SD card speed question

[AlanJW]

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Please forgive me if this has been answered before.   Is the speed of the SD card important?   With the large files created by the SL2 I am thinking about a card larger than 32 or even 64G.  But is the speed of the card critical if I am not shooting videos?   Is there a maximum speed that can be used in the SL2, higher than which it is simply unnecessary?  I am likely sticking with Sandisk and the speeds I am looking at under their measurement system range from 95mb/s to 170 to 280 to 300 with the higher speed cards much more expensive.   A corollary question is whether fast cards are worth it for better transfer speeds to my computer regardless of the camera's ability to take advantage.   Thanks.

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[Photoworks]

I would look out for sale, I see them all the time on many SD card companies.

I would not consider 32gb for myself. It is too small. If you not a fast shooter the 95mb/s works just fine.

I have two 256 Fast cards and don't think about it. I always shoot DMG+JPG, it is much quicker editing by using the JPG for preview, plus I like to see how the camera will do color and contrast. If you are like me 3000-4000 photos a day, you will benefit from faster download times with faster SD reader and Faster Cards

at the end I will always use RAW's for final delivery.

Edited July 14, 2020 by Photoworks

[Dennis]

Considering the low price nowadays, compared to a few years ago, I highly suggest a minimum of 128gb. You don't worry about having enough storage, if yo use the 2nd slot as backup for your raw, you don't even have to change the card.

With a Nikon D5 (20.3 MP), I use two cards of 128Gb, all day long. I can shoot up to 4500 photos. Having an SL2, I would buy two cards by 256gb as beginning point. 

This for a professional use. If not, half size is fine (128gb for the SL2). If you are an avid shooter and you like making videos, this card is the best (but expensive) option. If not, this is more than enough. The one I use, but with 20.3MP

 

[BernardC]

3 hours ago, AlanJW said:

But is the speed of the card critical if I am not shooting videos?

95 MB/s is enough for stills, especially if you rarely shoot in bursts. That is, more or less, 2 files per second. Your potential shooting rate is higher, of course, because of the buffer. It only slows-down when you run-out of buffer space. I don't know about the SL2, but the SL shows you how many shots are available in the buffer. I don't think I have ever run it down to 0.

Video is different because it writes continuously.

[BernardC]

I should add that most USB card readers struggle to read more than 60 MB/s, regardless of card speed. I think that the most I have seen is 100MB/s, with a latest-gen USB-C reader, UHS-II cards, and fast local storage.

You may get better performance from a reader that by-passes USB (built-in or Thunderbolt), and local SSD drives, but I doubt that many people see hundreds of megabytes per second in real life. I usually start the transfer and go do something else while the files copy over.

[AlanJW]

Thanks for all the responses.  Very helpful.  I will go with 128g, and since I tend work slowly the speed seems less relevant tot he camera than to the computer/reader.  In the past, I have noticed that copying from faster cards is indeed faster (doh), with a USB3 reader.  Looks like the 128/170mbs is the sweet spot for me.

[caissa]

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The speeds you mentioned are maximum speeds, so quite meaningless for daily work. More important and realistic are the minimum (write) speeds that are guaranteed (V30, V60, V90). For photography alone V30 is good enough and quite affordable (128gb, V30 is what I use daily, but not good enough for 4K video). V60 gives you enough speed for very demanding video usage. V90 is currently overkill, but of course nice to have if you can afford it. V30 is usually UHS-I, V60 is usually UHS-II and V90, too.

Forget the older “classes” (like class 10), as they are maxima and mainly for marketing (misleading).

The V30 card I use offers in the “title”  (peak) 95MB/s write speed and 170 MB/s read speed. So you see these maximum numbers are far away from the guaranteed numbers (V30.means 30 MB/s guaranteed writing speed at least). So they use these numbers to wet the appetite for “faster” cards.

When copying to a PC or Mac the speed of the computers hard disk is also important. An ordinary mechanical hard disk is writing slower than the read speed of a sdxc card. So the computer should be equipped with a ssd disk to make good use of a fast sdxc card. The ssd write speed is usually several times higher.

Edited July 17, 2020 by caissa