SD cards are one of the most important components of DSLRs and Mirrorless camera.
Choosing a most suitable SD card for camera is really important to get the best benefits that your camera provides. These SD cards have variant capacity and come with several prices. However, it seems really confuse whether what SD card you should buy in order to get benefits of your camera. Because they have marked several classes on SD card. In this article, we are going to look at everything you need to know about SD card.
There is something very important that you should keep in mind that card reads speed and writes speedreading speed is how fast card can transfer data to computer or your camera. Write speed is how fast card can write data came from camera or computer, in other word data storing speed of ards .
The first thing to consider is what card will really benefit for your camera. The best way to check this is to look up the camera’s specification on the manual. Other factors that you should consider whether you intend to use your camera for 4K video shooting or raw files shoot, it’s really important to go for a faster card if you use your camera for 4K or RAW files shooting and also make sure to check what card will support for your camera.
When you buy a SD card it’s really important to buy it from a reputable seller. Most trusted and dominant sellers are SanDisk and Lexar, although you will find some good sellers like Kingston, Integral and Transcend. Again, there are lots of counterfeit cards on the market these days so make sure to avoid these sellers when you buy a card.
You can use our recommended links for buying SD card if you are not sure to find a good seller.SD Card types Generally, there are two types of SD cards: the First one is SDHC, stand for Secure Digital High Capacity, The second one is SDXC, stand for Secure Digital Extended Capacity.
The only difference between these two is their capacity. SDHC cards are from 4GB to 32GB. SDXC is 64GB – 2TB.If you use a point and shoot camera, a 16GB card is totally fine. However, if you use a camera like DSLR or Mirrorless, it’s really important to go for at least a 32GB or 64GB card. If you use your camera for bursts shooting or to record 4K videos, you will fill up 16GB card very quickly.
So it’s really important to consider card capacity and it depends on how you will intend using your camera for. Another important thing is that you should consider is that don’t put your all eggs into one basket. If something goes wrong with your card, your all images and videos are at risk. It’s a really good idea to use 3 or 4 cards rather than use only one 128GB card.
Today some cameras offer two card slots, that’s another reason why most people tend to use several cards.SD Card Classes NeXT, let’s look at their classes. This is the place where people are really confused. There are three classes which have introduced by the SD association.
There are C-class, UHS-class and Video class. C speed Class
What is the C-class?
You may have seen a number inside a C latter on SD cards, such as 2, 4, 6 or 10. Those are the C-classes. Then, what indicates these numbers is that the minimum sustained write speed for cards. Minimum sustained write speed of class 2 is 2MB/s, and a class 4 card is 4MB/s and so on. You can see these classes on both SDHC and SDXC cards. Normally, class 10 cards are sufficient for full HD videos. However, if your camera supports 4K videos, you want to go for the card that also shows their UHS class on.
UHS Class Let’s look at what is the UHS speed class. This speed class was introduced by the SD association in 2009. If you tend to use your camera for 4K videos recording, RAW files shooting or burst shooting, this speed class is very important.
You can see this class on both SDHC and SDXC cards. UHS class symbol is a figure inside a U shape icon, such as 1 or 3. These numbers provide you the card minimum sustained write speed like C class. Minimum guaranteed sustained write speed of 1 inside the U shape icon is 10MB/s and UHS 3 is 30MB/s. You can also find numbers such as UHS- I or UHS- II. These are the UHS classes. UHS – II cards also have second-row contacts back of the card.
If your camera support UHS – II, it’s a really good idea for go a one because these cards are very speed. If you try to record 4K video for a slow card, it can be caused to stop recording. Let say your camera provides 40MB data per second and you have a card which can write 20MB data per second.
So that means it takes double times to write data to card which your camera provides. Videos speed class This speed class was introduced for 8K videos capability cameras. Generally, we called V Class for this video speed class. It’s also like C class, can be understood easily.
V6 card has minimum sequential write speed of 6MB/s. there are V class cards up to V90. V10 and V30 are for 4K videos, and V60 and V90 are for 8K videos.
Though these three classes, manufacturers use MB/s (megabyte per second) to show cards speed. Some best SDHC and SDXC cards for 4K videos and burst shooting that you can buy right now.01. SanDisk Extreme Pro 32GB for $12.89 at Amazon Market Place.
SanDisk Extreme Pro is one of the very famous cards among most people. Because of its speed and price. This is a UHS- I and U3 card. Video speed class of this card is V30. Read speed of this card is 95MB per second and write speed is 90MB per second.
You can use this card for Full HD video (1080), 4K videos or 3D without having any issue, even you can use this card for RAW continue shooting and SanDisk Extreme Pro will handle it ease. If you are a person who shoots lots of 4K videos go for a SanDisk Extreme Pro 64GB or above card.
This card is also weatherproof, waterproof, shockproof, and X-Ray proof. If you hope to use your camera extreme temperature, this card is really good for you and it comes with a limited lifetime warranty.
Best sellers for SanDisk Extreme Pro 32GB . Lexar Professional 1000x 32GB card for $16.95 at Amazon Market Place Lexar Professional 1000x is one of the dominant players on the market. This card has various capacity ranges from 16GB up to 256GB.This is a UHS –II and U3, which is a really fast card. You can use for this card for 1080p full HD videos, 4K ultra videos or 3D.
Read speed of this card is 150MB per second and write speed is 75MB per second, which means you can use this card for more Data-intensive operations without any issue. Except this card speed, it comes with a limited lifetime warranty.
Best sellers for Lexar Professional 1000x 32GB. PNY Elite Performance 32GB for $13.99 at Amazon Market Place. Though, PNY isn’t a most recognizable brand, it’s a really good choice. If you are looking for a card that a little cheaper and speed, PNY Elite Performance is a best option.
This card offers from 16GB to 512GB capacity card, which is really good for its cheaper price. Read speed of this card is 95MB per second. PNY Elite Performance is a UHS- I/ U1 card, means you can record only 1080P Full HD videos if you are a filmmaker. However, you can go for PNY Elite Performance 64GB UHS- I/U3 card. In addition to its price and speed, it’s weatherproof, shockproof and magnet proof, and it also comes with a lifetime limited warranty. Best sellers for PNY Elite Performance 32GB.
SanDisk Ultra 32GB for $7.95 at Amazon Market Place This is another cheaper card you can buy from SanDisk and this card is one of the best selling cards. SanDisk ultra comes from 16GB up to 128GB capacities. This card is UHS- I card. You can’t use this card for 4K videos recording, only 1080p full HD videos. So if you are looking for a card quite cheap, SanDisk Ultra is one of the best options. Read speed of this card is 80MB per second.
SanDisk ultra comes with 10 years limited warranty and it is shockproof, X-ray proof, magnet proof, waterproof and temperature proof. Best sellers for SanDisk Ultra 32GB.
Lexar Professional 2000x 32GB UHS- II/U3 with 3.0 card reader for $47.97 at Amazon Market Place.
Lexar Professional 2000x is a really fast HD card. Most professional Photographers use this card because of its speed.
This card offers 32GB, 64GB and 128GB cards.
This card is a UHS- II/U3 card. This card offers blistering 300MB read speed per second. While its price, this card gives you a huge write sped of 275MB per second. You can record 1080p full HD videos, 4K ultra videos or 3D videos without having any problem.
You can also use this card for continues RAW shooting. Best sellers for Lexar Professional 2000x 32GB. Transcend SDHC 32GB UHS-II/U3 for $32.99 at Amazon Market Place.
This card is really good both RAW files continue shooting and 4K videos recording, in other word this is a very fast card.
You can buy either 32GB or 64GB and both cards are UHS- II/U3.This card is a UHS- II/U3 card comes with huge Write speed 180MB per second and read speed is 285MB per second .In addition to this card speed, this card is shockproof and X-ray proof and comes with five-year limited warranty. Best sellers for Transcend SDHC 32GB UHS-II/U3.
Samsung MicroSD EVO 64GB Memory Card for $11.75 at Amazon Market place. Samsung MicroSD EVO is a MicroSD card comes with Samsung SD card adapter, meaning you can use this card for your camera. This card is a UHS-I/U3 card, so you can use this card for both 1080P full HD videos and 4K videos shooting without any issue.
This card read speed is 100MB and write speed is 60MB per second. Another benefit of Samsung MicroSD EVO Memory Cards is relatively cheap and this card comes with 10 years limited warranty. Best sellers for Samsung MicroSD EVO 64GB.