Saturday, October 5, 2013

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!