Best SD Card <merged>

[astrostl]

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Howdy folks! New to the forum as I just took the plunge on an M10 and 50 Lux. I have a pile of SD cards around here, but I recall the various compatibility issues being discussed. Is there a consensus "best" make/model of SD card in terms of compatibility, reliability, and speed? I poked around search, FAQ, wiki and didn't land on anything. Thanks!

[LBJ2]

Congratulations on your new kit! I am new to Leica with M10 being my first Leica camera so maybe someone else has better advice. I have been using SanDisk Extreme PRO 64GB UHS-I SDXC Read 95MBs/Write 90MBs with no issue. Seems there was some SD card incompatability issues last year but was fixed in last year's firmware 1.7.4.0. I am using firmware 1.10.4.0

 

From what I read "Use UHS I cards instead of UHS II. The M10 is compatible with UHS II cards, but does not use the full UHS II speed." "The Leica M10 supports SDHC/SDXC cards from 1GB up to 512 GB. We recommend to use cards with write speed 80 MB/s or higher in order not to restrict the cameras performance."

Edited April 7, 2018 by LBJ2

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[a.noctilux]

There is not such things as best SD cards.

 

If we want to use the best way already owned SD Cards in M10, just follow some rules:

- in my experience, speedy cards over 90MB/s don't speed up the writing in my M10

- not too big capacity card (for me 32GB/64GB is fine)

 

- if used in another camera or other devices, the SD card must be formatted in computer as "exFAT" if possible

- then reformat the card in M10

 

Those "rules" let me using my old/new SD cards for more than one year my M10 without SD card troubles reported elsewhere.

Edited April 7, 2018 by a.noctilux

[Narsuitus]

The first card I used on my M10 was a previously formatted SanDisk 8GB SDHC card. My M10 had no problem with my old memory card.

 

I then purchased three brand new SanDisk 32GB SDHC cards. My M10 was unable to capture any images on the new cards.

 

I then purchased a brand new Lexar 16 GB SDHC card. Thus far, the Lexar card is working properly.

 

Leica M10 Memory Card Issue by Narsuitus, on Flickr

[tobey bilek]

buy new from trusted source, format in camera,  use no place else.  Cheap ones use out of spec components rejected by supplies to San Disk & Lexar.    Write to the card , put in storage device, reformat the card IN THE CAMERA.  The built in algorithm will spread wear over all locations.

 

never erase or delete an image or you will get fragmented files just like a computer does.  This is a source of error.

 

I never got bad cards from B&H, Lexar or San Disk.   Ebay is full of really good counterfeit cards.  You can not tell them from real by looking.  Joes camera shop is not trusted source.  

 

You can afford this if you can afford a M10 and `Lux .  Unless you shoot with motor drive,  you do not need fast cards, medium is fine.

[astrostl]

I have been using SanDisk Extreme PRO 64GB UHS-I SDXC Read 95MBs/Write 90MBs with no issue.

 

 

Sounds good, grabbed one of those. Thanks for the thoughts, everyone!

[Gobert]

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Sounds good, grabbed one of those. Thanks for the thoughts, everyone!

I have two times the 256 version. Works great.

[M11 for me]

Here is what Leica says. This is probably the most relevant:

 

 

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[a.noctilux]

The first card I used on my M10 was a previously formatted SanDisk 8GB SDHC card. My M10 had no problem with my old memory card.

 

I then purchased three brand new SanDisk 32GB SDHC cards. My M10 was unable to capture any images on the new cards.

 

I then purchased a brand new Lexar 16 GB SDHC card. Thus far, the Lexar card is working properly.

 

Leica M10 Memory Card Issue by Narsuitus, on Flickr

 

 

Narsuitus, I see that you use "Class 4" cards which are "not recommend by Leica" as seen above post #8 (Alex U.):

"...We recommend the use of Class 10 cards ..."

 

Didn't you have some slow down writing ? Or missing files ?

[Overgaard]

Agree there is no "Best SD-card" but there are the cards that works well in the camera. The M10 had issues when it came out, and many of the problems with SD-cards it couldn't read was fixed after a while.

 

I used to use 64GB 95mb/sec SanDisk in the M240, but the first M10 wouldn't take them properly. That got fixed, but meanwhile I found that Lexar 128GB 1000mb/sec worked and went with those. I also found that Angelbird 64GB and 128GB 2000MB/sec worked really well (and that they're from a small European producer).

 

For SD-cards, whichever works, I will usually stay with that exact model for that camera, no matter what comes about that is "new and hot". 

[albertknappmd]

I use Sandisk extreme pro 64GB cards with no issues in years om M240 and M10.

I never delete pictures while shooting and frequently reformat.

Diligence is rewarded!

Albert     

[Narsuitus]

Narsuitus, I see that you use "Class 4" cards which are "not recommend by Leica" as seen above post #8 (Alex U.):

"...We recommend the use of Class 10 cards ..."

 

Didn't you have some slow down writing ? Or missing files ?

 

I was unable to use the 32GB Class 4 card.

 

I had no problems with the 8GB Class 4 card. However, since this was the first card I used in the M10, I was unable to compare its writing speed.

[M11 for me]

Hm . . .

[abrewer]

There is not such things as best SD cards.

 

If we want to use the best way already owned SD Cards in M10, just follow some rules:

- in my experience, speedy cards over 90MB/s don't speed up the writing in my M10

- not too big capacity card (for me 32GB/64GB is fine)

 

- if used in another camera or other devices, the SD card must be formatted in computer as "exFAT" if possible

- then reformat the card in M10

 

Those "rules" let me using my old/new SD cards for more than one year my M10 without SD card troubles reported elsewhere.

 

I agree with these points

 

When I first got the M10 my online research led me to favor the Lexar 128GB SD card @ 150MB/sec, but as I've gone along I found no problems using a less expensive SanDisk 32GB SD @ 95MB/sec

[astrostl]

I have been using SanDisk Extreme PRO 64GB UHS-I SDXC Read 95MBs/Write 90MBs with no issue.

 

Update on this, FWIW: working out great. Only surprise has been the card itself "sticking" in my cheapo iogear SD reader, which I should replace anyway.

[Tragg]

buy new from trusted source, format in camera,  use no place else.  Cheap ones use out of spec components rejected by supplies to San Disk & Lexar.    Write to the card , put in storage device, reformat the card IN THE CAMERA.  The built in algorithm will spread wear over all locations.

 

never erase or delete an image or you will get fragmented files just like a computer does.  This is a source of error.

 

I never got bad cards from B&H, Lexar or San Disk.   Ebay is full of really good counterfeit cards.  You can not tell them from real by looking.  Joes camera shop is not trusted source.  

 

You can afford this if you can afford a M10 and `Lux .  Unless you shoot with motor drive,  you do not need fast cards, medium is fine.

 

 Can you explain this statement further as it's something I haven't come across before re. digital cameras "never erase or delete an image or you will get fragmented files just like a computer does.  This is a source of error."

[a.noctilux]

 Can you explain this statement further as it's something I haven't come across before re. digital cameras "never erase or delete an image or you will get fragmented files just like a computer does.  This is a source of error."

 

May I suggest an answer for "when deleted images lead to get fragmented files".

 

When we look at the DNG files sizes from M10, we can see that those are of different sizes:

an example from mine, DNG sizes are from 25 MB to 28MB with something variable in between.

 

When deleted a file for example that was 25 MB and the next file is bigger 27MB, the difference 2MB would be written elsewhere.

This would lead to fragmented files.

 

We know that fragmented files slow down the read/write and error may occur more often than not-fragmented files system.

 

Arnaud

[Tragg]

May I suggest an answer for "when deleted images lead to get fragmented files".

 

When we look at the DNG files sizes from M10, we can see that those are of different sizes:

an example from mine, DNG sizes are from 25 MB to 28MB with something variable in between.

 

When deleted a file for example that was 25 MB and the next file is bigger 27MB, the difference 2MB would be written elsewhere.

This would lead to fragmented files.

 

We know that fragmented files slow down the read/write and error may occur more often than not-fragmented files system.

 

Arnaud

 

When you say "the difference 2MB would be written elsewhere" do you mean on the SD card or within the soft ware of the camera?

[a.noctilux]

When you say "the difference 2MB would be written elsewhere" do you mean on the SD card or within the soft ware of the camera?

 

M10 has "buffer memory" for transfer data to SD card but not "memory" to keep data, so the remain 2MB written on the SD card, but not as one file at one place.

 

Anyway, in my experience in Leica digital M since M8, I don't delete files in camera anymore.

Yes for formatting in camera, but I never delete files to have peace of mind.

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[Tragg]

M10 has "buffer memory" for transfer data to SD card but not "memory" to keep data, so the remain 2MB written on the SD card, but not as one file at one place.

 

Anyway, in my experience in Leica digital M since M8, I don't delete files in camera anymore.

Yes for formatting in camera, but I never delete files to have peace of mind.

 

Best to delete files on computer then?