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Fast SD cards


Mary Doo

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You guys are good at this: Please recommend the SD cards you would use for consecutive wildlife (or sports) action shots. I have some that I think are pretty fast, but I wonder what would be optimum (brand names, etc.). Thanks.

 

PS Please count out XQD and CF Express because they are for use on Olympus OM-1 which, unfortunately, accepts SDs only.

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While newer standards have been announced, the fatest SD cards you can buy are still UHS-II with a theoretical 312 MB/sec speed limit. Look for 300 MB/sec, V90 type SD cards, but we are talking about close to $100 per 64G so that they can be more expensive than CFexpress Type B cards, on a per G basis, but are still slower.

 

I have had a couple of SanDisk UHS-II, 64G cards for a few years, mainly for my D500, and I paid $100 each. Otherwise, Sony and ProGrade should be good brands.

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Ranking: Best Memory Cards for the OM System OM-1 | Memory Card Comparison & Review

Best Memory Cards for OM SYSTEM OM-1

 

So far, I have avoided SD UHS-II cards. They are of no use in the D500 as backup as they slow down the camera. And I don't need them in the Sony A7RIII as I am not using that camera for any action photography.

Edited by Dieter Schaefer
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How fast is the write-speed of your camera?

It is fast. It must be documented somewhere. I have learned to just press the shutter a little for most situations, otherwise it takes in a ridiculous number of shots. What's more "scary" is, depending on what shooting mode one chooses, the camera pre-shoots to anticipate subject action before the shutter is clicked.

 

OK, I just checked the manual - you made me do it ;) :

 

upload_2022-9-30_13-50-43.png.a6428d41afdee87956414c122674c718.png

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I guess leaving the camera recording on 8K video and and then getting a frame-grab will get you a 32MB image.....:cool: Not sure what SD speed you need for 8K?

Not sure if you meant to post under this thread, but Olympus OM-1 only shoots 4K videos, and I think the still image that can be captured while shooting a video is a low-res jpg - mainly for the sake of convenience. It is probably better to extract still images from a video software if one wants to do so.

 

I am not a video person, so 4K is plenty, though I would like to do better in the future. Currently the videos from the iPhone look pretty good to me. ;)

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A friend of mine trashed his drone and gifted me his ADATA 256 V90 microSD card: ADATA<--LINK

I got a UHS-II microSD to SD adapter and put it in my Nikon Z6ii and was surprised that it had no problem recording 4K video. My previous V60 SD cards would choke on 4K. Before I could only write 4K to my CFexpress cards.

Niels
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Errr, that's what a frame-grab is..... isn't it?

Thought you were talking about the OM-1 allowing one to "grab" a still image while shooting a video*. Otherwise, as you mentioned, one can probably "grab" an image from any video afterward.

 

*That said, I just double checked and found that OM-1 does not have this ability, but some older Olympus models allow it. Strange.

Edited by Mary Doo
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*That said, I just double checked and found that OM-1 does not have this ability, but some older Olympus models allow it. Strange.

Now Mike you have opened a Pandora's box. :eek: You made me read the manual + asking questions at the Olympus forum. Now I can capture stills during playback and the images are 3840 x 2160 pixels - not bad, from 4K videos I think. I also noticed some other video mode (not 8K) provides a higher resolution.

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 5 weeks later...
6 hours ago, EllinorWilliam said:

I think RITZ Gear V90 UHS-II, or PNY X-Pro 90 V90 UHS-II  would be the wise choice for wildlife photography. Rest the members have already mentioned some good options.

Thanks - you are probably right.  I weighed the pros and cons and ended up buying the top-ranking "Tough" by Sony (rated at a higher write speed), ouching all the way to the Buy button.  😬😖🙃 So far they feel fast.

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I've had good results with Samsung cards - if you can find them. Also with PNY (is that pronounced 'pony'?). My experience with SanDisk cards is that none of them reach their claimed speed, and that they sometimes have a huge discrepancy between read and write speed. How that company ever got to dominate the flash memory market is a complete mystery to me. They're not even competitive on price.

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7 hours ago, rodeo_joe1 said:

I've had good results with Samsung cards - if you can find them. Also with PNY (is that pronounced 'pony'?). My experience with SanDisk cards is that none of them reach their claimed speed, and that they sometimes have a huge discrepancy between read and write speed. How that company ever got to dominate the flash memory market is a complete mystery to me. They're not even competitive on price.

Thanks Joe.  I am all set with my Tough decision at this time - pun intended.  😄☺️

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SD cards and fast is now an oxymoron. I started using XQD cards and UHS II SD cards back in 2016, when I got the D500. That was 6+ years ago. Back then, I sure thought XQD was fast, and in order to keep up with XQD in the 2nd card slot for the backup mode, I opted for a 64G, 280MB/sec UHS2 SD card that was $100, at a slightly higher price per G than XQD. However, at 10fps on the D500, the SD card couldn’t quite keep up and I occasionally ran into the buffer full situation. If I used XQD alone, the buffer was limitless on the D500, until it hit the artificial 200 frame limit. Eventually I gave up using backup. At least so far I have never had any XQD or CFx failures.

Now I use a Z9 at 20 fps with 46MP, those XQD cards seem very slow now, and I have moved to CF Express type B, especially for 8K video.

Meanwhile, the fastest SD cards you can get is still UHS II around 300MB/sec, and the price hasn’t come down much since 2016 either.

Thankfully, among my Z bodies, only the Z6ii still has an SD slot, and that is not a camera for speed. I still have my D500 and D850, and I am happy to use those with only CFx (or XQD).

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