8 gb Compact flash cards range in price from $25 to over $300. What's the difference?

Question

I want to buy an 8gb Compact Flash memory card for my digital camera. You can find name brand ones for as little as $25 or can spend as much as $300. Many are around $60. Other than transfer speed, that's the difference? Why the large price difference?

Answer 1

To me the biggest difference is reliability.  DSLRs with their high frame rates and large file sizes really tax cards by writing and reading huge quantities of data from them.  In two seconds a DSLR can record well over a hundred megabytes of data, and then immediately dump it to the card.  Almost every off brand card I've used in my DSLRs has resulted in corrupted or lost pictures at some time or another.  I'm a fan of the Lexar Professional series of cards, they have NEVER failed me.  I'm told Sandisk Extreme III/IV cards are equally reliable.  

That said, in my cheap point/shoot camera I have a relatively inexpensive Sony card in it, its never had a problem.  If you're shooting a DSLR then I strongly suggest spending the money on a Sandisk or Lexar card.

Also, 8GB is relatively large, I'd recommend a 4gb.  It takes several hundred RAW (uncompressed) files to fill a 8Gb.