Don’t buy the wrong SD card (Memory Card Tutorial)

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Tony Northrup tells you everything you need to know about SD cards for your cameras. He tells you what the MB/s really means (hint: it’s often meaningless), the truth about memory card failures, whether expensive brands fail more often than cheap brands, and much more!

[@paulinefollett3099]

I am always learning from your videos Tony. Thanks so much. I am a bird photographer and I like to use the Extreme Sankdisk SD cards, 64GB @ 90MB/s. I find one card lasts the whole day and I don't have trouble with buffering when shooting high speed flight shots. They are often on special too, which means I can buy lots of them. I like to limit the size to 64GB just in case one fails, then at least I have the other cards.

[@twiztedzero1685]

Same here, but using 170MB/s cards this season, clears buffer faster.

[@carlm.m.5470]

I use that exact card too. You are right, it really opens the camera up to its real performance and they are honest about their numbers. For me its been trouble finding cards that are up front with their Write speeds. And it turns out that the 'Class 10' rating means nothing. There's 15 mbps write speeds on class 10 cards out there. My camera wants to spit out 64mbps on video and never gave good speeds with JPEG & RAW. I remember when 64 GB wasn't even available. When it popped up, it was just too expensive. Now, it's like $9 a card. The 32 GB size is more than enough for a 2-3 hour studio shoot with JPEG and RAW. The people getting their photos taken usually run out of interest after 2 hrs anyway. The 64 GB size is gigantic. The 128 GB and beyond offer very little in benefit compared to their jump in price. There's no way I'd buy 3 back up cards per camera at $500 - $1,000 a card. Great, great card, you are so very right.

[@tedjensen8841]

What we’re once my high end cards are now the cheap ones I stash for spares.

[@SPECTRA890]

Growth!

[@aight365]

What's your best bang for buck memory card of choice? I always go with SanDisk Extreme UHS ii

[@tedjensen8841]

@@aight365 Currently using the Sandisk Extreme Pro. Also a fan of Sandisk products.

[@philindeblanc]

@@aight365 I use the PNY Elite Performance U3, and Transcend R285 U3. The latter is much faster and needed for video

[@philindeblanc]

@J O its not a matter of brand , but a matter of frequency.

[@JordanCS13]

I love the Tough cards, and while they were stiff to go in to slots at the beginning, they seem to go in a lot easier after a few days of use. I do recommend the SF-M tough cards over the SF-G, though...they are still very fast (150MB/s write vs 200 for the G), but are like 1/3 the cost.

[@HyRax_Aus]

Same. No regrets with my Tough card.

[@LakelandRecordingCompany]

Same, got the cheaper but still fast Sony tough cards. No regrets. I once had a card fall apart from pulling it out of a camera. Never buying cheap cards again.

[@KenCheng]

I've never had any issues either with the Tough Cards, especially with the fitting

[@FemOdelPhotography]

Jeff Sereno me too. Tough cards are great. I have 2x 64GB.

[@jamilabbasy]

I went with the SF-M cards too. They were tight on the first few inserts, but quickly normalized.

[@blakegirouxphotography]

I have had SD cards fail a few times, no compact flash failures and no XQD cards fail yet. But the best thing is to always have backups as long as the cards are those you personally trust

[@gabrielto4990]

How do you recover the files?

[@blakegirouxphotography]

@@gabrielto4990 I don't have any real way to recover files. Unfortunately if they get corrupted you just have to hope you can reinterpret the files into a readable format. Sometimes it's possible using 3rd party programs and sometimes it's not

[@jupamoers]

I have a three 32 GB and two 64 GB SD cards in my camera bag at all times. Never failed me, yet

[@aight365]

What sd card models do you recommend?

[@kyokuten]

My personal tip on memory cards is to use them, take photos, having empty memory cards for a long time is worse than a failing memory card

[@jimbolic0809]

I'm trying to apply this attitude to my new, costly camera: Use use it and take tons of pictures, and stop cradling it like a gentle infant. Because having no pictures is worse than having a broken/worn-out camera.

[@finnillson4808]

TL:DW Sports, wedding, video shooters or high MP camera? Buy fast brand name V90 cards. Casual shooter? Old camera? Can get away with off brand stuff. You will know yourself if you need backup cards. Duh. DO format your card if it’s an old or very cheap card. It causes less fragmentation. Newer cards have much better wear leveling firmware on board.

[@Rodriguezmateo]

Working in news I go through plenty of memory cards daily, they travel a lot and exchange hands a lot. I've mostly used the traditional highspeed sandisks cards but time and time again they fail structurally. Either they split open at the seam or the little switch brakes off. This happens probably at least to 3-4 cards a year. Which may not sound like a lot but when every job is a day turn it is very crucial to have reliable cards. As a result i've found that tough cards are a great value for me. Also I find the lock switch completely useless and annoying when it locks the card unintentionally. If you need to lock a card just put it back in the individual case that it came with and tape a "Do not use" on it.

[@waveland]

For me personally, the Sony Tough Cards provide peace of mind that’s well worth the extra money. We all get in a hurry at times and end up jamming a card in our cameras at the wrong angle. Standard SD cards have that nasty little switch on the side which can dislodge after a lot of handling and potentially drop inside the camera. And there’s a similar problem with the little ribs on the back of the card which run between the contacts. At times those wear and I have had them break off, and the last thing I need is a sliver of plastic getting caught in my camera or card reader when I’m under the gun for a deadline. The Tough Cards eliminate these potential sources of workflow disruption. As for shooting multiple days on a card, that’s I suppose a personal preference thing, and certainly acceptable for non-commercial shooting; but when I absolutely can’t afford to lose work, then I get the shots off the card and onto multiple hard drives as immediately as possible. I don’t trust cards or cameras to be bullet proof enough, nor do I necessarily trust myself to keep the equipment perfectly safe, cameras get wet or dropped (or both) cards get dropped, stepped on, cracked etc.

[@jeffmiller6343]

Agree, my biggest card issue is the little ribs on back of the card break off and then get stuck in the card slot. It is just a little extra money for a tough card of equal speed.

[@HyRax_Aus]

Absolutely agreed. Everyone's use-case is different. There are plenty of "rough" shooters out there compared to the rest of us who baby our gear.

[@KevinMullett]

I’ve had one Sandisk Extreme break, not only the ribs but a chunk came off the side as well. That said, not only does it still work, though it is now just a backup, it was also my fault as I shoved it in my front pocket without a plastic case at a concert.

[@rickbear7249]

*DON'T DELETE SINGLE IMAGES from your memory card* because you are putting unnecessary stress (or wear) onto the weakest part of the card. SD-Cards are generally pretty tough and long lasting. What causes them to wear out is whenever you write data to a particular sector of the card. In normal use, if you keep writing images to the card until it's full, the software will pseudo-randomly choose a sector to write your image to. Therefore, if you completely fill a large GB storage data card, all of the sectors will get used equally, and what we might describe as wear is even across the card. This is good, as it'll maximize the life of your card. Whereas, if you routinely re-format a card that's only partially full, the randomisation of which sectors to write to isn't really random; it's what we term "pseudo" random, which means that some sectors will be written to again-and-again, while other sectors are never written to. You avoid this problem if you mostly fill the card before re-formatting it. Ok, so *why you shouldn't delete single images:* the weaknesses of any digital storage media is the sectors where the Index is stored. This is where the software records where each of your images are randomly stored in the rest of the card's sectors. Unfortunately, because the Index sectors are written to every time you store (or delete) an image, the Index sectors are put under a very high stress. If writing to a sector causes wear, then the Index sectors are where card failures most commonly occur. It makes sense, therefore, to avoid asking the software to write a note saying a certain image is "deleted" when you don't have to. I know that in the scheme of things this is only a single write operation that deletes the pointer to a stored image, and that your card is capable of withstanding many hundreds of thousands of such write operations, but why do it when you don't have to? Each and every write operation degrades the Index sectors, so you're only shortening the life of the card by deleting single files. In any case, you can easily afford the minuscule storage taken by one or ten or even forty images on your high GB capacity card. It's a small thing, but it all adds up. Finally, don't forget what I said about the storage algorithm being "pseudo" random. If you regularly only use a small portion of a large GB card, and you then routinely delete the images you don't want when you get home, you'll be exasperating that problem of not evenly wearing the whole card. It is probable that the pseudo-random storage algorithm will re-use the sector you just freed up before it moves on to using other sectors. Your best practice is to keep adding images until the card is full, then do a complete format. That way the card's life is maximized and you are also performing a bad sectors check on a routine basis. And, don't forget to download and securely store your images after every shoot. If the card isn't full, do not reformat or delete anything. It's an additional backup as well as the best preventative maintenance for your SD-Cards. Rick Professional photographer and technology consultant

[@timothylatour4977]

Thanks, Rick. Would this apply to any storage device? Spinning hard drive, SSD, floppy discs, etc.?

[@billw4481]

5/29/2024 Great tutorial, Tony, and as usual, one designed and delivered at the right pace…along with pitch-perfect reiterations and helpful emphasis in order to meet the cognitive needs of the average viewer, i.e., hobbyists, non-engineers. Thank you! One question about the Sony camera featured in this old video: Where did you find such a beautiful, leather case and strap? I recently purchased a Sony a7IV and would like to protect it from occasional dings, dents and scratches that are an unfortunate possibility even with treating this beautiful “tool” with the loving care it deserves. Hope you can help. Best, Will

[@nvwolfephotography]

one good suggestion i learned is dont buy the giant memory cards so you dont need multiple cards. Say you go on vacation and bring a 256gb card with you, plenty of room for the vacation. However if that card dies you lose EVERYTHING. Better to buy 4 64gb cards and just swap out so that if you do lose a card you dont lose the whole trip, same goes for a lot of shooting scenarios.

[@timothylatour4977]

I also think that is the best way to do it. I would never trust one big card to do the job.

[@baconloversupreme]

Hey tony! I shoot in a lot of snow/mush and the tough cards are a must. Fumbling with gloves means I drop cards sometimes. I’ve dropped them in puddles and had them get buried in snow and they still work. Gimmicky for 80% of shooters I think. But not for me!

[@timothylatour4977]

Perfect example of why there is a variety out there. We all need to match our equipment to our needs.

[@jimfeldman4035]

A local wedding shooter I know, just factors in a set of cards into his cost, and keeps them for a year at which point he archives everything

[@phaikyouser9499]

That's a really bad idea. SD cards are not ideal for medium to long term storage. If the photographer knew anything about storage he would make a backup immediately on to both HDD media and writable Blu-ray, which has a very long shelf life. Keeping them on SD card is literally the dumbest thing I've ever heard. Not to mention the fact that he could use the same SD cards over and over again and not need a whole drawer full of easily corruptible data.

[@samhardy2038]

@@phaikyouser9499 Not true

[@harrkev]

The good Tony is back. Was the evil Tony returned to the mirror universe?

[@Carl_Aznable]

Lol

[@innercynic2784]

Like Shstner in Star Trek

[@MaxRideout]

Hahahahaha, perfect, love this!

[@kirkdarling4120]

@@innercynic2784 Like Nimoy in Star Trek.

[@kirkdarling4120]

@@innercynic2784 Like Nimoy in Star Trek. But beards on the "evil twin" has been a stock trope in American soap operas for at least half a century.

[@JimBaughOutdoors]

Backup solution we use for video and stills: We have 2t 7200rpm portable hard drives (WD) wireless that we take in the field. When we finish shooting we just insert the sd cards in the side of the drive everything is automatically copied on the wd drive and it does it very fast. The drive is wireless so weather video or stills we can then look at all the footage on any device in the field. Then once back in the studio we simply usb the 2t drive to the main PC editor and copy the files over. All very fast and at this point we have 3 copies of everything. Then we delete/reformat the sd card for the next shoot. I never see anyone else really doing this on UTube but it works flawless and it is very handy to walk around with a 2t or 4t drives. The battery life is like 12 hours or so. We have never had a problem in the field or studio with this system. This is super handy because on of our underwater cameras we can loose at anytime due to the fact we put it in some risky situations to get the shots we want. So when the cameras surfaces we immediately take the card insert into the wd drive and it copies it automatically. So if we loose the camera on the next drop, we have not lost the footage that was shot previously. The drive also will take thumb drives and copy as well. Not sure why more people don’t do this but working this way is great, easy, and we never have lost any footage EXCEPT once we lost the camera underwater on a first drop, so we could not retrieve the footage. Thanks for putting out great content. Cheers. Jim Baugh JBOTV

[@philippekuan9319]

ive actually physically broken 4 sd cards, dont ask me how, they just come apart. i recently got this tough one and imo they're great

[@cks993]

Life hack(?) to all of you, feeling your card get slower? Try deep formatting instead of quick formatting your card.

[@gosman949]

what is deep formatting?

[@billmastrippolito7132]

@@gosman949 Format the card on your computer and un-check the box that says "quick format". It then formats every sector of your card, not just the table of contents. No data is then recoverable when done this way.

[@tim1398]

@@billmastrippolito7132 - mostly true, but the flash block mapping function and spare block pool can still cause the card hold some data. Also, given the average flash block these days is only good for a couple thousand prog/erase cycles (or less!), doing this often will cause premature flash wear-out. It would be great if the SD cards would support the built-in "Secure Erase" seen on SSD's - quick, easy and secure.

[@gosman949]

@@tim1398 Another wives' tale I guess, is that you should always format your SD card in the camera??

[@cks993]

@@gosman949 Format in your camera is just quick formatting. It basically hide all the file from you, you will not experience any changes in read write the card.

[@liamdoran2149]

"Lighting Optimizer" on Canon and "Shading Comp" on Sony. I shoot all SIGMA lenses and if you keep those settings on you'll get a strange reverse vignette.

[@paulscottfilms]

Good helpful article. If you hit 4K video, and I do all the time, you need 95 or 100MB / sec. I can only use my slow cards on the old Sony Nex. About stiff thick cards > About half of my Sony batteries have expanded with recharging and will completely lock into the battery compartment. They then need minor violence to remove. It's true as Tony mentioned elsewhere that the non-Sony batteries fad quicker and expand to useless soon enough.

[@Jokemeister1]

Re deleting images from your card while in your camera, I watched a KZbin video about SD card manufacturing and a rep from the card manufacturer specifically stated you should not do it. No idea what he based that statement on.

[@IvanDoherty1]

Been shooting for 15-years on both cheap and high-end cards, and NEVER had one fail. How does this happen? I don't know a photographer where this has happened.

[@TonyAndChelsea]

You're very lucky! Just read through the comments here and you'll read some horror stories.

[@gyozakeynsianism]

Nice and clear and frank as usual. Thanks Tony.

[@Lofote]

I am with you with most of the Things, especially that "never delete in camera/on Computer" bullcrap. But few Things: a) Please try the following: do some Pictures on a Card, then Format IN-CAMERA on your Sony Alpha. It takes a few seconds so it seems like it is doing a quick Format, so only writing a new empty Directory. Yet, if you try out the Card with recovery Software, which should now find some files, it will return you with Nothing. I am not yet sure, how this works, why the quick Format actually removes all data on the Card, I can only think of the camera sending a TRIM command of some sorts, letting the Card do a tidyup process itself and erasing itself Maybe over some time. Or the TRIM Card tells the Card that everything else is blank, like a sector lookup table that says "track 345 is empty, don't even try reading it, only return ZEROs". Maybe you can investigate into this. b) I have seen multiple Cards falling apart after some months of extensive use incl. swapping it between the camera and the Laptop. They still were of Course readable at the end, because only the Shell broke, but I wouldn't use them in the camera anymore out of the sole reason because they probably get stuck in it because you can't pull them out anymore. Sometimes even Blocking the Slot because the Shell expanded a bit after Breaking, pushing itself against the edges of the Slot and so making the camera not usable that easy anymore. I did have that for a few days where I used the camera as the Card Reader using USB because I couldn't remove the Card anymore physically. Thats why for me I love the TOUGH Cards, and why I invested them. In fact I got the new Sony M TOUGH Cards for only few EUR more than the Standard Sony M Cards, so I disagree with it being a time waste here ;)... c) You forgot to Mention what the Ux and Vx0 Statements on Cards are, that is actually important if you do 4k or slowmotion - it basically means even in the worst case where the Card is busy with lots of Things itself it still guarantees the Minimum(!) write Speed of 30 MB/s (=U3 or V30), whereas a U1 Card only guarantees Minimum write Speed of 10 MB/s. On another note "Class 10" is an outdated not anymore updated spec, that basically meant the same Thing, no idea, why they didn't continue with CLASS 30 etc.

[@alexsystems2001]

I have the tough cards in all my cameras now, for some reason they were all “tough” to put in and take out the first couple times, now they all go in and out great. I got really tired of that lock switch getting flipped and having to take the card out and get it in just right. I don’t really get my cards dirty or wet but not having that little switch is nice, I’ve had some of the normal cards that are squishy or pop apart after heavy use and then they are useless. Hopefully these Sony cards last a lot longer. The worst ones I’ve used are the Lexar cards from a durability stand point, they almost fall apart opening the package, the ones I’ve had fail are the San Disk cards.

[@happysawfish]

Like your video. Good production too! Bought a new 128GB SDXC card today for my old 2010 Lumix super zoom FZ35. Still a great camera. MIcro Center brand. Maybe this crazy cameral does not like the card: Keeps telling "Insert SD Card Again" or similar. I thought I would have to format the new card in the camera. Cannot get to a formatting screen. Can't get past the initial error message. Maybe I got a card that is incompatible with this old camera. I bought the wrong card. MIcroCenter is about 1.5 hours from me too. Great . . .

[@icefox13]

I like to use multiple smaller cards for long journeys and switch them around even if they are not filled completely. Sure, the odds of one out of four cards failing is higher than one out of one but if its damaged to a point where there's no recovery, I'd rather have a few photos than none at all.

[@timothylatour4977]

Good to bring up this topic. I think that a statistician would tell you that in terms of any individual file loss the risk is the same. 4x the chances for failure, yes, but only 1/4 the number of lost files for each of those 4 chances. However, I have heard numerous professional photographers say they use a 64GB card instead of a 128 or 256, for the very reason you mentioned. Bottom line, there is no practice that's foolproof.

[@SassePhoto]

I buy only scandisk microsd for 4K and use them with adapter in most of my equipment and never have issues

[@PostColorGear]

Thanks for saying that about formatting. Everything is still there until it's written over.

[@StormChaserVince]

Nice easy to follow video. Great work.

[@Quetzalcoatl0]

One problem thou (on the speed of the card). This video only talks about memory card speed but doesn't mention anything about the speed of the IO controller on the camera itself. You can put a 300mb/s card but your cameras IO controller can't do more than 40mb/s. Sadly those speeds are not normally mentioned in the specs.

[@fuzzywuzzy8874]

how does one find out the max speed their camera can actually write to a card? i don't shoot video...just stills/burst sequences

[@Quetzalcoatl0]

@@fuzzywuzzy8874 When i was using Canon, there was this custom firmware called ML. There u could benchmark the sd card. People also made a graph with cameras max writing speeds. For the new cameras and everything not canon, i have no idea.

[@fuzzywuzzy8874]

@@Quetzalcoatl0 thanks for your time with this. i put in an email to camera manufacturer. i wonder if they will respond.

[@wademorales]

Tony, just because you have never physically had a card break on you doesn’t mean it doesn’t happen. I went to pull a memory card out of the back of my iMac card reader and the card somehow snapped in half. I have never had that happen to me before either and I don’t think it’s very common but I did lose 64 GB of pictures and video. So after that I found the value in the Sony tough cards. Just remember that your experiences are not the same as others. You might not shoot in the same elements as others so a car that is said to be weather resistant or waterproof could be a big deal to somebody else and maybe not you. Or in my case the card that just snapped in half after using the card for years. I also purchased 2 Transcend cards to save money and for some reason both of them had trouble exporting to my computer and I received errors that the files were corrupt. I bought the Sony tough card with the same specs and never had a single problem afterwards. So maybe cheap cards are not the answer for everyone. The transcend card was super affordable and was almost as fast read and write speeds as the Sony tough card but out of the two cards both of them for whatever reason did not work either with my a7r4 files or iMac. Also I use a a7R3 and 4 and have never had any trouble getting the tough card out of the camera. So I’m not sure what’s going on with yours.

[@richj6877]

Not Formatting your card between shoots is only a good idea if you always use the same camera (or same make of camera). If you start having different "formats" on the same card in my experience is when you can run into issues.

[@Richie_]

My old camera uses CF cards. I'm thinking of getting an adaptor for micro SD cards. I auto backup to Dropbox and Onedrive when I put card in pc.

[@twiztedzero1685]

I usually buy my SD Card's in pairs, even though my camera only has one slot. This just gives me an extra in case of card failure or if a card fills up in the field, then I can swap it for a secondary until I get the files dumped to the laptop for processing & storage. I'll pick up a new SD Card pair normally when I pick up a new camera battery for my rotation. That's been working well for me. This year I'm using SanDisk Exterme Pro 170MB/s cards for burst shooting, and not bothering with UHS-II since mines a 2016 Canon that uses UHS-I. The very spendy 300MB/s cards likely won't benefit a Canon 80D in any impactful way. So I'll just stick to the 64GB card capacities I've been using for wildlife. One thing does confuse me, and I suspect it's just a marketing tactic is two exact brand and capacity cards with identical write speeds, but one is being sold at a much higher price featuring a "lifetime warranty". Aren't they all the same or is SanDisk actually providing a *special limited edition serial numbered* copies just for the lifetime warranty benefit?

[@tacoboy262]

What blows my mind is when I ordered a sony TOUGH [ M ] 256gb UHS-II I got It in the mail and it only had one row... debating if I should return it, and get the [ G ] 64gb sony TOUGH UHS -II for the faster speeds. Speed of writing is what I'm shooting for

[@tpantig]

What sd card do you personally use in the a7riv? Any experience comparing the speeds between the sandisk extreme pro 300mb/s and the sony tough g series?

[@PubRunner]

Do some cards generate more heat than others?

[@youngleopalma]

thank you for your knowledge about cameras.

[@hongk0ngfu3y]

when my a7riii fills the memory card it can no longer access anything on it. Heart sinks when the camera reports cannot read card. I have to then wait until i can off load on a computer then reformat

[@JFW5358]

You are not meant to be regrowing the beard Tony.

[@unclejerk8283]

Let your freak flag fly, Tony! lol

[@antoniojimenez7103]

Great video...question, what memory cards do you recomment for the R5/R3? I do not do video as I focus more on portrait and landscape photography. I have regular cards for my RP and my trusty 7D. Any advice recommendations is appreciated. Keep up the great work.

[@rodtapia]

Wonderful, you answer my question! (I needed for a7iii)

[@tshev]

It is interesting to see the distribution over the years. SD cards are more reliable now than they were 10 years ago. This statement does cancel your statement, but I am curious about that. Also, you can find `high endurance` SD cards, and they are more reliable. Any does not cancel the possibility of a failure, it can be low, but when it happens, it can be a nightmare.

[@prashantnz]

Awesome video. Thank you sir. With my A7R4, I use Tough 128gb because someone else was paying for it…! But I agree with your comments. Love from Auckland, NZ.

[@corrbox2]

I was hoping you'd let us know your experience with different brands of various cards. Regardless I appreciate your report. Thank you for sharing this basic information about memory cards. 👍

[@GhostRider-hy9zt]

"I don't need 256 gb in one day of shooting" laughs in wildlife photographer

[@booossshhh]

Awesome video.. I'm a camera semi geek now 🤓

[@tuvaaq]

My cellphone carrier lets me cash in unused data for goodies, every few months I get a 64GB micro sd card, not one for video I haven't seen any drawback between using these and a standard SD. The added bonus is I can throw the micro sd straight into my phone or tablet for quick editing/sharing without draining batteries using device connectivity!

[@magottyk]

So long as your memory card can write faster than your camera's hardware can deliver it, you're good. Something that really bugs me is that camera manufacturers omit this information from spec sheets so that you don't know which version of the standard your camera complies with. They just give the memory card type that is compatible. Not all controllers are equal, memory card readers and writers do not all perform the same and can show huge differences especially writing. Same goes for your camera which has a memory card reader/writer chip in it. Often this is masked by the usb interface so you can't really directly test you camera's read write speeds via transfer as usb 2 (often used) is slower than the fastest UHS-1 speeds. All my camera's use UHS-1, and I primarily use sandisk extreme pro cards which do have a 90MB/s write speed (sustained), tested and verified myself with multiple cards using a quality usb3 card reader/writer. However using a slower card with 60MB/s tested sustained write, shows no difference in camera than the extreme pro using full buffer sustained shooting, to see(hear actually) a difference I have to use a pretty crappy card with write speeds well below 30MB/s before a difference is noticeable. This leads me to conclude that my cameras writer is a lower specced 50MB/s compliant reader writer at best and not a 104MB/s reader writer. It gets even worse when you consider that a 24MB raw file (average size of a 24MP image) takes a full second to empty from the buffer, meaning that the writer is on a bus of only 25MB/s. At 90MB/s which is my cards write speed, I should be clearing 3 shots per second from the buffer with my UHS-1 compliant camera, but that doesn't happen. I have to wonder how good the modern card interfaces in cameras are, UHS-II minimum spec is 156MB/s, so a 24MB 24MP raw file should sustain 6FPS shooting, but that doesn't ever seem to happen. A UHS-II V90 card (guaranteed 90MB/s sustained write sequential) should on a 24MP UHS-II compliant camera be able to sustain 3FPS with a full buffer. We should be getting to the point where the buffer size should become meaningless to throughput.

[@blakberi]

I have had 3 cards break simply by having them in my bag the - little strips surrounding the contacts snap off. I need a tough card.

[@timothylatour4977]

Unless it's in my camera or computer card reader, I keep all my cards in some kind of holder, whether blank or used. I've often thought that I'm being unnecessarily careful, but your experience tells me otherwise. Thanks.

[@brettster3331]

Great video Tony, Thank you !

[@HR-wd6cw]

The only time you really need the space or speed of the higher-end memory cards is if you're shooting video or burst shooting (like wildlife, where you might walk away from a shoot with 1000+ images). But if you're only doing small bursts you will be fine with the cheaper UHS-I cards, and I personally don't use large cards (larger than 128GB). Simply because I have seen people who do use 256GB cards, don't download their photos, and it's just risky. At least with a 64GB card, I can swap it out after each shoot (I'm sort of forced to in some cases if I've had a heavy day of shooting with my 45MP camera), and by doing so, if a card does go bad, you've only maybe lost your shots from that day, but not shots over your entire vacation or the past 6 months. I see a lot of people who shoot on the card until its full, and then download. Big mistake, and that's one reason I don't recommend large cards to people. Smaller cards force you to download more often because they will fill up faster.

[@p7272]

Any ideas on how to fix pixelated images on my phones micro sd??? The pics on the internal storage are fine, all the pics on sd card are pixelated. Even moving the images to my laptop or the cloud does not help?

[@MrPixelgrower]

Canon low level formatting doesn't wipe out the partition block and reset the directory as if new??

[@BenMartin101]

Thanks for the VERY informative video!!

[@Fessoid]

Thanks for cards and brown case for camera, love it ;-)

[@patrickroe3260]

Personall, I don't think huge capacity cards are a good idea. Why? If one big card fails, you're in a bad spot. OR... if you lose a nearly full large capacity card... well, it could be a whole days' work. Better you use smaller cards and more of them. Perhaps, do one subject on one card. If you have one subject on one card and the card fails or gets lost, you have lost one project only. In the film days, I did not keep all of the film I shot in one place for the same reason and I don't do that with cards either. Losing a whole days work, no matter the reason would be a nightmare.

[@wexwuthor1776]

It's V-day 4 years later right now. ❤

[@WeddingDocumentary]

Sony cameras do fully wipe the cards when you format the card in camera. I wish they didn’t but they do!

[@HyRax_Aus]

They use the secure erase function of the memory card, negating the need to write zeros over the entire device. Very effective.

[@RVLifeNOW]

Thanks for the helpful info and tips.

[@Scugnizzu]

My Nikon D3100 formats the SD card and makes it unrecognizable by windows, tried everything there is.

[@niallchurch2679]

Where did you get the camera case?

[@billkaroly]

I'm trying to remember the last time one of my SD cards failed. I've had SD cards fail but not ones I used with my cameras.

[@allabouthim03]

256GB card is just a couple extra dollars, 🤣😂🤣l

[@kh1188ish]

The best advice is: buy cheap cards unless you need expensive ones, or unless you need the speed, but you can't trust the rating and you won't know how fast they really are until you try it, so buy expensive cards unless you want cheap ones.... geee thanks. :)

[@timothylatour4977]

Ha, ha. I know. It's hard to figure it out. I was confused, too.

[@tellthemborissentyou]

Thank you for debunking the advice about deleting pictures from the card at 5:47 . I keep reading that elsewhere and it doesn't make any sense. Why would deleting be worse than formatting?

[@tuckerjeffrey]

So what card do you recommend for the A7R IV or the A9 II as a example. I know the A7r4 has the huge 61mo, I got those crazy expensive Sony cards (210.00) each (128) and I got some off brand cards from Amazon (256) for half the money and can't tell a difference in the speed..

[@mcintosh.motors]

Best to get from i’ve seen is the V90 Prograde cards

[@XFile91]

What causes a SD card to fail? Anything you can do to prevent them from failing?

[@michaeld5888]

I never have had one fail. I tend to put any old card in any old camera. Possible for the amateur a lackadaisical approach to all this rush and fuss nowadays may pay dividends.

[@artmaltman]

What does the “class” rating mean?

[@ToastedSynapseGaming]

Just heard what I believe to be a Myth (no actual evidence online) for Memory cards with the "v" index (v60, v90 etc.) especially when talking about video. They said that v90 cards are better built with "storage of a higher quality" even if we are talking about the same brand. Their job requires a v60 card tops, but went with the 2x priced v90 because it's "safer" (even though they also shoot backup - on another v90). Why? I think this is a total waste, and a pretty big one if you don't need the actual speed of v90 I believe besides that, nothing is different.

[@FemOdelPhotography]

Don’t like it, then don’t buy it. I’ve got two of Sony Tough 64GB and have never had any issues with them with my EOS R.

[@cammacgregor9354]

A newbie with a question: I do a lot of aerial videography with my GH4 hanging from a drone. When not using the drone, I intend to remove the GH4 and begin shooting photos of buildings and bridges. I'm not sure what kind of SD card to use because the items to be photographed will be stationary. Can anyone provide some guidance? Carrying numerous SD cards for different camera activities is not a deterrent. Thanks for any thoughts...

[@thsc9119]

Just saw Why you shouldn't buy the SanDisk 170MB/s cards just yet video by Dave McKeegan where he shows that Sandisk isn't being totally on the up and up with their claimed specs. Any comments?

[@randychann0707]

yeah, i did this too, Sony G memory card very expensive, recommand using Sony M with 277Mb speed 256GB storage.

[@fendrou]

I put my money on SanDisk Extreme PRO

[@NirnBootMod]

Those are probably the best but damn so expensive when you need 512GB or more.

[@poetsguide]

Those are fast cards but my team broke so many of them we had to switch to tough cards. (The first thing to go are the lock tabs)

[@fliegzoo]

Wow, I didn't know that even with modern Sony cameras you won't be able to change basic settings during write process 🙈🙈🙈😂. That was already a big issue on the a6000 years ago. All these little things that brought me back to Canon...

[@avnerbenzvi8757]

unfortunately, I own Nikon z6 limited to XQD and CF EXPRESS (not available yet)

[@gstpierre69]

Avner Ben zvi Yup. Same here. I can’t afford to pay 200 for 64 gb

[@atarzwell]

The "Don't delete" myth, at this scale, is a myth. However, it's based in some truth, I'd recommend looking at the wikipedia page for "Write Amplification", it's harder for flash memory to rewrite a block, so constant changes to portions of the drive can cause additional wear, and a performance hit. The use case for a camera filesystem, as far as i know, wouldn't make any of these issues big enough to matter. From what I understand, this is the same reason you cannot delete videos on a RED camera.

[@michaelhanrahan5349]

3:05 "For people who aren't able to download things easily offline"? I can understand how it would be difficult to download things easily offline, if not immpossible. LOL.

[@timothylatour4977]

Yeah, I caught that, too. Hey, speaking to a camera means, by definition, slips of the tongue. Even Tony.

[@Hoggdoc1946]

What ever happened to the concept of not using large memory cards to lessen the damages if a card fails?

[@longliveclassicmusic]

W Hoggdoc You should be dumping your cards as often as possible anyway… Not shooting multiple days until the card is full and then dumping…

[@aight365]

What brand/model sd cards would you recommend for Canon EOS R6?

[@terminalstare96]

This issue has always confused me. Brain Injury! What SD card would you recommend for the Nikkon Coolpix P900 used on the ocean to shoot wading Birds in flight. Obviously, money matters. Thank you

[@msbrownbeast]

I prefer camera that use CF cards. Yes, they are more expensive than the SD card, but the latter is so fragile.

[@thumbsup9208]

Thanks Tony.

[@ShajeeTheMan]

hey man is a V30 san disk extreme (the black card) good enough for 4k 120?

[@shanecoy]

Sony Tough Cardss : *Exist Nokia 3310 : "Finally, a Worthy Opponent"

[@dabj9546]

Nah

[@bigmaxcc]

Nah

[@ricardozettl6713]

Delete pictures on memory card: Nikon doesn´t make it: With a D810, that is not too long ago, I lost a hole trip to Buenos Aires. I deleted single images in camera and at the end all the pictures were lost. Later on I could reproduce the error and already developed an strategy, how to recover the lost images. Hacking type like. With smaller losses. Nikon don´t know to manage it. I never more will trust in this process and prefer to transfer all the obsolet pictures to the computer and delete them there.

[@rafaelalbertoderasfunes1910]

Is it common for people to use cellphone memories with adapters? I started using two cards this way. One failed in less than two years... But is there any difference in speed or better quality of memory cards that could be found in cellphone size?

[@TonyAndChelsea]

Yeah micro SD cards are cheaper storage but they tend to be VERY slow and fragile (as you've noticed).

[@nourelrefaiphotography]

The UHS II cards are very fragile and break apart, I had three ones split in half (two Lexar and one Sandisk Extreme Pro) now I only buy Sony tough cards. It's not about the speed for me, Sandisk Extreme Pro are very fast cards but fragile built.

[@LarsLarsen77]

You seem to dismiss physically breaking the chip inside there as a likely cause of failure, but it's pretty much the only failure mode.

[@Agm1995gamer]

I have never seen or heard of an sd card fail in my life Neither did my friend who's a video-photographer.

[@shullinger6]

I would never sink a lot of cash into a memory card with a HUGE memory capacity, just in case I lost the card, or if it got damaged somehow. And geez, it's not exactly hard to carry a handful of memory cards! You can buy a tiny case for 4 cards which is only a few inches long. How hard is that? Most memory cards have a history of being VERY reliable, except for LEXAR cards, which had some serious problems a few years ago. The trick is to NOT used them forever.. Buy new cards every few years, as insurance for yourself, and dispose of those old ones. Memory cards are CHEAP when compared to facing issues when you're contracted to produce images, but your equipment fails. Oh, and formatting your memory card is actually HEALTHY for it. It's never a bad thing, and they should absolutely be formatted inside the camera which you'll going to be using, rather than in another camera, and certainly NOT on your computer. I don't need a fast card unless I'm a sports photographer. But a portrait or wedding photographer hardly needs a super speedy memory card.

[@alvarogaitan2529]

thanks Tony fantastic video

[@JRMoritz]

Excellent as usual. Thanks

[@altonmarsh]

Very informative. Thanks.

[@kingofrannoch]

Does anyone have any information on the p950 release? Amazon is selling it now but everyone else just has it as preorder only

[@drrobotnikmeanbeanma]

May some 1 get straight to the point putting the wrong micro sd cards on google like the name brands.Cause some sd cards don't work like the blue and grey onn 64 gb cards that they sell at Wal-Mart ????

[@TomaszTwojFotograf]

don't forget that the cameras have also a LIMITED speed of wrighting to a memory card - so You don;t need a SUper fast card when You have a old camera - abother way to make a better use of You monay.

[@benoloughlin1557]

Thanks, Tony!

[@tomasznobilec2457]

you're a pro, you tube pro !!!! all your eggs in one basket, smart !!!