So after a Sandisk Extreme SDHC 30MB/s* or whatnot decided to die on me right in the middle of shooting a bloody fireworks (this one) I just shrugged my shoulders and went all, well, you know? Shit happens. Get over it. Smile. Then I kicked that table and now my toes are numb.

It was the second, rather expensive, Sandisk card to go belly-up on a job, the third in total. In different cameras, but all of them after about two months of usage. So I donned my spy hat and investigated. That is, searched on Google. The shit I found made me wonder about quality control – not necessarily on Sandisk’s part – just as much as about internet culture as a whole.

There’s camera manufacturers trying to tweak their firmware to accommodate Sandisk cards. There’s a shitload of people going all “never had any problem with them, so don’t buy cheap copies on eBay”. But at least in my case, I bought them cards in two different legit, brick-and-mortar shops. And they both failed on me rather spectacularly. The cards, not the shops.

My ages-old Transcends still work. My Panasonics still work. And not cards from the lowly levels of classmanship, no, we’re talking speedy Class 10 shit here. For half the price, without the marketing bullshit telling me how awesome their new SD cards were, plus a funky brand name and an arbitrary MB/s number next to it.

But still I’m told by too many people: “Well, don’t buy pirated copies and stop bitching”. Mine aren’t knock-offs. Or rather, if they are, two of the largest Swiss retailers buy from the Chinese Mafia. Or something.

Which would make some sense considering their corresponding corporations are at each others commercial throats. And at least one of said corporations doesn’t seem to mind cutting corners.

Hrm.