Don’t buy the wrong SD card (Memory Card Tutorial)
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 21 พ.ย. 2024
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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!
It's also a generally good idea not to totally fill SD cards (or SSDs for that matter) due to the wear-leveling where it spreads the writes over the card as much as possible. SD cards in general have relatively low endurance since it is just a single flash IC vs an SSD which uses several and generally has more reserved space for endurance. In general the card brands aren't super important. What matters is write speed consistency, which some cheaper cards can't handle.
A great utility is the official SD card formatting utility made by the SD consortium. It's Windows/Mac and properly formats SD card and even secure erases them (choose overwrite format) - plus it's free to download!
A UHS-II card in an older UHS-I camera does have an advantage in offloading images with a UHS-II reader. It won't help the camera, but you can import quicker at least. :D
also a pretty important mention: reading from a memory cell doesn't hurt it, writing to it does, though
secure erase writes some data (random, FFs or 00s) to all cells, therefore decreasing their lifetime significantly, whereas regular unsecure formatting only deletes the table of contents (or file allocation tables, actually), as was said in the video, and that file allocation table constitutes a small portion of the sd card's memory, so it's safer to do and hurts the card less
@@Kitulous the definition of safer obviously changes with context...in this video, the person was talking about giving your card to someone, so overwriting it is in fact safer.
Outstanding! I film with up to 30 vid cams simultaneously (non stop all day) & the micro SD cards do fail. Sticking with one personally tested brand, with identical specs for all the cards, yields consistent professional results.
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.
Same here, but using 170MB/s cards this season, clears buffer faster.
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.
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
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.
This is right on time, I can attest to this. Once I landed a exceptionally good interview, only to have card fill up and fail. Now I backup and carry extra cards.
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.
Same. No regrets with my Tough card.
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.
I've never had any issues either with the Tough Cards, especially with the fitting
Jeff Sereno me too. Tough cards are great. I have 2x 64GB.
I went with the SF-M cards too. They were tight on the first few inserts, but quickly normalized.
a7III user here. I just recently bought two 64GB UHS-II cards from ProGrade. V90 rated. Replaced the 32GB and 64GB SanDisk Extreme Pro UHS-I cards I was using, which are now spares in my bag. The buffer clears over twice as fast (when shooting to one card), and now I can transfer the files to my computer at about 130 MB/s instead of 88 MB/s. (I'm limited by drive speed at this point, not the card's read speed.) It may have cost me $140 on sale for the two of them and slot 2 may only be UHS-I, but that $140 was worth the speed otherwise and it didn't cost $220 like two equally fast Sony Tough cards would have.
Also there's this website called CameraMemorySpeed that's done some tests on a fair few cameras and SD cards to see how fast they write. That's what helped a bit in my decision to use the SanDisk cards at first.
My understanding is, if you have a single slot camera, it's better to use a collection of smaller cards like rolls of film so that if one gets corrupted, your whole trip isn't gone. If I'm planning to shoot high quality video, I'll keep a high capacity high speed card on hand for that purpose. In a pinch, it can also be my overflow card for when everything else fills up.
Two 128gb cards are better than one 256gb. Basically, I couldn't agree more with your comment.
The V30/V60/V90 ratings aren't just good for video, but also for knowing that your camera will be able to write it's entire buffer at a semi-reasonable speed without dipping below the rating. I think V30 is the minimum you want, with V60 being the sweet spot and V90 being overkill
One benefit of the "Tough" Sony UHS II cards is the absence of ribs between the contacts. I have had a standard 256GB UHS II card fail after a 2-week trip when one of the ribs became detached. I could not download a single file from the card and would have had no images from this trip. Fortunately, I was shooting simultaneously with two cards, as per your suggestion. Thank you very much for that advise! After that card failure, I now invest in the expensive "Tough" cards.
7:10 is the most helpful section.
My only tip: *On Workflow* I got burned once by failing to do this, so... never again. The very first thing I do with an SD card now when returning from shooting is *back it up* . It should be STEP ONE. Don't review your images, don't "move" your images off the card. I have a large network attached storage but if you don't just copy the files to a spot where you won't mess them up - preferably a storage location that is independent (hard drive-wise) from your normal workspace. The backup location you choose should not be the same hard drive as your normal workspace for images - a cheap external USB drive will serve in a pinch if you have nothing else. Then you can move the files off to your normal workspace and begin working with the images.
What we’re once my high end cards are now the cheap ones I stash for spares.
Growth!
What's your best bang for buck memory card of choice? I always go with SanDisk Extreme UHS ii
@@aight365 Currently using the Sandisk Extreme Pro. Also a fan of Sandisk products.
@@aight365 I use the PNY Elite Performance U3, and Transcend R285 U3. The latter is much faster and needed for video
@J O its not a matter of brand , but a matter of frequency.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Good video about SD cards Tony! Here’s a funny scenario I’ve ran into a couple of years ago: I was using the Canon 80D in combination with 2 SD cards: a 64GB Sandisk Extreme Pro UHS I (Read 95MB/s, Write 90MB/s according to Sandisk) and an 128GB Lexar Pro UHS II (Read 150MB/s according to Lexar). The Canon 80D having a UHS I reader, it was writing at almost half the speed on the Lexar, at about 70~75MB/s and at about 80+ MB/s on the Sandisk. Here’s the funny thing: I was using JPEGmini to compress my JPEGs when I was using RAW+JPEG and when I was doing that directly on the card, the new files would start physically on the same spots as the old uncompressed ones but since they were occupying less space, there would be gaps of free space in the card. For some reason, only the Lexar out of the two cards, and only inside the camera would take about 1 minute to save a new picture while the Sandisk would not slowdown at all! On the computer I didn’t notice any difference in performance and later on, doing the same with a 5D Mark IV I had the same results! Now with the 90D which has a UHS II card reader, I can still see a significant slowdown on the Lexar if I do the same but nothing compared to my experience with the 80D. It seems that file system fragmentation is also handled differently from manufacturer to manufacturer of SD cards. While I was testing this to see if for any reason it was the JPEGs themselves that the camera had any issues with and it was slowing down, I copied them all to the computer, I formatted the card and then copied them back to the card and the camera would not slow down at all this time which also backs up the statement for avoiding file system fragmentation, at least for certain manufacturers/models of SD cards.
Great information Tony! One little asterisk though. As you mentioned, the Sony is significantly handicapped while writing pictures to the card, but other cameras such as a D750 are not. They allow you to switch to video and record while your pictures are buffering. As a Sony user myself, I hate this and wish they'd take a page out of Nikon's book!
Chelsea and Tony are like the memory card fairies. 1) Keep one on you at all times 2) Stash them EVERYWHERE 3) Buy the right one(s)
How would I find the space to stash Chelsea and Tony everywhere?!? And where can I buy them?
Or memory fairie godparents.
Memory-doola carda-ca-doola, bibbety bobbety boo!
Stash them everywhere? That’s some supremely bad advice you’re propagating there. How can you ever know if one card, or even several, go missing? Always carry a known number of hard plastic card cases (usually only one) that HAVE EVERY AVAILABLE SPACE FILLED AT ALL TIMES. A model that’s solid, safe and secure. Yet small enough to be convenient, BUT AT THE SAME TIME BIG ENOUGH NOT TO EVER GO UNNOTICED IN A POCKET OR FABRIC FOLD OF THE CAMERA CASE. Better yet, always stored in the transparent zippered pocket found under the lid INSIDE many soft cases. That way, it’s almost impossible to misplace a card. Two cards in the camera, eight cards always fill the wallet.
If you ever spy an empty space in the wallet while on assignment..........a major red flag......and time to immediately retrace your steps to locate and secure the missing card!
Not reformatting (along with never deleting single images) *until the card is full* reduces the write function stress on your memory card. Writing to the card is what causes it to degrade. If you don't reformat until the card no longer has enough space for your next shoot, then the software will write to each-and-every sector, thereby ensuring it is stressed in an even manner. Whereas, if you continually format a card, there is a higher usage of fewer sectors, because the software's pseudo-random choice of which sectors to write to will, invariably, write to certain sectors more often than others; and, with a large GB card, some sectors may never get used. So, Tony's strategy is good for extending the life of his cards.
Formatting your cards does have a positive bonus, in that the formatting software checks for bad sectors, which it marks as unusable, so giving a kind of health check. Keep an eye of the reported available storage of a newly formatted card. It will always be slightly less than the manufacturer's stated storage, even when new, but what you're looking for is a degradation over time. This is a warning indicator that tells you when the card is nearing end of life. A small degradation is ok, but when you see a sharper decrease in available storage, it's time to retire the card to less stressful duties; such as storing your music playlist.
Rick
Professional photographer & technology consultant
This is such a helpful tip! Does this apply even if writing to different folders on the card?
So I should never delete photos off my card?
@@nikitat5687 I am assuming that you keep the card in your camera, but transfer any valued images to your laptop and some online safe backup website. If that's what you're doing, and you only ever shoot enough pictures to use up a small amount of the storage on your card, I'm saying that it's probably not a good idea to routinely delete/reformat the card until you have to.
Any time you write something to a sector of the card, that's when that sector is most likely to fail. Of course, today's cards are designed to be reused over-and-over, so a sector or the whole card failing is unlikely. What I'm really warning about is the practice that some photographers have of always reformatting the card every time they use it.
I’m going to assume the depth of field in this video is a direct response to Camera Conspiracies.
Prove me wrong 😏
f2.8 or so...highly palatable:)
Tony finally got the message.
carl porter It’s going to be different when showing objects at a macro distance as he did several times.
Well yeah but it abruptly changes at 2:13 and then back again later. ;) no hate tho, nice looking video
Y'all know that with video there is very little leeway on shutter speed, right? This shot is using natural light. The only way to maintain proper exposure is to adjust aperture. Y'all know this, right?
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
How do you recover the files?
@@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
Yeah any card can fail. I had a supposedly reliable (and seriously expensive) XQD that crapped out. Was able to get the shots of with some special software
From my experience, if you're not shooting hardcore action or video, go with Cheap.
About the failures: I once had a card feck up during a wedding once, the camera would show "corrupted file" for every picture I took that day. I was terrified. Luckily the files were just fine on the computer but damn that was scary for a second.
@Red Nexican ;)
Were you looking for a quick getaway from the bride's mother? The scariest animal in the forest!
I have bought a cheap off brand 16 GB class 4 card and for years, no problems or anything but after a day's shoot I just copy them to an external 2tb portable drive and reformat the card. No problems since 2017
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.
I also think that is the best way to do it. I would never trust one big card to do the job.
2:13: Have *_ALL_* the bokeh!
Only when you shoot wide open.
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.
I used to have the old macbooks where you can stick the SD card in there and it sticks out halfway. I was uploading some pictures and my macbook battery was getting low so I put on the magsafe charger and laid it on it's side to keep the fan from blowing too hard and the laptop overheating. I didn't realize that I laid it on the SD card side and it snapped in half and I lost a good chunk of my files. The Tough SD is NOT a gimmick and you can never be too careful IMO
Good point.
When I got my D610, I borrowed the backup card from my D500, which had the UHS-II 299mb/s speed. It was overkill for the D610. So I bought dual UHS-I cards that are 95mb/s; which is the maximum speed supported by the D610. Thus far, I haven't had a single issue writing to either camera at instantaneous speeds. Although, the D610 is slow to bring up pictures on the viewfinder.
Thanks. I’ve been shooting for many years and have never heard all these specs for cards. Very helpful.
*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
Thanks, Rick. Would this apply to any storage device? Spinning hard drive, SSD, floppy discs, etc.?
Maybe you mentioned it and I missed it, but the "V" rating is the most useful spec for write performance, it tells you the guaranteed minimum sustained write speed in MB/s. It's most applicable for video where you would write continuously for many minutes, but also for sustained photo bursts.
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.
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
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.
@@phaikyouser9499
Not true
I love how he called parts of this video nerdy, but I follow perfectly
Nice easy to follow video. Great work.
I’ve had a few plastic SD cards split down the sides revealing the chip inside, I haphazardly click the shell back together but I don’t trust them very much. I can see the appeal of the ‘tough’ cards, really I’d just like a metal or carbon fibre unibody card without weak seams.
I guess I'd replace those cards at the first possible opportunity. Not worth the risk or the concern that they might not function properly.
I have a three 32 GB and two 64 GB SD cards in my camera bag at all times. Never failed me, yet
What sd card models do you recommend?
tough card isn't a marketing gimmick. I use trough card in dash cams, when I used regular cards they fail almost always within a year, after switching to tough card, they are 2 years at least and still going, no errors no bad footage.
A dash cam is subjected to extremes in temperature, where a camera usually isn't. You are comparing two separate uses and devices.
@@mikezupancic2182 true. But Tony here labeled as gimmick. While it made little sense for an average shooter to use tough card in digital camera, the card itself is useful in other applications such as dash cam. So it shouldn't be called a gimmick. Also, I think the card is useful if the shooting is under extreme conditions such as high heat or extreme low temperatures.
@@sweetpoison5341 even that is incorrect. The temperatures in your car in the windshield will always far exceed any temperature you will be shooting in for 99.99% of the people. For photographers, it is a gimmick.
@@mikezupancic2182 i agree with you that most (I would say less than 99.99% but still more than 80%) photographers don't need tough cards in their camera. but here is the thing, it's still maybe 1% less likely to fail due to external reasons ( temperature, blunt force, x-ray?). Let say you accidentally leave your memory card in a hot car in the middle of summer, or in icy water, it just gave you that much protection against those accidents. Think of it as a little insurance policy, since price wise it's not much difference,(maybe ~$20 diff. for a 64Gb card?), I know what Tony said about the chance of even the cheap card failing is small but from my personal experience, I have had cards fail with less than 100 cards that I've ever had from multiple card brands. Once the card fail there is no other means to revive them, you just have to throw them out along with your content is some cases, so if a tough card can give you any extra protection for not a lot of money, I would say it's worth it. besides, it's choice not a mandate. If you don't want to pay extra, it's your choice.
@@sweetpoison5341
Some replies are confusing physically tough cards, built well and unlikely to be harmed by even the most ham-fisted careless of users, like the Sony Tough range, with 'high endurance' cards which have a greatly increased capacity to be overwritten again and again.
These high endurance cards are more likely to be average-performance micro-SD cards which are the suitable alternative to ordinary micro-SD cards especially designed for continuous video loupe shooting, being overwritten hundreds of times, such as in dashcams and surveillance cameras.
I’ve had cards, multiple, physically break. It’s usually those plastic ridge/rails at the top. The tough cards don’t have them and seem to work well.
Also, as cards usually fail with insertion and removal, it’s safer to leave 1 big card in your camera at all times and just plug it into your computer to transfer the files. In my case that’s because on my Z6 which just has 1x XQD I’m terrified of corrupting it.
Very good observation. I'm going to think about that. If what you say is correct, I wonder why Tony didn't mention it. Seems reasonable, though.
When I first got my D850, I immediately discovered your youtube channel and GREAT instructional videos. I Will be using my D850 primarily for underwater shooting... and guess what; changing cards underwater is not recommended! Every time I have to open the underwater housing, I take a careful fresh water rinse, dry thoroughly before opening. On re-closing I have to take my time making certain that all O-ring seals have NO fuzz, hairs or other stuff that will make it leak. I sucked it up and got the 256 GB SD card and 512 GB CFExpress Type B. Once I got over the "sticker shock" I find that I'm loving the big capacity... now if I could only fit more battery into my underwater housing!!
My "google education" for cards led me to choose:
Sony 256GB SF-E Series UHS-II SDXC
Delkin Devices 512GB BLACK CFexpress Type B
So far, so good.
Keep this great content coming!
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
Resisting a cheap deal is very difficult for many people. They will go for the price hoping they will end up with something better than others. That's why so many lousy products bring in as much or more that the quality ones that are way way way better in every way. I usually agree with 99% of what you say and recommend. Why, you ask? It's because you are smart, not as smart as I am, but close enough. Seriously, thanks for so much good advice. And very good video and sound quality. It blows my mind when I watch a decent video with lousy sound. I think the sound is just as important as the video. Many youtubers seem to think it's only about the visuals. WRONG! It's about the senses. It's about the entire experience.
Secure formatting, usually called something else, overwrites the entire contents with nothing and then zaps the table of contents(layman term). If that is what you said then sorry for repeating.
Let's see what the crowd (and Tony) has to say about this:
I'm an enthusiast and only shooting for myself. When I bought my camera I looked around at what other equipment I had (drone, action camera, digital audio recorder...) and all uses micro SD* form factor. I decided on standardizing on that. I don't share the cards between devices normally but just in case. I do have some extra card spread around too as per Tony's suggestion.
The only things that only accept full size cards are my laptop (not doing editing or ingesting on it) and the camera. Workstation uses a cardreader (USB3) with both full size and micro slot.
I put a bit of tape around the adapter so I normally don't remove the micro card - just in case of some emergency for another device.
Is there any actual problems with this? I've battled people telling me the adapter is slowing things down (adapters are straight-through electrical lines), that the card will get too hot because it's slower (how does a micro-sd then survive in a hot drone or action camera?...) etc.
I also have the added benefit that if the adapter breaks, somehow, in it's contacts I can switch adapter and still have a functioning card.
I use micros for other things that require them, but I don't think I would use them in my camera with an adapter. I'm just thinking that because they are so much smaller, they are more delicate and more prone to failure. Just a hunch -- not anything I know to be true.
I can't stop thinking about bokeh cause "camera conspiracy"
Good video for the average-none tech people however, it is important to talk about the ratings (c10, u1, u3, v10, v30) for instance that u3 promises the card can handle a minimum writing speed of 30MB/s ...or V30 that is almost the same but specifically tested for writing videos at 30MB/s (video from camera comes in a chunked stream and is more intensive since the result average is 30MB/s but the camera compresses on the fly and actually writes in peaks of higher rates)
1:10 don't do that! I always come home with one mission: get those photos onto my computer. If I'd leave them photos on my SD card, maybe it will die once and all your photos of the month are gone!
Well of course! But he’s not walking around with his only copy of these files. I’m sure he also downloads everything immediately. This should be obvious to anyone. Leaving stuff on the card is only an ADDITIONAL back up copy....
“This is an incredibly expensive SD card, that’s also a total waste of money” oh god, this is why I love Tony! Hahaha. I actually facepalmed watching UnboxTherapy’s “review” of this TOUGH card and made a video reply showing how tough “regular” card are! Today I got a few more videos recommendations from TH-cam about this card and EVERYONE is praising it!!!
I’m not sure what is the target audience of this card… pros will use recorders (videography obviously, not photography), noobies don’t need the speed.. Prosumers? Double “normal” cards?
Weird product, nice video!
Sorry, I missed your point. Thumbs up on the Tough card, or thumbs down?
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
You two are the best photographers I learnt so much from you guys Matt from England 👍👍👍😄😄keep up good work
Nice one ! Love the channel , keep up the great work Tony.
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!
Perfect example of why there is a variety out there. We all need to match our equipment to our needs.
Thank you Tony and Chelsea. I'm learning so much from you both.
The good Tony is back. Was the evil Tony returned to the mirror universe?
Lol
Like Shstner in Star Trek
Hahahahaha, perfect, love this!
@@innercynic2784 Like Nimoy in Star Trek.
@@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.
Very very very important topic. we use 3x sony a7iii for photography and video. we use always use the two sd card slots for extra back up. 128gb 150mbs cards. sandisk. looking to get faster ones.
I'm one of those you mentioned Tony! We have a review of Samsung EVO plus Micro SD released a couple of weeks ago. Hope u see it too. Thanks!
I'll take the Sony TOUGH cards still. having a metal, durable, reliable card is crucial when using cameras like the EOS R. Sony also has a software that checks the health of the card every time I plug in.
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
Nice and clear and frank as usual. Thanks Tony.
Thanks for saying that about formatting. Everything is still there until it's written over.
Life hack(?) to all of you, feeling your card get slower? Try deep formatting instead of quick formatting your card.
what is deep formatting?
@@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.
@@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.
@@tim1398 Another wives' tale I guess, is that you should always format your SD card in the camera??
@@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.
The only card failures I've had have been physical failures: The ribs between the contacts have broken or the write lock has broken. So I have been buying slow Sony Tough cards, which remove both points of failure I've actually suffered.
Great video idea ..! What about XQD cards & the CF Express Tony ...? Which cards are best for burst wildlife (birding) shots ...!?!? Thanks 🙏
XQD and CFexpress can also break. Physically they are more robust, similar to the Sony TOUGH Cards. But the electronics inside, the Flash and the Controller chip are as vulnerable as any other Card if electrically goes wrong.
When you did that survey on card failure did you happen to find out which brand had the most failures?
Lexar. Don't buy.
VIDJACK haha, Tony had a video with their SDP link to the lexar cards a while back. I have a couple because of the price and so far they work but they are backup cards. They feel flimsy.
@@VIDJACK i thought they were the best brand, sandisk is good?
Our Camera club did one for a year. We have eighty members who all bought through the club as control for that year and we all agreed to try as many brands as possible. The photographers all had their own cameras and their own interests in what they were taking pictures of and there were some noticeable trends. Anyway every brand we tried had at least one failure except one which was Samsung and we tried Sony, Integral, Kingston, Sandisk, Toshiba, Lexar, PNY, Advent, Kodak, Fuji, Transcend, E memory and Memzi to name a few. We all had to have used at least five brands in that year and the brands were evenly distributed between members. Then any failures were noted on what cameras were used and what they were photographing at the time and things like the weather and how many pictures the memory cards had through them and how they were stored. We found no discerning patterns with any of the controls we had entered except one. This was people using the drive options for bursts of pictures to capture Motorcycle racing and birds in flight. This accounted for 80% of the failures on the subjects that were being covered. All on upper level cameras with Canon being way out in front as the brand of camera but this is no surprise as 60% of the members own Canon Cameras. Failures of cards only happened to 30% of the members and two camera brands had no failures Nikon and Olympus. To be fair though outside of this I own two Nikon Cameras which have had cards fail so it is pot luck. But most important to anyone that reads this the Cards that failed more than once were all off them with the highest three fails being PNY, Integral and Sandisk all with three each. Again I have used Sandisk for a number of years and have had just one failure so I think what we generally learned from the whole experience which we entered into because of there being so much Brand loyalty displayed was exactly what Tony has just said and that is all Memory Cards can fail no matter what brand and our test suggest some uses may have a bearing on a cards failure ( sports wildlife ) but it really is pot luck.
Paul Wood Very useful. Thanks, Paul.
Thanks Tony. Very good. A lot of people don't understand what you just explained. A while ago I had a support call to my ISP, the support person did not know the difference between MB/s and Mbps.....
PS Background visible, must call Kasey!
This video is a very good tutorial on why you do not want to switch to Sony mirrorless. As the buffer fills up, camera functionality goes away.
"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.
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.
My office once ordered some real cheap Sandisk cards on Amazon. They were counterfeit, and but still worked, lol!
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.
thank you for your knowledge about cameras.
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.
Thank you!!! So glad you cleared up the urban legend of deleting!!!
I have a Tough 32gb memory card that I got for free when I attended a Sony event in late 2018 as did several of my friends. None of us have had any issues removing the cards from our cameras.
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.
If you try to use a UHS one card to record In canon log it won’t be usable. I’m having this problem right now with the canon R6. I used a UHS one instead of the UHS II And I cannot transfer the footage into Vegas pro 17 to edit because he doesn’t understand it because I think information is missing. So I have to buy a UHS2 card to prove that I’m right. Something to look into. Thank you Tony and Chelsea.
When I pull the memory card out of my camera, I made a little app that will copy all the files from the card to my server, which has a parity protected drive array, and then verify that the copy was successfully. My server then has a nightly backup to one of my cloud drives.
Now, if you are doing anything that requires data storage. Rule of 3. Primary copy, local backup copy, and secure off site copy. In today's age, local and cloud copy is usually good enough.
Used my D700 ( one CF card slot) for 10 years. Used my D750 ( w 2 card slots ) and always have it work as an overflow. Never used the 2nd slot as a back up. God bless - never had a card fail. 2 card slot rant is over hyped. Use multiple cards, swap after every XXX shots and bring a spare camera body.
I buy only scandisk microsd for 4K and use them with adapter in most of my equipment and never have issues
What you do NOT want to happen is that the photos on a card a lost when the card decides to FAIL out of a sudden. The bigger the card, the more you lose.
Thus I'd rather carry around FOUR cards with a capacity of 64 GB than one with 256.
Ha! People have been saying that ever since card capacity was measured in megabytes not gigabytes. It's all relative. Tomorrow people will be saying the same when card capacity choice will be either 500 Gigabytes or 1.5 Terabytes
To shiva cards are well constructed but every of my other Lexar and Sandisk SD cards have disintegrated after a maximum of two years of good use. The Sony is tougher still. I love it.
Are you serious? Every card besides Toshiba disintegrated in two years? Man, your devices must be brutal on cards.
I use Sandisk SD card. One inside the cam card slot & one is stashed inside my camera bag. I buy from establish retail outlet, or reputable online shops. There
are many scammers online selling authentic cards using cheap cards with actual branded stickers pasted over them.
I currently use a Lexar professional 64GB UHS3 card in my Nikon D5600 and also it has 2 numbers written on it 1000x and 150mb/s and as far as burst shots go, it 's writing speed can stay ahead of the buffer i shoot at full 24,2MP so files of about 15mb but it keeps up with the camera and i can shoot 3,6k photo's with the card, and that is plenty, i always transfer the photo's to my computer after every day of shooting
Camera should have dual card slots. So they both save to both slots so if one fails. You have a back up. And then. If you run out of space. You can take 1 full card out. Then format the back up and keep shooting so on.
With seperate spots having different performance potential I would still get two UHS II cards. If I need to do a quick card change the last thing I need to be doing is having to make sure the correct thing is in the right hole - that is reserved for other activities than film and photos!
The size of a Mirrorless body VS the size of the glass still breaks me up every time.. I've had the cheap cards Physically break and separate so i dont use them.
Thanks Tony this was indeed very informative...
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.
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.
Just store the pics of a previous shoot on your pc and an external hd, no need to cram your card with pics of 10 shoots. If you read the memory card in the reader of your computer, it takes a lot of time to download
I've had a few cards split in two and I have had the little switch break. So now I use the tough and rugged cards.
Wow how did you split a card in two?
Forced too much data on it? 🤣
@@HyRax_Aus Yes, those big datas can force a card to open, like Lou Ferrigno tearing his shirt apart. You might call this the Twinkie effect, considering how those sweet confections are made. lol
Thanks for cards and brown case for camera, love it ;-)
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?
I bought my first SD card back in 2007. It was 4GB Transcend. It was for my new camera. Snapped a lot of photos and video. I was still using it in 2011 without issues, when I upgraded to a 8GB card. I also bought a Samsung microSD 32GB in 2013 for my phone and I still have it and was using it just a week ago, I'm surprised it's still working, because I used that extensively over the decade.
I can't remember if a card ever failed on me. I have plenty of HDD failing just in last couple of years.(avoid Seagate like the plague)
TIPS:
1 - Memory cards do not come pre-formatted. Always perform a low format on a new memory card prior to first use.
2 - Tony points out that cameras perform a “non-secure” low level format. A secure format could take MUCH longer. This is true!
3 - Using PC to low level format a memory card performs what Tony calls a “secure” format. It will erase all of the data in all sectors of the memory card, and may take 15-20 minute for a 32 GB UHS-1 card.
Is #1 above really true? I have scores of SD cards that I've used over the years, and I have never formatted a single one before using it. Can you explain?
Lol you posted this video 10 min after I bought the Sony tough 128g card...
Hahaha same here. I regret nothing!
The tough cards aren't just about capacity or speed though, they are waterproof, submerge proof, dirt proof, party proof, etc. That's what you're paying the extra money for.
Can they still fail? Sure they can, but there's not a single brand that claims to be absolutely 100% reliable anyway.
Michael Kung 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.
Tony loves the attention by saying things like "waste of money" but then comes back later to say "but if you shoot action..." 😂, so it's not really a waste of money then, at least for some people 🙄
I feel happy that I'm not alone 😆😆😆
Tony,
Where did you find the half camera case and wrist strap you have on your Sony ? Looks nice. Plan to buy one with the money you saved us in buying memory cards. Thank you!
Hello, I just received my Canon R6. I will certainly be using you great information videos to set it up, thank you !
Watching this video, re ; memory cards, I see you ( very cool ) camera case ! Where may i find one like it ? Thanks, Steve
In my situation I would probably get the Sony G not only because my camera is going to be next to a launch pad with a rocket going off on it, but that high write speed is important for all the real fast photos my camera needs to take when that rocket takes off
Having the dual memory cards is such a big deal, as well as having one on hand. I was shooting a dance event last month and my memory card failed half-way through. Luckily I was able to recover the photos and they had another guy doing video, but that was pretty embarrassing. I've invested in 2 awesome cards and have 1 backup that I will definitely bring with me next time, just in case.
(Nikon D500, w/SanDisk CF type B, 128g, and a Sabrent 64 gig USHII).
Essentially for video if you shoot 4K you need a card that has 3 inside the U. If you shoot Full HD then 1 is enough (or just 10 inside a circle). I have only the latter so my EOS M50 stops after 10-20 seconds on 4K.
My D300s has two card slots. One is SD and the other is Compact flash. Never runs out and 2 copies available on important shoots.
I love my Nikon D300s.
You've got a high-end DSLR, used for professional work, so it's no surprise that it has two card slots. In fact, every professional shooter's camera should have two card slots. But for other folks, the standard is one slot. But if brand and price don't determine failure rate, then the only thing left to do is get the cheapest card that can take advantage of your camera's capability. I have bought regular, pro, extreme, extreme pro, and I could never tell the difference. Shooting 5DII and Rebel, plus pocket cameras.
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.