Up until now, SanDisk memory cards have always obtained good scores in our surveys.  The reason? They have simply been the fastest in their category.   When we received the SDHC  Ultra II 4.0 GB, and even if it wasn’t part of the “Extreme” line (the fastest cards), we expected a high performance card that would challenge the ATP ProMax or even Panasonic Class 6.  However…

Results were good in writing but mediocre in reading

At the start of writing tests, everything went just fine.  The card attained 9.1 MB/s for large files and 8.3 MB/s for the transfer of photos.  This was far from the two leading cards mentioned above but still in the average.   However, where we were really disappointed was in reading.  Speeds outright collapsed - to such an extent that this card was in last place of our survey and even far behind the A-Data Class 2.   We obtained a max of 9.9 MB/s when the best models practically double this speed.  Nevertheless, the card does do rather well in burst mode with our reflex with an average speed of 2.5 photos/second over a series of 30 shots.  A change of pace is perceptible upon the 10th shot.

Finally, this card comes with an SD card reader, the MicroMate.  It’s rather compact and performances are quite good.  In fact, an entire test to it in our survey of memory card readers.