Sign up Login
Home Forums Articles Galleries Members Galleries Master Your Vision Galleries 5Contest Categories 5Winners Galleries 5ANPAT Galleries 5 The Winners Editor's Choice Portfolios Recent Photos Search Contest Info Help News Newsletter Join us Renew Membership About us Retrieve password Contact us Contests Vouchers Wiki Apps THE NIKONIAN™ For the press Fundraising Search Help!
More5

Accessories Reviews

What is the best memory card for you?

Hayo Baan (hrbaan)


Keywords: memory, cards, non_nikon

memorycard

While at first this may seem like a silly question (just get the cheapest and fastest card available), choosing the card that's best for you is in fact not a straightforward thing...

SIZE AND NUMBER OF CARDS

First there's size to consider. Bigger is better, right? Well, not particularly.

The problem with a bigger card is that if something goes wrong (e.g., the card breaks, you accidentally format the card, etc.) with the card, you potentially lose more pictures. Recovery will be harder (and definitely take longer) as well.

So smaller is better then? Well, again, not particularly. Chances of one or more cards failing out of a number of cards is much higher than the chance of an individual card breaking (in fact even more than the number of cards times higher). Luckily chances of a card actually breaking are pretty minute (as long as you stick with the major, reputed, brands).

So the answer is probably something in between. My advise would be to have enough space on one card to allow you to shoot one "session" without having to switch cards during the shoot. For instance when I'm out shooting wildlife I usually shoot up to about 16GB worth of images on a day. So I'd choose a 16GB card for storage. However, as my D3, has two card slots, I actually use 2x8GB cards. This decision was also based on economics: at the time I bought the cards, 16GB was not readily available and more than twice the price of 8GB. These days though, I see no reason not to go for 16GB any longer and given the same decision I'd opt for one or two 16 GB cards instead. Note that when I don't expect to take a lot of images and shoot "slower" (e.g., architecture/interior), I usually use one of my older, lower capacity, cards (e.g., 2GB). That way they still get some usage...

The size of your average session will of course vary and depends heavily on number of shots, resolution (mega pixels) of camera, whether or not you shoot JPG or raw, etc. If you shoot video (frequently), be sure to take this fact into account when deciding on card size as well!

So now you know the size of the card that would be "ideal" for you, should you buy one, two, or ten? Well, this depends; I always bring some sort of storage device with me (two in fact, one for backup) and offload the images each day. The cards are then formatted (in camera) and ready for use the next day. This means I only need one session worth of storage capacity (plus some additional spare space for if the session suddenly gets bigger). If you don't have the means to offload your images, you'll need to buy more cards, at least enough to last you until you can offload them again. You'll also need to buy multiple cards if you do offload them, but want to keep the card as extra backup (e.g., until you can properly back them up at home).

So in short: get a memory card the size of your expected shooting session, and get as many as you need to last until you can safely offload them. Use older/smaller sized cards as emergency storage for when you run out anyway.

Note instead of getting multiple cards, you could of course also buy a single larger card, but remember the risk involved with choosing this way. Economics may drive this decision too; larger cards may or may not be more expensive than multiple smaller cards.

CARD BRAND/TYPE

So now you've decided the size of your card, what brand and type to use? For the brand, I'd really advice you to stick with the reputable brands (e.g., Lexar, Sandisk) and never ever buy cheap, counterfeited, "brand" cards. As with everything on the internet: if it looks to good to be true, it probably isn't true. So stay away from those cheap eBay deals, promising you a brand card for half the normal price...

Sticking with the reputable brands the deciding factor really comes down to speed, and what you're prepared to pay for it (faster usually is more expensive). Card speed is basically important for two things:

  • How quickly your camera can write to the card – This determines how quickly you can shoot bursts of images consecutively, and for how long. Each camera has an internal buffer that fills up at the maximum frame rate of your camera, but once that buffer is full frame rate drops to the speed at which your camera can write the images to the card. So if you frequently shoot burst of images (e.g., with sports, action, and wildlife), a faster card may be an advantage to you. If on the other hand you shoot "slow" (e.g., landscape, architecture), a faster card doesn't really hold any benefit for you here.
  • How quickly you can download the images to your computer – The faster the card, the faster you can offload the images to your computer and the shorter it takes. If you shoot a lot, a fast card may literally save you hours...

So you frequently shoot high frame rate bursts and/or you don't like waiting for your images to offload to your computer, you should be getting the fastest spec'd card, right? Well, maybe not...

The problem is, a faster spec'd card may not necessarily be faster in your situation at all. Actual speed depends on the particular combination of card technology (XQD, CF, SD), card type, card size, camera, and card reader. For instance, taking a SanDisk Extreme IV 8GB card, my D3 is capable of writing at a rate of 24.4MB/s to it. The new Canon 5D III on the other hand is capable of writing at the much faster rate of 34.2MB/s. A card that is the fastest for one type of card reader may not be the fastest for another, etc.

Generally speaking, Compact Flash (CF) cards are faster than Secure Digital (SD) cards. The new XQD cards, introduced with the Nikon D4, are faster again, beating even the fastest CF card by a margin. Deciding on card technology therefore can be important if your camera supports two types of cards.

For card readers, the interface connection to the computer is important; USB3 is faster than Firewire-800 which is again faster than USB2. But here also speed comes at a price...

To help you decide which card or reader to get, have a look at the XQD/CF/SD Performance Database as maintained by Rob Galbraith. It contains data for popular Canon and Nikon cameras and recently had results for the Nikon D4 and Canon 5D III added (the new Nikon D800 as well as a couple older but popular cameras are soon to follow too).

Head Instructor Hayo Baan


This review has been written by Nikonians Academy Europe Head Instructor Hayo Baan.
More photography news, reviews & tips, you can find at Hayo Baan's Photography Blog.

 

(1 Vote )

Originally written on April 4, 2012

Last updated on September 23, 2016

Hayo Baan Hayo Baan (hrbaan)

Kockengen, Netherlands
Basic, 1370 posts

9 comments

Joseph F. Olson (joeolo) on January 20, 2015

Just a small comment. I believe sandisk will help you choose a card. All you need to do is let them know what camera you're shooting and they will give a list of cards compatible with your camera. joe

Todd Busch (Todd Busch) on May 8, 2012

what would be the fastest card for a D3?

Edward Cullen (ec3884) on May 8, 2012

One other thing to consider is the fact that you can back up an 8gb card to one 8.5gb DVD (or a 4gb to a 4.7gb DVD). You will post process your images on a hard drive location but having an additional copy of the RAW files can sometimes get you out of a jam. I have had good luck with both Lexar and Sandisk but for work in the field (either wildlife or weddings) a double back up system can potentially make you a miracle worker, quickly raising the dead.

User on May 8, 2012

Checked out all the reviews I could find before my African safari last year...decided to go with mix of 8 and 16GB cards from SanDisk and Lexar--too many failure reports about Kingston (whom I've always liked in computer memory). Got some 10 speed and some "faster" ones, but not all work as well with "movie mode"--luckily, I don't really shoot video, so all worked out well and not failures. Brought a bunch, as I planned to not erase while I was in Africa, nor could I afford the weight/bulk of taking a backup device, so just checked as I went and always kept my disks in water-proof Pelican case, which I always kept with me! Hand inspect at airports--lock in room safe where available. Worked out well for me! Could have used an article like this for some guidance, but worked my way thru the techno-gobbeldgook on my own! Only get quality, brandname cards for a "once in a lifetime" trip like an African safari! Once you've returned home, you can back up (in duplicate) all your files and then erase cards and reformat in camera and repeat! Have a wonderful trip!

User on May 8, 2012

While I've never had a SanDisk or Kingston CF card fail, several SanDisk SD/SDHC cards have either failed or had device incompatibilities. Only one Kingston SDXC (32GB) card has failed and we've never had a device incompatibility; most of the files were recovered before returning for a replacement which is working fine in a Fuji X10. Reading the reviews on Amazon and B&H indicates that both brands are having lots of failures and speed issues. Lexar had such a bad rep in the early days that I avoided it, looks like it is time to give them a trial. In my D300S, I use the backup option to record the same images to both cards. Currently using Kingston 16GB cards in both slots without any problems other than that they aren't very fast. Not a problem for the kind of shooting I do.

Hayo Baan (hrbaan) on April 16, 2012

Hi Srinivasamurthy, thanks, that's why I wrote the article! Enjoy Kenia :-)

Hayo Baan (hrbaan) on April 16, 2012

Hi David, sad to hear about your card failures :-( Sounds like you had some really bad luck with your Sandisk cards. In general they are really to be trusted (just like e.g., Lexar's). But I can see why you now switched mostly to Lexar!

Srinivasamurthy Prakash (niknac37) on April 15, 2012

Donor Ribbon awarded for his support to the Fundraising Campaign 2014 Ribbon awarded for his support to the Fundraising Campaign 2017 Donor Ribbon awarded for the contribution to the 2020 campaign

Thanks a lot for the information, I was under a dilemma to choose which for my forth coming Kenya trip. Your article has solved to a great extent.

David Sexton (doggy_555) on April 13, 2012

Great advice there, I have been disappointed with SanDisk. I invested in their high speed cards as I shoot motorsport and need fast write speeds, and also wanted a good brand but I have had 2 card failures (one replaced free by SanDisk). Since that I mainly shoot Lexar and leave Sandisk as a backup

G