How do you know a PANASONIC SD Card?

[dogdoc]

Is there any way to tell if a SD card branded by various manufacturers is one manufactured by Panasonic without opening the package it comes in?

[Moose Man]

Sometimes the back of the card will have the manufacturer on it but this could obviously be obscured by the "packaging". I know of no sure fire way to tell until you have it in the device and can check the info.

Color of the plastic can be in indicator although inaccurate....white cards are usually Panasonic or Toshiba manufactured. The navy blue color seems to be SanDisk but this is as much a WAG as anything.

[iiicRules]

I belive the colour of the lock tab may show the difference... I'm not so sure about the card colour.. All my cards are blue and I have panasonic and toshiba. However the toshibas have yellow write protect locks and the panasonic has a grey lock...
So I belive if you find one with a grey lock switch, you'll be getting Panasonic. But I could easily be wrong; I don't know what colour san disk ones are.

I wonder if other people could report the manufacturer of their SD card and the lock switch colours so we could be more sure?

[Jim Cooke]

The Sandisk cards have a lock tab that's the same purple color as the rest of the card.

[OldBlue]

My SanDisk 128, 256, and 512 are dark medium blue with a light gray or transluscent locking tab. My PQI 512 and 1 GB are navy blue with a white locking tab. My Panasonic 512 is medium blue with a gray locking tab.

[SoS]

Lexar (panasonic) 256 - blue with light grey tab
Lexar (no manufacturer shown in CardInfo) 1Gb 32x - blue with yellow locking tab - presumably a Toshiba although I thought Lexar only used Sandisk or panasonic...

just to confuse the issue!!!!;)

[Telyx]

My Lexar 32x 256MB card (same colors) also shows "Unknown" for the manufacturer, but it also says "SMI" just above that. Also, the back is embossed "Made in U.S.A." Also, I have a Lexar/Panasonic 64MB card which is blue with a gray lock slide, and a Lexar/SanDisk 128MB card which is blue with a milky white slide.

[Moose Man]

Originally posted by Jim Cooke
The Sandisk cards have a lock tab that's the same purple color as the rest of the card.

Well I thought that the Panasonic's would be "white" but now I've got a SanDisk that has a white lock tab - this one was made in Taiwan and is "old". It's one of the early 256MB's and since it was made in Taiwan supposedly didn't have any problems. The Japanese manufactured ones were the problem children.

So I think color may not be a good reference.

[iiicRules]

Hmmm. Not as conclusive as I had hoped.. The San-Disk ones sounds like they vary, as Jim's cards have Purple locks, Old Blues is light grey/translucent and Telyx Sandisk card has a "milky-white" lock.
It sounds like all Panasonic cards have grey locks.. However as some SanDisks are reported to have "light-grey" locks, it looks like you'd have to be careful when telling the difference between them and Panasonic.

So are we in agreement that Toshiba cards all have yellow locks, and Panasonic ones all have grey locks?

OldBlue- if you go into Card Info, do your PQI cards (white lock switches) show up as SanDisk?

[iiicRules]

Originally posted by Moose Man
Well I thought that the Panasonic's would be "white" but now I've got a SanDisk that has a white lock tab - this one was made in Taiwan and is "old". It's one of the early 256MB's and since it was made in Taiwan supposedly didn't have any problems. The Japanese manufactured ones were the problem children.

So I think color may not be a good reference.

Ah sorry, i must have been writing when you posted your reply..

Sound like a lots of sandisks have whiteish locks. The Panasonics I have are a definate grey, not whiteish of translucent, so I'm wondering if the following could be correct:

Panasonic- Grey lock switches
Toshiba- Yellow lock switches
SanDisk- Almost white or Purple lock switches

What do you reacon?

[Moose Man]

Originally posted by iiicRules
Ah sorry, i must have been writing when you posted your reply..

Sound like a lots of sandisks have whiteish locks. The Panasonics I have are a definate grey, not whiteish of translucent, so I'm wondering if the following could be correct:

Panasonic- Grey lock switches
Toshiba- Yellow lock switches
SanDisk- Almost white or Purple lock switches

What do you reacon?

The only sure way will be to check the d*** card info but I think iiicRules is about as close as we are going to get with color....;)

[sp-tor]

>Panasonic- Grey lock switches
>Toshiba- Yellow lock switches
>SanDisk- Almost white or Purple lock switches

A new SimpleTech 512MB 10/10 arrived in the mail yesterday, and it doesn't even _have_ a lock switch.. what gives?

By the way, what is card info supposed to say about the different brands? I own only two cards, a TomTom 128M and that new SmartTech. I can basically see 'unknown' here and there and the occasional letter.

tor

[iiicRules]

Well all SD cards are basically made by one of three manufactures, and then often rebranded. The three are Panasonic, Sandisk and Toshiba. Depending of which type you get, there is a significant different in performance. Palm branded cards, for example, are Panasonic.

A card without a lock switch sounds broken to me.. By lock switch I mean the "write protect" slider on the side...

[sp-tor]

>A card without a lock switch sounds broken to me.. By lock switch I mean the "write protect" slider on the side...

Yep, it doesn't have one. There's no notch at all on the side where locks normally are. I haven't looked closely at a MM card, but it looks a bit like pictures of MM cards, I mean withount any notch on the "lock" side. It doesn't have a label, instead it's printed directly on the card 'SimpleTech' and 'Secure Digital Card'. Card info says Secure Digital Card. It doesn't look anything like pictures of SimpleTech cards as seen on the websites.. I have to re-check the packaging it came in when I get home.
Very strange!

tor