Lexar 64 GB 133x Speed SDXC Memory Card Review

The front and back view of the Lexar 64 GB 133x Speed SDXC Flash Memory Card. 

Today, I will be reviewing the Lexar 64 GB 133x Speed SDXC Flash Memory Card. This is the memory card I purchased around 2 years ago during a Black Friday Deal on Amazon. The memory card is still working strong 2 years later, but the price of it has dropped a little bit below what I got it for during the Black Friday Deal.

For memory card reviews, most people want to know the speed of the card, so I will begin with that. The advertised speed of the card is at least 20 MB/s (didn't say read or write). Here are the results I got from the card. Please take note that these speeds may be limited by my computer hardware (such as the hard drive). Overall, I got an average speed of 14.5 MB/s on writing to the card and a 20 MB/s when reading from the card. So I guess the advertised 20 MB/s speed is for reading from the card, not writing.

After 2 years, the casing around the memory card is starting to chip, but I can still use it, and it doesn't seem to affect the performance at all. I never had files corrupted on this card through the 2 years. I use this card as a secondary memory card back then with my Canon EOS 7D with a SD to CF adapter, and now as a secondary memory card for the Canon EOS 5D Mark III. I am very happy with this card, however this card is considered a bit slow now as there are newer faster SD cards out there even for the Lexar Professional line of SD cards. Do remember I bought this 2 years ago, and the technology for electronics like this is progressing very fast.

If you are looking for a cheap memory card, this is definitely a great option, but if your budget is a little higher, I recommend you going for slightly faster cards available now. Please don't forget to share the blog post with your friends and family members! Also, if you want to get notifications when I post up more photos, "Like" us on Facebook or follow me on Twitter and Google+. These links can also be found on the top of the right sidebar.

Photography Tip: I will teach you how to take and composite a product photo like the first photo here in the blog post.

1. Set your camera up on a tripod and set a piece of paper on the ground. You want to make sure there is no light source that will change a lot during your photo shoot. It is best you provide artificial lighting. 
2. Then lay the product you want to photograph on the left of your angle of view in the camera. Due to the fact my camera was so high up above the ground when I shot this, I actually hooked up my camera to my Android phone over OTG and used DSLR controller to make the setting up easier. If you don't have a set up like this, get another person to look through the viewfinder when you are doing this. 
3. Meter the shot in your camera and then set your camera to Manual (M) mode and set those same settings. 
4. Take your first shot in RAW, flip your product around and lay it onto the right side of your angle view making sure that the product does not "overlap".
5. Take your second shot in RAW too without changing any settings. 
6. After that, take your photos into Photoshop and process both RAW files the same. Make sure all settings are the same (pay attention to white balance). 
7. After you process them, save them as JPEG to make things easier in the next step. 
8. In Photoshop, File >> Scripts >> Load Files Into Stack
9. You want to select the 2 new JPEGs you created. 
10. Set the Opacity of the top image to 50% and apply a layer mask.
11. Paint black over the white area you want to hide, so the 1st layer can show through. 
12. After doing so, switch the Opacity back to 100%. 

You have successfully composited the the photo above. The same method can be used to composite 2 or more photos. Just make sure nothing but your product is moving during the photo shoot! 

Mt. Rose - Lake Tahoe/Reno 2012 (Part 3)

If you live in the SF Bay Area, you probably know it never snows here. Many people like me who live in the SF Bay Area love snow. The nearest place that does get snow is in Lake Tahoe and Reno. Many of us go there in the winter to go ski and snowboard, but for me, I don't like any of that. I enjoy taking photos of snow and playing in it. :) Here are photos of Lake Tahoe and Reno I took during my trip in Christmas of 2012. I will be splitting them into several parts as I took a lot of photos there. Hope you enjoy.

Full Resolution Photos and Prints: If you want to see full resolution photos or buy prints of any of the photos you see, they are up on my portfolio for viewing. To see my best Lake Tahoe/Reno/Donner Lake photos from 2012, use this link. To see all of my photos from this trip, use this link.

Parts: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 

Before I get started on today's blog post, I would like to tell you about a great product that I own. Let me ask you first: Do you have a device like the Canon EOS 7D that only takes Compact Flash cards? Hate the big prices on the Compact Flash Cards? What if I tell you that you can use your current SD cards lying around your house in these devices? Well you can with the SD-CF II: SD to CF Type II Adapter. This little adapter will adapt all your SD cards (SDHC and SDXC) into a CF card! Unlike other brands of adapters, I can shoot 1080p video on my camera with no breaks! Other cheaper adapters sometimes don't have the speed to support 1080p video, this adapter is not one of them. If you are tight on your photography budget and have a bunch of SD cards lying around, this adapter is definitely a must have for you!

Okay, now let's get started with today's photos. :) These photos are some of the photos I took on the 2nd day of my trip. Most of them are from on top of Mt. Rose (in the snowstorm) and from Mt. Rose Ski Resort. The photos I took at night that day will come on the next blog post.

 The snowstorm sure came in fast. See how it looks "foggy" in the distant mountain? That is the snowstorm starting. 

Here on the side of the highway up to Mt. Rose. 

 This photo and the next photo was only about a few seconds apart. See how the weather is changing? 

Snowstorm! Sure was cold! I was caught off guard without enough clothes. XD I toughed out the cold and took the photos for you guys to enjoy! :) Comments would really be appreciated. :P  

A car driving back down hill.  

 Another shot of the side of the highway. The snow pile on the side is taller than me! And I am a pretty tall person. So, a lot of snow this year. Kind of expected since last year was so dry! You can see my last year photos here. 

Here is Mt. Rose Ski Resort during the snowstorm. Obviously the lifts and the more advanced lanes are closed. The beginner lanes were open though. :P Not sure how fun it was for the people ski/snowboarding though. I was just there to take photos.  

Another photo of the ski resort during the snowstorm.  

 Giant patch of snow on the side with people sledding and playing. I just took a photo. Kind of hard getting all my equipment over the giant snow pile. So... Just raised my tripod up and took a shot. Plus I was freezing to death up there. ROFL

Guy doing Gangnam Style on the side? XD First thing that came to my mind. 

Pretty much on the peak of Mt. Rose. It was snowing big! Kids playing on the hills. I was taking photos and freezing. XD

Another shot during the snowstorm. The dots you see on the picture is of snow. Lucky for me, my UV filter has a coating that makes wiping it off a breeze. Well technically blowing with my Giottos Rocket Air Blaster. 

These are all the photos for today. Next time I will start on the photos I took that night. Please don't forget to share the blog post with your friends and family members! Also, if you want to get notifications when I post up more photos, "Like" us on Facebook or follow me on Twitter and Instagram. These links can also be found on the top of the right sidebar.

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SDXC Cards in your EOS 7D

Hello guys, do you hate the costly prices of CF cards? Do you want to get a lot more storage and speed with the new SDXC cards? Worry no more! Today's post is a camera hack, I will help you use your SDXC card on your Canon EOS 7D, 5D, 1D, or other similar cameras!

Disclaimer: You follow these tips and instructions at your own risk! The author of the blog is not responsible for any damages that may result from these instructions. These tips and instructions are provided for educational and informative purposes only.  

First of all here are the three things you will need:

1. A Canon EOS 7D, 5D, 1D, or other similar camera.
2. A CF to SD adapter. (I recommend this one, it is also the one I'm showing in the image above.)
3. A SDXC Card. (The one in the picture above is the Lexar Professional 64GB SDXC.)

Alright now, first of all, insert the SDXC card into your adapter then put it into your camera. Right now, it will tell you the card needs to be reformatted in order to be used. I know the SD card website tells you not to do it, but do it anyways. This will format your SDXC card into FAT32 file system. The original file system is exFAT. So you might be wondering if this is safe right? See the following reasons:

1. Your write and read speed is untouched.
2. Same amount of storage (as for me 64GB).
3. Only difference now is you will be limited to 4GB per file (This is a filesystem limit, can't be fixed.). Photos you take will never be that big, don't worry.
4. You can always format it back into exFAT on a computer if you ever need to store something over 4GB on it.

There you go, after you format the card, your camera should read it. You have a very large storage on your camera now! Hope you enjoy it. Also some reviews for the products I've shown above.

The adapter I'm using, I think is the best, but this is the first one I've bought. I would recommend it. Unlike other adapters I saw online, this one has no speed issues, and is compatible with SDXC cards. Which is great. On my EOS 7D, I had no problems with shooting videos or taking RAWs with this one. It works as if I had a real CF card in there. Only one complaint as with all adapters like this, you have to take the adapter out of your camera first, before you can take out the SD card. Doesn't affect the quality though. The other thing I noticed after using it a bit (I tried to do some high speed photography), after 10 shots, I took out the adapter and it felt warm to the touch, but no speed problem. So I'm guessing there could be a small chance with over heating, but  I would still recommend it if you plan on having a back up flash memory.

Now for the Lexar Professional 64GB SDXC, I have already tested this thing out on my camera. I can take over 1000 RAW + JPEG (High Quality) photos on my camera! No problem. Also the write and read speed is amazing. If you always shoot in RAW, I would totally recommend this.

Of course I do not use this adapter as my main storage. I also have an 8GB CF card, but with my RAW photo shooting, it will exhaust that memory card quick! So if you are like me who take a lot of photos, or do RAW, get these! It works great as a backup memory card and SD cards cost like 2/3 the price of CF cards and they work a lot faster.