SD Card Read/Write Speed Discussion

I will be buying more SD cards. Currently, other than some Lexars, most of my SD cards are SanDisk Extreme Pro @95mb/s (Max Read Speed=95mb/s; Max write Speed=90mb/s; Min Write Speed=30mb/s). So far I am not aware of any problem with these cards; however, neither have I dealt with video recording; nor do I make the cameras perform unrelenting continuous shots.

 

Now that I will be buying more cards, would you recommend buying speedier cards or are they overkills? Would the same cards I am using now suffice to handle decent smooth-enough video results. Do you have a different experience?

 

Will appreciate your thought. Thanks.

Mary, you need to specify which camera bodies you are going to use those SD cards on, and what quality video you will be capturing. Are we talking about Micro 4/3 bodies?

 

My primary memory cards are now XQD, and they work well for capturing 4K video, but my D750 only uses SD cards. My other current bodies all can accept XQD.

Unless your camera(s) use UHS-II SD cards, the SanDisk Extreme Pro @95mb/s are the fastest UHS-I cards available. Lower-end UHS-II cards may well be slower than the SanDisk Extreme Pro despite claiming faster speeds (often those are only read speeds and the write speeds aren't close). Also, unless your camera is UHS-II enabled, using UHS-II in UHS-I slots often results in abysmally slow read and write speeds (despite the UHS-II cards being "backward compatible").

Mary, you need to specify which camera bodies you are going to use those SD cards on, and what quality video you will be capturing. Are we talking about Micro 4/3 bodies?

 

My primary memory cards are now XQD, and they work well for capturing 4K video, but my D750 only uses SD cards. My other current bodies all can accept XQD.

Yes, mainly for Olympus EM1 M43 cameras - sorry for posting on the Nikon forum.

 

Re XQD - you raised an interesting question, as the D500 accepts both XQD and SD, and the speed difference between the two is enormous: 400mb/s vs 95mb/s. What's up with that? Should one only use the faster SD card such as 300mb/s on the Nikon?

 

Video quality? Good (non-jumpy) transition.

Unless your camera(s) use UHS-II SD cards, the SanDisk Extreme Pro @95mb/s are the fastest UHS-I cards available. Lower-end UHS-II cards may well be slower than the SanDisk Extreme Pro despite claiming faster speeds (often those are only read speeds and the write speeds aren't close). Also, unless your camera is UHS-II enabled, using UHS-II in UHS-I slots often results in abysmally slow read and write speeds (despite the UHS-II cards being "backward compatible").

So far, my cameras (including Nikon) accept any SD card. I am aware of the matter regarding write speed. I notice that that the Lexar 1000x UHS-II, while "good on paper", only writes up to 75mb/s.

What's up with that? Should one only use the faster SD card such as 300mb/s on the Nikon?

The D500 can use UHS-II cards but one has to get the faster/fastest ones to make a difference compared to the SanDisk Extreme Pro - and those cards cost even more than an XQD card of equal size while still being significantly slower. I have so far refrained from buying UHS-II SD cards for the D500 (though I was tempted today by a good deal on a set of 128GB Lexar ones); I rather forgo the backup when I use the and need the 10fps the D500 is capable of.

The D500 can use UHS-II cards but one has to get the faster/fastest ones to make a difference compared to the SanDisk Extreme Pro - and those cards cost even more than an XQD card of equal size while still being significantly slower

The fastest SD cards I saw are 300mb/s (slower than XQD's 440mb/s and 400mb/s) and they are less costly than the XQD on the B&H site - not by much though.

I rather forgo the backup when I use the and need the 10fps the D500 is capable of.

Hmm... Not sure about that... though I would probably just stick some SD card in there - basically doing the same thing I guess. ;)

Edited November 24, 2018 by Mary Doo

What does Nikon recommend in their manual for your camera?

For stills, a faster card empties the buffer more quickly, but doesn't make much difference downloading to a computer. I get the best results with an USB3 or USB C reader.

 

Sandisk Extreme Pro (95 95 mb/s) work just fine for HD video (1080p30) in a 50 mb/s camera. Using UHSii cards and a Sony A7Riii, I can capture 4Kp30 or 1080p120 at 100 mb/s. The actual write speed ia post-compression, so the net data rate is slower than the capture rate. Using an Atomos Ninja recorder, I can capture low-compression ProRes or DNxHD video via HDMI at 220 mb/s, but that's using a fast SSD drive.

 

If you are serious about video, then an Atomos Ninja V monitor/recorder is a good thing to have. You can see the display in broad daylight, and there's no time limit on clips. The camera doesn't get more than slightly warm if you don't record to the card(s). I get a about 2 hours of recording on one NP-F975 battery (45 Watt-hours), and I have a bunch of batteries.

 

Sony UHSii cards seem to be the best performance for the cost. I use 300/299 mb/s cards in an A9. Only slot #1 dictates the speed. Slot 2 is UHSi only, but catches up when it can in a card-to-card copy.

The fastest SD cards I saw are 300mb/s (slower than XQD's 440mb/s and 400mb/s) and they are less costly than the XQD on the B&H site - not by much though.

There are some Black Friday Deals on some of the SD cards. XQD card prices have gone up since I purchased mine - at that time, UHS-II SD was definitely more expensive.

 

Using the SanDisk Extreme Pro in backup-mode on the D500 puts buffer size back into play. Usually not an issue when shooting one burst but at airshows or when shooting birds sometimes things are happening fast and I overrun the buffer and have the camera slow way down.

What does Nikon recommend in their manual for your camera?

Alan, you made me look up the D500 user manual and I was surprised (more like shocked) to see the modest speed requirement. See the bottom part of attached screen shot. Wonder ...

I'm on record as not being particularly fond of SD cards, but I've "standardized" on the Sandisk Extreme Pro.

 

One lives in my D800 for JPEG duties(the CF card is the primary card), while I have a couple of 64gb ones that I cycle through my D600.

 

The first time I took the D600 out, I went to a family wedding(I was there as a guest, but there was no hired photographer and a lot of the photos I took ended up in their self-made album). In any case, I'd bought a pair of Sandisk 32gb cards that didn't actually carry a speed rating. I think I paid about $30 for the pair at Wal-Mart, and the plastic outer case is blue with a blue and red label. I was shooting RAW+JPEG, with the different file types going to separate cards(as is my preferred arrangement). The D600 has a rated buffer depth of 16 RAW files, although I'm sure it's a bit less when shooting both. In any case, I was in single shot mode and probably firing right around 1 frame a second, and the camera locked up to clear the buffer more than once.

 

I've been in similar situations since then with the Extreme Pros and find that at 1fps, I'd have to sustain it for a minute or two(which I never do) to fill the buffer. I can even manage a few seconds of burst-I forget what the frame rate on the D600 is, but it's hardly earth-shattering. None the less, moving to good 95mb/s cards allows me to get the sort of performance I'd like from the camera.

 

I'll also make an obligatory mention of the fact that counterfeit SD cards are rampant. I don't worry about it these days with CF since the market is so small, and I'd really not worry if I had an XQD camera(a D4 in the local shop is taunting me) as the market for those I'd venture to guess is even smaller than CF. SD cards are ubiquitous, though, and a good market is there for counterfeits. I buy all of my high end cards from B&H, although I'd not think twice about buying from Adorama. If I wanted to buy on Amazon(usually the prices are comparable to B&H prices), I'd be sure I was getting cards actually sold by Amazon, and on Ebay I'd stick to reputable sellers.

Unless you're shooting 4k, the speed of most SD cards currently sold will be fine.

 

However, you have to take makers' speed claims with a slack-handful of salt. Especially Sandisk's IME.

 

I run the program 'H2testw' on newly-bought cards to check their integrity, and very few of them meet the maker's claim for R/W speed. All you can be sure of is that a card claiming 95 MB/s will be slightly faster than one claiming 75 MB/s from the same maker.

I've seen a cheap card from the little-known company PNY exceed the speed of a more expensive Sandisk by quite a margin. It's a bit of a crap-shoot, but really not worth getting too worked up about.

 

Personally, I'll buy Samsung branded cards if I can find 'em, and I avoid Sandisks. I'm not sure how the latter company ever got to dominate the flash memory market, but their popularity is hardly deserved IMO and experience.

 

Forgive the rant, I wandered a bit off topic there. Anyway, for 1080P full HD video you just don't need super fast cards.

 

P.S. WRT fakes: These usually have only a fraction of the claimed capacity, as well as being slower than marked (if there's any speed claim at all). The above mentioned program will quickly sniff out a fake; it tests the capacity and integrity of data while giving a running readout of write and read speed.

Edited November 24, 2018 by rodeo_joe|1

At least until before Micron sold them, Lexar as well as SanDisk cards are typically mentioned in Nikon owner's manuals, and perhaps in the manuals for other camera brands also. The Costo stores in the US typically carries those two brands. I stick with those two brands also and they have served me well for like 15+ years.

 

I have a couple of SanDisk UHS-II for my D500 in the backup mode, but the XQD is my primary card. Even UHS-II can still slow my D500 down a bit, but the alternative is to use one XQD card only on the D500 (and D850). I am forced to one XQD on the Z6, but generally I still prefer to use dual cards in the backup mode.

 

I believe some of the high-end Olympus, Fuji, and Sony mirrorless cameras are compatible with UHS-II, at least in one of the two SD slots. If you don't shoot "machine gun" style or capture 4K video, perhaps all you need is 95 MB/sec UHS-I cards.

 

If you are willing to try a new brand, maybe check out some of the ProGrade UHS-II SD cards. If you don't buy the fastest ones, the prices are not too bad as a compromise. It seems like you can get 80 to 90% of the top performance at a much better price. ProGrade is formed by former Lexar management as a new, higher-end memory card brand. They use the same black-and-gold color scheme as Lexar, but I have never tried them myself.

Edited November 24, 2018 by ShunCheung

This discussion has opened revelations and understanding of SD cards for me. See attached speed test on the Olympus camera - I believe the results can be relevant to Nikon cameras as well. I am most surprised by the speed gap between UHS-II and UHS-I. According to the test results, UHS-II run some 100MB/s faster than standard UHS-I cards handson.

 

For now, it seems the Lexar 2000x is the best deal not only in speed but in price as well.

 

Edited November 24, 2018 by Mary Doo

d. Even UHS-II can still slow my D500 down a bit, but the alternative is to use one XQD card only on the D500 (and D850). I am forced to one XQD on the Z6, but generally I still prefer to use dual cards in the backup mode.

Check this out for Nikon D500 memory card performance (link). The Lexar 2000x UHS-II is just below the XQD cards in speed. It seems this is probably the best SD card complement to the XQD.

Edited November 24, 2018 by Mary Doo

What's worrisome about the Lexar 2000x:

 

At the Amazon site: while 71% rated it 5-star; 17% gave it 1-star - alleging defects, incompatibility...

At B&H: 56% 5-star and 13% 1-star.

 

The last thing one needs is the camera does not work at the critical/decisive moment due to card failure or, worse, the images were captured yet unreadable due to file corruption or whatever.

 

However, I have to say I have never experienced a failed SD card. Your thoughts?

Edited November 24, 2018 by Mary Doo

Mary,

I have always used SanDisk SD cards in my Nikons and have only had 1 card failure in maybe 10-years. I just bought a D850 and it uses XQD and SD cards. This is my first experience with XQD cards and I am very impressed with how robust & well built they seem to be. At this point I am only using my XQD card and my SD is only used for overflow.

For Olympus M1 I would definitely try to get UHS-II cards. The store feedbacks tell about significant error rate. At other forums the story has been that with olympus cameras one must format memorycard in computer and not with quick format function. If new card is only formatted in camera there would be high risk of lockups.

 

I have not yet bought into UHS-II. But I recommend Sandisk Extreme Pros for older UHS-I cameras, Samsung EVO+ for smartphones.

Since all UHS-II SD cards suffer from negative comments to some degree as well, including the SanDisk Extreme Pro, think I will try out the Lexar 2000x anyway. Thanks everyone.

About 3, 4 years ago Amazon had a short deep discount on the 2000x Lexar, like 50% off, and I bought one. At the time I had no camera that was UHS-II compatible. Later on I bought a D500, and that Lexar card has problems on the D500.

 

In 2016 I added a 280 MB/sec 64G Sandisk UHS-II SD to occupy the backup slot on that D500. Subsequently I added another 300 MB/sec one. Since XQD is my main card, the images in those SD cards are just insurances and are never used. So far I have never had any XQD failure.

 

Those two Sandisk cards have worked well so far. I do copy my backup images onto a spare hard drive in case I need them.

Alan, you made me look up the D500 user manual and I was surprised (more like shocked) to see the modest speed requirement. See the bottom part of attached screen shot. Wonder ...

[ATTACH=full]1272517[/ATTACH]

 

I'm a firm believer in, "When everything else fails, follow the instructions."

 

I'm shooting 4k video (3840x2160 100mb speed) on a Sony RX100iv and have had good results with SanDisk Extreme Pro SD. No failures.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01J5RHBQ4/ref=od_aui_detailpages00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Now it looks like I should stick with SanDisk after all. I have not checked out the Lexar cards from the "cart" yet as it's been a super busy weekend. Glad I haven't as more personal experiences come from you.

Are you filling your camera buffer? In other words, during continuous shooting does the camera stop taking images or slow down drastically? If it does, you need a faster card. If not, save some money and stick with the UHS-1 U3 cards.

 

Non-volatile memory prices are dropping; there is a glut developing. Memory card prices will continue to decline.

Non-volatile memory prices are dropping; there is a glut developing. Memory card prices will continue to decline.

Good to know. Thanks!