SD or XQD

Hobbit

Senior Member
ive searched and not really got the answer im looking for.
Yes a XQD card would be nice but man are they pricy.
will the camera suffer buffer issues on high speed shots just using a SD card of the correct capacity and speed or am i better biting the bullet at purchase and getting a XQD card ?
 

hark

Administrator
Staff member
Super Mod
Contributor
This comes from the link that Fred posted. Lexar tested some of their own cards. I have no idea whether a different brand of SD card would perform better than a Lexar SD card.

Best-XQD-SD-memory-cards-for-the-Nikon-D500-camera-550x273.png
 

Marilynne

Administrator
Staff member
Super Mod
ive searched and not really got the answer im looking for.
Yes a XQD card would be nice but man are they pricy.
will the camera suffer buffer issues on high speed shots just using a SD card of the correct capacity and speed or am i better biting the bullet at purchase and getting a XQD card ?

I don't have an XQD card in my D500 and I don't notice any buffer issues.
 

spb_stan

Senior Member
The most important difference is reliabilty. SD are very old tech in the bus system and lacking error detection or correction. They are phyisiclly weak besides being electically weak.The bus they usewas designed for only floppy disk drives decades ago and was selected for cameras solely to the very low manufacturing costs.They were never intended for critical work and the only reason 2 slots were added to higher end cameas was to try to reduce the risk of bad dats getting written to storage. Cameras not intended for paid work were considered a good compomise.Some cameras sequencially write to the first then the second card is written from the first.Sony does that so they have different speed buses and different style of card so they are no bettter than single slot since if there is a write error to card one,the second card gets the same bad data.
XQD was designed from day one to be the first pro format card system and is far more capable mechanically and electronically. They have the ability to map out dead or questionable memory addresses.They also have error detection and correction. Their protected unexpoed contacts are a design that is much more reliable and long lasting.
Even Sony admits the XQD is far more reliable and published white paper which rated them 2 orders of magnitude longer Mean Time Between Failure better than 2 mirrored SD. They reserve XQD for their professional video ENG cameras where reliability problems could result in missing events worth millions of dollars.But those cameras start at about $25,000 and go up to$50,000 How many slots for critical work? One, and not one pro cameraman has mentioned concern. Sony stated that of the first first million sold, they only had one returned for warranty replacement..
We have all had lost work due to bad SD cards.
If someone is doing work for hire they will start losing out of gigs if they only have SD in one time only events.
 

BackdoorArts

Senior Member
If you don't shoot in bursts of 20-30 images and more then you'll never notice the buffer not clearing fast enough. I've gone 315 images in Ch mode in testing with a XQD card (it stops automatically at 200 but you can immediately start again - it's a feature that prevents infinite shooting in case something lies on the button). I don't know that I ever hit 40 with my fastest SD card. That said, there are now some ultra-high speed SD's that are about 2/3 as fast as the XQD cards, but they cost about the same as the XQD card so it's really the speed you're paying for, and for the same money the XQD card gives you both better performance, reliability, and durability.
 

Woodyg3

Senior Member
Contributor
I use XQD cards, and keep an SD card in the slot for overflow. When I have been using SD cards in the D500, and these are fast UHS-I cards, not the faster UHS-II cards, I have only hit the buffer when taking one bird in flight burst after another in quick succession. This happened to me, for instance, when I was shooting Sandhill Cranes taking off in the morning, and there were groups of 3-4 taking off every few second for a while. Under more normal circumstances, a fast UHS-I card is very adequate. Some day I'll have to try the faster UHS-II SD cards, but, man, they aren't cheap. :) Anyway, I have XQD cards, and I'm glad I do, but I would never say they are "Necessary."
 

Whiskeyman

Senior Member
I know this thread is about XQD and SD cards, but has anyone read any recent information from Nikon about a software update to allow the use of CFExpress cards in the D500?

WM
 

crycocyon

Senior Member
I've used XQD for six years, first in the D4 and then the D850 and never had issues. With SD cards, even with the best Lexar ones, I've found at least with the D850 the occasional blips in accessing large RAW files when things start to approach being full. I always write RAW to XQD and backup jpegs to SD, just in case the XQD has a problem, which it never has. They are also faster when reviewing photos quickly on the back display. For me it's not really about the speed of the buffer but just the peace of mind that comes with their greater reliability.
 

Woodyg3

Senior Member
Contributor
CFExpress cards fit, and eventually Nikon will likely do a firmware update for the D500, but I doubt seriously that I will buy any CFExpress cards. They are crazy expensive and I see no practical benefit over the XQD cards.
 

Danno

Senior Member
Both XQD and CFExpress work in the Z cameras, but the CFExpress cards, which were supposed to be price leaders, are crazy expensive. I think folks that shoot a lot of video benefit most with these cards.
 
Top