Lexar Media 1 GB 80x Pro Series Compact Flash Card (CF1GB-80-380)

Rating:
Summary: Lexar for life!
Review: After my experience yesterday I will never use any CF card other than Lexar. I took some irreplacable shots of me mum and son a month or so ago. In the meantime I did a ton of studio work going directly into my computer and plugging into the wall socket. During this, the camera was plugged and unplugged from USB and the DC socket a hundred times, it eventually locked up and I had to totally reset it. THEN I found that the info on the card (which I had left in the camera!) became corrupted and unusable(due to my stupid abuse). I was sick about it. I then remembered the Image Recovery software that came with my Lexar card. VIOLA! It took nearly an hour for the software to do it, but it recovered EVERY IMAGE. Thank you Lexar!! Never again will I stray.
Not to mention-- it's the fastest card I have.


Rating:
Summary: My experience with the 40x card...
Review: Before you purchase this card, make sure that your camera supports the Write Acceleration Technology. I purchased Lexar's 40x 256MB card (with Write Acceleration) about a year ago for my Minolta DiMage 7Hi camera, and realized my camera did not support the new technology. The CF card still worked, but there was no increase in speed over other cards.

I checked Lexar's website, and it said that my camera does not support the Write Acceleration technology. The link is here: http://www.lexar.com/digfilm/wa_cf.html


Current camera partners supporting WA technology: Kodak Professional, Nikon, Sanyo, Sigma, Pentax, Olympus

- Current (as of this review) cameras supporting WA technology:
- All Kodak Professional cameras and pro camera backs, such as the DCS Pro Back 645, DCS Pro Back Plus, DCS 720x, DCS 760, DCS 760m and DCS 14n
- Nikon D1x, D1h, D-100 (Requires camera firmware upgrade by Nikon. See Nikon's web page for more details) and D2h
- Sanyo DSC-MZ3
- Sigma SD-9
- Sigma SD10
- Pentax *ist D
- Olympus E1

Lexar USB Card Reader (included... note: this was with my 40x card. you may or may not receive the same reader.):
- Works only with Lexar CF Cards. Attempted to use with SanDisk and Kingston CF Cards but did not work. Should not be a problem if you only use Lexar products. However, if you do, consider buying a separate card reader.


For a full breakdown of how many pictures you can take with different card capacities, go to http://www.lexar.com/digfilm/capacity_chart.html


Rating:
Summary: Great bundle, made even better by the MIR
Review: Even without the current $20 mail-in rebate, the Lexar 1GB 80x CF card is a great bundle, as it includes a valuable piece of software called Image Rescue. For prosumer and pro photographers, it's critical to be on guard against memory errors and be able to recover "lost" images before resorting to formmatting.

The Lexar is a very fast CF card. PAD's review from October 4, 2004 was not exactly correct. The write acceleration (WA) technology from Lexar supposedly implements a multi-sector write mode in dSLRs that support this technology. While this sounds great on paper, in practice it's not important that your dSLR (e.g., Canon's excellent offerings) does not support it. The dSLR is already optimized for super-fast serial writes, and all dSLRs can take advantage of Lexar's high-speed architecture, just like they can with Sandisk's pro CF cards. Indeed, Lexar guarantees that the card will work in your camera, or your money back.

Should you get a Lexar or a Sandisk? It's pretty much a toss-up, esp. after Sandisk seems to have fixed the QA problems that plagued its flash memory cards a couple years back. My recommendation: just get the one that's cheaper. For the same price, though, the Lexar has Image Rescue, which makes it a better bundle.

Rating:
Summary: DO NOT SHOP HERE!!!
Review: I purchased two Lexar memory cards with a net value of $ 156.21 plus Shipping. I recieved confirmation and a tracking number for the package being sent by the seller. Long and behold NOTHING!!! The USPS said that they printed the sticker but didn't send anything. They said "Contact the Seller"! YEAH RIGHT... Contact Who???? Don't make the mistake I made and go to a professional seller. It will save you a TON OF FRUSTRATION.

Rating:
Summary: Fast and reliable
Review: I'm using the 1GB 80x Lexar card with a Nikon D70 digital SLR and it has worked extremely well. There are cards with more storage but for your average amateur photographer there is enough space to hold plenty of shots. The card is very fast, writing at 12MB per second, so even shooting at maximum resolution means you don't have to wait. Of course, in 2 years a 4 or 8 Gig card will probably cost the same, but for now this is a great card for the money. Highly recommended.

Rating:
Summary: Simple Math
Review: It's as simple as: Fast Camera + Fast Flash Memory = Fast Writing with no lag. I have a Canon 20D and I shoot in RAW format all the time. I have had no problems with lag or delays when I'm shooting fast moving helicopters and aircraft. Lexar puts out a great product! I only wish I had purchased a 2GB card.

Rating:
Summary: Not as fast as i'd hoped
Review: The only disadvantage of my Nikon D100 is the number of pictures you can take in Raw format. I had hoped that this card would improve that but still I can only shoot 3 pictures at a time and have to wait nearly 30 sec before I can take another one. It is a great, and affordable, card for shooting in jpg format though.

Rating:
Summary: Good product - but don't buy it here....
Review: The seller that offers the product doesn't ship the product properly wrapped! It is an expensive and fragile item to be shipped in a simple envelop!! The product box and invoice were completely torn when I received it. Not worth the hassle - besides, they charge a high shipping fee for not even shipping the product in a box!!!

Rating:
Summary: Works well but Write Acceleration Technology may not be used
Review: This Compact Flash card works very well with my Canon EOS 20D but I found out (Lexar's web site) that Lexar's Write Acceleration Technology is not supported by Canon (at least not officially). So may be for Canon camera's owners it's not worth buying the 1GB 80x card when the 1 GB 40x would suffice.

Rating:
Summary: Excellenet product
Review: With the larger megapixel requirements of todays cameras the extra space and speed of this card is most heartily welcome! I have not used the repair software included on the card and hope to never need it, but I'm glad its there. (be sure to copy the software before formating the card or it will be gone!)