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Sony High Speed 2 GB Memory Stick Pro Duo
by jeluge
I got this memory card a couple of years ago to go with my camera. This memory card is exclusively used in sony products, meaning that it is often considerably more expensive than the more standard SD cards. On the bright side at least you know you are getting a SONY product.
It comes with an adapter to convert it to memory ... stick duo. Although this could be useful to some, I have never used it as I have never come across something that takes a memory stick duo.
Although it says its 'high speed', personally I cant really see the difference between these and the normal cards. The only reason I got a 'high speed' one is because it was on offer and cheaper than the others. So if your thinking of buying on the basis of this, just buy one of the normal ones if they are cheaper.
The capacity of this card is very good in my opinion, on my 7MP camera I can take 585 full resolution photos on this card or 26 mins of high quality film. Which is plenty of space for me, but this may differ for others.
The build quality of this is reasonable, but is i a little flimsy. After about a year a small piece of plastic broke off, but this did not affect its workings, i just have to be careful inserting it. Also, the text has faded so it looks blank, but again this is just a cosmetic issue.
Overall, this is a good memory card, although in comparison, I cant see the difference between 'high speed' and the normal cards.
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Sandisk 8 GB Memory Stick Pro Duo
by cognition
INTRODUCTION
The Memory Stick Pro format of memory card was originally a joint effort between Sony and Sandisk. This was followed by Memory Stick Duo, which was much smaller in physical size, in order to fit into handheld devices, however because of file size limitations, the Memory Stick Pro Duo format of memory cards was then ... developed to allow for far larger file capacities.
Sony is the name that primarily comes to mind with the Memory Stick Pro Duo format. Most of their digital cameras support the format, as well as some Sony Ericsson phones, and the Sony PlayStation Portable (PSP). Often the prevalence of Sony on the market can somewhat overshadow the fact that Sandisk also have memory cards in this format on offer, at comparable high quality, and usually at a lower price.
While Memory Stick Pro Duos can be found in sizes from 128mb up to 32gb (and maybe soon even more), this review is of the Sandisk 8gb Memory Stick Pro Duo. I got this for my Sony PSP, and having paid about £18, I thought I had found a good balance between price and capacity at the time (April 2010).
BUILD QUALITY
I believe you can get the memory stick in blue, black and transparent. Mine is blue. It was the default colour I got sent from the store, which was a seller on the Amazon Marketplace. The memory stick is made of hard plastic, and if you touch it with your fingers, you can feel that the serial number is engraved into the plastic. Obviously, I haven't put it through too much abuse, but when you hold it between your fingers, you can tell it's well made. It's not going to break unless you put considerable force into trying to break it.
PERFORMANCE
The card was instantly recognized by both my card readers (one external usb card reader and the internal one on my laptop), and also my Sony PSP. Transfer speeds are stated as being 15Mbps, which is stated as being sufficient for real time playback of DVD quality video. In real terms, transfer speeds are reasonable. I think I spent about 10-15 minutes filling up the memory stick. The only thing I have to compare with is a fake (counterfeit) Sony memory stick, that I got with my PSP from eBay, and the Sandisk card was noticably faster. Often with products that work as expected it can be difficult to expand too much on performance and operation. It's all rock solid in every aspect.
WATCH OUT FOR COUNTERFEITS
When you are looking for a cheap memory stick, it's very tempting to have a look at eBay, and there are some seemingly very good deals to be had there. However, do note that there is a very thriving counterfeit market for memory sticks, and this is particularly strong and prevalent on eBay. The memory stick brand most heavily counterfeited is Sony, however, I've heard rumours there might be counterfeits of other brands, such as Sandisk, around as well. Basically, the counterfeit cards will most of the time look almost identical to the real cards, so it can be challenging to tell a difference visually. However, usually they are much slower and the build quality is inferior. There can also be horrific cases of the memory cards being sold as having a certain capacity while the real capacity is a low lower. In these cases the cards are formatted in a special way so that when you copy files to the card it will behave as if it has the advertised amount of space and it will allow you to copy that amount of files, but the files will in fact be corrupted when they are copied. My personal experience with counterfeit memory sticks is limited to when I got my Sony PSP second hand on eBay. It came with a memory stick with a couple of games on it, and within my first thirty minutes with the PSP it had crashed twice. Transfer speeds to/from the memory stick was painstakingly slow, and when I tried to eject the card, the build quality was so low than when I attempted to insert the card into my usb memory stick reader, the card litarally broke. Since I got my hands on the real and proper Sandisk memory stick reviewed here, I have been using the PSP for probably 15 hours or so without one single crash. The moral of this paragraph is, don't fall for what might seem like a very good deal on eBay. Buy from a reputable seller. I was even nervous about buying from an Amazon marketplace seller, so I thoroughly researched their feedback, and it was all good. With memory sticks it's better to spend a few pounds more and know for sure that you have a genuine product.
CONCLUSION
I paid £18 including delivery from an Amazon Marketplace seller (April 2010). In a proper shop you could pay as much as £30 (June 2010). I would wholeheartedly recommend the memory card for anyone in need of this capacity storage in the Memory Stick Pro Duo format. I feel that I found the perfect balance between price and capacity at the time. There are faster cards with higher capacity to be had, but at a significantly higher price. Depending on your needs, you may find you can get away with getting a lower capacity card as well.
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Sony 4 GB Memory Stick Pro Duo
by ridgeway27
I purchased this in Dubai - got it for a bargain price, and it has not let me down. The internal memory on my Sony camera isnt great, but with this sized memory card i have never filled it up - and that is also with the highest resolution pictures being taken, on the lowest, i think im half way through the memory and it would still allow ... me to save over 9999 pictures, and as someone who loves taking pics that is great! it also means that i do not have to upload the pics and delete them immediately. i still have vids and pics saved from when i first purchased my camera (you can transfer files saved on the cam to the memory card) and edit, work on them. transfer is easy enough as you can connect with the leads or insert memory card into laptop or PC. it's just fantastic memory storage, and perfect for holidays where you may be taking lots of snaps/vids!
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