Memory cards for the M11

[Herr Barnack]

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I am wondering what memory cards those who have an M11 are using with it.

  I normally use SanDisk memory cards in my M10M, Q2 and MP 240; these work well, unlike Lexar cards which are prone to cause corrupted files and were the bane of my existence till I switched over to SanDisk SDXC cards.

B&H has the ProGrade Digital 256GB UHS-II SDXC Memory Card which they are recommending for use with the M11:  https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1499810-REG/prograde_digital_pgsd256gbckbh_256gb_uhs_ii_v90_sdxc.html

Does anyone have any experience in using this memory card with any digital Leica camera?  If so, does "it work and play well" with Leica's electronics? 

Or should we play i safe and go with what seems to work, the SanDisk 128GB Extreme PRO UHS-II SDXC card?  https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1617741-REG/sandisk_sdsdxdk_128g_ancin_128gb_extreme_pro_uhs_ii.html

Any information that anyone can share with the rest of us will be greatly appreciated.

 

Edited January 16, 2022 by Herr Barnack

[simonwesterlund]

I don’t have a digital Leica just yet, hopefully the M11 will arrive pretty soon so I’m in the same boat as you. I was looking through the Leica store the other day and I saw that they recommended this card:

https://store.leica-camera.com/uk/en/sandisk-extreme-pro-sdcx-uhs-ii-card-128gb-300mb/s

 

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[digitalfx]

Im using my old cards purchased for SL2...they work great

But it might be time to upgrade to that 256gb

[Tailwagger]

I went with Sandisk. My current Sandisk UHS-I cards work fine in the M11 and I've never had an issue, in any camera when using them.  Just ordered a 64GB UHS-II which seemed more than enough for me, given there's 64GB of internal mem available as well.  Even at 100mb per file, 1000+ shots seems sufficient. 

[Kwesi]

After years of using Sandisk (M240 through M10)Ive decided to try the Lexar UHS II 128gb for the M11. It was recommended by David Farkas in his M11 write up. Its dirt cheap, and now with the M11 I can backup in camera as I shoot so will do that till I'm no longer nervous.

[Herr Barnack]

5 hours ago, Kwesi said:

After years of using Sandisk (M240 through M10)Ive decided to try the Lexar UHS II 128gb for the M11. It was recommended by David Farkas in his M11 write up. Its dirt cheap, and now with the M11 I can backup in camera as I shoot so will do that till I'm no longer nervous.

Perhaps years ago when I used Lexar SD cards,  there was a run of cards that was defective - I has a ton of corrupted files. 

David Farkas seems to know what he is talking about; I would not expect him to recommend that card if it caused problems.

Best of luck - hopefully they will work well for you.  Keep us posted.

Edited January 17, 2022 by Herr Barnack

[Hanno]

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10 hours ago, Herr Barnack said:I

B&H has the ProGrade Digital 256GB UHS-II SDXC Memory Card which they are recommending for use with the M11:  https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1499810-REG/prograde_digital_pgsd256gbckbh_256gb_uhs_ii_v90_sdxc.html

 

 

It works perfectly well on the M11. For the record I have been using these on the M10R and M10M as well with no issues. I don’t think you will go wrong with these. Never had an issue. 

[M Journey]

1 hour ago, Hanno said:

It works perfectly well on the M11. For the record I have been using these on the M10R and M10M as well with no issues. I don’t think you will go wrong with these. Never had an issue. 

$68 dollars off at the moment.  thinking about pulling the trigger on this as well...

[M Journey]

@Herr Barnack have you decided which memory card to get for your m11?  I'm debating on which card I want to get.  I'm deciding between prograde and sandisk pro.  I like the idea of a 256gb card.  If Leica adds the ability to save a dng to the SD card while saving a jpg copy to the internal card, 256 would be an almost perfect ratio to save the same amount of dngs to jpgs.  With the bigger battery, I would be able to shoot an entire day without changing either the card or the battery (256 should actually last for most trips).

The Prograde v90 256 is on sale for 202 on amazon and B&H at the moment.  Sandisk v90s only go up to 128gb at the moment for a few bucks more.  Both seem to have good reputations for quality and reliability.

I tried looking to see what the max write speed of the m11 is, to no avail.  If anyone has found that spec please let me know.  The biggest m11 files I have so far is about 98mb for the dng and 27 for the jpg.  So if I ever want to shot the max 4.5 fps, that would be 562.5gb per sec, which is higher than the v90 max of 300.  I assume this means a v90 card would be more future proof for me over a v60.

Would anyone recommend getting 2x 128gb cards and swapping them?  I've seen some people recommend that to safeguard against corrupted card issues and not losing a whole day's worth of photos.  I'm not a professional but it would still suck to lose half my photos.  I am also trying to be a minimalist with just the camera, lens, and visoflex, which fits perfectly into my Overwerth Jan pouch.  I wonder if there is a way to keep a spare sd card in my wallet with a small protective case?

 

 

[Herr Barnack]

12 minutes ago, M Journey said:

@Herr Barnack have you decided which memory card to get for your m11?  I'm debating on which card I want to get.  I'm deciding between prograde and sandisk pro.  I like the idea of a 256gb card.  If Leica adds the ability to save a dng to the SD card while saving a jpg copy to the internal card, 256 would be an almost perfect ratio to save the same amount of dngs to jpgs.  With the bigger battery, I would be able to shoot an entire day without changing either the card or the battery (256 should actually last for most trips).

The Prograde v90 256 is on sale for 202 on amazon and B&H at the moment.  Sandisk v90s only go up to 128gb at the moment for a few bucks more.  Both seem to have good reputations for quality and reliability.

I tried looking to see what the max write speed of the m11 is, to no avail.  If anyone has found that spec please let me know.  The biggest m11 files I have so far is about 98mb for the dng and 27 for the jpg.  So if I ever want to shot the max 4.5 fps, that would be 562.5gb per sec, which is higher than the v90 max of 300.  I assume this means a v90 card would be more future proof for me over a v60...

 

 

 

@M Journey As I said above, "David Farkas seems to know what he is talking about; I would not expect him to recommend that card if it caused problems."  I would be willing to trust his judgement.

I would not buy memory cards from Amazon, though.  A while back (1-2 years, if memory serves),  Amazon sold a slew of memory cards that were counterfeit and caused more than a few photographers a ton of misery.  I play it safe and buy all photography related goods from an established, reputable Leica retailer.

If I had one 256gb card that I had used multiple times with no issues, I would trust that card rather than going with two 128gb cards.  YMMV.

Edited January 18, 2022 by Herr Barnack

[SrMi]

I would use a 64GB card so that you can use the internal card as backup, if needed.

[Stevejack]

28 minutes ago, M Journey said:

Would anyone recommend getting 2x 128gb cards and swapping them?  I've seen some people recommend that to safeguard against corrupted card issues and not losing a whole day's worth of photos. 

This only works well for if you have a hard drive failure on your main computer, where you might not have had time to backup your images to another hard drive. 

So for example, you're out shooting with a 128gb card and you transfer all of your photos to your computer. Then you format your card and take new shots.   A couple of days later you realise that the files on your computer are corrupted somehow, so you've lost those images.

If you carry extra cards and use a new one rather than formatting your old one, you can always go back to your original card and get those images back (assuming they weren't corrupted on the SD card itself). If you want to protect against card failure you need to be duplicating your shots on two cards within the camera. With the M11, you have to use the internal drive as your backup, so you're limited to 64GB. 

If that's the type of backup you need, I would buy 3 or 4 extra 64GB cards, use those as your backups, and not wipe them until you've had a chance to review your imported images and made backups to other hard drives when you get home.  

[M Journey]

16 minutes ago, Stevejack said:

This only works well for if you have a hard drive failure on your main computer, where you might not have had time to backup your images to another hard drive. 

So for example, you're out shooting with a 128gb card and you transfer all of your photos to your computer. Then you format your card and take new shots.   A couple of days later you realise that the files on your computer are corrupted somehow, so you've lost those images.

If you carry extra cards and use a new one rather than formatting your old one, you can always go back to your original card and get those images back (assuming they weren't corrupted on the SD card itself). If you want to protect against card failure you need to be duplicating your shots on two cards within the camera. With the M11, you have to use the internal drive as your backup, so you're limited to 64GB. 

If that's the type of backup you need, I would buy 3 or 4 extra 64GB cards, use those as your backups, and not wipe them until you've had a chance to review your imported images and made backups to other hard drives when you get home.  

I plan to bring an external drive with me and backing up my photos into the drive before formatting the card.  That would still only give me one copy of the files.  Having two external drives seem a bit much.  I'll have to think about my workflow and what I am willing/able to do.

 

53 minutes ago, SrMi said:

I would use a 64GB card so that you can use the internal card as backup, if needed.

I guess this would be another option, to get a bunch of 64 gb cards.  I have 4 32gb cards at the moment.  I want to upgrade the storage capacity so that I don't need more than 1 card a day...

 

55 minutes ago, Herr Barnack said:

@M Journey As I said above, "David Farkas seems to know what he is talking about; I would not expect him to recommend that card if it caused problems."  I would be willing to trust his judgement.

I would not buy memory cards from Amazon, though.  A while back (1-2 years, if memory serves),  Amazon sold a slew of memory cards that were counterfeit and caused more than a few photographers a ton of misery.  I play it safe and buy all photography related goods from an established, reputable Leica retailer.

If I had one 256gb card that I had used multiple times with no issues, I would trust that card rather than going with two 128gb cards.  YMMV.

I recall reading that Thorsten Overgaard also prefers to just use one card and keeps a backup for use only if his main card fails.  I think I would also prefer to use just one big card and the m having 64gbs is enough for a days worth of shots in case my main card fails.   Thanks for the tip on avoiding memory cards on Amazon.  I buy a lot of stuff from Amazon but with the number of resellers I'm sure counterfeit items can slip through quite easily.

Decisions, decisions.  

[Kwesi]

On 1/16/2022 at 8:07 PM, Herr Barnack said:

Perhaps years ago when I used Lexar SD cards,  there was a run of cards that was defective - I has a ton of corrupted files. 

David Farkas seems to know what he is talking about; I would not expect him to recommend that card if it caused problems.

Best of luck - hopefully they will work well for you.  Keep us posted.

Unfortunately my card was corrupted - purchased from Amazon.

So I back to my trusted Sandisk cards. I went with the UHS II 128gb card and so for I'm quite pleased with it.

[ymc226]

These Kingston 128GB UHS II were recommended on LUF and work very well on my M10R/M10M (providing good value) and I would expect them to work on the M11 as well.  I will buy a few extra when I eventually receive my M11.  I concur in NOT buying cards of any sort on Amazon.  I've always bought on B&H and trust them not to be fooled into providing counterfeit cards.

[Hanno]

I have 4 ProGrade 256 GB cards, all bought 1 year ago on Amazon UK and likely shipped from the US. They have worked fine, no issue whatsoever on M10M, M10R, SL2 and M11. On Amazon, I bought from the ProGrade Digital Store; I doubt they were fake...

Edited January 28, 2022 by Hanno

[photojdoc]

I have been using Delkin Devices Black cards for several years. The cards have a serial number that you can register and get replacements in a very timely manner (48 hours). They have a 300 MB Max Read and 250 MB max Write speed on the UHS-II cards. Their UHS-II cards have worked flawlessly for me in my SL2s, Q2, and M10-P and so far have been great in the M11. Disclaimer: I am an ambassador for Delkin.

[Overgaard]

I would recommend downloading the SD Formatter app from https://www.sdcard.org/downloads/formatter/ and choose one card that you format and use only in the M11. 

I had quite a circus with cards working, not working in the M11, for no particular reason. They worked, then next time the shutter opened but nothing else was willing to work. 

I use Angelbird 128GB 300MB/sec V90 in the M11, and that works. I've used Angelbird since M10 and Leica SL. But I had to delete all on the card (all files in the trash can, then empty trash can)  before the M11 would accept it. Obviously I had do delete the files on the computer as the M11 was non-responseive to an SD card with files from another camera model. 

And I formatted the card, just to do it the right way (which I never do with any cards, unless they behave strange). 

I think most cards will do, but format them first as a christening to become the trusted M11 card. Then stick with that one (and one similar for backup; or rely on the internal 64GB memory to be backup). 

Angelbird 128GB 300MB/sec V90 also works, and Lexar 128GB 150MB/sec 1000X and Lexar 128GB 250MB/sec 1667X also works, which are the models I've been using in Q2 Monochrom, SL, SL2, M10-P,  M10-R in recent years. 

Edited January 29, 2022 by Overgaard

[digitalfx]

 

Lexar Professional 64GB XCII 2000X 300MB/s

My Lexar Card's lock has stopped locking (just flops back and forth) so now just the action of putting it in the camera locks the card. Anyone else experience this with other brands?

I had this issue in the past but cant recall which brande, but believe it was Sandisk, because Ive only bought Lexar and Sandisk cards. The Lexar is about a year old.

Any tips on fixing it?

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[SrMi]

1 hour ago, digitalfx said:

 

Lexar Professional 64GB XCII 2000X 300MB/s

My Lexar Card's lock has stopped locking (just flops back and forth) so now just the action of putting it in the camera locks the card. Anyone else experience this with other brands?

I had this issue in the past but cant recall which brande, but believe it was Sandisk, because Ive only bought Lexar and Sandisk cards. The Lexar is about a year old.

Any tips on fixing it?

Sorry to hear about the issue with your cards.

One of the best things about Sony Tough cards is that they do not have the locking slider.