speed or size...memory cards

back alley

back alley

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anyone feel like chatting about memory cards?
i sometimes try to read up and get a deeper understanding...it looks simple and i think i understand then i check out prices vs size and wonder how fast i really need a card to be?

how do you choose your cards?
 
Depends on the camera sometimes. My regular old cards from the M9 were too slow for the hasselblad. When I went into the shop to check out the camera the clerk kinda chuckled at my ancient card.

They worked great in the M9/MM and still do well in the Ricoh GR.

I prefer a smaller card after having a card turn up unreadable, fewer potential lost images.
 
I also prefer smaller cards---just to prevent too much loss files in case of card failure.

I normally use 16GB and 32 GB. Actually if I still can buy 8GB cards, I would use those too.

With regards to speed, I think it all depends on how you shoot. I don't take videos, I don't shoot RAW, and I don't use my camera like a machine gun. I almost always just use Class 10 card, unless I happen to run into faster card that are being sold at a good price. So if you shoot like me, then I'd say a Class 10 card is adequate.

Tin
 
I use SanDisk Extreme Pro series cards. Right now I'm using 32GB cards because they're pretty cheap at B&H and Amazon and they've always worked well for me.

Reliability is import to me. I've never fill up a card. Ever. So capacity is not really a factor for me. I'm not sure what the speed is for the SanDisk cards so I can't really say speed is that important either.
 
Hi,

I think it best to read the instruction book as many of them give details of what will and won't work.

Small is best, right down to 256 MB for some of my older 5 and 8 megapixel cameras. I lost one once in a field and lost a lot more than the 36 frames I'd ruin on a film...

If you've a choice then ask yourself how many you'd like to lose. ;-)

Regards, David
 
I use 16GB cards. I have never filled one up with a days shooting even though I save both jpg and RAW. Both at home and on the road I download my images at the end of each day to my computer and backup drive, and reformat the card for the next day's shooting. That being said, I always carry a couple of cards with me. I also do not need fast cards because I never shoot in the continuous exposure mode. I shoot digital like film - one shot at a time. So you just need to look back on your experience and your shooting style to determine size and speed. Always buy name brand cards approved for your camera. This is no place to try and save a few dollars. I have Lexar and Sandisk cards.
 
back alley said:
what do you consider small?
Click to expand...

I have a lot of 4GB cards, which is my preferred size for the Ricoh, and was also for the M9/MM. It would appear this is no longer considered worth the effort of the manufacturers, the smallest I could find for the Hasselblad was a 32GB.

I do use 8GB cards a fair bit as well, not too big in my mind. Got a bunch of them before I went to Madagascar this past summer for I no longer have a laptop to download to. Brought some of them with me for the Ricoh this trip.

I’ve not filled up the card on the Hasselblad yet, not sure I will even in a full day shooting, it came with a 16GB (that I suppose they got on closeout), the 32 is in slot 2.
 
Had one card die on me years ago a CF card but it only messed up the first couple of images. Now i pick up decent branded cards of the highest speed (U3 currently) even though none of the current cameras need it. I have reasonably fast cards from 8gig to 64gig, having enough to cover more than I am likely to shoot when I am away from the home o images will be deleted when they are properly backed up.
 
I like large memory cards, with speed as a secondary concern for the A7R and D800e, both of which create large files. For my D500, size and speed are both important.

64gb and 128gb Sandisk sd cards for the Sony A7R.

64gb and 128gb Sandisk sd cards as primary, 8gb CF cards as back up for the D800e

128gb Lexar and Sony XQD cards for the D500.
 
back alley said:
how do you choose your cards?
Click to expand...

At one time, I used bargain quality cards because they stored my images just as well as the more expensive high-quality cards.

However, after I lost a few images due to card failure, I decided to only use high quality cards. I now use SanDisk, Lexar, and Toshiba.

At one time, Lexar 32 GB SD cards (class 10) (633x) were my largest and fasted memory cards.

However, when I began capturing opera performances on video, I purchased five Lexar 64 GB SD memory cards (class 10) (633x) because not only did I need fast reading and writing transfer rates, but I also needed to capture long recording times.


Memory Cards by Narsuitus, on Flickr
 
(1) Brand? I use only Sandisk and Lexar cards - I decided to use only cards from top brands after three cards randomly and suddenly died. One expired physically - the plastic became brittle and it literally fell apart! I lost all my images from the ones that simply stopped working.

Warning: Lexar sold their flash card business to a Chinese company last year. So, no more Lexar cards... I will be buying only Sandisk.

(2) Size? In case of loss or failure, I don’t use large cards. I use 16 and 32 GB. One or two cards cover a day’s shooting even in my preferred Raw + JPG mode while using a 36 MP camera (recently replaced by a 42 MP one).

(3) Speed? I use Sandisk Extreme Pro, which advertises 95 MB/s read/write. That’s more than enough for me, for now: my current camera, a Sony A7R II (released in 2015), has a real-life write speed of about 35 MB/s. The new Sony A7R III (released last summer) has write speed of about 150 MB/s. However, I’ll only see a difference between the two cameras - in spite of their massive files - if I shoot in burst mode. But I always take singke images, and never machine gun.

Incidentally, the Canon 5D Mk III and IV have similar write speeds to the Sony A7R II and III.

In short, buying the fastest card will be a waste of money for any camera, and even a fast card is is too fast except for very recent cameras. But see the next point, where a fast (not the fastest!) card is convenient.

(4) Card reader? The bottleneck for me is not the camera but the computer. Occasionally I use someone else’s computer, and their card reader either refuses to see my card or is glacially slow. Most card readers are rubbish! First, make sure that it’s compatible with modern cards. Secondly, that it uses USB 3.0 not 2.0 (the latter tops out at 35 MB/s). Thirdly, many USB 3.0 readers are inexplicably slow (my suspicion is that they’re USB 2.0, mislabelled as a fraud by iffy companies). Google for a brand-name reader that has been tested and shown to be fast and reliable.

NB: you don’t need to spend a lot - my current reader is the tiny Transcend RDF5 (about £6 or $10).
 
What I have most are Sandisk Extreme Pro in 16, 32, 64, and 128G capacities (two of each). I've acquired them over the years as I bought different cameras and prices on the cards came down. I have a bunch of Transcend smaller capacity cards and a couple of Lexar 1000x 128s as well.

  • I almost always buy cards in pairs.
  • I've never had a card go bad. Any card.
  • I don't need larger than a 32G card for shooting session or even travel capacity requirements. It's just convenient to have bigger cards most of the time.
  • My tests of card and camera read/write speeds between data transfer with a fast card reader and my computer compared to camera timings show that any of the Sandisk Extreme Pro cards can outperform the best that the SL can achieve, and the SL is a pretty fast camera when it comes to IO. The M-D typ 262 is not as fast, neither have any of my other cameras been.
  • As long as a card is compatible with a camera, more speed capability in the card doesn't hurt, and helps when you're downloading files to the computer.

G
 
Be certain to check write speed on card specs. They will put read speed in big letters. I remember checking two cards, a Sandisk Ultra versus Extreme maybe?? not certain of the actual cards. But if you looked at the card label and packaging you'd think that they were the same speed. You had to dig into Sandisk's site to find out that the higher level/priced card had a write speed almost twice the lower card. And write speed is what counts when shooting.
 
Don't expect me to provide details...but the only cards working with the Epson R-D1 are the 'old' 2 GB ones. I am keeping a stack of them to keep the R-D1 going. For the super fast newer ones...of not much interest to me since I don't need 15 photos per second and, so far I haven't done any video.
 
For me:
#1 - reliability
#2 - speed - keep in mind that even if you don't need the fastest write speed because your camera can't take advantage of it and/or you shooting habits don't demand it, the read speed in your computer's card reader is important if you download more than only a few images at a time.
#3 - size - note that in the real world of taking pictures, "big" and "small" aren't fixed GB sizes, but the number of pictures a card will hold. A "big" card for a 12mp camera is a rather modest size, or even"small", in a 36mp camera.
 
Dwig said:
For me:
#1 - reliability
#2 - speed - keep in mind that even if you don't need the fastest write speed because your camera can't take advantage of it and/or you shooting habits don't demand it, the read speed in your computer's card reader is important if you download more than only a few images at a time.
#3 - size - note that in the real world of taking pictures, "big" and "small" aren't fixed GB sizes, but the number of pictures a card will hold. A "big" card for a 12mp camera is a rather modest size, or even"small", in a 36mp camera.
Click to expand...

This is how I think about it.

I will pay more if I'm confident the source does not sell counterfeit cards.

Speed was important to me when I was shooting interiors gigs since it was important to deliver the images ASAP. Downloading 200-400 images per day just made the post-production sessions that much longer. Write speed would be important to me if I was interested in action photography. Speed isn't important now. I just download data using a WiFi or a USB cable.

Size is not important. Right now my raw files are ~ 23 MB (X-Trans III lossless compressed) .RAF to ~ 33 MB to (X-Trans II uncompressed .RAF). Sizes will only increase as sensor technology increases. So, with 24 MP compressed raw I can store over 600 shots on one 16 GB card. I often auto bracket 3 exposures, so I plan for 200 photos per card. My camera has two SDHC slots so reliability is moot since I can automatically backup images to a second card. If I use sequential storage mode instead of backup mode, the number of photos doubles.

At some point signal-to-noise ratios will improve to the point where a 16 bit raw will be justified. Pixel densities are increasing as well. So file sizes will eventually increase. Videography is a different story.

I never had an electronic-based card failure. I averaged about 3-4 photo shoots per week from 2007 through 2015.

A good friend had a card fail in his Nikon DLSR. The camera was used (and he reviewed images) while he flying his private plane. The air became very turbulent and he put the camera away. When he tried to download the images (JPEGs) the card was corrupt. Data recovery tools failed. We speculate the card was not completely inserted but functioned properly before the turbulence. Then he put the camera away without turning it off. The turbulence caused the card to intermittently connect and disconnect. The data was damaged before the camera auto-powered itself off.

I did have a mechanical issue when a SDHC card's write-protection switch jammed in the slot. I had to destroy the card to remove it. Fortunately, I could insert the card and download the data from the camera. I had a Nikon DSLR where one of the SD slot contacts became misaligned. I was able to carefully bend the contact back into its proper position. I use the camera regularly without further issues.
 
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