LS300 SD Cards for 4K

[Robert J Baker]

Which cards are you guys using to record 4K to your LS300 cameras? My PNY U3 cards are not being recognized and I can't format them or record to them once I choose 4K as the recording format. I understand that the manual says that using cards other than Sandisk, Toshiba or Panasonic *may* result in lost data but it didn't specify that those are the only cards the camera would accept. When using HD as the format the camera records to the PNY cards just fine.

[Noa Put]

I have used a kingston sda3/64gb that has a 90mb/s read and 80mb/s write speed and a sandisc 128gb extreme pro card that has "95mb/s" printed on the side.

Both do work in my ls300 but I did get a "rebuild media" card error on both card simultaneously when I was shooting a wedding, I had the camera set to recording to both cards at the same time for back up but for an unclear reason about 2 hours into the shoot I get this error message. I think it might have been caused by mixing 2 sizes and brands and I have been using the sandisc only since then without a problem so far.

I was thinking however to get me 2 identical jvc approved cards but have not looked into that yet.

[Robert J Baker]

Thanks, Noa. I was able to record at 70MB/s but not at 150MB/s. That must mean that during the camera boot up seq it must test the speed of the cards to determine if they are fast enough. Now the PNY cards say 95MB/s on them but that is only the min read speed and not the write speed. I'll run some tests on them and see what they rate in write speed.

I've ordered a 64gb Sandisk U3 card and will see if the camera works in 4K 150MB/s mode with it when it arrives.

[Noa Put]

I never understood those speeds stated on the cards but I know that 95mb/s on a card is not the same as a 150mb codec, it can't be because otherwise I would not have been able to shoot at that 150mb codec in 4k onto the cards I mentioned and I did so last Saturday. I originally bhought that 128gb card to shoot raw with my pocketcam which also works without a problem.

[Steve Rosen]

I use the SanDisk Extreme Pro U3, 280mb/s cards, have been since I got the LS300, and have never had any kind of problem, and I shoot a lot.

My attitude is to get the best possible card you can, test it for a week or two on scenics or whatever, then trust it for a year or two and then get new ones, relegating the older cards to emergency status... Yeah these higher end cards are expensive, but after 30+ years shooting 16/S16 film they are dirt cheap. last 400' roll of Eastman negative I bought was about $130 - that's for ten minutes, doesn't include processing or work-print, and you can't reuse it... My budget for a feature doc I made in the mid-90s was $10,000 for film alone.

Get the best cards and you won't regret it.

[Noa Put]

I think 280mb/s cards are a bit overkill for the ls300 as they probably could even handle the fs7 500-600mbs codecs but as long as they are sandisc cards that should be a safe(r) bet. Jvc recommends UHS-1 U3 cards to record 4K which are the types I have now.

[Steve Rosen]

Again, it might be overkill, but these cards, even the high end ones, are so relatively cheap (compared to film or P2 cards) that I always buy the highest rated card. That way if I choose to buy another camera like the FS5 (I definitely won't soon) then I know I have the cards I might need...Unless of course the new camera requires something else entirely, like the 4.6K Ursa (which I also don'r intend to acquire).

And, from 3 years with the Pocket Cameras, I know that SanDisk is consistently the most reliable.

Understand, I'm not arguing, just posting my personal experience with one particular card.

[Robert J Baker]

>>And, from 3 years with the Pocket Cameras, I know that SanDisk is consistently the most reliable.
<<

That is the SanDisk reputation. Funny thing is that GH4 records 4K at a higher bitrate but I was able to use a variety of different SD Cards with no problem. PNY, Sony, Wintec, Patriot and SanDisk worked without any issues and most of them were only U1.

My SanDisk Extreme U3 card arrived today and the LS300 finally allows me to record at 150MB/s. It definitely does a disk check during boot up as you can see the slots light up right before you can access the camera. I wonder what it is looking for and if I can mimic the data to another card. The PNY card is rated just as fast as the SanDisk but would not work.

[Duncan Craig]

Don't confuse Mbps with MBps, Megabits vs Megabytes.

The 4k codec is in Mb, SD cards are measured in MB.
So the 4k codec at 150 Megabits per second is only 18.75 Megabytes per second!
Any decent SDXC card will handle that with ease.

There's a lot of marketing hype around cards marketed as '4k', personally I use Transcend Ultimate 64GB which are brilliant, and also among the cheapest: Transcend 64GB Ultimate SDXC UHS Ultra High Speed Class 3 Memory Card: Amazon.co.uk: Computers & Accessories

I run the Blackmagic Speed test on every new card I buy. To maximise importing speed from your cards use a USB3 UHS compliant card reader, I have Lexar and Transcend readers. Again very cheap: Transcend All-in-1 Multi-Card Reader Device (SDHC/SDXC/MSXC USB 3.0) Black: Amazon.co.uk: Computers & Accessories

Duncan.

[Noa Put]

Originally Posted by Steve Rosen

Again, it might be overkill, but these cards, even the high end ones, are so relatively cheap (compared to film or P2 cards) that I always buy the highest rated card.

Your cards are ofcourse perfectly fine for the ls300 but they are 130dollar for 64gb at b&h while the 95mb/s extreme pro I have are 45dollar so you might ask yourself if JVC says the 95mbs are fine for 4K then why spend 3 times more per gb on cards that have no other benefit.

Also my 95mb/s sandisc card can handle raw footage from my pocket cam which are 4 times the size per minute compared to 150mb 4k footage from my jvc.

That way if I choose to buy another camera like the FS5 (I definitely won't soon) then I know I have the cards I might need...

The fs5 has at this moment even less speed demands then the ls300 because it only records at max 100mbs so the 95mb/s cards should work fine.

[Noa Put]

Originally Posted by Duncan Craig

So the 4k codec at 150 Megabits per second is only 18.75 Megabytes per second!

Thx for the explanation, I knew it was this way but didn't recall the numbers :) It would make life so much easier if they just used the same speed indications for codec and cards.

[Steve Rosen]

Originally Posted by Noa Put

Your cards are ofcourse perfectly fine for the ls300 but they are 130dollar for 64gb at b&h while the 95mb/s extreme pro I have are 45dollar so you might ask yourself if JVC says the 95mbs are fine for 4K then why spend 3 times more per gb on cards that have no other benefit.

Interestingly when I first got the LS300 I tested the 95mb/s card (I have six of them) for the short 4K project I bought it for, and they wouldn't work. I also tried a friend's Transcend card (don't remember which) with no luck. This is before the firmware upgrade w/ 4k @ 150... I haven't tried again since.

[B.J. Adams]

very useful information. thanks

[Jim Nogueira]

SanDisk Extreme Pro SDXC U3 90 MB/s Class 10 cards for me. I have never had a SanDisk card fail.

[B.J. Adams]

isn't 90Mbytes/sec an overkill?