SimpleTech STI-CF/256 256 MB CompactFlash Card

Manufacturer:	SimpleTech Technology
List price:	~~$83.50~~
Our price:	$22.79 that is 73% off!

SimpleTech STI-CF/256 256 MB CompactFlash Card

Average rating: Stars

Crapped out on me.

Sure enough, I tried to get away cheap, and got bit in the you-know-where for it. Three months after buying it, the card is unusable. The lifetime guarantee? You need the original packaging and receipt. I suppose I can only really blame myself for not saving it all, but hey, it was a well reviewed $20 card, right? So now it's a holiday, with everyplace closed, and I have no flash card. You get what you pay for.

SimpleTech STI-CF/256 256 MB CompactFlash Card - SimpleTech Technology

DO NOT BUY FROM AMAZON.COM

Better cards are available from other retailers - just check epinions.com - you will find a whole bunch for $19 or less. Also they deliver, while Amazon does not. The item has label "usually ships in 24 hours", but I have waited 5 (five !) days, and still it was not shipped. Do not buy this card, and check other place than Amazon. The Amazon stinks...

SimpleTech Technology - SimpleTech STI-CF/256 256 MB CompactFlash Card

Fantastic card - unbeatable price

I bought this SimpleTech card in early 2003 and have had great results with it. I have shot over 34,000 pictures on it using my Canon PowerShot G3. I use it extensively with my Dell X5 PDA. For the last month, I have been using it in my new Nikon D70 (over 5000 pictures so far from that). I originally paid about $60 for this card.

The card has never failed me. I have given it extreme use. I also have a 256 MB Sandisk card (it failed me once, and I had it replaced under warranty) and a 256 MB Viking card. I had read a review that the Viking card may not be compatible with the G3, so I never used it in that camera. I used the Viking card only in my Canon Powershot S400. However I did use all three cards in my PDA and in the S400. I have used the SimpleTech and the Sandisk both in my D70, as well as a new Sandisk Ultra II 1 GB card.

By comparison, the Sandisk 256 MB card was definitely the slowest when performing the same tasks. It could not keep up with mp3 playback on my PDA. It has noticibly slower write times for photos on my cameras, especially the G3. The SimpleTech and the Viking cards perform about the same as each other. Neither has noticeable slowness on my PDA. Photo write times on the G3 were acceptable with this SimpleTech card. It really did not cause a delay in shooting dut to waiting for pictures to write to the card.

Interestingly, on the D70, this SimpleTech card still keeps up well. The D70 has an advanced buffering system that can hold several (about 12 at normal quality full resolution) images while writing them to the card. This is so much buffer that rarely so I have the need to exceed this many shots in one burst. Thus, when I am using the SimpleTech card, it really does NOT slow down my shooting at all.

By comparison, I do notice that the D70 finishes writing pictures to my ULTRA II card sooner, especially after a burst of several frames. (based on the blinking light that indicates CF card activity) I really never have the need to shoot a continuous burst of frames all the way to a full 256 MB card.

My conclusion is that this 256 MB SimpleTech card is just about the best way to go for CF memory currently. It will cost you less to buy 4 of these (1 GB) than to buy one 1 GB Ultra II card. And then, if you have one of these fail, you will not be out of memory at a crucial time - because you have 3 other cards to use. And you would be able to get a replacement for the failed card later at your convenience.

I highly recommend using multiple smaller cards over single larger cards. 256 MB is my size of choice, and this is my choice among inexpensive 256 MB cards. At the current price (around $20 at the writing of this review) you can't go wrong!

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