13 SDHC Memory Cards Reviewed

Kingston Class 4 and Class 6, 32 GB and 8 GB

Kingston SD4, 32 GB

The Class 4 top model by Kingston has an impressive capacity of up to 32 GB (SD4/32), but there are also 4 GB, 8 GB and 16 GB models available. Class 2 rated cards are available at 4 GB and 8 GB capacities, and there are Class 6 cards available (see next paragraph). All cards are rated at -25°C to 85°C operating temperature range, which is much more than you would need in a digital camera.

The Kingston Web site mentions that these cards are only compatible with SDHC devices, which is good, but we’re not sure how to take the “built-in write protect switch”—if the client device doesn’t implement the feature, your data will not be protected. The SD4/32 card reached 12.8-15.2 MB/s read throughput and 7.9-11 MB/s write transfer rates. These are not the best results, but are certainly far above average.

Kingston SD6, 8 GB

The SD6/8 cards shares the same basic specifications as the SD4 models, but come in smaller capacities as a trade-off for better performance: there are only 4 GB and 8 GB capacity points that reach the faster throughput. The SD6 card made a mixed impression on us: the 19.7 MB/s maximum read speed is excellent, while the 11.2 MB/s write throughput is only average. Other Class 6 rated cards are definitely much faster.

Details are available on the Kingston Web site.