Leica M11’s SD Card UHS-II WRITE speed?

[darkspark]

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I tried searching everywhere and couldn’t seem to find anyone ever testing Leica cameras’ SD Card speeds?! Leica itself doesn’t seem to list the actual numbers (or SD Card recommendations) either, only says “UHS-II” which comes in many read and write speeds.

I'm trying to choose the right SD Card for my M11 and don’t want to blindly just get the best/fastest/most expensive one while the camera itself cannot utilize the speed. I’d rather save some money and get the right card that matches the actual write speed that the camera can actually writes. Thanks!

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[Elmaron]

Are there any new insights in this regard?
I‘ve got the same „problem“, Sony sf-m or sf-g…

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[onasj]

With the M10 family, Sony SD cards were very problematic, causing camera freezes, very slow reading and writing, and a variety of malfunctions.  I suggest using the Sandisk UHS-II cards (available up to 128 GB) or the ProGrade UHS-II 256 GB card if you need the extra size.

[digitalfx]

The camera has a UHS-II SD Slot, Ideally you want a UHS-II Card that has a read/write of up to 312MB/s (which is the limit of UHS-II) the faster the better.

The ready speed is only important if you care about how fast you can copy your card to your computer. The camera only cares about the write speed.

 

[SrMi]

2 hours ago, digitalfx said:

The camera has a UHS-II SD Slot, Ideally you want a UHS-II Card that has a read/write of up to 312MB/s (which is the limit of UHS-II) the faster the better.

The ready speed is only important if you care about how fast you can copy your card to your computer. The camera only cares about the write speed.

 

The camera reads the card on start-up, but I do not know if any measurable slowdown occurs with slower read speeds.

[digitalfx]

Just now, SrMi said:

The camera reads the card on start-up, but I do not know if any measurable slowdown occurs with slower read speeds.

I cant imaging it would make an appreciable difference...the real difference happens when transferring. Regardless, I always get the fastest option, no reason at all to buy the slower card, the cost savings is insignificant especially considering that a single card will give you years of life.

[Photoworks]

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Just as a reminder ...

there are so many fake card on amazon. get your card from a reputable dealer..

SandDisk and ProGrade are both what I use...

Stay away from Lexar, it will bite you some day...

Some of the Sony Tough cards didn't work well on Leica M10 cameras.. I have a few here that I could test, I suppose..

One final tip is to FORMAT the card in M11 before using it.. It looks like they use a new file system no compatible with SL2 or Q2

[LBJ2]

4 hours ago, onasj said:

With the M10 family, Sony SD cards were very problematic, causing camera freezes, very slow reading and writing, and a variety of malfunctions.  I suggest using the Sandisk UHS-II cards (available up to 128 GB) or the ProGrade UHS-II 256 GB card if you need the extra size.

I've not had any problems with the Sony UHS-II SD cards I've used on the M10 or the M10-R. Maybe what you are referring to was solved early on with one of the M10 firmware updates a few years back? 

Edited January 28, 2022 by LBJ2

[onasj]

59 minutes ago, LBJ2 said:

I've not had any problems with the Sony UHS-II SD cards I've used on the M10 or the M10-R. Maybe what you are referring to was solved early on with one of the M10 firmware updates a few years back? 

It's entirely possible... but the problems were so pervasive and incapacitating that I never used Sony cards in my Leica cameras since.

[hmzimelka]

I've just tested the Lexar 32GB 2000x card in the M11. Essentially it caps out at around 99 MB/sec writing to the card.

I'm using a Sandisk 64GB 95MB/sec card in the M11 and with that card the M11 writes on average 69 MB/sec.

I've wanted to test the Sony tough cards, but I can't find any locally.  I'm not terribly keen on buying a Lexar card as the plastic is flimsy. I've seen a few that are splitting apart and the thin plastic pin guides break and leave bits of plastic in the camera. Not ideal.

 

Edited March 16, 2022 by hmzimelka

[hmzimelka]

Just to ad another card test to this list above. 

I just purchased a Lexar Professional 1667x 128GB card. 
The M11 writes to this card at 99MB/sec just like the 2000x card. 

It would seem the M11 can't top 100 MB/sec write to an SD card.

[M Journey]

How do you get the write speed?  I can test my prograde cards and report back.

[Kwesi]

7 hours ago, hmzimelka said:

Just to ad another card test to this list above. 

I just purchased a Lexar Professional 1667x 128GB card. 
The M11 writes to this card at 99MB/sec just like the 2000x card. 

It would seem the M11 can't top 100 MB/sec write to an SD card.

Are you able to test the write speed of the internal ssd drive? It would be informative to know if it’s faster than the sd slot. 

[hmzimelka]

On 3/18/2022 at 11:17 PM, M Journey said:

How do you get the write speed?  I can test my prograde cards and report back.

I do a continuous burst with the M11, which I start in parallel with a stopwatch. I then stop the timer when the light under the camera switches off signifying its finished writing to the SD card. Then, I insert the SD card into my computer, and look at the total file size of all the DNG files. From here its a simple calculation to find the effective MB/sec write speeds.

[hmzimelka]

On 3/18/2022 at 11:55 PM, Kwesi said:

Are you able to test the write speed of the internal ssd drive? It would be informative to know if it’s faster than the sd slot. 

Ok, so I did a test with a CH burst of 42 images. That took 18seconds on the dot to the best of my abilities. 
2239.5 MB over 18sec equates to 124.4 MB/sec. Not as fast as I was expecting or hoping.

[Photoworks]

Here are some thoughts about SD cards speeds.

usually the camera limits the transfer speed to the card. The SD card often has a minor influence in many cameras. if you pick a v90 card you should be ok. Just get a good brand that does not have history of corruption card like Lexar. ( you can use what ever you want, but friends tell friends to be alert about it)

Of course there are cameras that use the higher speeds and require it, like the SL2 and many video cameras.

There are limitations put into place to keep all processes balanced and limit power consumption .

In some cases there are speed improvements made true a firmware update, just like we experienced on the q2.

there are websites that test SD cards to specific cameras, this is one of them, there are no leica test here, but you can see how one card has different results with different cameras.

https://www.cameramemoryspeed.com/reviews/sd-cards/sony-sf-g-series-uhs-ii-32gb-sdhc-memory-card/

 

 

 

[David Gao]

On 3/26/2022 at 7:58 PM, hmzimelka said:

I do a continuous burst with the M11, which I start in parallel with a stopwatch. I then stop the timer when the light under the camera switches off signifying its finished writing to the SD card. Then, I insert the SD card into my computer, and look at the total file size of all the DNG files. From here its a simple calculation to find the effective MB/sec write speeds.

That's a good simple way to have an idea about the writing speed! 

[David Gao]

I changed to the 300mb/s sandisk card from the 90mb/s on the SL2, I don't think the writing speed really matters a lot as I do not shoot continuously, but if I want to playback the photos quickly then I can feel the 300mb/s card is quicker obviously when I operate very quickly to switch the photos to find one. 

 

So my idea is to buy the quickest card that the camera is compatible with, do not let the card become the speed bottleneck of the whole operating process. It's durable and you can use it for your next camera, we worth the high speed card Lol....

Edited March 28, 2022 by David Gao

[hmzimelka]

3 hours ago, David Gao said:

I changed to the 300mb/s sandisk card from the 90mb/s on the SL2, I don't think the writing speed really matters a lot as I do not shoot continuously, but if I want to playback the photos quickly then I can feel the 300mb/s card is quicker obviously when I operate very quickly to switch the photos to find one. 

 

So my idea is to buy the quickest card that the camera is compatible with, do not let the card become the speed bottleneck of the whole operating process. It's durable and you can use it for your next camera, we worth the high speed card Lol....

Personally, I find the best compromise to be the UHS II cards with a 100-140MB/sec write speed but with a 200+ MB/sec read speed. 

I'm currently using a Lexar 128GB 1667x speed card, and have the equivalent Prograde 128GB (V60) card on its way. 

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[hmzimelka]

So I did some transfer speed tests from the camera via USB-C cable.

Both with supplied cable and a high quality braided USB-C 3.2x2 cable. 

- Transfer speeds from camera SD storage via USB-C cable: About 69 MB/sec

- Transfer speeds from camera INTERNAL storage via USB-C cable: About 83 MB/sec