SD Cards, Seems any Class 10 will do!

[Ben Edwards]

As I have just got a GH3 want to get a 64GB SD card. Done some goggling and not come up with much so I did some experiments with the ones I had and was surprised by the results.

The cards I tried were
* Sandisc Class 2 SDHC 16GB
* Play.com Class 10 SDHC 32GB
* Integral UltimaPro (20 MB/s) 8GB

The surpassing thing was that all seemed fast enough for FHD 50p and all but the Sandisk seemed fast enough for FHD 25p (All Intra).

Could not find what MB/s the various speeds relate to, would be good to know this.

So it looks like any class 10 card will be fast enough for all video modes, does this sound correct?

The other thing that seems odd is whatever recording mode I choose the amount of footage I can fit on a card is showing as roughly the same (around 29 mins on a 32GB card) which cant be correct as the Mbps ranges from 4-72.

Ben

PS my test was not very sophisticated, I just recorded 1 minute of video.

[Steve Game]

On modern SD cards, most SDHC and all SDXC cards are likely to be rated by class, which is expressed as an integer number. This number is the minimum continuous write speed in MB/s without fragmented address space. Thus a class 10 should be able to write 10MB/s, (or 80Mb/s) providing the card has contiguous available space. Some class 10 may well exceed this.
The 29minute limitation is per continuous video record. If the recording is stopped, it can record for another 29 minutes, (actually 29m 59s). This limitation is designed-in by the manufacturers so that they can sell the GH3 as a stills camera. If it records video for longer than 30 minutes as a camcorder should, it would be subject to a 5.4% EU import tariff. Real camcorders are designed to do the job properly and I'm sure that 5.4% additional cost is probably less of a problem than a crippled record function.

[Ben Edwards]

Not sure if this actually helps me and I have found that most class 10 cards seems to exceed this significantly (apart from Sandisk card which seems to only give the minimum that is required unless you buy there more expensive cards, this is why I avoid sandisk).

Some of the 'Integral UltimaPro' actually specify a 20 or even 40 MB/s. Not sure why there is not a class 20,40 ....

Ben

[Dan Carter]

Class 10 Transcend 32gb working nicely for me.

[Steve Game]

Ben,

I use Transcend class 10 16GB cards exclusively in both my Canon 550D and my Sony CX730, without any problems. I get them through Amazon and the current cost is about 50p per GB and so far have not been supplied counterfeit ones.
The 550D records video at bitrates up to about 50Mb/s and the CX730 up to 28Mb/s and I have never had and speed issues with the cards. I don't however partial erase files, leaving all footage on the card until I erase it all. This means that all available space is always in a contiguous block.

Here is the Transcend datasheet for their whole range:

http://uk.transcend-info.com/support...t_ForVideo.pdf

You can see that all their class 10 devices will write at speeds over the 10MB/s minimum which is required for AVC intra.

[Jeff Harper]

I use "Extreme" Sandisc rated at 45mpbs, and I love them. I do not have time at night after a long day to download from slow cards. I do not go cheap on cards. Generic cards are fine for everyday, but I do not trust my paid work to be safe on anything other than the best I can afford.

[Ben Edwards]

I am also not a fan of generic cards but do trust companies like Kingston what have been around for ages (possibly longer than sandisk).

Ben

[Chris Duczynski]

I use a Sandisk extreme pro 32gb 95mb/s and get total lock-up on complex scenes such as fast moving water with my hacked Gh2, requiring a battery removal for reset. I'm trying the SDXC to see how that goes.
Very frustrating

[Bill Bruner]

Not a big fan of Sandisk. I use Kingston - most recently the amazing 128GB SDXC.

[Ben Edwards]

Interesting, that is actually one of the slow KIngston cards, they also do a 100x and a 233x which should be a lot faster. What write/reed speeds dop you get from this card. Do you use these professionally/a lit?

[Ben Edwards]

Originally Posted by Steve Game

Ben,

I use Transcend class 10 16GB cards exclusively in both my Canon 550D and my Sony CX730, without any problems. I get them through Amazon and the current cost is about 50p per GB and so far have not been supplied counterfeit ones.
...

Do you use these professionally/a lot?

[Colin Rowe]

Transcend are fine. I have used both class 6 and 10 for over 2 years in my EX1, TM900 and GH2, never missed a beat

[Allan Barnwell]

We are stocking Delkin Devices and Hoodman.

[Steve Game]

Originally Posted by Ben Edwards

Do you use these professionally/a lot?

Sorry Ben, I have just noticed this posted question.
I have been using the cards in the 550D for over 2 years fairly regularly and so far not had a failure. I only purchased the CX730 late in 2012 but have had no problems so far.
I do not create movies for profit, so I stand the full cost of all media. However, I have no reason to suspect the Transcend product provided they are procured from a reliable source. I understand that there are quite a few forgeries on the market, so on the basis that imitation is a form of flattery, I would guess that Transcend's genuine products have good reputation.
I also use them several times on non-critical material before I rely on them for higher walue work.

[Bill Bruner]

A general word of warning - avoid Komputerbay cards. In the past, I have recommend them as a low priced option, but I recently had a

32GB Komputerbay card

 

32GB Komputerbay card

literally fall apart on me to the point where the camera wouldn't read it.

The computer would read it long enough to remove the data, but after that, it physically broke apart and I couldn't fit it into the SD slot any more.

Caveat Emptor on these cards.