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! 

SDXC Cards in your EOS 7D (Video)

Remember the SDXC cards in your EOS 7D tutorial I posted a while back? (If you don't remember or you are new, you can view it here.) I made the tutorial into a Youtube video. I hope you enjoy it!

To use SDXC cards in your EOS camera, you need to format your exFAT SDXC card to FAT file system. To do this, either use the format option on your camera, or use the computer method. Make sure you back up all data on your SD card as formatting will delete everything. To format your SDXC card on your computer, follow these instructions:
1. Insert SD card into your computers SD card reader.
2. Open up My Computer.
3. Right click on your SD card and click format.
4. Choose the FAT option and let the computer finish formatting.

Product Links

• CF to SD adapter
• Lexar 64GB SDXC (Class 10) Card

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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.