SanDisk SDSDB-512-A10/A11-512 MB Secure Digital Card (Retail Package)

SanDisk's 512MB SD card is by far the cheapest available. In most cases, the other cards are at least 50% more than this one.

I was curious about speed since SanDisk is known for being a bit on the slow side. This card was relatively newly released when I wanted it, so I was unable to find any good speed figures online. Therefore, I bought it anyway -- and ran the speed tests myself.

Testing on a Toshiba/AudioVox Genio e550G with Kai's Speed Test application, I ran the Write Test 5 times with the following results:
Trial #1: 263KB/Sec
Trial #2: 263KB/Sec
Trial #3: 181KB/Sec
Trial #4: 171KB/Sec
Trial #5: 196KB/Sec

Not very consistent, for some reason. I was not running any other applications at the time, so I am not sure why the fluctuation.

For comparison, here are the results using a Lexar 256MB SD card:
Trial #1: 263KB/Sec
Trial #2: 271KB/Sec
Trial #3: 279KB/Sec
Trial #4: 256KB/Sec
Trial #5: 256KB/Sec

So, at their best, the two cards seem quite comparable. It is just that the Lexar card is clearly more stable as far as speed fluctuations go.

In any case, I'm happy with it -- especially for the huge difference in price in most cases. Works for me. Plus, 5-year warranty -- just in case.

- John...

---UPDATE---
The fact that the card always performed well for the first two tests but then slowed and stayed slow until the device was reset was really bothering me, so I contacted SanDisk about it and gave them the same results that I shared here. SanDisk said that they thought the card was defective! I therefore had this card replaced (very quickly and easily by Amazon, I will add) and have just repeated my tests with the new card. Good news! The replacement card is usually faster and much more consistent than the original! It no longer slows down after the first two tests -- the results are repeatable at any time.

For comparison, here are the new figures for the 512MB SanDisk card:
Trial #1: 329KB/Sec
Trial #2: 263KB/Sec
Trial #3: 341KB/Sec
Trial #4: 279KB/Sec
Trial #5: 318KB/Sec

As you can see, the card is now performing at or above the speed of the 256MB Lexar that I had previously tested. I am now quite satisfied with this card -- it appears to be giving the same speeds or better than other cards well above this price range.

- John...


Big Storage. Slow Speed.   September 20, 2004
Julian Nam (San Diego, CA)
89 out of 109 found this review helpful

If you're buying a 512 MB card, then most likely you need/use a lot of data storage. If you fill this card up then try to download to your computer, it will take several minutes to transfer. You should really consider getting a high-speed card so that you can cut on transfer time. Many cameras also take advantage of the faster speed on the high-speed cards; this can be especially helpful if when you take many pictures in succession.


FAST!   January 20, 2004
46 out of 53 found this review helpful

I recently bought the Pentax Optio S4 and wanted to get a memory card for it. I didn't want to ever ever ever worry about saving pictures - I wanted as much memory as possible so I could save as many pictures on the highest quality and never worry. I never again have to utter the phrase "I'm out of film" (memory in this case.) I got this card, stuck it in the camera, and it worked immediately. It is FAST - faster than the internal memory of the camera itself! It can hold approximately 170 photos of the highest quality on the Pentax Optio S4. The speed of this thing is what gets me- saves a photo in like a second or 2 - I don't even get a chance to wait for it to save. CRAZY! Works amazingly well and I could not be more happy with it.


slow card   December 30, 2004
36 out of 39 found this review helpful

the people who wrote this is a "fast" card have no expertise. this is now one of the slowest cards out there, this makes a huge difference with cameras over 2 megapixels. if you are shooting with a three or four megapixel camera it will be unbearably slow.

price. please! the page shows a list price of two fifty. wow so for fifty five it must be a great deal right? no! memory prices fall like a riock and the list price is from two years ago. the listed "sale price" of fifty five is the going rate across all the competition.

Indeed sandisks own "utra II" version of their 512 sd card is sixty five dollars everywhere. the ultra II reads and writes on average seven times faster.


Value for Money   March 9, 2006
S. Baranwal (Fairfax, VA USA)
27 out of 27 found this review helpful

This is a basic SD card which is not expensive since it is not 1 gig or made by Sony and other companies with a lot of hype. Still holds more than 500 photos at the best resolution in a 5.1 Megapixel camera.

I have the Canon SD450 and the highest resolution I take pictures is 1600x1200 which turn out as outstanding prints on photo paper.

I take close to 200 photos every month. but since I download then to my computer (or IPod if I am on the road) I do not run out of memory space ever.

I weighed out my options with 1gig cards but ultimately it only means that I can take more pictures at a stretch. Look at it this way if you buy 2 512 Mb cards you have the simple flexibility of keeping your photos separate, have a backup memory card rather than buying one 1 gig card which if it fails you are stuck with no memory at all.

You can get this product for under $30 if you search well enough and find good deals. I have three of these at an avg cost of $32 each.