Memory card advice

Esther

Esther

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Esther
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Hi,

I wondered if anyone could recommend a good memory card?
I've got two but they were just a few quid off eBay and I've noticed that when I take photos in quick succession it takes a while until they are ready to view on my camera and I presume a better quality card would write much faster.
Thanks
 
There can be a huge difference in the transfer speed depending on the card used.

This is the website I use to check card types as some cameras the transfer speed is limited by the camera and not the card.

https://www.cameramemoryspeed.com/nikon-d750/fastest-sd-card-speed-tests/

If your profile is right the memory cards I use in my D750 are the SanDisk 95mbs extreme pros. I find the write speed to to be very good and it keeps the buffer as clear as it can be, it will slow down in you are continuousy firing the shutter for several seconds.
 
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Esther said:
Hi,

I've got two but they were just a few quid off eBay and I've noticed that when I take photos in quick succession it takes a while until they are ready to view on my camera
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I forgot to ask what card are you using at present?

TLR-330 said:
I would second those SanDisks :)
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Camera price buster are a good place to check prices for memory cards, just make sure you buy from an authorised dealer (I would hope CPB don't list any dodgy places). I normally go with amazon as they are one of the lowest and were an authorised dealer fo SanDisk when I last bought some.
 
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I use a mix of Lexar, Sandisk and Transcend cards - they are all good but refer to "rob-nikon"'s post to find the best for your camera. It is not worth spending a lot of money on a super-fast card if your camera is the limiting factor.
 
Thanks, at the moment I'm using a 32gb SanDisk SDHC card and the other is an 8gb Transcend sdhc one which came with my first bridge camera years ago.
 
Esther said:
Thanks, at the moment I'm using a 32gb SanDisk SDHC card and the other is an 8gb Transcend sdhc one which came with my first bridge camera years ago.
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There is any more info on the cards? SDHC means it's a Secure Digital High Capacity card (they can be up to 32GB capacity) but it doesn't give information on the cards performance. There should be a speed (30mb/s for example) and a name like ultra or extreme if it's a SanDisk. It could be possible one card is slower than the other and likely muting the camera further. do you have the camera set to write data to a single card at once or both (overflow or backup)? If it's backup it's best to have similar speed cards in both slots. To be honest the SanDisk extreme pro 95mb/s are great cards that work very well with the D750 and are currently £19 for the 32GB cards at amazon (not much more at other places-picstop they are supposedly £16.99 and that's an authorised SanDisk dealer too). That's a very small cost compared to the price of the camera (0.03% of the price of a new UK model).
 
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rob-nikon said:
Do they have any more info on the cards? There should be a speed (30mb/s for example) and a name like ultra or extreme if it's a SanDisk. It could be possible one card is slower than the other too, do you have the camera set to write data to a single card at once or both (overflow or backup)? If it's backup it's best to have similar cards in both slots. To be honest the SanDisk extreme pro 95mb/s are great cards that work very well with the D750 and are currently £19 for the 32GB cards at amazon. That's a very small cost compared to the price of the camera (0.03% of the price of a new UK model).
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And there have been examples of cards (was this just CF not SDHC?) that were counterfeit i.e. unbranded slower cards labeled to look like more expensive faster "branded" cards.
 
Box Brownie said:
And there have been examples of cards (was this just CF not SDHC?) that were counterfeit i.e. unbranded slower cards labeled to look like more expensive faster "branded" cards.
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Its definitely has occurred with SanDisk SD cards as I remember SanDisk could be contacted to see if a card is counterfeit or not. It's also on of the reasons I advise to check out who the authorised dealers are. It's worth noting only amazon are the authorised dealer and not amazons market sellers (definitely not "fulfilled by Amazon") so you have to be careful who you buy from.
 
Esther said:
Hi,

I wondered if anyone could recommend a good memory card?
I've got two but they were just a few quid off eBay and I've noticed that when I take photos in quick succession it takes a while until they are ready to view on my camera and I presume a better quality card would write much faster.
Thanks
Click to expand...
On of my Sandisk memory cards started playing up yesterday, so I was looking to replace it. I was looking on Wilko and they have a 16GB Sandisk, that has "SPEED UP TO 80 mb/s" written on the pack and it is £10. I was thinking of getting one of these for my compact camera. They also have an integral 32GB rated at 45 mb/s for £15. I was just wondering if it was worth paying an extra fiver?

I will probably pop in, and see what else they have. As I may decide to get a bigger card, as I sometimes use video on my DSLR. Just in case I ever need to use it in that.
 
There is a "read" speed and a "write" speed. The read speed is always the faster of the two, so that is the one quoted but the read speed is not relevant to what a camera does with a memory card. You want a card that is as fast or faster than the maximum write speed of your camera.
 
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jonbeeza said:
On of my Sandisk memory cards started playing up yesterday, so I was looking to replace it. I was looking on Wilko and they have a 16GB Sandisk, that has "SPEED UP TO 80 mb/s" written on the pack and it is £10. I was thinking of getting one of these for my compact camera. They also have an integral 32GB rated at 45 mb/s for £15. I was just wondering if it was worth paying an extra fiver?

I will probably pop in, and see what else they have. As I may decide to get a bigger card, as I sometimes use video on my DSLR. Just in case I ever need to use it in that.
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Don't forget the 80mb/s is read speed or helps speed up transfer from the card to the computer, not from the camera to the card when taking an image. The write spec on the spec just says 'write speed will be lower'. Also they are £7.59 at picstop.

http://www.picstop.co.uk/secure-dig...hc-memory-card-80mbs-uhs-i-class-10-16gb.html

This isn't aimed at anyone on the thread but just a general observation: To be honest memory cards have probably never been cheaper. £15 at picstop for the sandisk extreme pro 95mb/s for a 32GB card I'm struggling to see why we are we having this conversation? Why spend hundreds maybe thousands on a camera then put in a cheap memory card that probably limits the cameras performance? Like I said earlier the cost of a good SD memory card is not even 1% of the camera, for some not even 0.1%. There isn't much point scrimping on a memory card for the sake of £5 or £10, also if you can push to it buy a size bigger card capacity than you need now. Today's 32GB standard with be tomorrow's 64GB or 128GB. I still have the 8GB extreme pro 95mb/s cards I bought about 4-5 years ago, not much use now I use 64GB cards due to image file size. My cameras loss, my trail cams gain!
 
rob-nikon said:
Don't forget the 80mb/s is read speed or helps speed up transfer from the card to the computer, not from the camera to the card when taking an image. The write spec on the spec just says 'write speed will be lower'. Also they are £7.59 at picstop.

http://www.picstop.co.uk/secure-dig...hc-memory-card-80mbs-uhs-i-class-10-16gb.html
Click to expand...

I had an idea that might be the case.


rob-nikon said:
This isn't aimed at anyone on the thread but just a general observation: To be honest memory cards have probably never been cheaper. £15 at picstop for the sandisk extreme pro 95mb/s for a 32GB card I'm struggling to see why we are we having this conversation? Why spend hundreds maybe thousands on a camera then put in a cheap memory card that probably limits the cameras performance? Like I said earlier the cost of a good SD memory card is not even 1% of the camera, for some not even 0.1%. There isn't much point scrimping on a memory card for the sake of £5 or £10, also if you can push to it buy a size bigger card capacity than you need now. Today's 32GB standard with be tomorrow's 64GB or 128GB. I still have the 8GB extreme pro 95mb/s cards I bought about 4-5 years ago, not much use now I use 64GB cards due to image file size. My cameras loss, my trail cams gain!
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It does make sense what you say, and it is of course worth spending a little more to get a better card. As you say big memory today, gets dwarfed pretty quickly. :)
 
Agree with Charles (y)
 
jonbeeza said:
It does make sense what you say, and it is of course worth spending a little more to get a better card.
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Like everything there is a point of diminishing returns for the additional cost but the cost of SD cards has dropped in recent years. I remember buying 32GB cards for what 64GB cards can be bought for today and that was only two years ago. 32GB extreme pros for £16.99 is a fantastic price (back in 2013 I was paying that for the 8GB cards that I still have). Camera price buster is a tool, you can check prices trends and buy when they are low.

jonbeeza said:
I had an idea that might be the case.

As you say big memory today, gets dwarfed pretty quickly. :)
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I probably have some memory cards lying about somewhere that are in MB's!
 
rob-nikon said:
There is any more info on the cards? SDHC means it's a Secure Digital High Capacity card (they can be up to 32GB capacity) but it doesn't give information on the cards performance. There should be a speed (30mb/s for example) and a name like ultra or extreme if it's a SanDisk.
Click to expand...

https://www.flickr.com/gp/44895100@N05/SR9590

Sorry I haven't replied sooner, I haven't been on here for a few days, the link is to a photograph of the cards, I can't remember which is which but I know one came with an old bridge camera and I think I bought the other as a back up off eBay.

The camera is set to write to one card not back up.

At the weekend I was photographing a friend's daughters party and it was so slow, I could take photos in quick succession but it was several seconds before they showed up on the screen and as it was a 5 year olds party they weren't very patient and so were gone before I could check if I needed to take another.

I'll order two of the ones you recommended.
SR9590
 
Just a quick update, I bought the memory cards that were recommended and the difference is amazing, the photos I take are ready to view immediately with no lag even when I take them in quick succession, I never realised how much a poor card affected performance.

Thanks for the advice.
 
great advice from Digital - had a few dodgy cards from ebay in my time. I'm a big fan of Sandisk even got their SSD external drives. Its about time they sent me a t-shirt lol
 
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