SD Card read/write speed

[rpcrowe]

I will need to watch this video a couple of times before I totally understand it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZlWhvc-UCOA

He matches a cheap ($17 USD) Trenscend Card Reader performance with that of a more expensive ($79 SD) Prograde Card Reader using two speeds of SD Cards.

The Prograde Card Reader seemed to do a lot better than the Transcend. I wonder how my Lexar Caed Reader (which I think that Manfred also uses) would stack up against te Prograde Reader...

Of course speed is really only important if you are working with large numbers of files or with video (especially 4K video). And, of course, all cameras cannot take advantage of the fastest SD Cards available.

What do you think folks???

[AlwaysOnAuto]

Speed is only relative to how much time you have available. I'm retired and there's no one holding a stop watch on me when I'm playing with the camera and computer so it really doesn't matter to me. My wife on the other hand can get impatient at times.
BTW, my card reader usually is transferring at 20mb/s so I'm really slow.

[Tri Danimal]

I've acquired a few extra memory cards so I don't have to worry about download times. I can pop out a card, put in the new one, start formatting the new card, put full card into external HD, press the download button, get back to shooting. My external harddrive that I take with me it 2TB, so I never have to worry about not enough space at that day.

When I get home everything get backed up to BOTH of my 10TB externals over night.

[Manfred M]

It really does depend on the type of shooting one does.

There are times I have come back with 20 - 30 GB of data on my card and have limited time to download and review it, so a faster card and reader can be important to me. Shooting events = taking lots of pictures. I do look at the trade-off between card speed and cost, so generally buy cards that are 1 or more likely two steps below "top of the line".

As I am not someone who spends a lot of time doing burst shots, I very rarely run into problems filling the camera's buffer and writing to the card. My issue tends to be getting the data out of the card and onto the machine. I expect I will be upgrading my computer in the next year or two and will replace my card reader at that time. Right now I'm only using USB 3.1 ports and that is okay for now.

People who shoot for a living, where time is money are going to opt for faster cards than amateurs.

[DickyOZ]

The really important place you need write speed in in your camera! If you shoot 4K video (something I rarely do) then the faster the better. When downloading to my PC speed is of little interest, I can have a coffee if I am bored waiting.

My new EM-1.2 can shoot really fast burst mode and when writing jpeg + RAW it can take several seconds to clear the buffer using slow SD cards.

But I just bought a 64GB SandisK Extreme PRO 170MB/Sec SDXC UHS-1 card. It cost me AU$35 - why would I buy a slower cheaper card to save a few dollars?

[dje]

But I just bought a 64GB SandisK Extreme PRO 170MB/Sec SDXC UHS-1 card. It cost me AU$35 - why would I buy a slower cheaper card to save a few dollars?

Where did you get it Richard, I must get one or two!

Dave

[rpcrowe]

The only occasion in which a faster download time would be very important to me is when I am traveling. My standard workflow is at the end of the day, download the images that I have shot for the day and copy them to a pair of small physical size but rather large capacity external hard drives. I carry one and my wife carries the other as an insurance policy against loss of the days images.

However, when I have either shot well into the evening or attended a theater or some other activity, I am often quite tired and the faster I can get rid of the chore of downloading my images the better it is for me so I can turn in and get some sleep!

[DickyOZ]

Where did you get it Richard, I must get one or two!

Dave

UMart have them:
https://www.umart.com.au/SanDisk-64G...-W_49336G.html

[dje]

UMart have them:
https://www.umart.com.au/SanDisk-64G...-W_49336G.html

Thanks Richard. UMart is a good store, I get most of my computer stuff there. I wouldn't have looked there for SD cards though!

Dave

[george013]

Anyone knows the read/write speed of his camera?

George