Sandisk from Amazon - real?

Hi everyone!

 

I Purchased three SanDisk extreme 32 GB 120 MB per second CompactFlash cards from Amazon.ca, making sure to buy from the “Amazon.com.ca“ seller (which I believe to be actually straight from amazon - yes?)

 

Is Amazon.ca an authorized seller of Sandisk? I’m so afraid of getting fake cards and shooting valuable images on them.

 

All three cards have the same code on the bottom of them, but I believe this is a product code and not an actual serial number. Is this expected that all three would have the same code written on them?

 

Thank you for any help!

 

James

Download a small program called "H2testw", and use it on the cards.

 

It tests capacity, read & write speed and data integrity.

 

I use it on every card I buy, whether I suspect it's fake or not.

 

So far it's uncovered 2 fake SD cards, which were too cheap to be true, and a fake flash memory USB stick. In each case the write speed fell far below what was expected, and the capacity was nowhere near what was stated.

 

The program is in German by default, but can be swapped to English very easily.

 

Incidentally, if you're going to fake a memory card, you're going to target the widest-selling and most overpriced brand that offers its customers almost zero security check (no serial number, hologram or similar, and a cheaply printed label), right?

 

Well guess which company fulfills those criteria.

 

That's why I buy Samsung or Transcend cards and avoid S*nd*sk. Samsung and Transcend seem to offer the best value/performance ratio.

Edited April 14, 2018 by rodeo_joe|1

Thanks for the response. I’ll give that program a go. Is the only sign that they are fake, the fact that the speeds will be quite far off?

There is a MacOS version of a spin-off from H2testw, but it requires compiling and such: Mac (Apple) H2testw Alternative Program Called F3 By Michel Machado

So really - even these cards sold direct from Amazon (not an Amazon reseller or retailer, but actually amazon directly) *could* be fake?

So these cards claim “up to” 85 MB per second write speed. The thing is, I’m only able to use a USB 2.0 port on this computer, connected to a card reader... so I ran the test anyway and it’s currently writing at 28.8 MB per second. I have no idea if that’s bad or not.

*EDIT* I’ve tested it against the other cards I’ve been using for years and it’s faster than all of them. I also just noticed that the codes for the free copy of Sandisks backup software are completely unique, inside each package. I’m more confident that these are legit now.

So really - even these cards sold direct from Amazon (not an Amazon reseller or retailer, but actually amazon directly) *could* be fake?

 

I'd personally trust (but verify) cards sold directly by Amazon, B&H, Adorama, and the like. I would be reluctant to go for any cards offered by some Joe Blow, all the more so if the prices were significantly lower than B&H

Just keep in mind the type of SD card/stick formatting can affect transfer speeds as well as the OS and age of computer used.

 

About a year ago I bought a 256GB Sandisk USB Cruzer Glide stick at my local Best Buy as my photo/document back up drive. The default formatting was exFAT which took forever to transfer my data from my 2010 MacMini in OS 10.6.8. I reformatted the stick to Mac OS Extended Journaled-(my MacMini HD format) and got a more noticeable speed increase. I didn't clock it by the MB/sec. but 70GB of photos took about 30 minutes less to backup.

 

This may not be an issue if on a Windows system and newer computer.

"Is the only sign that they are fake, the fact that the speeds will be quite far off?"

 

- No. The fakes that I've come across all have a capacity that's nowhere near what's claimed. Something like 1 GB for a card claiming to be 32 GB, for example. So a quick test seems to show that the card is working OK. You have to check the entire card capacity, and that obviously takes quite some time for a high-capacity card.

 

The fakers put false chips in the card/stick to make it report a capacity far greater that its real one. These cards quickly lose data through overwriting, as well as being slower than claimed.

For some reason, photo.net isn't allowing my Great Ape's photo to show up. RATS!

http://bayouline.com/o2.gif

Edited April 15, 2018 by Vincent Peri

Hmm... fake Tri-X takes much

longer to develop...

http://bayouline.com/o2.gif

 

http://bayouline.com/o2.gif

For some reason, photo.net isn't allowing my Great Ape's photo to show up. RATS!

http://bayouline.com/o2.gif

Why would you post a photo of a great ape in a discussion on Sandisk SD cards? How is that relevant?

 

Start a thread in No Words or post it in the Nature forum threads.

Thanks everyone. It appears my cards are legit.

Why would you post a photo of a great ape in a discussion on Sandisk SD cards? How is that relevant?

 

Start a thread in No Words or post it in the Nature forum threads.

LMAO!!!