Kingston 8 GB Class 6 SDHC Flash Memory Card SD6/8GB Reviews

Average Customer Rating - 4.2 out of 5 stars

166 customer reviews

Buyer Beware, Get What You Pay For, September 15, 2009
Summary: Kingston Class 6 (6MB/s) card being sold at barely Class 4 (4MB/s) show, yet it still can't keep up next to the real-world performance that an older Panasonic Class 4 SDHC can deliver. I occasionally ever leave reviews, but when a major brand misrepresents..

Bottom Line: I am requesting a repayment, thank you Amazon! I will also never pay a premium for Kingston memory for my cameras, workstations, or servers, nor would I recommend it to my friends or even strangers! The performance is probably not striking in non-streaming applications and smaller digital cameras, so mileage may vary.

Real World: I bought this card for a modern handheld Aiptek 1080P GVS video camera and all was surefire at 720P 60fps, then I switched it to 1080P and kept getting an error with the camera stating "slow memory card" in 1-2 seconds of recording.

The camera requirements is individual for Class 4, but is compatible with Class 6, I purchased the Class 6 for the extra performance and as a righteous solid baseline performance against a future generic brand 32GB card purchase.

So I go and found the biggest SDHC card I could find from an old camera, a Panasonic 2GB Class 4, and the camera worked perfectly, swapped put a bet on and forth, did a format on the Kingston, same results every time.

So I downloaded H2testw which is primarily a capacity test, but also reports sustained read/write deeds. I tested both cards on a Windows system in the camera using the USB cable with the just variable being the SDHC card itself.

To summarize the Kingston website - SDHC cards can be rate different ways by different manufacturers, but a class 4 is supposed to be at least 4MB/s, and a class 6 is at least possible 6 MB/s. The rating can be based on write speed, read speed which is typically faster than write speed, or some combination referred to as transfer rate. Kingston states that their ratings are base on write performance.

So here are the results which runs for several minutes since it also verifies dimensions:

Kingston 4GB Class 6

Warning: Only 3846 of 3850 MByte tested.
Test finished without errors.
You can now delete the trial files *.h2w or verify them again.
Writing speed: 3.58 MByte/s
Reading speed: 6.50 MByte/s
H2testw v1.4

Panasonic 2GB Class 4

Warning: Only 1834 of 1921 MByte tested.
Test finished without errors.
You can now delete the trial files *.h2w or verify them again.
Writing speed: 3.36 MByte/s
Reading speed: 6.22 MByte/s
H2testw v1.4

I also tested a micro SD 8GB sandisk card from my cell phone that went at 16.1 MB/S writes, 18.3 MB/S reads.

So the difference is that the Kingston is individual 6% faster on writes, and 4% faster on reads against a chip where it should be at least possible 50% faster. I never considered Panasonic a leading brand, let alone the #1 perceived brand.

The bigger difference is that even though overall performing is really about the same, the minimum write recitation must be much lower than the average in order to impose a recording error with the camera.

As another reviewer said, the Kingston brand is not what it used to be..

Stay away, December 10, 2008
Kingston have quickly become my least favorite brand of flash memory. Back when digital cameras be new, Kingston was a dub I could trust for compatibility and customer service. I have used nothing else contained by my digital SLR, point 'n shoot, and digital video camera. Early in 2008 I purchased five Kingston sdhc cards. I ran an exhaustive memory trial which of course passed. They worked fine in my Pentax K20 digital camera. Later surrounded by 2008 I purchased another five Kingston sdhc cards of the identical type. My memory test run fine. But, when I used them in my camera I was solitary able to shoot about 5 to 10 photos until that time the camera reported memory read and write errors on all 5 cards. Switching back to the elder batch of memory worked fine.

I emailed Kingston for advice. They chose not to respond. So, I open an RMA to return the five bad cards. I received a prompt automated email response and I sent the last 5 sdhc cards spinal column. They sent me another five sdhc cards from the SAME LOT. Surprise, they did not work either. This time, I faxed them a letter to support them of a bad lot of memory, gave them the lot number, and asked if they could sustain me with my problem. Again, Kingston failed to respond.

I would to some extent throw these bad memory cards into the trash and loose money rather than consent to Kingston sell them to another unsuspecting consumer. Something happened at Kingston between Spring of 2008 and Fall of 2008. My guess is they switched their business process for the worse. Their customer service used to respond to emails but no longer. A lifetime warranty does no good if they only swap your impossible memory with more bad memory.

Broke down twice already, April 11, 2009
Probably I get the bad one, but this thing broke down twice already, near all my vacation pictures within it, twice gone. Money is not the issue here. But there is no way I can draw from back those vacation pictures again. Before I used the card I already formatted it beside my digital camera so compatibility should not be any issue at all. THe first time it broke down, both my computers cannot recognize it so I concluded up has to reformat the card again. The second time it cant be recognized at adjectives leaving the card useless and all the pictures contained by it unreachable. Save yourself and buy better card. You dont wanna end up losing your pictures just for the sake of this cheapo card. I am limitation you, dont be like me, lesson learned the rugged way..

lost not only money but memories..., March 21, 2009
worked fine at first, next one not so good evening just stoped working camera can't read it, computer can't read it, and adjectives pictures that were there be lost... no more Kingston for me.

More Kingston Junk, June 8, 2007
Worked for 3 weeks, then "memory error" occurred. Have not hear back from Kingston yet. Unreliable. Junk. Looking into SanDisk

Card bungled within 3 weeks, April 3, 2009
Used this for just lower than 3 weeks in my Canon DSLR. Then it failed near Canon "Err 02". Fortunately I didn't lose any images. I've been satisfied with Kingston products before, so maybe I'm unlucky. It's going back!

Bad Card, December 22, 2008
I bought this card along with a Panasonic Lz8 digital camera and much to my chagrin, the card have a memory card reading error. I formatted the card but it did not help. I bought the card for a little over $10 so it's not worth my time to dispatch it back or try to get my money backbone. I'll chalk it up as a lesson to not buy Kingston Memory again. I have used Sandisk in days gone by and they work great. I put in an old 512k Sandisk card within my Panasonic Lz8 and it seems to write just as rapid as this card. I guess you really do get what you pay for!

Quality, Compatible, Fast (for me), September 26, 2009
As is other my experience with Kingston they make talent products at a middle price. You can find cheaper as well as more expensive cards with impossible to tell apart storage and speed. I feel they are more consistant than many of their peers.

As for compatibility I own never had an issue.

I have used this card surrounded by the following:

Nikon DSLR's
Nikon point & shoots
Canon DSLR
Canon point & shoots
Panasonic Lumix Cameras
HP Computers
Sony Vaio Notebook
Dell Computers
IBM Computers

For me their cards have worked as they should in a wide open array of products I own. I think the read/write class 6 are fast and at the moment class 6 is the industry standard.

If you purchase any SD card past its sell-by date Amazon, test it in ALL the items you may use. If any or adjectives of them are NOT compatible you can return it. Amazon has a great return policy and you usually have 30 days. Test the SD card and if you enjoy issues return it and try another or another brand. PNY, Sandisk, Transcend and many others that I have used also worked surrounded by all of the above products I listed.

Kingston 8GB Class 6 SDHC Card and 2 GB SD - Great Price and Performance, But Check Your Compatibility!, April 30, 2008

I come here to post my review for the Kingston 8GB Class 6 SDHC Card. Then I realized that several products and reviews had be collected on this page. The Kingston 16 GB SDHC Class 4 Memory Card is also now being sold here. I truly own and use almost all the products listed here except for the 4 GB SDHC card from Kingston. I do own other 4 GB SDHC cards, just not that one. I will try to list as much info as possible to facilitate all those shopping for one of these Kingston memory cards.

The 2 GB, 2 GB Elite Pro, and 2 GB Ultimate Cards

The 2 GB regular SD card from Kingston is pretty comparable to the Sandisk card, which I also own. It's a steady performer at a right price, still only around $10. Just for the sake of clarity, the technical details speed rating of 5 MB/sec read speed and 1.5 MB/sec write speed applies to the essential card. The Elite card is 50x, giving you up to 10 MBs read and 5 MBs write and the Ultimate card basically doubles those numbers.

The only criticism I can detail about the basic 2 GB card is that within my Nikon camera I definitely notice the fill after taking pictures. That was the inventive reason why I stepped up to the Elite Pro and Ultimate Cards. With the Elite Pro I experienced only a mild amendment in the performance, but the Ultimate really give me a noticeable improvement.

Is it worth it to buy a faster 2 GB card for twice or three times the price? I would in fact say "NO" and here's the reason why. 2 GB used to be seriously of storage, but now 8 GB is the benchmark. 16 GB SDHC cards are soon to become common too. Most relations who are buying 2 GB cards are doing so because they are basic users or have elder devices that can't use larger SDHC cards. For that reason, few people will want to take-home pay the extra cash at the 2 GB size. Get the basic card if you simply need the largest compatible card.

My SDHC specific review points

As long as your devices are compatible with the SDHC format, 8 GB is the style to go. Granted 4 GB is a nice size too, but most users who need cards that are SDHC compliant are probably using it for RAW print storage on high end cameras. To me 8 GB size on this guy makes it perfect for giant capacity storage.

The class 6 speed is the fastest speed available in mass marketplace SDHC cards, meaning that you would have to step up to much more expensive professional rigs to modernize upon the speed of this 8 GB card. Class 6 guarantees minimum transfer speeds of 6 MBs, but I've gotten speeds on the order of 20MBs writing and reading! Those are indisputable world numbers I have been competent to get. It should be noted that I buy a lot of external frozen drives with USB 2.0 speed ratings of 480Mbs that have actual production speeds of smaller amount than this guy! That makes this card perfect for professional photographers storing pictures contained by RAW image formats.

The 8 GB SDHC Class 6 is on par with the Sandisk Extreme III cards that are going on for $15 more per card on average. If you don't have an SDHC reader, you may opt to get the roll with a reader included to download your pics. Sandisk SDSDRX38192 Extreme III SDHC 8GB Card with MicroMate Reader

General SDHC and SD Card Tips

There are a few tips that I've intellectual the hard way through buying TOO MANY different memory cards.
1. Make sure your device is compatible beside the card! Even in regular SD cards, some older electronics aren't compatible beside that large of a size (2 GB). In terms of SDHC cards, fashion sure your camera or other device is SDHC compatible. SDHC is different from regular SD and only newer devices tend to have built-in compatibility
2. Once you install this surrounded by your camera or device, you will generally want to format the card with your compatible device's interface. That is because the standard formats for undisputed devices, particularly Canon, are different from the factory installed format
3. Just like your devices, most computer SD card reader are not compatible with the SDHC format. So use a card reader or download the pictures via USB connection to the camera near the card still installed.
4. For some reason, placing the card in the locked position allows some elder laptops to still read it. This is just to be used in a pinch however, and it won't apply to adjectives systems
5. If you did not properly format your card, you may be able to save things to it and next have them "disappear." If this happens to you, spawn sure you use the software recovery tools BEFORE you try to save anything else to your card. That route, you can retrieve your images without over-writing them.
6. Make sure you know what you are going to use this card for. Once you own set up everything and ensured it's all compatible, you still hold to decide on speed. If you are using this for storing RAW images instead of JPEGs or HD video, step up to the faster class 6 speed format if you can afford it.
7. If you are going to salary more for a faster speed, make sure your device can benefit from it. I've read, for example, that Kodak cameras are set to a fixed voltage and cannot go faster than standard speed. So the extra currency spent on Class 4, 5, or 6 is basically wasted.

Conclusion

I've have good luck with adjectives my Kingston memory cards. If you only can go up to 2 GB base on your device limits, save the dosh and stick with the basic card. If you can use SDHC, the 8 GB SDHC card is awesome as long as your device is SDHC compatible. An SDHC card reader can be bought separately if your PC doesn't own a compatible slot. Make sure you review your needs; if you have a glorious capacity camera (10 Megapixels or more) and are storing videos or RAW metaphors, the extra cash for the 8GB card is worth it.

Enjoy!

Great class 6 card!, January 6, 2009
I bought this class 6 SDHC to speed up my Cannon PowerShot 570 IS's recovery time. Recovery time after respectively shot is less than half of what it be with a standard 2GB SD card. Great card; I yet to own any problems with a Kingston memory card.

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