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...


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.


I have not had a problem.   March 3, 2005
B. May (Philadelphia, PA USA)
25 out of 29 found this review helpful

Hiya. I know that some people have been giving Sandisk products a hard time since they joined the market. I've never had a problem with Sandisk products since I started purchasing them a few years ago. If you own a Sony digital camera or camcorder and wanna save some cash on memory cards sandisk is where you go. I just purchased a Sandisk 512 mb sd card on ebay for forty bucks. Its perfect for the 3.2 mp Casio Exilim EX-S100 that its mated to. This card will hold 276 pics at the cameras finest resolution and 2 weeks and 1000 pics later I have no complanints. The camera writes quickly to the card and the card can transfer 500 mb of pic data to my pc in less then 8 mins (using usb 2.0 cradle connection). It hasent failed yet. I think the problem with a lot of consumers is they don't format the card in camera. Please try this as it improves the write speed greatly. Sandisk is a fine company and very reliable .


How many pictures will it store?   November 5, 2004
Brent D. Payne (Chicago, IL)
24 out of 25 found this review helpful

How many pictures will it store? It is the most commonly asked question from digital camera enthusiast but usually the question that is the most difficult to get a straight answer about. Well, considering I worked in the memory industry for over 7 years I can help clarify this perplexing question and do so unbiased as I have since changed industries.

The SanDisk SDSDB-512-A10 512MB Secure Digital Card, like most 512MB cards, will store on average 568 pictures when used with a 2 megapixel camera, 426 images when used with a 3 megapixel camera, 256 pictures when used with a 4 megapixel camera, 204 images when used with a 5 megapixel camera, and 160 pictures when used with a 6 megapixel camera. These numbers are based off the assumption that you are going to shoot your images at the highest quality JPEG setting available for the camera and understand that they are estimates and may be off by as much as 10 percent due to numerous factors including the complexity of the scene being shot and the compression algorithm used by your specific camera.

I truly hope this review was helpful to you in determining whether this 512MB card is the right capacity for your specific needs.