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Memory Card Torture Tests

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the because-you-can dept.

saikatguha266 writes "BBC is reporting that five types of memory cards were dipped into cola, put through a washing machine, dunked in coffee, trampled by a skateboard, run over by a child's toy car, given to a six-year-old boy to destroy, smashed by a sledgehammer and nailed to a tree. It was still possible to retrieve photos from the xD and Smartmedia cards while the others didn't survive just the last two tests. "

6 of 236 comments (clear)

  1. Talk about real life experiments... by Nplugd · · Score: 5, Insightful

    right, coz it happens to me all the time, to nail a memory card on a tree by accident...

    Note that I did had a PS2 memory card go to the washing machine, and it worked like a charm afterwards. Thank God, I was not going to start FF7 all over again :)

    --
    Je n'ai pas d'avenir Je n'ai qu'un destin Celui de n'être qu'un souvenir C'est pour demain
    1. Re:Talk about real life experiments... by hansiboy · · Score: 3, Insightful

      I think he meant airport X-Ray scanners and the like...

  2. Bad news or good news for printing services? by Flyboy+Connor · · Score: 4, Insightful
    From the article: The results of the test are bad news for photography processing services... Around eight out of 10 digital pictures are thought to never make it into printed form at all.

    My parents have about 50 baby photo's of me. I have about 2000 digital baby photo's of my daughter. However, if I am lucky 25 of those are really worthy of printing. If 2 out of 10 digital pictures really make it to actual print, I consider that a great deal. I would say that translates to booming business for the printing services.

  3. Astonishing? by condensate · · Score: 3, Insightful
    Well it goes without saying that there is quite a ssmall probability for a card to get nailed somewhere. And do you really wonder why SM and xD did survive sledgehammering? Come on, they are by far the flattest out there (apart from SD /MMD ). Sledgehammers cannot strike them as hard as CF cards for example.

    Still, those two cards are a bit out of style, since SM is REALLY old, and xDs are only used by digital cameras made by Fuji and Olympus, so I dont think they will find a great audience.

    --
    Black holes were created when god tried to divide by zero
  4. Um...the brands? by rfunches · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Notice there aren't any brands mentioned (don't know about the magazine article it came from though). I'd bet anything that they bought the pricey stuff. Try those tests with PNY CrapMedia cards and see how long they last.

  5. Honey quick! Nail this memory card to the tree! by khrtt · · Score: 3, Insightful

    These guys have just such imagination. How about some real-life tests, like static electricity, X-ray machine, being left on the dashboard on a sunny day, being brought in on a cold winter day..

    And if you are going to drop it in water, use salty water. After all, there are those things called "sea" and "ocean" and people get their cameras splashed when they play near them. Probably no less often then they spill soda on them.

    Oh, and when you precious memory card falls out of your pocket while you are crossing the street, there are going to be tons of toy cars running over it.