Which SD Cards

Michael J.

Michael J.

Senior Member
Which SD Cards are you using GB/Class

If I shoot RAW+Jpeg 8 GB quick full I have two 8GB SD Cards and now I am thinking buying a 16 or 32 GB Class 6 up
 
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WileyCoyote

Banned
With my D90 I use a 16 GB SanDisc Ultra class 10 SDHC 30 MB/s card. Got 2 of them at Best Buy for right at $20.00 each.
 
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Bill16

Senior Member
I'm using the amazon 32GB that I got when I got my camera. But I read somewhere that the best way to go is with several fast smaller cards, so if a card is corrupted or damaged you don't lose everything.
It seemed to make sense, and changing a card doesn't take long anyway, and smaller cards are cheaper, so they are easier to afford to replace. :)
 
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Nathan Lanni

Senior Member
I noticed a considerable lag with my SanDisk SD cards and it turns out I have 45mb/s.

Although I could not find a speed test specially related to the d5100, I was able to find a link for you from Nikon indicating that the d5100 is approved to use class UHS-1 card which includes the 16 GB 95 mb/s SanDisk link noted below. That's the fastest card out there and should clear up any bottlenecks.

https://support.nikonusa.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/17353/~/approved-sd-cards-for-d5100

Amazon.com : SanDisk Extreme Pro 16 GB SDHC Class 10 UHS-1 Flash Memory Card 95MB/s SDSDXPA-016G-AFFP : Securedigital Memory Cards : Computers & Accessories
 
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fotojack

Senior Member
Bill16 said:
I'm using the amazon 32GB that I got when I got my camera. But I read somewhere that the best way to go is with several fast smaller cards, so if a card is corrupted or damaged you don't lose everything.
It seemed to make sense, and changing a card doesn't take long anyway, and smaller cards are cheaper, so they are easier to afford to replace. :)
Click to expand...

Exactly the reason, Bill. :)
 
Michael J.

Michael J.

Senior Member
Bill16 said:
I'm using the amazon 32GB that I got when I got my camera. But I read somewhere that the best way to go is with several fast smaller cards, so if a card is corrupted or damaged you don't lose everything.
It seemed to make since, and changing a card doesn't take long anyway, and smaller cards are cheaper,so they are easier to afford to replace. :)
Click to expand...


It makes sense to me
 
Mycenius

Mycenius

Senior Member
WileyCoyote said:
With my D90 I use a 16 GB SanDisc Ultra class 10 SDHC 30 MB/s card. Got 2 of them at Best Buy for right at $20.00 each.
Click to expand...

For my D90 I was using similar: 8GB SanDisk "Extreme" SDHC Class 10 30MB/s - however this is too slow for the D7100 with 24MP and RAW+JPEG.

So I have upgraded to a 32GB SanDisk "Extreme Pro" (Gold Label) SDHC Class 10 tagged 95MB/s - however you won't need this speed for the D5100 I don't think but if you can justify the cost probably worth it to be safe... Some general thoughts:

  1. Stick with Nikon approved cards - I'd suggest only look at SanDisk & Lexar - there's always someone who's had an issue with other brands (even other 'reputable' one's like Kingston). I wont' use anythign other than those first two brands.
  2. Buy from a reputable store or dealer (not off Ebay or such - too many counterfeit cards around, especially for SanDisk).
  3. Consider only SDHC (should be no real need for SDXC - 64GB+) in the D5100).
  4. Consider only up to 16GB if possible (all the tests of SD cards I've seen in Nikon Cameras show 16GB (& 8GB) to nearly always be the fastest data transfer rates - i.e. a 16GB 95MB/s Card is faster than an identical 32GB 95MB/s card, likewise (point 3 above) also some suggestion SDHC is marginally faster than SDXC with the same spec i.e. again a 16GB or 32GB (SDHC) card will be faster than a (SDXC) 64GB card even if both are same 95MB/s spec).
 
Mycenius

Mycenius

Senior Member
siamthai1 said:
So I have to look up the speed. I will go to look around
Click to expand...

Just keep in mind the printed speeds are only indicative... And different manufacturers use different ways to measure them. And THEN you have the camera's bus speed which is slower anyway... Sore head yet? ;)

Stick with SanDisk or Lexar and you should be good...

See also Rob Galbraith's Speed Test (Nikon D800/D800E) which will give you an idea of what the real speeds are for the good cards, and what I was referring to in my earlier post. Note FWIW you'll also see that CF is a superior data transfer format compared to SD (much the same as Token Ring was vs. Ethernet for networks in the '90's, and Beta was vs. VHS for analogue video in the early '80's). ;)
 
Michael J.

Michael J.

Senior Member
I just looked at my cards - The one I use since I have got my D5100 is the Sony SF8NX/TQM 8GB SDHC Class 10 Memory Card. I bought it cos of VDO's, and the other one is the Sony SF8N4/TQM 8GB SDHC Class 4 Memory Card, it comes with the D5100 Kit.
 
Mycenius

Mycenius

Senior Member
siamthai1 said:
...the other one is the Sony SF8N4/TQM 8GB SDHC Class 4 Memory Card, it comes with the D5100 Kit.
Click to expand...

Any card that came with your camera will just be whatever the store has chosen to supply (they won't be part of any official Nikon 'kit') - they almost always are low spec (i.e. slow) cards, in your case a Class 4 (which is about 4MB/s or less), and these aren't really very useful for DSLR photography if you want to do continuous shooting or bursts (they are just designed to be cheap static storage in devices like phones, MP3 players, etc)... The camera stores include them solely for marketing (so there is a memory card with the camera) and probably only cost the store $5 or something! Its the same all round the world (whether US, UK, NZ/AU, Asia, etc)...

The Class 10 one should be okay in theory but the speed listed for that Sony SF8NX/TQM 8GB SDHC Class 10 when I looked it up is is only about 22MB/s which is still pretty slow (and the actual write speed when in the camera will be even slower than that)... So its not really much good either...

So you can see the Class 10 rating is pretty meaningless - you basically need something that's Class 10 and has a rated write speed of at least 45MB/s-90MB/s (or more)... Put the Class 10 Sony aside in your bag as your emergency spare/last resort back-up and get a good 16MB or 32MB SanDisk (Extreme Pro 'Gold Label' rated 95MB/s, or 'Extreme' or 'Extreme Pro' rated 45MB/s) or a Lexar "Professional" 400x (60MB/s) or 600x (90MB/s) SDHC card... :) You should notice a big difference...

Use that Class 4 one for something else - like your Mobile Phone, Or MP3 Player or for your Car's Stereo or whatever... :)

P.S. Class roughly equates to MB/s speed - Class 2 usually means 2MB/s, Class 4 means ~4MB/s, Class 6 6MB/s, Class 10 originally meant 10MB/s-15MB/s...
 
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Mycenius

Mycenius

Senior Member
SDHC Card Pics (All Class 10)... Just in case... :cool: Images of 32GB versions but a 16GB will probably suffice for the D5100 and will be marginally faster as per my earlier post... :) I was using an 8GB 30MB/s SanDisk 'Extreme' card for several years in my D80 and D90 until recently BTW (it's now my spare/back-up card for my D7100)...

sandisk-expro-95mbs-32gb.jpg
SanDisk Extreme Pro SDHC 95MB/s 32GB

sandisk-ex-45mbs-32gb.jpg
SanDisk Extreme SDHC 45MB/s 32GB

lexar-pro-90mbs-600-32gb.jpg
Lexar Professional SDHC 600x (90MB/s) UHS-I 32GB

lexar-pro-60mbs-400-32gb.jpg
Lexar Professional SDHC 400x (60MB/s) UHS-I 32GB​
 
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Mycenius

Mycenius

Senior Member
siamthai1 said:
I got this for 18US$. I will try it if there is a difference

jyhenyba.jpg
Click to expand...

That should be fine - just be careful it's authentic and not a fake/clone (if you got it off EBay or similar). Also keep in mind:

Mycenius said:
...the speed listed for that Sony SF8NX/TQM 8GB SDHC Class 10 when I looked it up is is only about 22MB/s which is still pretty slow (and the actual write speed when in the camera will be even slower than that)...
Click to expand...

...so the Ultra at 30MB/s is only around 33% faster (in theory) than your better Sony card. Should still be a difference that you notice with the D5100, and probably a big difference in the D80, over using the Sony...

If cost was an issue FWIW I'd have gone only for 8GB and got the Extreme 45MB/s card instead though - with 16MP in the D5100 that would be pretty fast... :) ...probably as fast as you'd ever need. :D
 
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