Maximum SD card write speed S007

[jip]

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What is the maximum writing speed to the SD card the S (Typ 007) can benefit from?

I know it can use UDMA7 CF cards, which means ~160MB/s but for the SDHC/SDXC they don't specifiy the speed.

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[davidmknoble]

@jip, that’s a great question.  I don’t know the speed, but I do keep both an SD and CF card in my S007 for backup (same image on both vs. Fill one card then the next).  I also know that I have not ever run across a time where the buffer is full.  

Shooting on the coast, much of my work is slow shutter speed, but sometimes its using the 180 and trying to get that wave, so I shoot in manual rapid succession. As an aside, the S3 has the same ‘bus’ as best I can tell, and I haven’t run across a full buffer with it either.

 

[ISO100f1.7ss250]

Literally signed up to respond. I have an S typ 007 myself and was just trying to figure out write speeds, found your post in my search.

The buffer is reported to be 2GB but on Leica's technical data sheet it shows a buffer of 15 DNG images (up to 42 MB each). On this same technical data sheet it shows that the SD card slot in the typ 007 is SDXC. Presumably you can get SDXC speeds but not UHS-I write speeds.

I have been experimenting with different cards and can confirm that the buffer does not appear to fill with 15 images but it does take a very long time clearing the images. If you're interested in collaborating on a test I can clear some time from my schedule and set up a timer and camera to record. There is not nearly enough field testing data about the S cameras.

 

[davidmknoble]

@ISO100f1.7ss250 Welcome to the forum!  It really is a great place to talk.

I just got my S3 back from servicing and hope to be down at the coast next weekend.  An interesting test might be to setup the S007 on a tripod, and press the continuous shutter option until it just gets really slow or stops and see how many images that might be.  I also think it could be different with just a CF card as those are much faster than the SD.  

On another note, the S007 files, uncompressed are about 37mb x 3 color channels, so I think closer to 100mb per image before the Maestro compresses them.  I am guessing the buffer is before the compression routine to make way for the next image. So, on that measurement, 15 x 100mb is 1.5gb or closer.  I'm sure it is + or - some amount so that is a guess.

The S007 lists UHS-I cards as recommended, and I'm sure that means the slot only reads the first row of pins and so the UHS-II second row is not used.  Thus, it comes down to memory speed in the SD card and how fast the UHS-I card is.  I have used Sandisk Extreme Pro cards UHS-I, 64 GB and up on the S007 and S003 with no issues.  I do use the Sandisk CF cards as well (64 and 128GB I believe) as a backup in camera.  So, I agree with you that the SDXC cards work really fast, and all are limited to UHS-I write speeds (including video) and that has been the general consensus.  

It is not as fast as the SL2-S and SL2, but those cameras are made for different uses than the S system.