How Do You Test Flash Memory Cards?

I’ve always wondered… which is the best memory card type in the market right now? Is CF better than SD, xD or Memory Sticks?

I did a little research on this and always came out with more questions than answers. There will always be issues with the device where you plug the card. Software in a digital camera for example can be a great factor in writing speed performance of a memory card. Some tested it the flash cards on different cameras but you can imagine how toher factors come into play if this is the case.

The best idea for testing these things was made in this website at Hjreggel.net. The idea was that to test the read and write speeds of the different memory card types on card readers while they download or upload on a PC. This has it’s downside as well since the performance of these cards downgrade in this process plus some use the USB flash drives for transfer. But this test is a very good one on making all things equal.

In the tests, the SD variety specifically Transcend SD 150x 4GB, was the winner plus two other SD varieties winning the silver and bronze. The closest rival was Compact Flash with another Transcend product, this one 8GB, doing a very good job.