Photo Breakdown

Join Scott Wyden Kivowitz, your host on Photo Breakdown, as he navigates the intriguing shift in the photography industry, sharing his journey in choosing the best memory cards that ensure the capture and safekeeping of your precious photos and videos.

Scott explores how ProGrade became his go-to brand after corporate changes rocked the memory card industry. Discover why high-quality cards are essential for photographers, and hear firsthand about Scott's experiences that led him to leave behind well-known brands like Lexar and Sandisk in favor of ProGrade.


"A brand that did what was needed in 2017, when the two biggest brands in the memory card industry were both acquired, and ProGrade was born."

Don’t miss this insightful journey into creating robust photography workflows! Ready to enhance your photography experience? Listen now!

Photo Breakdown does not currently have a sponsor, so I thought I would give a shoutout to partners of mine. Thank you to Flodesk, Spider Holster, Think Tank Photo and Imagen for your continued support.

Creators and Guests

Host
Scott Wyden Kivowitz
Father, Photograper, Community Builder, Podcaster

What is Photo Breakdown?

Photo Breakdown is a podcast in which we explore the world of photography with a trusted guide, host Scott Wyden Kivowitz. His expertise and passion bring the industry to life as we explore the stories, trends, and ideas shaping it today. Join us as we dissect everything from incredible photographs and creative techniques to the latest gear releases and hot topics in the photography community.

In each episode, we break down what’s happening behind the scenes - whether it’s making a powerful image, a candid discussion on industry trends, or a reflection on the tools and technology changing how we make photographs. You’ll get insights, expert opinions, and a fresh perspective on what’s top of mind for photographers right now.

Anticipate short, engaging episodes brimming with ideas and inspiration. Be part of the conversation by sharing your thoughts, voice notes, and comments. Your participation is what makes our community vibrant and dynamic.

It’s more than just photography - everything that makes photography tick.

Behind My Shift: From Lexar and Sandisk to ProGrade
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​[00:00:00]

Scott Wyden Kivowitz: All right. I, I wanna talk about something with you today on photo breakdown, and that is why I use ProGrade brand memory cards for my cameras and now as they start making more and more like SSD, external drives and things like that, why I will be using those as well. Now for those who have known me

for years, you likely know that I was [00:01:00] very, very pro Lexar memory cars for so long.what I didn't know was that Micron actually was the parent company of Lexar. I had no idea.but I never really liked Sandisk memory cards personally. The competitor to Lexar, like there was a lot of competitors, right?

But the main two brands for photography was Lexar and Sandisk. Now I'm gonna skip around here a little bit real quick. Sandisk is the original inventor of solid state digital media, right? So they were the brand, okay. For so long they were the brand. Because they literally made memory cards. They made SSD, you know, devices.

They were the brand that most people had in their cameras. But I had failures from Sandisk long [00:02:00] time ago. So I used Lexar. Lexar was great, but in 2017, I. The parent company, Micron, of Lexar announced they were just shutting it down, which is strange. They were just shutting down the brand. I don't understand why, because they were the, you know, the second lead most leading memory card brand in the industry.

In in the world too, in fact. But it wound up getting inquired by a Chinese company called Longsys. So that was me saying, okay, I guess I'm going back to Sandisk shortly after this. Sandisk announced they're getting acquired by Western Digital. Now I've used Western Digital drives in the past, and again, I had mixed results, not the best results, and so I stopped using Western Digital hard drives.

But I guess they were moving to the solid state line and they wanted the best, so they got, they acquired Sandisk. [00:03:00] So now both of the leading brands were acquired. Now, interestingly and unrelated, but also related, my hard drive brand of choice for so long has been G Tech, G Technology.

And ironically, they also got acquired by Western Digital and they're now called Sandisk Professional or Sandisk Pro, and they still make great drives. I actually use those physical raid drives.

So what wound up happening when Lexar got acquired is executives and the technical people, some of the higher up tech technology people at Lexar left when the acquisition happened. They left and they started their own company. The executives and the high level technology people left again and started their own company.

That company is called ProGrade. Now, ProGrade, when they came out, they said, we are gonna make the absolute best memory cards. And they didn't have a [00:04:00] wide range of lineup first, but now they do. They only had, I believe, CFast. Not very helpful for people. But then they created an SD line of memory cards.

Then they created the CF Express and they have a wide range. So they got so many types of memory cards now that they are extremely competitive with the bigger, mass produced brands out there. And I guess over time, ProGrade started proving themselves and

sandisk people left Sandisk and moved over to ProGrade. So ProGrade is this massive brand now. It's a United States, headquartered company. You know, they're, they're based out of California and they're producing the absolute best memory cards. So recently I was at Imaging USA. Okay. I talked about Imaging USA in the last episode of this podcast

and why in-person events [00:05:00] are so valuable. And I was there working the Imagen booth and our event manager, she asked me, I need to get a memory card for my husband. Should I go over to the Sandisk booth? And I said, no, walk with me. So I walked her to the complete opposite side of the room and I showed her ProGrade small booth.

Had a bunch of me memory cards out, some brochures, and that's what she wound up getting. ProGrade. She got to talk to the people that were there. She, she got to get her questions answered, and she got to, purchase a memory card. So that is what I use these days because you've got the industry leaders behind

SSD cards and behind just memory in general, digital media in in general, are all at ProGrade right now. They're innovating, [00:06:00] they're creating the highest possible quality memory cards that are durable, x-ray proof, shock proof that, have very, very, very, very low, like 0% failure rates. The chances of it failing is very slim because of the quality digital media they put in there and, and a three year warranty on their memory cards.

So they back the technology that they put in there. This is not sponsored in any way. If ProGrade wanted to talk to me about sponsoring, I'd be open to it, but this is me organically sharing my love for a brand that did what was needed in 2017, when the two biggest brands in the memory card industry were both acquired.

They were both [00:07:00] acquired and ProGrade was born out of those acquisitions by the people leaving those companies and forming what is now the best memory card brand in the world. If you wanna learn more about ProGrade, you go to progradedigital.com. Again, not sponsored, but I love their memory cards.

That's all I have to say about that. Thanks for listening to Photo Breakdown.