love those shipping charges ;)

[andrewc]

download the HDBENCH benchmarking software and run it. I won a Sandisk Ultra 2 2Gb card recently, it arrived in "retail packaging" and its the slowest of my 4 CF cards including 2 ordinary Sandisks and a Hitachi microdrive.

I've filed a claim against the seller.

[Digitalwave]

i will keep my fingers crossed for you. after the recent wave of fake sandisk cards on ebay, i would not take a chance no matter how cheap the price is. however, it is very possible that the guy is honest and that is a real card..

It's a risk I was willing to take for the price. Even if its fake, I was looking at off-brand 33x CF cards on Newegg and most 1gb's were $30 anyways. The auction looks legit, has a warranty, and comes in the retail packaging, so I am crossing my fingers as well :)

[Digitalwave]

download the HDBENCH benchmarking software and run it. I won a Sandisk Ultra 2 2Gb card recently, it arrived in "retail packaging" and its the slowest of my 4 CF cards including 2 ordinary Sandisks and a Hitachi microdrive.

I've filed a claim against the seller.

Disheartening! Who was the seller?

[andrewc]

Mine was Lowest_Total_Price

Mine was £ 11.99 plus £ 13.99 which is just over $ 45

Its a 2Gb card all right, and convincing packaging, but didn't feel any faster than my old cards so I bench tested them using the hdbench software that Sandisk use, which confirmed it was slow at 2.7Mb/s compared to the quoted 9Mb/S plus

[Digitalwave]

Yeah, I reckon there are lots of fakes out there. The seller just told me that they cost her over $40 each and I wrote back asking if she can gaurantee or offer any proof that they are legit, real Ultra II cards. Lies or not I am interested to see the response. I will pay for it either way of course, and see how my cards fall.

[Digitalwave]

Mine was Lowest_Total_Price

Mine was £ 11.99 plus £ 13.99 which is just over $ 45

Its a 2Gb card all right, and convincing packaging, but didn't feel any faster than my old cards so I bench tested them using the hdbench software that Sandisk use, which confirmed it was slow at 2.7Mb/s compared to the quoted 9Mb/S plus

I meant to ask, how is the card working otherwise? From what I have read, you won't really tell any difference between fast or slow cards while you are shooting, its in the dump speeds. I bought this Ultra II because I am happy with my 2gb version. Really hope this one is real!

EDIT: I just downloaded HDBENCH and its somewhat confusing. I popped my card in and started downloading photos, and then hit the program. It says my Read was 96,xxx and the Write was 63,xxx. Does that mean it reads at 9.6mb/s and writes at 6.3mb/s?

[andrewc]

with hdbench, select the drive for your cf card reader, select 8Mb as the test size (similar to a raw file) then click the drive button. Mine came in at 2700 or therabouts.

So far, mine hasn't dropped any shots, but its a plain jane 2Gb card of dubious origins.

[blonde]

i just bought a ridata 2gb 150x card from newegg for $45. i can't wait to test it out and see how it is. i am also always looking for cheap memory and if this card works as promised, i will never have a reason to go to flea bay and risk buying a fake one...

[Digitalwave]

with hdbench, select the drive for your cf card reader, select 8Mb as the test size (similar to a raw file) then click the drive button. Mine came in at 2700 or therabouts.

So far, mine hasn't dropped any shots, but its a plain jane 2Gb card of dubious origins.

Can you run it again with your real Ultra II card and see what you score? I got a 1048 on write, 982 on read. Is that 10mb and 9mb? Or 1mb and less than 1mb?

This is with my real Ultra II purchased from B&H.

I have contacted a few of the people who bought cards from this seller, and they all say that their cards came in the factory packaging, sealed, but they are the Japanese versions. I think the seller is Japanese, living in the states, and imports the cards herself. Based on this info, I have a feeling the card is real, what do you guys think?

[Chris Johnson 00 T/A]

I have a Lexar 80x and I see the benchmark just under 9mb/sec writes with hdtach rw.

[winkie]

I actually received a fake sandisk off of the amazon marketplace. I had contacted sandisk customer service to verify that it was indeed fake, and they sent me a RMA and replaced the card with a real one. Sandisk has excellent customer service!!!

[Digitalwave]

I just went out and bought a new card reader and re benched my card. I got 10mb/s and 9mb/s. The difference is night and day from my old reader!

[blonde]

digitalwave- which reader did you buy? i am looking for a new one but i need it to be able to accept both CF and SD.

[Digitalwave]

After reading a bunch of reviews, I went with the Sandisk Imagemate CompactFlash. It's a CF only reader, but its the fastest USB 2.0 reader out there. The Lexar FireWire one is the true fastest, but it is $55. I got the CF reader for $22 at Best Buy.

Sandisk sells a 12 in 1 Imagemate, that is just a tad bit slower than the CF only reader and it gets very high reviews as well.

[blonde]

thanks, i will give the sandisk a look :)

[anshu]

i too bought a fake off ebay, had no serial number and other trademarks. sent it back for a refund and bought some ridata. Has anyone taken some serious action agains those selling fakes?