Shopping around – Memory Cards
Yes – I am one of those people that will shop around and research things like hell. I blame my father – he does the same and has drilled “research” into us as kids. But in all honesty – I do enjoy it. I’m not a gambling man – but I do enjoy saving money – each to their own.
I usually do this for anything in £ double figures and above really – putting varying amount of effort into it.
I have on occasion thought that I should do a website for it and automate it – but by now there are plenty of those around e.g. http://www.camerapricebuster.co.uk (great site BTW)
They sometimes fall short though – and at the moment, because I’m looking to go to Kenya to cover a friends wedding next week – I’m looking for memory cards. I have 2x 4Gb and a couple others e.g. 1x 2Gb and 1x 1Gb But as I shoot RAW at weddings – they have a habbit of filling up very quickly. In the UK I’ve lugged my netbook around with me and offloaded cards onto there as they get full – but in Kenya I want to be less reliant on it – so decided to buy a big card – either 16Gb or 32Gb – so had a look around.
The main two makes in terms of pro cards are Lexar and Sandisk – so I’ve decided to stick with those. There seems to be two main speeds level available at the moment – 400x and 600x
My cards at the moment – from those mentioned above I have 3 Sandisk and 1 Lexar – the most recent 3 being Sandisk – but I’m not averse to trying Lexar again…. especially if the price is right.
So here are the Pro level Compact Flash cards that I found on the main sites :
| Make | Speed | Size | 7day | Amazon | Warehouse | Jessops | play.com | MyMemory |
| Lexar | 600x (UDMA) | 16Gb | £80 | £82 | £139 | £95 | £80 | |
| 600x (UDMA) | 32Gb | £164 | £239 | £177 | ||||
| 400x (60Mb/s) | 16Gb | £60 | £58 | £79 | £61 | £53 | ||
| 400x (60Mb/s) | 32Gb | £117 | £105 | £139 | £100 | |||
| Sandisk | 600x (90Mb/s) | 16Gb | £100 | £91 | £149 | £159 | £111 | |
| 600x (90Mb/s) | 32Gb | £195 | £164 | £235 | £300 | £201 | ||
| 400x (60Mb/s) | 16Gb | £60.64 | £79 | £95 | £61 | £73 | ||
| 400x (60Mb/s) | 32Gb | £113 | £161 | £180 | £145 | £130 | ||
| 400x (60Mb/s) | 2x16Gb | £143 | ||||||
| UDAM7 – 100Mb/s | 128Gb | £635 |
(7day = 7dayshop; Warehouse = warehouse express
Since I’m not shooting video or sports – I think size will be the main priority here, and also ease in a way – if 2x16Gb cost the same as one 32Gb – I’d go for the 32 just so that I don’t have to swap out.
On a couple of lines – there is quite some saving to be had! E.g. compare the 16Gb 600x at 7dayshop for £80 compared to that at Warehouse Express for £139! A saving of £59 on an £80 item! Shopping around is not to be dismissed. I have bought stuff with Warehouse express for work before and they’re good suppliers – so it’s surprising to see this kind of difference.
If you’re wondering – yes the 128Gb card exists! And no I won’t buy it 
For my 32Gb craving, and on price generally I think I’m going to go for the Lexar 400x 32Gb from either Amazon or MyMemory – checking on postage costs and stock levels. Hope Lexar won’t let me down and make me regret swaping from Sandisk – shouldn’t do really.
One final word of warning – memory cards are one of the most copied / counterfited items around. So if a price is too good to be true from an eBay or Amazon Marketplace seller – then it probably is too good. Have a search – there are lots of counterfeit guides on eBay for checking your cards.
Digital Age
Although I could ramble on for most likely hours on the topic – this is just a quickie.
Just came across an interesting looking trailer about creativity and digital age / culture.
Found it via a link on Chase Jarvis’ Blog post here.
Site for Press Pause Play, looks like it was our March 2011.
You often hear people in various creative outlets bemoan the fact that it’s harder to earn a living due to similar aspects – usually people doing it for free/less. I think the internet and “digital” age are the main 2 contributing factors.
“Digital” – means it’s easy to capture/make/creat/modify e.g. Digital cameras
“Internet” – change distribution, delivery and discovery of content that can be digitised forever.
I guess to some pro photographers I might be part of the problem – I probably work for less than they can, and sometimes for free. But even though the whole Digital thing has emphasised and exaggeration this – I don’t think it’s caused it. It’s always been the case that amateurs or semi-pro’s have chased the heels of the pros.
Pro’s – if you can’t hack it you either need to do it better than the amateurs to justify your fee, do it differently/innovatively, or do something else. That’s how it is, and how it has always beem. (Mind you – I do also sympathise – especially when you see some of the rubbish some people can produce yet get paid)
I wonder what the film will have to say.
