marcomarks Loc: Ft. Myers, FL

I moved recently and they got away from the top of my PC somehow (surprise, surprise) but the one with two burps was a PNG 8GB Class 10 and the one with the piece of case that broke off was a Sony 8GB Class 10. I'm sure Sony didn't manufacture it and one of the other leading brands made it for them but I don't know who. I have another Sony 8GB I bought the same day and it's just fine and I use it every day. My other every day SDHC Class 10 is a 16GB Transcend because people on here said they have good luck with that brand and I have as well. I have a SanDisk 32GB Extreme PLUS SDHC UHS-1 card sitting here on my desk still in the package but I haven't used it yet. It's overkill for me but I cashed in a gift card that was about to expire and essentially got it free.

I can't talk bad about PNG or Kingston though because I've used other cards by them both for years with no trouble. I think problems with memory cards is just a random issue and all card companies likely have a certain percentage of DOA or intermittent errors in their manufacturing.

Never buy a brand name SD card on eBay that comes from overseas though. Always buy from a reputable dealer like Adorama or B&H if you're going to buy online or simply go to your local big box store like TigerDirect or Best Buy. I can just about guarantee you an import from China being sold on eBay is a fake and will have problems or not work at all. The Chinese will exactly duplicate the brand name labels, slap them on crap fake cards, and sell them for a fraction of the normal selling price but they aren't real.

There are fake Monster and Dr. Beat headphones, there are fake Martin guitars, there are fake camera batteries, there are fake purses and watches, and fake SD cards all over eBay. They want to police this and enforce anti-replica laws but it's virtually impossible with millions of products flowing through eBay daily.

Ranjan Loc: Currently Cyber-Nation!

YIKES! I just bought a Nikon NC filter from HongKong. Shipping was included and after taxes etc, I paid like ~60% of what Amazon etc (and local brick and mortars even higher prices!) charge!

I have two Nikon NC filters for other lenses (zooms), both purchased from Nikon Canada (so must be the gold reference?). I will try to critically compare the packaging, literature enclosed and shoot a white/grey card and Color swatch through all three and if they are not nearly identical, you shall hear the rantings of a very displeased (albeit greedy) customer <LOL>

Of course, compared to memory cards, NC filters (even if multicoated etc) must be simpler technology, HOPEFULLY?

marcomarks Loc: Ft. Myers, FL

Simpler technology of course. But that doesn't mean some pregnant Chinese farm woman isn't standing around in her barn spraying coating on fake filters while neighbors put the dried glass into fake Nikon rings (that's far-fetched but that was true of computer motherboards at one time). If you got it 60% less than Amazon, I'd just about bet it's fake and the optical quality of the glass won't be up to par with the real ones you already have. Let us know!

Ranjan Loc: Currently Cyber-Nation!

One problem! How would I find out if lens components or sensor or electronics on the test camera were not somehow going through the factories (or barns?) so maligned? Pretty much most things or parts thereof seem to be manufactured in the far east (excluding Japan where labour costs are high) including some like Honda and others.

I think 'mark-up' and labour costs are what artificially raises the prices here. Quality control is something that has a price too and it is the nation that is getting stuff manufactured at lower costs elsewhere that holds the key! Of course, that is a bit simplified since more *participants* get involved.

Mind you, I am not saying that Chinese products are all great, but in the modern supply and demand and highly competitive marketplace any degradation that we are witnessing does not only lie on the shoulder of the manufacturers or their business-profit decisions and some of it squarely lies on our demands too.

I am really curious about these three filters and the above 'venting' aside, do intend to try the testing out :-)

By the way, for really precious (read important) shots, I try to trust not even B + W but the bare-naked lens! ;-)

No matter how pristine, each layer interferes with the nascent rays of light from the subject to the sensor/film! The multiple elements of the necessary lens are bad enough, as optical physics goes! Too many slips between the cup and the lip, as they say! <LOL>

marcomarks Loc: Ft. Myers, FL

Product quality from China depends directly on supervision by foreigners from other countries. I talked to a guy who sells machines that you put a spool of very thick wire into it and the machine pushes the wire through itself as robotic arms move around and create coil springs, coat hangers, brassiere wire cup supports, etc. He had been selling American made ones but found out he could send his design to China and have it built there for 1/4 of the cost of U.S. built. These things normally sell for $450,000 to his customers plus installation, and his profit margin was small with the U.S. built units. He could undercut the competition, install one for $325,000 to $350,000 and his profit margin was higher with a Chinese made one.

So he actually went to China and spent a couple weeks, found a manufacturer capable of what he needed, and gave the the design. He wanted to send them the U.S. built relays and hydraulic cylinders required so the parts that move would be heavy duty and they would create the enclosure, electrical wiring, install circuit boards, put on the robotic arms, etc. that came from Chinese sources.

The first batch were fabulous. On the second batch he found customers having problems. When he did service on them, he found the Chinese manufacturer had put cheap Chinese relays and hydraulic cylinders in it, apparently sold his to somebody else, and the machine was inferior and broke down a lot. So right away, as soon as he was back here and out of their country, they devised a way to screw him and make more profit by selling his U.S. made parts.

For a while, he let them do this, and when machines would come in he would open them up, replace the cheap Chinese parts with U.S. made parts that should have been in it in the first place, and still had machines that were far less cost than his competitors.

Then he learned that if you hire a Production Supervisor from Taiwan to live in China, work in the factory every day, and watch over the manufacturing process, the Chinese are not able to rip you off. They must follow the rules and make what they contracted to make with the parts they are sent. The Taiwanese Production Supervisor is paid on a per piece basis for every machine that was acceptable and delivered as promised. So he had a financial incentive to make sure every machine was perfect and quality control tested.

That Supervisor made really good money working for the American guy I talked to and supervision over there is completely different than here. If somebody messes up on the production line or steals something, there will be an outright loud argument, the Supervisor may smack the worker hard in the face or punch him. The worker might fight back and get beat to a pulp before going back to work, or the worker might not fight back and endure the smacking or punching with a threat of being fired. Because the jobs pay so well, compared to living on virtually nothing in farm country, the workers don't want to lose their job or get fired, but they have no morals against stealing or cutting corners if they can.

As soon as that Production Supervisor was on board, quality was maximized and the American parts were always used.

So imagine SD cards going through a non-supervised clone plant!

By the way, I spoke too soon on having only two SD card problems. Last night I found a chunk of plastic off the corner of my second Sony 8GB SD, so now I've had three problems instead of two! And my new 32GB card laying here on the desk went into service immediately.

Ranjan Loc: Currently Cyber-Nation!

HAHA! Maybe someone in China is listening in? <kidding!>

Back a few decades ago when I arrived in North America, I bought a GE alarm radio. It was made in USA and on a whim, I bought an extended warranty! Those were one of those corded tuning potentiometer days and 'extended warranty' was a new concept for me! I made the right 'call' for within a short period of time, the 'poor quality' cord broke. It would have been just outside the normal warranty period. I got that cord replaced a few times, and by then even the extended warranty ran out and digital alarm clocks had already arrived in the marketplace. The GE did have a rather nice speaker though :-(

Oh, did I tell you about the 1976 Dodge Colt whose engine had to be replaced thrice within the same year? All work done at the dealer and locally!

So, what was my point, again...? ;-)

marcomarks Loc: Ft. Myers, FL

Actually, I'm not sure what your point was.

GE anything is now made by the cheapest manufacturing bidder in China or Vietnam or whatever that GE can find so they can market low for bottom feeders. I was given one as a gift and already had a Panasonic approximately the same size in the late 1970s. One flip up rabbit ear antenna with AM and FM. The GE was selling for about $39 at the time and the Panasonic selling for $59. The Panasonic just literally blew the GE away with sound quality, three times as much volume without distortion, a tone switch so it wasn't thin sounding, and far more available stations. The GE was also suffering from a distorted speaker all the time when it died about a year and a half later. The Panasonic hasn't changed at all in all these years, and as of when I got divorced 5 years ago, my X still was using it in the kitchen every day without problems.

The 1975 and 1976 (probably a few more years too) Dodge Colts were actually Mitsubishi cars with Dodge name tags on them. Their major flaw was the aluminum head would get cracks between the valves and destroy itself, over heat, and warp the head so the head gasket then leaked antifreeze into the cylinders. We had a 1976 too, and it cost me $600 at the cheapest place I could find to have a used head from a wrecked Colt put on it. That was the day of 12,000 mile warranties and it had 16,000 on it. That sucker was traded in and gone soon afterward because I found out that many people were having the same problem.

They must have resolved that in later years because I knew somebody who had a 3-door hatchback Colt in the 80's and he put over 200,000 miles on it with no major problems of any kind.

So... what was my point? It's 2 a.m. so I don't remember.

rocketride Loc: Upstate NY

In the '70s and '80s the aluminum alloys used in engines just weren't up to the task. Aluminum engines are much better, now.

Ranjan Loc: Currently Cyber-Nation!

My point simply is that we all tend to extrapolate our experience of one or few items to include the entire production range of a given brand or brands coming from a country :-)

All brands have 'duds' in most batches that slip by and enter the marketplace and some of us at one time or another get sucked into buying those!

Anyways, returning to the specific topic here, it seems responses came in a few batches. At first were the happy (lucky?) customers who were using and reporting about good name brands and seemed to have experienced no grief! Then there were a few more reporting a few problems occasionally, and then some more!

So, in closing, it seems that there are many reliable memory cards and if prices are comparable (even if not identical), it is best to stick with the tried and tested name brands, but remaining aware that Professor Murphy is watching, so always make a few backups, soon after shooting, of important pictures and if possible acquire a camera with dual memory cards to further lower the odds of a mishap waiting in the offing!

Happy 4th of July to friends in USA!

marcomarks Loc: Ft. Myers, FL

Personally, all my photos go straight off the SD cards onto my main hard drive immediately. Then they are edited for whatever purpose. I end up with backing them up to an external drive. On personal photos I back them up to two external drives and unplug the drives afterward so they can't get hit with lightning (although I use a battery backup that guarantees it won't allow lightning through it) or wear out from constantly spinning for no reason.

Happy 4th of July to ya'll too. Hopefully this year I won't have personal fireworks ashes from neighbors drifting to and laying on the hood and trunk of my car burning small gray dots into my paint clearcoat - because I moved to where there aren't any neighbors! HA!

Ranjan Loc: Currently Cyber-Nation!

Make and model? Surely a brand to avoid! Unless other earlier neighbours with different makes and models had the same complaint. Even if they all might not have moved as well... ;-)

Regards,

Ranjan