I Visited Lexar in China to Find Out Whether Photographers Can Trust Its Memory Cards

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A person in a cleanroom suit holds a silicon wafer in a high-tech lab, with a large 128GB Lexar Professional SD card image superimposed on the left.

When it comes to memory cards, most photographers just want them to work, have blistering specs, and be kind to their wallet. But which brand to choose? Last week PetaPixel took a trip to China to check in with one of the main players, Lexar.

Lexar, founded in San Jose, California, 30 years ago in 1996, was sold by Micron to Chinese conglomerate Longsys in 2017. Many wondered whether this huge move would damage the brand or improve it.

Disclosure: Lexar provided PetaPixel with travel and accommodations for the purposes of this article. It had no input on content and all opinions shared are those of PetaPixel.

In an act of good faith, Lexar invited tech media to look around its facilities in Suzhou, which is near Shanghai, and Zhongshan, near Shenzhen — China’s answer to Silicon Valley.

A dramatic view of modern office buildings with glass and metal facades, separated by a wide, empty walkway under a cloudy, overcast sky. The angular perspective emphasizes the height of the structures.

A group of people in white shirts walk toward a modern glass building with a checkered window pattern on a partly cloudy day. The courtyard is paved with geometric tiles and surrounded by greenery and other buildings.

Fully opened in 2024, the Zhongshan campus, which also houses other Longsys memory brands, is a sleek, sprawling location that features buildings with facades finished to look like SD cards. It boasts a memory museum, a koi carp pond, a soccer pitch, and machines — lots and lots of machines.

“This one costs 30 million RMB [$4.4 million],” a tour guide proudly says. Some of the machines were researched, designed, and built by Lexar itself. There are little ones, big ones, medium-sized ones; most of them are in cases; workers in hazmat suits flit between them, marking down notes and consulting colleagues.

But what do the machines do exactly? Well, it’s mainly testing. The comprehensive setup pushes CFExpress Cards, SD Cards, and SSDs to their absolute limit, testing the storage solutions in extreme cold as well as extreme heat. There’s even a designated drop test for the Calamity Janes out there.

A person in a lab coat and cap operates an oscilloscope displaying waveforms, while three people observe from the background in a clean laboratory setting.

A person in a cleanroom suit and cap speaks into a handheld device, standing next to advanced laboratory equipment and computers in a well-lit, modern lab.

A close-up of industrial equipment in a laboratory, featuring a digital touchscreen display with warning labels, cables, and mechanical arms. The background includes a white cylindrical device with a caution sign.

Close-up of a control panel with red and green buttons and labels in English and Chinese, in a clean, white industrial room with a metal ladder and equipment in the background.

A laboratory with two desks displaying scientific equipment and machines, each with labels and digital screens. White chairs are placed at each station, and technical posters are on the wall above the desks.

A close-up view of a pile of discarded green printed circuit boards and electronic components, including some metal parts, suggesting electronic waste or recycling.

While the machines are mostly covered in Zhongshan, 750 miles northeast at the Longsys factory in Suzhou, the process is easier to see. Suzhou is where the research and development takes place, and the assembled tour group of a dozen or so international journalists peer into a microscope that allows a close-up view of a frenetic needle that’s gold-wiring. It’s mesmerizing.

A scientist wearing a full-body cleanroom suit and mask looks into a microscope in a laboratory environment, with other similarly dressed individuals working in the background.

A person in a cleanroom suit closely inspecting high-tech machinery in a laboratory or semiconductor manufacturing environment. Monitors and equipment surround the individual in the sterile, brightly lit room.

A group of people in white cleanroom suits and face masks listen to a person in a blue suit explaining something near lab equipment and a microscope in a high-tech laboratory setting.

A person in a cleanroom suit, gloves, and face mask examines a green rectangular electronic component, with others in similar attire nearby, inside a high-tech laboratory or manufacturing facility.

Also on the tour of Suzhou, I get to hold a wafer of silicon that had come from an ingot and pose for a picture taken by a talented photographer working for Lexar.

It gives you pause for thought: the raw semiconductor material that I hold in my hand has totally changed humanity thanks to its ability to store data. The wafer is also extremely valuable as the AI boom demands more and more of the stuff — Lexar won’t be drawn on the shortage and potential price increases caused by it.

The silicon wafer itself is diced into individual dies, kind of like a pizza. The die is then bonded to a substrate (the foundational layer), gold-wired, soldered for electrical connection, cut into strips, tested, packaged, and then popped into a photographer’s camera.

A single die is 30 microns thick, half that of a sheet of paper. There are 16 dies in each microSD card. It’s quite remarkable just how much work goes into one of the least sexy parts of a camera. But without it, we would still be shooting film.

A group of people wearing full-body white protective suits, masks, and hair covers pose together in a clean, brightly lit room, making peace signs and thumbs-up gestures.

Back in Zhongshan, the testing isn’t just confined to machines: the guide takes us into an office that has almost every camera you can think of, so the team can check that these cards falling off the assembly line work in real-world situations.

Panasonic, Fujifilm, and Olympus, in a brightly lit showroom with light wood paneling and a reflective floor.

A group of people stand around a large wooden table displaying rows of small black cameras and camera lenses in a well-lit modern showroom. Some people are taking photos and observing the equipment closely.

Sitting at a desk, a focused young woman is absorbed in a task that involves dozens of cameras stacked in front of her, all of which are shooting photos or video continuously. Next to her is a tray of different batteries to keep them alive so she can zone in on the card’s performance. She keeps notes and is clearly working her way through the required protocols. I wondered which camera was her favorite, but I dared not interrupt her from her mission.

A woman sits at a desk with a laptop, reaching for a camera on a wooden shelf filled with cameras. Several people stand and talk in the background inside a modern, well-lit store or workspace.

A woman works on a laptop at a desk surrounded by several digital cameras, camera equipment, and small portable fans in a modern store or workshop setting.

A woman sits at a desk behind a wooden shelf displaying several cameras, with other people and electronic equipment visible in the background of a bright, modern room.

As I toured the factory in Zhongshan, sipping on coconut water, it was plain just how much work was going on. Lexar says that certain products get 10,000 hours of testing — the same amount of time it theoretically takes to master any endeavor.

In recent years, Lexar has brought everything in-house. “We’ve invested more than 70% year on year on just our internal R&D,” General Manager of Lexar North America Van Baer tells PetaPixel. “We emphasize our in-house manufacturing, ensuring world-class quality control to ensure that every product that we make is error-free.”

A digital oscilloscope displays a waveform with green and yellow traces on its screen. The device features multiple buttons, dials, and input ports below the display, with cables connected to the front panel.

Two people in white lab coats and caps sit at a small desk in a clean, white lab room, working with computers and electronic equipment. A sign reading "Prima" is displayed on the desk.

A yellow and black radiation warning sign with Chinese text is posted on a glass door in front of scientific equipment inside a laboratory or medical facility.

A close-up of a dark laboratory workspace featuring a microscope focused on glass slides, with a computer mouse and mouse pad nearby on a hexagonal-patterned surface.

Choosing a memory card can be a difficult task, especially if you’re just starting on your photography journey. Rookie shooters will log on to Reddit for advice and read about one person who had a bad experience with Lexar years ago. But my visit to China convinced me that the company is doing everything it can to ensure quality.

I was using a SanDisk card in my camera as I toured the facilities — much to the chagrin of Lexar staff. On my way out of China, Lexar was kind enough to pass me one of its microSD cards. After seeing the work they do here, I’m happy to trust it with my data.

Image credits: Photographs by Matt Growcoot. Except for the ones from Longforce Production Line in Suzhou, which are courtesy of Lexar.

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