Get A Fast SD Memory Card For Your New Camera

From the Archives of CTC, Inc:

The newest cameras have capabilities like 4K video, very fast frame rates (120fps) and very long burst shooting. They'll need a speedy memory card.

At the end of this post is a comparison chart for some of these SD memory cards. The write speed is by far the most important for most camera uses. That tells you how fast you can get data on to the card. The read speed, which is often used in marketing, tells you how fast you can get data off of the card.

It’s important to note when buying a card, you may not get much benefit from the fastest cards. It depends on what you’re putting it in. To take advantage of UHS-II speeds you’ll need a camera or reader that’s compatible with UHS-II. If it’s not, the card will still work, they’re backward compatible usually, but you won’t get the highest speeds the card is capable of.

Understanding the Specs

SD, SDHC, or SDXC

Plain SD cards have a maximum capacity of 2GB, while SDHC cards max out at 32GB, and SDXC cards can support up to 2TB. This metric does not affect speed at all.

UHS

Some SD cards have a UHS (Ultra High Speed) classification. This determines the maximum speed at which a memory card can read. Non-UHS cards max out at 25 MB/s, UHS-I cards have a maximum theoretical speed of 104 MB/s, and UHS-II cards allow for a maximum transfer speed of 312 MB/s. UHS-II cards also have a second row of electrical contacts to aid in the speed boost. If your memory card reader or camera does not have the second row of contacts, the speed will be more in line with UHS-I cards. The UHS classification is a good way to help gauge a card’s burst speed.

Speed Class

To determine the minimum write speed of a card, you need to look at its Speed Class rating. This means that the card has been verified to never write slower than whatever it's class rate is. Some cards may write a lot faster, especially since the fastest speed class is currently just 30 MB/s, but they will never write slower.

• U3: Minimum 30 MB/s Write
• U1: Minimum 10 MB/s Write
• Class 10: Minimum 10 MB/s Write
• Class 6: Minimum 6 MB/s Write
• Class 4: Minimum 4 MB/s Write

Video Speed Class

The SD Association has also recently introduced a Video Speed Class rating, designed to identify cards capable of 8K, 4K, 3D, and 360° video. This speed class is just another way of verifying the minimum sustained write speeds of cards.

• V6: Minimum 6 MB/s Write
• V10: Minimum 10 MB/s Write
• V30: Minimum 30 MB/s Write
• V90: Minimum 90 MB/s Write

Comparison Chart
(based on independent tests by havecamerawilltravel.com)

Brand	Model #	Class	UHS	Write (MB/s)	Read (MB/s)
Lexar	Professional 2000x LSD32GCRBNA2000R	U3	UHS-II	241.4	278.0
Toshiba	Exceria Pro N101	U3	UHS-II	231.7	254.4
SanDisk	Extreme Pro SDSDXP	U3	UHS-II	196.8	257.7
SanDisk	Extreme Pro SDSDXPA	U3	UHS-I	89.2	94.5
SanDisk	Extreme Pro	U1	UHS-I	85.4	94.3
Lexar	Professional 1000x LSD32GCRBNA1000	U3	UHS-II	82.2	156.3
SanDisk	Extreme PLUS SDSDXSF	U3	UHS-I	64.6	88.7
SanDisk	Extreme SDSDXNE	U3	UHS-I	62.5	89.5
Sony	SF32UZ/TQN	U3	UHS-I	56.3	91
Sony	SF32UX2/TQ	U3	UHS-I	55.9	90.6
KIngston	SDA10	U1	UHS-I	54.2	92.5
Kingston	SDA3	U3	UHS-I	53.1	91.7
PNY	Elite Performance P-SDX128U395-GE	U3	UHS-I	51.5	95.2
SanDisk	Extreme SDSQXNE	U3	UHS-I	48.7	89.2
Lexar	Professional 633x LSD64GCBNL633	U3	UHS-I	40.1	79.4
Transcend	TS32GSDHC10U1E	U1	UHS-I	34.6	95.3
SanDisk	Extreme	C10	UHS-I	34.4	47.4
SanDisk	Ultra SDSDUNC	C10	UHS-I	17.1	75
Lexar	Platinum II	C10		16.4	23.6
SanDisk	Ultra 30MB/s	C10	UHS-I	11.4	45.9

Credit:nbsp; havecamerawilltravel.com/  and  www.bhphotovideo.com/