Have I been sold a fake Sandisk card?

Peter69

Peter69

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I have just received a 8GB Sandisk Extreme Pro card (95MB/s) and I am suspicious about its authenticity.
I have tried it in 2 laptops and can't get more then 45MB/s out of it.

Has anyone bought one to compare it to?

If these are real has anyone got any idea why they appear so slow?

The packaging is a cardboard box with a slip together clamshell PVC style inner case.

Here are some pics (the rear is more likely to be the tell tail)
20140927_173148 by pbfield, on Flickr

20140927_173008 by pbfield, on Flickr
 
Guess? Where else would you find 95% of fake SD Cards - EBay. UK seller how guaranteed they were the real thing (of course he did).
 
Are you talking read or write speeds?

Either way, I would expect ANY card bought from ebay to be fake.
 
On eBay there's a guide on how to spot fake SanDisk cards. Since it's such a problem, I'm not sure why they still allow them to be listed.
 
both are slow write is about 45MB/s Read is just a little bit under 40MB/s
I haven't used any test software just tried coping files in Win 8.1 an read the pretty graph that pops up.
(It ttok me ages to clear out junk that CrystalDiskMark loaded)
 
Nice one Joe, that's fairly conclusive.

You can also see in the OPs photos that the print quality in the black on the label is pretty naff.
 
Definitely Fake.
No SanDisk logo, no row of dots, poor moulding and I can see the circuit board on mine.

Ebay police here we come

Thanks for your help and the pics
 
On the Sandisk website you can do a we chat give them the serial number and they can tell if it's fake or not
 
Ok, all mine are the same as Joe Turners, with no serial number above 'MADE IN CHINA'
 
The only way to confirm it is contact sandisk. I've recently contact them but I need to send through photos, serial numbers etc. interestingly the sandisk rep did say it's possible to have the same serial number on two cards. I have some 90mb/s that are similar to yours, I purchased them directly from amazon (not marketplace), amazon are an authorised seller so they should be supplied with genuine cards. That said I have some 30mbs sad cards that are similar to joes. I've yet to get back sandisk as I haven't had the time do all of what they require, I do have 10 sd cards to check! Also read and write speeds are different from what I understand, I think they are faster reading than writing.
 
I've always avoided buying cards from ebay, there are just too many fakes out there. Spend a little more and get the real thing from a reputable dealer.
 
@rob-nikon that is interesting.
Your cards that look the same as mine, do they perform correctly? What speeds are you achieving?
 
right never ever seen green colour on sandisk before. I don't think green is part of their brand colour. they use gold, red and black mostly and white.

report this to ebay as 1) you should be covered by the counterfeit law 2) they need to know as this guy is selling counterfeit and needs to be stopped and reported to the police. 3) probably should report this to the police but only after you get your money back through ebay or whatever system there is. and in case they need you to return the card which I can't imagine it is sensible as you are returning evidence back to the counterfeiter.

ebay is completely s*** regarding to buyer rights etc etc. I have been done by a couple of sellers trying to flog off dead computer parts as used ones but ebay wouldn't do anything against them nor paying back my postage. If this is counterfiet, the investigation required will be time consuming and require expertise which I suspect ebay will not do at all. so basically if you have paid using paypal and credit card you should also raise this with the credit card company see if they can bypass ebay/paypal and get your money back directly.

also don't buy from ebay on these small consumer goods. far too easily to be counterfeited and it is just not worth it...
 
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ricky1980 said:
right never ever seen green colour on sandisk before. I don't think green is part of their brand colour. they use gold, red and black mostly and white.

report this to ebay as 1) you should be covered by the counterfeit law 2) they need to know as this guy is selling counterfeit and needs to be stopped and reported to the police. 3) probably should report this to the police but only after you get your money back through ebay or whatever system there is. and in case they need you to return the card which I can't imagine it is sensible as you are returning evidence back to the counterfeiter.

ebay is completely s*** regarding to buyer rights etc etc. I have been done by a couple of sellers trying to flog off dead computer parts as used ones but ebay wouldn't do anything against them nor paying back my postage. If this is counterfiet, the investigation required will be time consuming and require expertise which I suspect ebay will not do at all. so basically if you have paid using paypal and credit card you should also raise this with the credit card company see if they can bypass ebay/paypal and get your money back directly.

also don't buy from ebay on these small consumer goods. far too easily to be counterfeited and it is just not worth it...
Click to expand...

Looking at the back of mine, the colour around the contact is black, there is no green.
 
I've asked the seller if it is genuine and told him if he says yes, i'll send it to sandisk for verification.
If he says no he loses cash, gets blocked on Ebay and reported to trading standards (and sandisk)
 
The price you paid is usually the big giveaway, you usually get the software rescue pro with it, the genuine ones are packed really well too
 
@rob-nikon all I did to check speed was copy a 3gb,50mb & 5mb file to and from the SD card. Windows reports the MB/s transfer speed as it transfers. Not sure what Apple devices do
 
Guys, the card is not green. Read the thread, post #12.

Most fakes are 'real' cards, of the stated capacity, but slow and therefore cheap to buy. Then fakers just stick a different label on. It's almost impossible to tell if a card is fake, without comparing and testing both real and fake side by side. Send to Sandisk.

When you load a fake card, it will likely come up with the right capacity, even if it's not. And when you test the data transfer speed, even legit ones don't come up to anything like the quoted speed so that's not much help. And if the card is slow, as a fake card will be, unless you really hammer it with long bursts in continuous mode, most users will never notice it anyway.
 
Hi

Do a Google search for the software fakefixer that little utility will tell you what you have really bought.

Also as said above don't buy memory or batteries from eBay or Amazon, they are both full of fake sellers that are either based in And ship from China, or based in China but claim to be in the UK and just drop ship from the UK and often from Amazon.

Paul
 
Not had any problems with my ultras or the lexar cards. All my sandisks have been bang on in terms of the transfer speed quoted. And the lexars quote minimum speeds thus all my lexars are running way above the speeds on the card. I am not sure where the sentiment of accepting substandard card speeds come from...I would have returned the slow ones and ask for an exchange. If the card states 90mbs then I expect it to reach that speed genuine or not. For information my lexars states 60mbs all 6 cards reads around 90mbs...
 
I'd avoid sandisk from ebay but have bought other brands like Toshiba from UK sellers without problems.
In this way sandisk are a victim of their perceived success as no one bothers to cop the less popular makes.
 
Have you tried it in different USB readers as these are not all equal as well - some are far better than others?

It would be worth verifying that it isn't the reader holding things up rather than the card itself.

Also, theoretical maximum speeds are different from what the average user will see in real life situations. You need to test a known genuine card next to the fake on the same system and run the test multiple times.

Another thing to consider is is the card the only thing attached to the USB bus at the time? You may have multiple USB ports but if there is only one controller on the motherboard then they are all sharing it and that will knock the results down substantially. USB is a shared system so even if there is something else connected but not actively running your results will also be affected. Eg just having a USB stick connected but you aren't actively copying to or from it can effect the results.
 
No SD card will perform exactly the same. If the SD memories are made within the same batch and the cards are made within the same batch then you will have identical speeds. But the read speed should be what's printed. I dunno how the sandisk's speed works on the extreme pro. But if it is a maximum speed it isnt good. I prefer lexar which quotes minimum speed I.e. guaranteed speeds which is honest and correct also 99% of the time you get more than that :)
 
Most speeds are quoted as maximum theoretical and never reach that in real life. Pretty much the same as the mpg in your car, always a fair bit lower than what the manufacturer quotes.
 
Ploddles said:
Most speeds are quoted as maximum theoretical and never reach that in real life. Pretty much the same as the mpg in your car, always a fair bit lower than what the manufacturer quotes.
Click to expand...
Is that for sandisk? But my ultras (these are old BTW) are bang on the quoted speeds tho 45mbs is 45mbs
 
If you look on their website it says "Speed Up To" 95MB/s.

USB 2 though has a max theoretical speed of only 60MB/s.

You need to go up to USB 3 to get more, so a USB 3 reader in a USB 3 port will let you go up to 500MB/s usable, excluding overheads. In practice though a lot less.
 
ricky1980 said:
Not had any problems with my ultras or the lexar cards. All my sandisks have been bang on in terms of the transfer speed quoted. And the lexars quote minimum speeds thus all my lexars are running way above the speeds on the card. I am not sure where the sentiment of accepting substandard card speeds come from...I would have returned the slow ones and ask for an exchange. If the card states 90mbs then I expect it to reach that speed genuine or not. For information my lexars states 60mbs all 6 cards reads around 90mbs...
Click to expand...

Lexar is one of a few manufacturers that doesn't actually quote Write speeds at all. Read speed is basically irrelevant, it's Write that matters - how quickly the card can clear the camera's buffer.

Quoted speeds are always over-stated compared to reality. If you check any card for Write speed, by any method, you'll be lucky if it achieves half the quoted rate.

The only way to be sure of getting a genuine card is to buy from a retailer supplied by the official importer. Once you have the card, it's not easy to tell if its fake or not with any certainty. I don't know how widespread these fakes are, and I'd guess actually pretty rare, but fakers only copy the big brands like Sandisk and Lexar.

If it's of any interest, I recently spend a week testing 30-odd cards for Digital SLR Photography magazine. It's in the current October-dated edition.
 
I will check my lexar write speed...if I recall it correctly it was slower but still above the quoted speed. Anyway I don't do lots of conituous shooting so write speed is less critical to me. Where read speed is important for everyone and everything as it impacts the replay off the camera display as well as speed up import process in lightroom.
 
ricky1980 said:
I will check my lexar write speed...if I recall it correctly it was slower but still above the quoted speed. Anyway I don't do lots of conituous shooting so write speed is less critical to me. Where read speed is important for everyone and everything as it impacts the replay off the camera display as well as speed up import process in lightroom.
Click to expand...

Read speed is far less important because the camera cannot read and show an image before it has been written, and read speed is always higher than write speed anyway. When downloading to computer, even a high spec PC with USB3, Lightroom will be the bottle-neck.

Basically, fast write speed cards are very important if you shoot a lot of long bursts in continuous mode, in Raw, and max out the buffer. With a slow card there, the camera can lock up for a minute or even two and you'll miss stuff. But if you don't do that, or only shoot short bursts, or shoot JPEGs, so the buffer doesn't get completely filled with every burst, you just don't need a fast card.
 
Disregard the continuous shooting requirement, is that right light room is the bottle neck in the import process? I would thought it is whatever is the slowest in the system from the SD card to the USB interface to the system cache to the system HDD/SSD speeds. But I would image the SD card is still the slowest out of them all given it is in usb3, assuming no settings applied through the import session i.e. simply copying in photos. This maybe my complete ignorance of how things work.

Also asking a SD card to do 6+fps continuous isnt what SD card built for. You should look for a camera with cf slot for that sort of work.
 
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The only cards that I've ever bought from eBay a few years ago were fake sandisk
ever since I've only bought from reputable supplier's, reliable cards are too important it's not worth the risk to save a couple of pounds
 
I have now completed a very scientific test. On my D5100, set to raw 1/2000s and lens cap on I fired the camera continuously until the buffer ran out. I recorded the shutter sound and imported them in to Audition.
My Park Cameras purchased Sandisk Ultra fired 15 times in 8.282seconds. 0.247s for buffered shots and then averaged 1.579/0.542 saving to card (weird how saving appeared to gallop?)
The suspect card fired 15 times in 17.67second!!!! averaging 0.247s for buffered shots and then 4.725/0.507 saving to card.

I think that if a 30MB/s card beats a 90MB/s from the same manufacturer something is very wrong
Looking at these numbers I'd say the ExtremePro is actually 3 times slower then the Ultra. I presume the second figure is to do with the way the camera compresses file for saving?

The supplier has emailed back telling me either to send it to Sandisk for authenticity or return it for them to confirm its authenticity. Although they said it would affect the refund time. The supplier was Day2Dayshop based in Jersey.
 
I hardly ever buy from a shop which doesn't list a telephone number but only relies on email.

How often have you heard someone say 'I didn't receive your email'?
 
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