Never heard of komputerbay, bought this card for $80, which is way cheap compared to most other name brands many of which charge $200 or more for the same sized sdxc... been using it for a few weeks in my thrive for videos, music, files, and software stuff... no issues at all. I already have over 20gb of stuff on it and it has worked flawlessly. Great product. Great price. Glad i bought it.
FWIW the toshiba thrive is not compatible with ntfs file format, so i did have to re-format this sdxc card to fat32 in order to make it compatible with my device. Since windows xp was not developed with a card formatter for sdxc format (since sdxc cards did not exist then) i had to install a microsoft update to make my home computer capable of fortmatting the sdxc card.... this is not an issue with the card at all, but mentioning it in case you have a thrive and are buying the card for that device.
There was only one review that somebody used it in Panasonic GH2 camera, so I thought that I should add this one, just in case if the owners of this camera are searching for related reviews.
After inserting the card into the camera I had to agree with a question for reformatting the card, which is normal. It seems that Panasonic GH2 has reformatted it with exFAT because Win7 is showing that. It is also showing that the capacity is at 61.8GB, which is also normal. Actually this space is more than I expected, since after formatting you usually lose almost 10% of the space.
My Panasonic GH2 is estimating that this card would be enough to fit 6 hours and 22 minutes of HBR (24 Mbits/s) video. So far I've just taped 30 minutes and it is still working and hopefully will continue in the same manner. If there will be hiccups I'll immediately return to Amazon with an updated review and will take off some stars.
Reading from the card, while copying to the PC, averaged at 19.6 MB/s. Writing to the card (the same data) has averaged 15.7 MB/s. See pictures and captions for details. I get the same performance from my SanDisk 32GB SDHC Extreme HD Video SanDisk Extreme SD 32 GB SDHC Flash Memory Card SDSDX-032G card that claims "up to 30 MB/s" transfer speeds. I don't use fancy tests. Instead, I use daily footage so it's all down to earth, without any illusions about performance.
One will have difficult time believing that an unknown company, such as KomputerBay is able to deliver memory cards on the same level as SanDisk, Transcend, or Kingston. The only couple explanations that I can find are:
a) a necessity of one of these companies to offload overproduction of a certain model
b) or some batches of the cards have not met strict quality requirements. Maybe this batch had 4 bad cards out of every 100 comparing to the expected 1 bad card for each 1,000?
The card, that I've received, did not have the country of origin on it. Since my recent SanDisk 32GB SDHC Extreme HD Video (30 MB/s claimed) card was made in China, so I thought that by purchasing KomputerBay the risks would be similar.
The Amazon listing stated "Lifetime warranty" but since the card has not arrived with any extensive packaging (except a white label, see a photo) it is not clear how the warranty can be claimed, if the card will stop working in a few months.
One more note. Both of my recent cards (SanDisk and KomputerBay) have a strange nuance. If the video files have been written by the camera, then the average reading speed is at 19.6 MB/s. But if the same files were written by the PC, the reading speed, while copying these files back to the PC, averages at 150 MB/s. It seems that there is a substantial difference between how Win7 and Panasonic GH2 write data to both cards, hence a jump in the reading speed. By the way, defragmenting data, written by the camera, does not improve the reading speed.
Hopefully other reviewers will provide more details about the cameras and devices where they use this card, so there is less anxiety. It is especially appreciated when people post reviews and updates after a few months of using memory cards. Thank you!
UPDATE from April 7th, 2012:
During last few days the cards started to act up. Five days ago, GH2 during the same video session, stated (suddenly, after four-five video clips) something about the insufficient speed of the card and stopped videotaping. I had to reinsert the card in order to continue. Then, today, while watching footage on Panasonic BD45 Blu-ray player, the playing suddenly stopped. I've been copying the files after each video session, but at the same time not moving them, in order to make sure that the entire capacity of the card is usable. Well, only half the card (38GB) is filled so far and these problems are already apparent. Also, after the problem in the player, I continued using the card in the camera, and again, after a few clips, the camera reported "insufficient speed of the card" and stopped recording the video. Re-inserting the card eventually helped.
If one compares this card with similar cards from SanDisk and Kingston, one can notice that this card is THINNER and the contacts are sitting DEEPER in the plastic. After scrutinizing the appearance of the contacts it is possible to notice that they are shiny/glossy and have less scratches on them from insertion/reinsertion than the cards from the above mentioned brands. I am not an expert, but logic tells me that such contacts will have less chance to stay tight to the contacts of the digital devices, hence more chance for a trouble.
This card got my five stars when I've purchased it and tested six weeks ago. Now I am downgrading it to one star for being UNRELIABLE and forcing consumers to spend money again for purchasing something that can hold in the field. No wonder why the price has dropped by 10% during last few weeks! With more time on the market, more consumers will discover the long-term non-lasting quality of the card and the more the company will be interested to get rid of the current stock as fast as possible.
The card has not failed completely yet and I will continue filling it (while making backup copies of the content on regular basis) with videos up to its maximum. However, if you are looking for a card for traveling, where you will not be able to copy to the computer on regular basis, consider SanDisk or something else. Yes, they are priced 150% higher than this card, but sometimes you can catch them on sale for almost the same price as this card. Just be patient.
UPDATE from April 8th, 2012:
In the middle of the video recording the camera again showed a message about insufficient speed. After reinserting the card, the GH2 could not recognize the card at all. And, of course, the return window has expired a week ago, but I was still able to get 80% refund. I love you Amazon! Will shop again, but not for this brand. I guess I'll stick with SanDisk, Kingston, and Transcend, unless they will develop as many problems as KomputerBay.
UPDATE from April 23rd, 2012:
One more thing... I've recalled that after having more than half the card filled with videos, the startup time of the camera and the recording time after stopping video recording has noticeable increased. I am not sure whether it was happening due to the quality of the card or due to the volume of the recorded data, or due to the capacity of the card... When I had to switch back to 8GB Transcend and 32GB SanDisk, it seems that the startup and and the "finish recording" lag quite noticeably shortened. However, I don't have 64GB SDXC from another brand (yet) in order to compare objectively.
Buy Komputerbay 32GB Class 10 SDHC Ultra High Speed Memory Card - Read 20MB/s Write 15MB/s with USB Rea Now
THIS IS AN INFERIOR QUALITY MEMORY CARD! DO NOT TRUST IT! Others have commented about losing data, pictures, and video; I had a similar experience. While shooting 1080p video at a family Christmas function on December 23, 2011, the memory card failed. I lost approximately 12 GB of video and 20-30 pictures. The video lost was irreplaceable; not only did the memory card contain the video recorded that particular day, but it also contained my daughter's first kindergarten Thanksgiving program and Christmas program. I was crushed. I had planned on retaining the holiday video of my children on the card until I had an opportunity to edit the "footage". The memory card actually crashed while I was recording. I checked the card on three different card readers my laptop, desktop, and the camcorder and all three indicated there was no content present. There was only 10 GB of video on the card when the evening began.
To add insult to injury, Komputerbay refuses to offer a refund since the card was purchased on September 15, 2011. I guess it's just my misfortune that the card did not fail sooner. The sale date notwithstanding, in my opinion, this response is indicative of a company that will not stand behind its product. After all, why would I want an identical replacement of an already inferior memory card?
Incidentally, I purchased a SanDisk 16 GB memory card with this same shipment, and it has worked flawlessly. I guess it is true, "you get what you pay for." I just wish I had learned the lesson (1) before purchasing this Komputerbay card and (2) trusting it with priceless precious moments. PLEASE STAY AWAY FROM THIS CARD! I don't want anyone else to suffer learning the same lesson.
Read Best Reviews of Komputerbay 32GB Class 10 SDHC Ultra High Speed Memory Card - Read 20MB/s Write 15MB/s with USB Rea Here
I've never heard of this brand and so was leery of making this purchase.
But Amazon has never failed me and the price and specs are great. It came
before ETA. I use it for my Toshiba Thrive tablet.I have 50 movies, 10,500
songs in it. There's room for 20 more movies and twice more in songs.
There's no hesitation in the movie playback. So I'm happy.
Only thing is it takes a long time for the Thrive to register all the
contents. Could be the Thrive's shortcoming. Or the built-in music player.
I will recommend this card anytime.
Edit.......
It is now July 1st,2012. This card stopped working. My computers say it needs formatting. But it failed to format in any of the machines. I'm really unhappy now. I guess I'll look for a name brand now.
Want Komputerbay 32GB Class 10 SDHC Ultra High Speed Memory Card - Read 20MB/s Write 15MB/s with USB Rea Discount?
This card, at the time, was the best priced SD card anywhere,had never heard of Komputerbay, but it has saved me some money, I literally got it in a few days and it was securely packaged, opened it, loaded it into my Panasonic TM-900, formatted it and blam......I was filming to it in a heartbeat, I then hooked it up to my computer, it transferred like a dream, I am extremely happy with it, frankly I have bought other cards off the internet that turned out to be crap, it was really hard for me to jump in again, but the savings was the ticket....Thanks, Komputerbay, PIPFITTERMIKE636
I am adding to my review because not only is this a great card but I have purchased another one, they both work great, and now I have two cards for my Panasonic TM 900, I am thinking of getting some of there 32 gb cards for my canon sd-10. Amazon will not let me have 2 seperate reviews for the same product so I added to this one, Thanks again Komputerbay,Mike
Look Amazon wont let me review seperately any more cards... i have 4 of them now, this last one I bought is there high trasfer rate card 64gb in size but was 10 dollars more, it works perfectly and flawlessly. My camera has now 4 of these cards that are working perfectly. I did see a review here of somebody that had problems with their card... all I can do is write my experience I have had with the cards I have bought and I am happy with them, no problems to report, thank you again, Komputerbay
