Best Sd Card For Digital Photography – SD cards are the most common type of memory card used in digital cameras. This type of camera memory card, which has been around for over 20 years, is easy, affordable, and can perform well in cameras designed for beginners to professional users.
Although the physical size and shape of the SD card has not changed since its introduction in 1999, the internal specifications of the format have undergone several iterations. Flash memory technology has also evolved, improving reliability and significantly increasing speed. Improvements are welcome, but this was problematic.
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The continuous evolution of SD card standards has resulted in numerous symbols and classes used to describe the type and speed of an SD card. It’s not uncommon to find an SD card marked with six or seven different symbols, making it difficult for people to understand exactly what they’re buying. This guide will remove these symbols and help you know what you are buying and what is right for your camera.
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SD card speeds differ slightly depending on whether data is being written to or read from the card. In 99% of cases the read speed of the card will be faster than the write speed. Of course, SD card manufacturers like to put the maximum number on the card, so if you see something like 175MB/s (megabytes per second) on the card, you should assume that it refers to the card’s read speed.
Not only that, but they will refer to the maximum reading speed, not the continuous speed. Stable read or write speeds will be slower. In other words, this number on the card is the first indicator of the card’s performance, but it’s not the only thing you should look at. This section will discuss icons that reveal the rest of the SD card’s features.
Some memory card manufacturers quote SD card speeds in MB/s (megabytes per second), while others like Lexar prefer to quote a speed factor of 1000X. This is confusing for the consumer because the SD makes it difficult to compare the speed between the two brands.
This speed factor naming scheme dates back to the days of CD-ROM drives, where a standard drive reads CDs at 150KB/s. So 1x equals 150KB/s and 1000x equals 150MB/s. Isn’t that funny? At a time when some photographers don’t even know what a CD-ROM drive is, several brands use its speed to determine the speed of current flash memory.
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Note above: This silly practice of quoting SD card speeds based on the speed of CD-ROM drives seems to have stopped with the arrival of CFexpress cards. Even Lexar quotes CFexpress card speeds in MB/s. About time!
This simple chart is useful for quickly comparing SD card speeds between brands that list speeds in MB/s and brands that use the ancient XXXXx speed factor measurement.
The SD card class is a way to determine the card’s minimum sustained write speed. This is not the maximum speed, but the minimum sustained write speed that any device, camera or lack thereof, can achieve depending on the availability of any SD card. This minimum continuous write speed is important because if your camera shoots 4K or 8K video, you’ll need to use a card that provides the minimum continuous write speed to record at least those formats.
Complexity has changed the way the SD Card Association shows persistently low write speeds. I hope the chart above is clear to you, but they usually start with “Grade 2”, “Grade 6” or “Grade 10” cards, which means they are least able to write consistently. speed 2MB/s, 6MB/s or 10MB/s.
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Then they decided that was too many characters to write on an SD card, so they changed it to use the U SD card standard and things got U1 and U3. In these examples, U1 is the minimum sustained speed of 10MB/s, and U3 is 30MB/s – basically divide it into ten parts and close the U in front of it. While I agree that writing U1 to a card is easier than writing class 10 (both have 10MB/spec), the problem is that SD card manufacturers are starting to put both on cards! In their eyes, more symbols on the map = better.
Unfortunately, it’s only increasing because we’re now seeing card manufacturers put completely external characters on SD cards. For example, take another look at the cards in the image above. They all carry the C10 (Class 10) badge and the U3 badge. The U3 guarantees a minimum write speed of 30MB/s, while the C10 guarantees a minimum write speed of 10MB/s. Of course, you can’t achieve U3 standards without also providing C10 standards. This is the general meaning. But card manufacturers insist on adding an extra symbol for fear of making a competitor’s card look “better” if they’re going to carry a symbol when their card doesn’t.
If you thought it couldn’t get any worse, you’d be wrong. For reasons I don’t understand, the U standard was replaced by the V standard. We now have V30, V60 and V90 SD cards that guarantee minimum sustained write speeds of, you guessed it, 30MB/s, 60MB/s and 90MB/s. Of course, these symbols stick to cards along with other symbols. The result is a confusing mess for consumers, so let’s simplify things!
If the card has a V30, V60 or V90 symbol, this is the only speed-related symbol you need to pay attention to. Class U and Class 10 are all nonsense. Any card with a V30, V60 or V90 class will automatically pass the other SD card class standards below. These days, following this simple guide will allow you to determine the relative speed of 95% of SD cards on the market. The camera manufacturer may have specified a minimum write speed in the V30, V60 or V90 manual or online specifications.
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Another SD card performance indicator is whether the card uses a UHS (Ultra High Speed) bus I or II configuration. UHS-I cards are limited to a theoretical maximum speed of 104MB/s and are cheaper to manufacture. UHS-II SD cards are faster and theoretically capable of speeds of up to 312MB/s.
There are two ways to distinguish between UHS-I and UHS-II SD cards. First, the card will have an I or II label on the front. Usually, this icon will be marked along with the type of SD card. For example, it might say SDHC II or SDXC I. Second, there is a physical difference between UHS-I and UHS-II, unlike other SD card performance classifiers such as U or V speed class. If you look at the back of the SD card, a UHS-I card will have one row of metal contacts, while a UHS-II card will have two rows.
Important Note: If your card has the EX symbol or the word Express, such as SDHC EX 1 or SDHC Express I, you are looking at an SD Express card, and refer to the subsection for that card type at the bottom of the page. The back of an SD Express card is similar to a UHS-II SD card. There’s only one SD Express card on the market in 2022, so unless you’re looking for a special card, it’s unlikely you’ll have one.
* there are no UHS-III SD cards on the market, or cameras that can support them.
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There is some backward compatibility between UHS-I and UHS-II. You can use the card format or an SD card reader that accepts an SD card. The most important thing to understand is that the device and SD card must be UHS-II compatible if you want to unlock the added speed benefits of the UHS-II interface.
If you insert a camera or card rated for UHS-I only into a faster and more expensive UHS-II SD card, the card will be limited to UHS-I speeds of 104MB/s. Or if you use a cheaper UHS-II SD card over a more expensive UHS-II card, your photos will be copied by UHS-I at a slower speed.
Most pro and professional cameras released these days use UHS-II if they have an SD card slot, but most entry-level cameras are limited to UHS-I. Additionally, many popular DSLR models in the aftermarket use UHS-I for their SD card slot, such as the Canon 5D Mark IV. You can still use a UHS-II SD card in those cameras, but the speed will be limited.
Even if your camera uses UHS-I SD cards, a case may be made for purchasing UHS-II SD cards when considering your workflow. When the UHS-II SD card reader
