Choose a memory card: type, volume, speed

Each owner of a digital camera or smartphone with a camera sooner or later thinks about buying a memory card. Even if the device already has several gigabytes of internal memory, to save photos and videos you will need a large flash drive with high recording speed. It may seem that all the cards are the same, but there are many pitfalls in this topic. We will tell you how to choose the best memory card.

MEMORY CARD TYPE

Get price SanDisk There are several types of memory cards on the market today. The one that is listed in the description of your device will suit you. For example, most cameras today are compatible with SD (Secure Digital) memory cards, which have two subtypes: SDHC (high-capacity cards) and SDXC (super-large cards). Cameras released several years ago may not be compatible with SDXC memory cards, and digital camera models released before 2006 may not be compatible with SDHC. The maximum capacity for SDHC is 64 GB, and for SDXC - 512 GB. In some professional cameras, as well as in cameras of past years, flash drives such as CF (Compact Flash) are widely used. Today they are not much superior in their characteristics to the rest of the types, but they are the ones with the highest volume and speed of recording. However, before buying a fast CF memory card, make sure that your camera can provide such a high data transfer rate. In particular, there should be support for the UDMA function (direct memory access) from the side of the camera. There are also CFast 2.0 memory cards with ultra-fast read (up to 515 MB / s) and write (up to 440 MB / s). Their maximum capacity is 128 GB, the minimum is 64 GB. This is a relatively new format that is supported by several professional cameras . But now it’s clear that due to high speed characteristics it will be in demand in the future.

Canon EOS-1D X Mark II / EF100-400mm f / 4.5-5.6L IS II USM Settings: ISO 1000, F6.3, 1/1000 sDownload RAW

Canon EOS-1D X Mark II / EF100-400mm f / 4.5-5.6L IS II USM Settings: ISO 1000, F6.3, 1/1000 s

In tablets and smartphones, where compactness is especially important, along with regular SD cards, their smaller versions can be used - microSD. They are often used in action cameras and some handheld cameras. Today, microSD-cards in no way - neither speed nor volume - are inferior to their full-size counterparts. They can also be used in cameras with a standard SD slot via an adapter. The maximum microSD memory capacity is 200 GB in the SanDisk Ultra microSDHC / microSDXC UHS-I model. You can read more about microSD memory cards on the pages of our magazine.

STANDARD OF MEMORY CARDS UHS-I and UHS-II

Today, UHS-II memory cards are being actively introduced. Fujifilm X-T1, Fujifilm X-Pro2 and Olympus OM-D E-M5 Mark II are already working with them. File write speeds of up to 250 MB / s and read speeds of 280 MB / s. Such high rates allow to realize all the possibilities of modern technology. Externally, the flash drives of the old and the new standard are no different, but this is only on the front side. On the reverse side of the UHS-II cards, the contacts are arranged in two rows. But most importantly, UHS-II has backward compatibility: they can be used in cameras and camcorders that do not support this standard. Obviously, the future lies with them.

Some manufacturers of photographic equipment tried to introduce their own types of flash drives. But at the moment, almost all camera models are compatible with one of the above types, and for using your own types of flash drives, either a separate or combined slot is provided.

WHAT VOLUME OF MEMORY CARDS TO CHOOSE?

The capacity of the memory card determines how many pictures or minutes of video you can record. Naturally, more capacious cards are more expensive. But we live in an age of multi-megapixel cameras and the upcoming era of 4K video. SLR cameras have crossed the line of 50 megapixels, while mirrorless cameras are already equipped with 42 megapixel sensors. And even in mobile phones, you can meet the resolution of images over 40 million pixels! The average number of pixels is 24 million. Canon EOS-1D X Mark II writes a video with a bitrate of 800 Mbps. One forty-second clip from this camera takes about 5 GB! And the higher the resolution of the picture and video, the more space will be required on the flash drive. The file size directly depends on the number of details stored in it, that is, on its quality. If you take photos in RAW + JPEG format, the volume of one shot can be more than 100 MB! Now there is an ultra-high resolution 4K video format, where one minute can take up the volume of an average amateur photo shoot. Acquiring memory cards with a capacity of less than 16 GB today makes little sense. If you plan to actively take pictures and shoot a little video, we recommend 16 and 32 GB memory cards. At the same time, you should not shoot all the material on one card, it is better to split the session into several flash drives. It's not so much the unreliability of memory cards (they are just very reliable), but the fact that we can lose them. When shooting a video, the volume of the memory card should be selected so that it is enough for the whole shooting day. Below we give a table for modern multi-megapixel cameras, which will allow you to roughly estimate how many pictures and minutes of video you can record on memory cards of different sizes.

Memory capacity	Full HD H.264 Video	RAW + JPEG Photo
8 GB	10 minutes	80 photos
16 GB	21 minutes	160 photos
32 GB	43 minutes	320 photos
64 GB	1 hour 27 minutes	650 photos
128 GB	2 hours 54 minutes	1,280 photos

HOW TO DETERMINE THE OPTIMUM RECORDING AND READING SPEED?

Many do not pay attention to the speed of the memory card. But in vain, because it is more important than volume, because it determines the scope of the flash drive. For example, it will not be possible to record Full HD on a slow card - the recording will constantly end. If you shoot a series of frames with a slow flash drive, the camera may freeze for a long time, recording it. Once we had to wait three whole minutes until a series of shots from a 42-megapixel camera was recorded on a Class 10 card. It was no longer surprising to take high-speed photography of more than 10 frames per second, and the 4K and 360 ° video formats raised the bar for recording speed to new heights. So how to distinguish a fast memory card from a slow one and choose the optimal one for your device?

Previously, flash cards were divided into classes: 2, 4, 6 and 10. In fact, this is the write speed in megabytes per second: class 2 - 2 MB / s, class 6 - 6 MB / s. Tenth grade implies that the flash drive can record pictures at a higher speed than 10 MB / s. Such fast flash drives, in addition to the letter C, are marked with the letter U with the number 1 or 3. The manufacturer always indicates the real read and write speed (for example, 45 MB / s) on the card, and the card class on the right. The situation is similar with Compact Flash and microSD.

HOW TO CHOOSE A MEMORY CARD SPEED CLASS?

If you plan to shoot video in Full HD format, then memory cards no lower than speed class 6, or better, 10 or higher, will do. The same cards are suitable for everyday shooting. For serial shooting, it is better to choose faster flash drives - about 45 MB / s. This will allow you to take photos in short continuous series. With slow flash drives, you run the risk of missing an interesting shot while your camera is recording previous shots. Filming moving objects makes even greater demands on speed: you have to shoot almost continuously with a series. And here the ideal memory card speed is already equal to 80 MB / s and higher. Finally, for professionals shooting long bursts, the fastest flash drives with speeds of 90 MB / s are simply needed. Recording speed is the key, and you should not save on it. A professional camera with a high-speed memory card is capable of shooting a continuous series of frames until the free space runs out. Reading speed for the camera is less important. It is always higher or equal to the write speed. Choosing a memory card with a high write speed, you definitely will not experience problems with the read speed.

WHAT TO PAY ATTENTION?

While the memory card is inside the device, it is protected. But once you extract it, it immediately becomes vulnerable. The photographer at least once, but be sure to drop it, leave it on the table under the scorching sun, in a photo bag in severe frost or worse - pour water on it! What can I say about travel: at the airport, luggage will be surely cleared with x-rays. We recommend choosing memory cards that are protected from all of these negative influences.

WHICH MEMORY CARD MANUFACTURER TO CHOOSE?

Prophotos recommends SanDisk memory cards. For many years now we have been testing with them all the cameras that come to our editors, because we trust their reliability and value their high performance. The following are recommendations for different types of devices. The following memory card models are ideal for digital SLR cameras with interchangeable lenses: SanDisk Extreme PRO microSDXC UHS-II, SanDisk Extreme PRO SDHC / SDXC UHS-I, SanDisk Extreme PRO SDHC / SDXC UHS-II, SanDisk Extreme Plus SDHC / SDXC UHS- I, SanDisk Extreme microSDHC / microSDXC UHS-I, SanDisk Extreme Pro CompactFlash, SanDisk Extreme Plus microSDHC / microSDXC UHS-I, SanDisk Extreme SDHC / SDXC UHS-I, SanDisk Extreme CompactFlash. For amateur photo and video shooting, depending on the type of camera suitable: SanDisk Extreme Plus microSDHC / microSDXC UHS-I, SanDisk Extreme Plus SDHC / SDXC UHS-I, SanDisk Ultra PLUS microSDHC / microSDXC UHS-I, SanDisk Ultra PLUS SDHC / SDXC, SanDisk Ultra microSDHC / microSDXC UHS-I, SanDisk Extreme microSDHC / microSDXC UHS-I, SanDisk Extreme SDHC / SDXC UHS-I, SanDisk Ultra microSDHC / microSDXC UHS-I, SanDisk Ultra SDHC / SDXC, SanDisk microSD / microSDHC. For professional video shooting: SanDisk Extreme PRO SDHC / SDXC UHS-I, SanDisk Extreme PRO SDHC / SDXC UHS-II, SanDisk Extreme PRO Compact Flash, SanDisk Extreme PRO CFast2.0, SanDisk Extreme PLUS SDHC / SDXC UHS-I, SanDisk Extreme SDHC / SDXC UHS-I, SanDisk Extreme CompactFlash. The following memory cards are ideal for action cameras: SanDisk Extreme PRO microSDXC UHS-II, SanDisk Extreme PLUS microSDHC / microSDXC UHS-I, SanDisk Extreme microSDHC / microSDXC UHS-I, SanDisk Ultra PLUS microSDHC / microSDXC UHS-I, SanDisk Ultra microSDHC / microSDXC UHS-I.