Difference in quality between SmartMedia brands?

[JJHendrix]

I got a gift certificate to buy.com for x-mas and want to get a 128mb smartmedia card for my new digital camera.
buy.com carries 5 different brands of smartmedia cards. does anyone know if there is a difference between any of these brands? (in order of least expensice to most expensive: Delkin, Lexar, Sandisk, Memorex, Verbatim)
sandisk seems like the most reputable, but their warranty is only for 1 year, and their card is $7 more than Delkin, which has a lifetime warranty on their card.
how much difference can there be between these cards?
thanks,
jjhendrix

 

[Fenix793]

I'm not sure exactly but I think some devices aren't compatible with some smartmedia cards. Once again I'm not exactly sure but I've seen firware updates that say stuff like 'is more compatible with a variety of smartmedia cards' and things like that. Personally I would go with the Sandisk one since they seem to be one of the more reputable solid state memory providers.

 

[Nack]

Either a card is compliant with the smartmedia standard, or it isn't. There may be subtle differences in cards, but I don't think any of those differences in smartmedia are worth paying for, and there are only a very few factories in the world that make those things anyway. The "overruns" made in the same factories that would have been some famous brand you have heard of probably just get marked some name you never heard of and sold for less money. If it is compliant, it should work in your camera. If it isn't (indicated by the fact it doesn't work), take it back. Start with the cheapest first, and return them as necessary when/if they fail to work. If they work the first time, odds are they will work for a very long time. If they are not compatible, chances are you will have problems right away. Olympus smartmedia cards are formatted in such a way as to allow a panorama function on certain olympus cameras to work. There is a software flash upgrade for other smartmedia cards out there somewhere to make other cards have this functionality as well, if you have an olympus camera and that is important to you. I have had good luck with olympus, sandisk, viking, and another off brand I forget the name of in both my Nomad II MP3 player and my olympus digital camera, and those are the only four brands I have tried. If you put them in an mp3 player, be aware that you may have to completely reformat them with your computer to make them ever work again in a digital camera, but it generally can be done. My advice is to go as cheap as possible, and make the most of your gift card. If it doesn't work, you didn't get what you paid for, so exercise the return policy and try another brand.

Nack

 

[Loricariidae]

Negligible - ditto what Nack said.

 

[JJHendrix]

that's what i figured...i just went with Lexar, they were backordered on the Delkin (cheapest).
thanks for the advice.
jjhendrix