Best SD card for the D750

[gilbouk]

The SD card business is proving confusing for me.

I'm planning on either adding or moving onto a D750 and wondered the best media to buy in order to both take advantage of the cameras capabilities with writing, and at the same time good read speeds for copying the RAWs to my MacBook Pro 15" 2015.

Having XQD on my D500, with a card capable of read of 440MB/s I know I'm probably going to have to take a hit on read speed, particularly as I have a budget and don't want to spend huge amounts.

Using the camera professionally, I plan to have 2 SD cards installed for safety, with a capacity of either 64GB or 128GB each. I have a few questions maybe somebody with more knowledge could help me with.

1. With the D750 not having the same relative ability as the D500 with regards buffer etc, would I be best using both slots to save RAW, or one slot RAW and one slot jpg? I understand jpg uses processing power to generate and so slows continuous shoot performance. With that in mind would it be better instead to use both slots to save RAW in 'backup' mode so I always have 2 copies of my photos for safety should one of the cards fail.

2. If RAW and jpg configuration is fine, is it ok to have a 128GB SD and a 32GB SD respectively? How about a Lexar 128GB 300MB/s card for RAWs and a Sandisk 32GB 170MB/s for jpgs for example?

2. Would I be right in saying that both of the below SD cards give the same performance in the D750 with the difference being in read speed - copying the files from card to Mac?

https://www.amazon.co.uk/SanDisk-Ex...ords=sd+128GB&qid=1554652888&s=gateway&sr=8-5
https://www.amazon.co.uk/SanDisk-Ex...ords=sd+128GB&qid=1554652888&s=gateway&sr=8-4

3. Would Amazon be a reliable place to get genuine SD cards, I've heard of fakes floating about.

4. Would I be fastest using the built in SD card reader on my Mac, or would I be better off buying a USB 3.0 / thunderbolt SD card reader if there is such a thing to reduce transfer time.

 

[rob-nikon]

For the D750 it’s UHS-I so can’t take advantage of UHS-II card speeds. The UHS-I card slot write limit the maximum write speed in the D750 so no better using his-II cards in camera.

Both of those cards should give the fastest write speed in camera. The other should probably give the fastest read speed to the Mac if the card reader is compatible. To get a really fast write speed a UHS-II card would give you very fast read speeds for transfer from card to mac but only if you have a compatible UHS-II card reader. I think the Mac card reader speed is dependant of the model year.

Regarding jpeg or raw writing to the second slot it’s very likely RAWs to both will be slightly faster than RAW+JPEG. This is because the camera not only has to write a file to the second slot but also process it from a RAW into a JPEG. RAW+RAW should be faster as there is no need to process even if the files are slightly bigger.

Used to have a D750 but currently have a Sony A7R3 that has one UHS-II slot and one UHS-I slot. This has caused a bit of thought. I’m better writing RAWs to both slots rather than RAW and JPEG even with the different slot types. To get the best write speed at full FPS I’m better to only use the UHS-II slot and leave the UHS-I slot empty.

I’ve always bought by memory cards from amazon. Just make sure you’re buying from Amazon themselves rather than a marketplace seller or any ‘fulfilled by amazon’ sellers.

 

[gilbouk]

For the D750 it’s UHS-I so can’t take advantage of UHS-II card speeds. The UHS-I card slot write limit the maximum write speed in the D750 so no better using his-II cards in camera.

Both of those cards should give the fastest write speed in camera. The other should probably give the fastest read speed to the Mac if the card reader is compatible. To get a really fast write speed a UHS-II card would give you very fast read speeds for transfer from card to mac but only if you have a compatible UHS-II card reader. I think the Mac card reader speed is dependant of the model year.

Regarding jpeg or raw writing to the second slot it’s very likely RAWs to both will be slightly faster than RAW+JPEG. This is because the camera not only has to write a file to the second slot but also process it from a RAW into a JPEG. RAW+RAW should be faster as there is no need to process even if the files are slightly bigger.

Used to have a D750 but currently have a Sony A7R3 that has one UHS-II slot and one UHS-I slot. This has caused a bit of thought. I’m better writing RAWs to both slots rather than RAW and JPEG even with the different slot types. To get the best write speed at full FPS I’m better to only use the UHS-II slot and leave the UHS-I slot empty.

I’ve always bought by memory cards from amazon. Just make sure you’re buying from Amazon themselves rather than a marketplace seller or any ‘fulfilled by amazon’ sellers.

Thanks for the info Rob, much appreciated. I think I've got it - a faster card although won't effect the performance of the D750, will allow faster transfer of the data from the card to the Mac. I have a D500 and find the 64GB QXD perfect for the number of photos I want to take, so I'm thinking with the larger file sizes on the D750 I'd be best going for the 128GB to avoid swap outs.

How are you finding the A7R3? I'm finding AF-C with moving people a real struggle in low light with Nikon with a lot of OOF shots - Sony's intelligent eye AF is attractive, and I just find it exhausting moving the centre spot around to keep up with people when the camera should just do that for me . I'm hoping going full frame with some fast glass will help the situation.

 

[rob-nikon]

its a weird one with apple. The link below says the SD card slots have a maximum bus speed of 480Mb/s but they seem to be UHS-I types in all but the iMac Pro’s.

https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT204384

They say the cards will limit the read speed by if its a UHS-I reader it’s likely to be a maximum of 104Mb/s. It seems the 170Mb/s read speeds need a compatible device to get the 170Mb/s speed.

* Up to 170MB/s read speeds, engineered with proprietary technology to reach speeds beyond UHS-I 104MB/s, require compatible devices capable of reaching such speeds

 

[rob-nikon]

How are you finding the A7R3? I'm finding AF-C with moving people a real struggle in low light with Nikon with a lot of OOF shots - Sony's intelligent eye AF is attractive, and I just find it exhausting moving the centre spot around to keep up with people when the camera should just do that for me . I'm hoping going full frame with some fast glass will help the situation.

Sorry can’t say much about eye af as I’m yet to use it because I very rarely photograph people and when I do I completely forget its there! I’m waiting for the firmware update later this month that should bring real time eye af and animal eye af. I may actually use eye af when that firmware update comes as I gather it should automatically operate when it senses a human or animal eye.

 

[cambsno]

I just use Sandisk extreme (gold coloured) ones in mine. Occasionally when shooting RAW for aircraft it may hit the buffer when still shooting but that's rare. Does me all the time and even transferring images to MacBook (2013 model) is fine for me time wise.

 

[gilbouk]

I just use Sandisk extreme (gold coloured) ones in mine. Occasionally when shooting RAW for aircraft it may hit the buffer when still shooting but that's rare. Does me all the time and even transferring images to MacBook (2013 model) is fine for me time wise.

How are you Simon, how are you getting on with the 200-500? I'm enjoying the 70-200.

its a weird one with apple. The link below says the SD card slots have a maximum bus speed of 480Mb/s but they seem to be UHS-I types in all but the iMac Pro’s.

https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT204384

They say the cards will limit the read speed by if its a UHS-I reader it’s likely to be a maximum of 104Mb/s. It seems the 170Mb/s read speeds need a compatible device to get the 170Mb/s speed.

* Up to 170MB/s read speeds, engineered with proprietary technology to reach speeds beyond UHS-I 104MB/s, require compatible devices capable of reaching such speeds

I think I'm probably going to get a pair of 128GB UHS-1 170MB/s. It's a shame to move away from XQD and the nice fast 440MB/s read speeds which make 64GB transfer in only a couple minutes, but for the capacity I want I can't really justify the UHS-II speeds for the money. I'll just have to learn to be patient . The next thing up from the 170MB/s Sandisks seems to be the Sony ones:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Sony-128GB...ii+sd&qid=1554660535&s=computers&sr=1-1-fkmr1

which don't give you much extra bang for your buck at 260MB/s and double the price.

For what I can remember when using my old MacBook 13", I found a stand alone USB 3.0 SD card reader faster than the built in SD card reader. I may get one and compare - not too much money

Cheers for the help