Nicekid76
The Bostonian YTtalker
Everything you need to know about SD Cards (Sorta)
So a little while ago, I watched this video on YouTube where this guy talked about how his new SD cards were causing him problems. He swapped it with another SD card brand of the same class, write speed and size and the issue was solved. He went back and tested some of the same model SD cards and realized that the problem was the same with all the SD card that he bought of that model. Honestly, I don't remember which SD card brand that was or whether or not it was even a brand name card, but I wanted to tell you all the SD card brands I trust and the ones that I avoid along with some information about SD cards.
SD Cards (Secure Digital Cards) come in 3 different physical sizes; the standard, mini and micro. Most cell phones use micro SD cards. Many DSLR's, camcorders, and tablets use the standard size. I've never used or seen a mini SD card in person nor have I ever heard of a device that uses it. Anyways, everything that I cover in this thread is really going to be focusing on the standard size SD cards for video/audio recording purposes but I believe that nearly all of it is going to play a role in the other physical SD card sizes and for other uses besides just video and audio recording.
SD Card Brands I Trust:
SanDisk, Transcend, Lexar, Kingston, PNY
SD Card Brands I've Never Used But Heard Good Things About:
Wintec FileMate, Sony, Samsung, Polaroid, Panasonic, Fujifim, Hoodman, Verbatim
SD Card Brands I Avoid:
ADATA, Duracell
These SD card have cause me many problems. On more occasions than not, the files I record to these cards just end up being corrupted by the time I'm ready to watch or edit it.
More SD Cards I avoid :
No brand SD cards, Patriot (Although I've never used it), Eye-Fi (Never used it before. I've heard mixed things about it. Personally, I think it's pointless for video but I can see how it could be useful for a photographer).
Alrighty, so now that that's out of the way, I'm going to try to tell you a little bit about SD card specs (specifications), the specs of the SD cards I use and the specs I wish I had.
SD Card Memory Size:
I don't mean to assume, but I think everyone reading this knows what the memory size of a SD card means. Just in case . . . the card's memory size tells you how much space you have available to write to. 4GB means you would have 4 Gigabytes of digital space to record to. 8GB would be 8 Gigabytes and so on. The amount of time you will be able to record to a given SD card size depends on the style of video camera or camcorder that you are using along with the quality and frame rate that you are shooting at. With my old video camcorder (Canon R100) at the lowest bit rate, I could record three hours of 1080 video to a 8GB SD card, while on my DSLR camera (Canon 60D) using the lowest 1080 video settings on the same 8GB SD card only gets me about 20min. That's nearly one tenth the time.
SD cards up to 2GB are called SD cards. (Sounds redundant. I know). SD cards from 2GB up to 32GB are called SD High Capacity (SDHC). And SD card over 32GB all the way up to 2TB (aka 2048GB) are called SD Card Extended Capacity (SHXD). For most of you out there,including me, the size of the card is usually going to be one of the biggest determining factors to whether or not you want to get the card which is understandable. Currently, I use 8GB cards but I wish I had a 32GB Card. I personally don't want anything bigger than that at the moment, but I would take it if someone gave me one.
SD Card Class:
SD cards come in four types of classes. Class 2, Class 4, Class 6, and Class 10. The card class dictates the slowest speed that the card can write at. A Class 2 SD card can write at least at a speed of 2MB/s (2 Megabytes per second). Class 4 at least at 4MB/s and so on.
SD Card Write Speed:
The SD card's class can tell you how slow the SD card is capable of writing. On the other hand, the SD Card Write Speed will let you know the maximum write speed of the SD Card.
The class and speed of the SD card will affect the quality of the video because it controls the amount of information the camera can send to the card at any given moment in time. Most DSLR video shooters that I know use class 6 or class 10 cards to shoot video. I tend to run into problems when I record DSLR video to my class 4 SD cards, but I never faced any problems when I used it with my Canon R100 or my Kodak Zi8. I currently use class 10 SD cards with a 20MB/s write speed. I wish my SD cards could write at a speed of 30MB/s, but I'm not complaining.
SD Card Read Speed:
While the SD card's Write Speed will let you know the maximum write speed of the SD Card, the SD card Read Speed will tell you how fast the card can send out information. This will be important when you are transferring files from your SD cards to your computer. This is especially important if these are many and/or large files. Most SD cards' read speeds are much slower than hard drives. Because of this, editing and rendering videos off of an SD card will take longer. This is a reason why you shouldn't render or edit videos off your SD cards. Instead, transfer the video files that you're working on to your computer. I honestly don't pay much attention to my SD Cards' read speed, but I also do other things while my files are being transferred. I might pay more attention to this during my next purchase.
I hope this whole thing helps you out in the future. I wish I could help the ones of you who use CF card, but I've only used 1 CF card in my life so I don't think I know enough on the topic.
Quick Questions:
How big are the SD cards that you use?
What kind of video camera do you use it for?
What brand of SD cards do you use?
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