Micro SD is cheaper the normal SD

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bar1

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I was just browsing the esquire online shop,

I am looking for an SD card for my camera, it seems like Micro SD is cheaper then normal SD card.

Any idea why? they are both class 4.
 
Economies of scale mainly,Micro is usually compatible with regular SD using adapters,so it's easier to have 1 factory produce 1million Micro SD rather than 2 factories doing 500 000 of each as an example.

The most-common to manufacture memory density usually is produced in the highest volume and as such has the best pricing point
 
The write speeds on micro cards are much slower than on the bigger ones, so if you plan on taking pictures and looking at them immediately on the screen you might have to wait longer to see them.
 
albert123 said:
yeah its same thing, volume = cheaper.

tip: if you buy the micro one, get one of these,
http://www.dinodirect.com/SIYO-SY-T50-T-Flash-Micro-SD-USB-2-0-Card-Reader.html?cur=ZAR&AFFID=713

makes micro SD cards a breeze to use with computers :)
Click to expand...

I bought the Kingston MicroSD recently, came with the MicroSD -> USB reader and a MicroSD -> SD adapter. Pretty nifty.

Pixual said:
The write speeds on micro cards are much slower than on the bigger ones, so if you plan on taking pictures and looking at them immediately on the screen you might have to wait longer to see them.
Click to expand...

That depends on which class MicroSD you get. Write speed won't affect the time taken to load the images :p, that's read speed.
 
Pixual said:
The write speeds on micro cards are much slower than on the bigger ones, so if you plan on taking pictures and looking at them immediately on the screen you might have to wait longer to see them.
Click to expand...

if you buy the same class micro sd as what the normal sd card is then write/read speeds will be identical.
 
thanks guys...guess there is no point in getting a normal SD card.
with the micro one i can use it for my phone or tab as well :-)
 
Silverlight said:
That depends on which class MicroSD you get. Write speed won't affect the time taken to load the images :p, that's read speed.
Click to expand...

The camera still has to write to the card before it can display the picture you just took. If the picture is already on the card then obviously the read time will be faster. Duh...

Good luck finding high speed MicroSD cards to match the OP's price observation.
 
bar1 said:
thanks guys...guess there is no point in getting a normal SD card.
with the micro one i can use it for my phone or tab as well :-)
Click to expand...

@ Bar1 A word of caution !!!!

Please get a Full packaged SD card for use with digital cameras as we have been picking up issues with MicroSD and digital cameras , tried two different brands Kingston and one other TrxxxxxxD and both doing the same thing

Took the same camera and stuck in Full SD card and work 100% , we do not know why as we waiting for feedback from the vendors -
 
They don't all work 100%, the micro SD cards. Bought about 20 this year and 6 have failed, some almost immediately, some after 6 months. Of course you don't know what the customer has got up to with his card, but 80% are used in cameras with an adaptor and the others in phones.
 
Esquire said:
@ Bar1 A word of caution !!!!

Please get a Full packaged SD card for use with digital cameras as we have been picking up issues with MicroSD and digital cameras , tried two different brands Kingston and one other TrxxxxxxD and both doing the same thing

Took the same camera and stuck in Full SD card and work 100% , we do not know why as we waiting for feedback from the vendors -
Click to expand...

Thats the exact same thing that my camera does. I thought it had something to do with the camera not being able to read higher capacity cards. Strange.
 
The faster SD cards are still normal sized. For example, the fastest SDHC card (miniSD) I've seen sold by Kingston is class 10, 100x speed. Which is pretty much the slowest class 10 cards. Esquire sold the 16GB for ~R500 on special.

I bought an SDHC Sandisk Extreme 16GB which is full size SDHC class 10 card, 200x speed for R550.

R50 more and double the speed. And the Sandisk I bought retail, not from a dealer. I haven't seen miniSD cards with the higher speed flavours.

In the end you do pay more for the miniSD, that or Esquire are making a killing from those miniSD cards (doubt it tho as Kingston flash drives are incredibly well priced from them).

Esquire said:
@ Bar1 A word of caution !!!!

Please get a Full packaged SD card for use with digital cameras as we have been picking up issues with MicroSD and digital cameras , tried two different brands Kingston and one other TrxxxxxxD and both doing the same thing
Click to expand...
I can already think of 1 scenario that could cause this problem.

1) Does the camera support SDHC, because most of the microSD cards you sell are SDHC. Any SD card above 4GB is an SDHC card (4GB SD cards are very rare however, they almost always SDHC) .
2) Does the camera support the density they bought (above and beyond the SDHC requirement).

Wikipedia has more on the topic but a quick google should confirm if the problem lies with an uninformed customer or the actual SD card.

Or send me one of them and I'll test with my Canon EOS 600D DSLR ;)

Seriously tho, there is no reason an miniSD card with an adapter should not work. It is 100% according to the specification.
 
Last edited:
Good morning,

I got the 8GB micro sd card yesterday (R78) and it works perfectly.

I have a Nikon S3100
 
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