SDHC/SDXC size speed wibble
Discussion
Well I'm a numpty today. For the first time I don't know what kind of memory card I need... the price for jumping theee generations of camera in one go I suppose.
Sooo.... D500, 20Mp, will shoot mostly RAW, never used video on a DSLR but may end up using some of that too... what card will fit the bill in terms of size/speed?
NB: I've always used Lexar cards and would like to stay with them unless there's a very good reason not to.
Ta!
Sooo.... D500, 20Mp, will shoot mostly RAW, never used video on a DSLR but may end up using some of that too... what card will fit the bill in terms of size/speed?
NB: I've always used Lexar cards and would like to stay with them unless there's a very good reason not to.
Ta!
As above.
In terms of capacity SDXC are larger in size than SDHC (32Gb swap over point, if you want larger than 32Gb then it'll be SDXC).
After that then is transfer speed, the D500 accepts UHS-II (312Mb/s) so no real point getting anything faster (unless to speed up transfer onto a computer).
Good luck with Lexar, last I heard they have dipped out of the commercial market and sold just the brand name to another flash storage company. It's a bit debatable whether the new 'Lexar' will be as good as the old (think Kodak and Polaroid).
Nothing wrong with old Lexars but personally I have always used Sandisk Extreme Pros with up to 300Mb/s rate, never had an issue and always meet or exceed the quoted transfer rates. Just make sure you get a genuine one, fakes are floating around.
Of course there is always XQD but I haven't bothered yet despite Nikon keep adding slots in, having another card reader doesn't justify the slightly better transfer rate to me.
In terms of capacity SDXC are larger in size than SDHC (32Gb swap over point, if you want larger than 32Gb then it'll be SDXC).
After that then is transfer speed, the D500 accepts UHS-II (312Mb/s) so no real point getting anything faster (unless to speed up transfer onto a computer).
Good luck with Lexar, last I heard they have dipped out of the commercial market and sold just the brand name to another flash storage company. It's a bit debatable whether the new 'Lexar' will be as good as the old (think Kodak and Polaroid).
Nothing wrong with old Lexars but personally I have always used Sandisk Extreme Pros with up to 300Mb/s rate, never had an issue and always meet or exceed the quoted transfer rates. Just make sure you get a genuine one, fakes are floating around.
Of course there is always XQD but I haven't bothered yet despite Nikon keep adding slots in, having another card reader doesn't justify the slightly better transfer rate to me.
Simpo Two said:
Stills I'm familiar with; what sort of speed/size should I allow for, say, 10 mins of video and smooth playback? That's a whole new ballpark to me.
Forgive my post, I love to get nerdy with this kind of stuff. Its frustrating that there so many different speeds of cards, and different ways of them being labelled. There's also MB/s and Mbps, which are different things, and i easliy confuse myself sometime.- Size of Card
What resolution do you plan on recording video at?
4k UHD, will eat up memory cards. According to Nikon's website, the D500 will record 4k at 144 Mbps. Which is roughly 1gb a minute of recording.
so a 64 gb card would get you 64 minutes of record time (approximately.)
So it really depends on what you are recoding - a few clips here and there, or hours of interviews or filming hours of a live event.
I'd recommend similar, get enough cards to have at least 3hours of record time. 3 x 64gb cards, or 2 x 128gb.
If you're also loading up with raw photos as well, then you might need more.
- Type of Card
D500 has both SD and XQD card slots (i believe). SD and SDXC was really never designed for high, sustained data transfer. XQD was designed with video in mind, and has a few more buffers / redundancy's built into the card, to keep the data rates sustained, so theres no drop outs. Thats why XQD's are a little pricer. Also XQD cards are rated for more read / write cycles, compare to SDXC, and using video means the card will be written and read from far more. Also, I only tend to care about write speeds. The read speeds don't matter so much, as, at least to me, it won't matter if it takes a little longer to backup to a hard drive. But the write speed, if not fast enough, will stop the recording.
XQD
Currently only Lexar and Sony make XQD cards, and they both use different labelling for the different speeds.
Sony G Series - 400 MB/s
Sony S Series - 168 MB/s
Sony M Seires - 150 MB/s
Lexar Professional 2933x = 400 MB/s
Lexar Professional 1400x = 185 MB/s
Lexar Professional 1000x = 100 MB/s
Since your D500 records 4k at 144 Mbps (which is a shade under 45 MB/s), in theory you could use any current XQD card for sale.
SDXC Cards
You'll still need the to exceed 45 MB/s, and you'll find the speeds on SDXC are not quite on par with XQD.
Theres a lot of useless labelling with SDXC cards, like 'Class 10' and 'U2' and 'U3' etc - but i prefer to know the exact data rate of the card in question, so I know what im getting. Class 10, or 'U3' just means it exceeds a certain minimum speed.
I tend to swear by Sandisk, but do some research, they tend to print the read speed on the card - not the all important write speeds.
Sandisk Extreme = 60MB/s write (95MB/s read)
Sandsik Extreme Pro = 90MB/s write (95 read) - some go even higher.
In theory, the gold coloured Sandisk Extreme SDXC would do well, and exceeds the 45MB/s needed for 4k UHD.
Id always try and go for as fast & large a card as you can, before it gets to silly money. Cards tend to slow down a little when they get full, so its best to be quite above the minimum speeds your camera wants from a card, so you've got a little safety margin.
Also, because of supply and demand, two 64gb cards, can sometime be cheaper than one 128gb. So it pays to compare. Id rather split my data across multiple cards anyway!
hope some of that helps
Edited by Fordo on Tuesday 20th February 11:36
In my D500 I usually have a 128GB Lexar XQD 2933x card and a 512GB Lexar SDXC 633x card.
I then usually set the camera up to save JPG to the XQD and RAW/video to the SD.
That speed of SD card is more than fast enough to playback 4k, but I almost always copy it to disk and play it from there.
When you say 'smooth playback' are you intending to play directly from the card in camera?
I then usually set the camera up to save JPG to the XQD and RAW/video to the SD.
That speed of SD card is more than fast enough to playback 4k, but I almost always copy it to disk and play it from there.
When you say 'smooth playback' are you intending to play directly from the card in camera?
Thanks D500 users, and also Fordo for the full story which is all good stuff 
Despite, or probably because of, making my living producing corporates back in the Betacam SP days, I've always seen home video as a 'busman's holiday' so my home video has been no more than 10 seconds of 'Here is my cat playing', shot on a £60 compact for Facebook. However, perhaps when I have the D500 I'll want to do more. I'm involved with a local film-making club, just for entertainment really, but it's not impossible that once I have the tools I might be cameraman for others. Not interested in editing.
It seems sensible to buy one card that will do everything so I'm future-proofed, though currently I see no need for 4K so a good SDXC should be ample. What speed would need to work well with HD video?
Despite, or probably because of, making my living producing corporates back in the Betacam SP days, I've always seen home video as a 'busman's holiday' so my home video has been no more than 10 seconds of 'Here is my cat playing', shot on a £60 compact for Facebook. However, perhaps when I have the D500 I'll want to do more. I'm involved with a local film-making club, just for entertainment really, but it's not impossible that once I have the tools I might be cameraman for others. Not interested in editing.
It seems sensible to buy one card that will do everything so I'm future-proofed, though currently I see no need for 4K so a good SDXC should be ample. What speed would need to work well with HD video?
FurtiveFreddy said:
When you say 'smooth playback' are you intending to play directly from the card in camera?
To check the recording on the spot, yes.Edited by Simpo Two on Tuesday 20th February 13:23
OK, so given that if/when I shoot video it will be HD not 4K, how about this 'Lexar 128 GB Professional UHS-I SDXC 633x Class 10 Memory Card'?
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Lexar-128-GB-Profession...
How much recording time in HD, roughly?
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Lexar-128-GB-Profession...
How much recording time in HD, roughly?
Simpo Two said:
OK, so given that if/when I shoot video it will be HD not 4K, how about this 'Lexar 128 GB Professional UHS-I SDXC 633x Class 10 Memory Card'?
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Lexar-128-GB-Profession...
How much recording time in HD, roughly?
HD 1080p25 - about 175MB/minhttps://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Lexar-128-GB-Profession...
How much recording time in HD, roughly?
toohuge said:
Simpotwo- are you going to take advantage of the d500 10 FPS at all? Shooting sport etc?
You may want a faster write card than that. My D7200 slows done a lot with slower memory cards when I’m using the buffer. Faster cards like the San disk pro extreme really make a difference.
The card he's looking at will keep up at 10fps at full res.You may want a faster write card than that. My D7200 slows done a lot with slower memory cards when I’m using the buffer. Faster cards like the San disk pro extreme really make a difference.
ctdctd said:
I'd be wary of buying memory cards from eBay unless a big name seller - lots of fakes.
I know many Sandisks are fake but I thought Lexar are relatively rare so not faked - I may be wrong.How about via Amazon? https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B012PL80US/_encoding=U...
I'd agree that Amazon is probably a better bet then ebay for this sort of thing. Amazon is better at handling disputes IME.
I've bought many, many flash memory cards over the years and come across a few fakes. Sandisk is much more likely to be faked than Lexar IMO.
When you receive it, test the read/write speeds with a utility just to be sure. Often fakes will be the correct capacity and appear to work well, but use an older chipset with slower transfer rates.
I've also come across flash memory which was labelled Class 6 but had Class 10 performance. Rare, but it has happened.
I've bought many, many flash memory cards over the years and come across a few fakes. Sandisk is much more likely to be faked than Lexar IMO.
When you receive it, test the read/write speeds with a utility just to be sure. Often fakes will be the correct capacity and appear to work well, but use an older chipset with slower transfer rates.
I've also come across flash memory which was labelled Class 6 but had Class 10 performance. Rare, but it has happened.
Edited by FurtiveFreddy on Tuesday 20th February 19:01
Gassing Station | Photography & Video | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff