What data cards are you using?

P

PapaST

Senior Member
I'm using my D7000 SD cards with my new D600 and I think I'm running into data write bottlenecks. It makes sense since the file formats are larger coming from the D600. The cards are slow by most standards but seemed to work okay with the D7000. They are Sandisk Ultra 32GB at 15mb/s. I'm moving to Sandisk Extreme 32GB at 45mb/s. Hopefully that will allow more shutter actuations when I call on them.

What data cards (speeds) are you using with your D600?
 
P

Phillydog1958

Senior Member
I'm also using some of my previously-owned, class 4 cards that worked fine with my D7000. I've noticed that if I shoot in RAW+JPEG, I can't achieve the 5 frames per second with the D600. It's those 24 mp, RAW files. My camera slows down in a big way. I'm considering switching to class 10 cards (30 mb/s).
 
Last edited:
N

Nikonitus

Senior Member
In the past I've bought quite a few memory sticks/drives, CF cards and SD cards for camera and ordinary computer work, and many of those which have been supposedly rated as high speed have been quite average when tested on my PC(s). Some of them are indeed fast at writing (very important, I know) but have been very slow reading and vice versa. As a rule, I try to go for the higher rated stuff with a known brand name, although that's getting harder and harder to do,, as everytime I visit the local electronics shop there are less known brands and more el cheapo brand names there. Funnily enough though, some of them can pack some punch.

Since I am not interested in video work with the D600, I am using just one Panasonic 16GB HC and it performs very well. I will get another asap. You've actually just reminded me to get another one...
 
friedmud

friedmud

Senior Member
When I got my D600 I snagged two of these: Amazon.com: Transcend Information 32 GB High Speed Class 10 UHS Flash Memory Card TS32GSDHC10U1E 85/45 Mb/s: Computers & Accessories

(In case the link doesn't work they are the Transcend Information 32 GB High Speed Class 10 UHS Flash Memory Card TS32GSDHC10U1E 85/45 Mb/s on Amazon.

They are quite a bit faster than my old SD cards... and having a total of 64GB in the camera gives me over 1000 full RAW photos. If you're not shooting RAW, this combo gives me ~3000 full resolution (FINE with no compression) JPEGS. Surely that's enough for most things ;-)

I've used Transcend in the past (I was using their CF cards with my Canon 7D) and have found their memory to be a great tradeoff between speed / size / $
 
P

Phillydog1958

Senior Member
friedmud said:
When I got my D600 I snagged two of these: Amazon.com: Transcend Information 32 GB High Speed Class 10 UHS Flash Memory Card TS32GSDHC10U1E 85/45 Mb/s: Computers & Accessories

(In case the link doesn't work they are the Transcend Information 32 GB High Speed Class 10 UHS Flash Memory Card TS32GSDHC10U1E 85/45 Mb/s on Amazon.

They are quite a bit faster than my old SD cards... and having a total of 64GB in the camera gives me over 1000 full RAW photos. If you're not shooting RAW, this combo gives me ~3000 full resolution (FINE with no compression) JPEGS. Surely that's enough for most things ;-)

I've used Transcend in the past (I was using their CF cards with my Canon 7D) and have found their memory to be a great tradeoff between speed / size / $
Click to expand...

Thanks, I saw these on Amazon, also. I wondered about how they were when compared to Sandisk. From your experience, it sounds like they're OK. I'll have to consider Transcend, especially since they are rated at 45 mb/s. That's an additional 15 mb/s, over the 30 mb/s Sandisk.
 
P

PapaST

Senior Member
Phillydog1958 said:
Thanks, I saw these on Amazon, also. I wondered about how they were when compared to Sandisk. From your experience, it sounds like they're OK. I'll have to consider Transcend, especially since they are rated at 45 mb/s. That's an additional 15 mb/s, over the 30 mb/s Sandisk.
Click to expand...

These are the SanDisk extreme's I ordered... pretty much the same specs as the Transcend but cost about $3 more.

Amazon.com: SanDisk Extreme 32 GB SDHC Class 10 UHS-1 Flash Memory Card 45MB/s (SDSDX-032G-X46): Electronics

I use a lower grade Transcend SD card in my GoPro, Canon SX40 and Nikon AW100. They work great.

I'm really interested in seeing if it improves my rate of capture and also see if it improves my scrolling/browsing through pics from my camera. I've noticed that the D600 has to "catch up" once in awhile when I browse pics. I think my D7000 cards were just too slow for the larger sized D600 files. I'll let you guys know once I can test it.
 
P

Phillydog1958

Senior Member
PapaST said:
These are the SanDisk extreme's I ordered... pretty much the same specs as the Transcend but cost about $3 more.

Amazon.com: SanDisk Extreme 32 GB SDHC Class 10 UHS-1 Flash Memory Card 45MB/s (SDSDX-032G-X46): Electronics

I use a lower grade Transcend SD card in my GoPro, Canon SX40 and Nikon AW100. They work great.

I'm really interested in seeing if it improves my rate of capture and also see if it improves my scrolling/browsing through pics from my camera. I've noticed that the D600 has to "catch up" once in awhile when I browse pics. I think my D7000 cards were just too slow for the larger sized D600 files. I'll let you guys know once I can test it.
Click to expand...

Bestbuy has the 32gb, Sandisk, 30 mb/s for $30. Amazon is offering the same card with the higher speed rating (45 mb/s) for a few buck more . . . Thanks.
 
friedmud

friedmud

Senior Member
PapaST said:
These are the SanDisk extreme's I ordered... pretty much the same specs as the Transcend but cost about $3 more.

Amazon.com: SanDisk Extreme 32 GB SDHC Class 10 UHS-1 Flash Memory Card 45MB/s (SDSDX-032G-X46): Electronics

I use a lower grade Transcend SD card in my GoPro, Canon SX40 and Nikon AW100. They work great.

I'm really interested in seeing if it improves my rate of capture and also see if it improves my scrolling/browsing through pics from my camera. I've noticed that the D600 has to "catch up" once in awhile when I browse pics. I think my D7000 cards were just too slow for the larger sized D600 files. I'll let you guys know once I can test it.
Click to expand...

Nice Find! I don't know why I didn't see those when I was searching. The only SanDisk Extremes I saw were quite a bit more expensive. I probably would have gone with these if I had seen them.

That said... my Transcends are working great. I haven't done any speed testing with them, but they are definitely fast... and I haven't had any problems with them yet, but it is still early...
 
G

grandpaw

Senior Member
I have six Sandisk Extreme 30MB class 10 cards that I normally shoot. Recently I purchased two Sandisk 95MB Extreme Pro cards hoping for a big improvement when shooting in burst mode and found though it was an improvement it wasn't very much. I was able to shoot about the same amount of burst shots with either card and the thing I did notice was that the green light on my camera went out about 4 seconds quicker allowing me to start shooting a little sooner.
 
F

fotojack

Senior Member
Although the brand of card is important, and size is a personal thing, it's the class of card that one should pay attention to. Anything under Class 6 is not going to give you the "speed" advantage you're looking for. Class 4's are fine for Point & Shoot cameras, but for DSLR's, you want to go with a Class 6 or preferably higher. Class 10, of course, being the best at the moment.
 
G

grandpaw

Senior Member
fotojack said:
Although the brand of card is important, and size is a personal thing, it's the class of card that one should pay attention to. Anything under Class 6 is not going to give you the "speed" advantage you're looking for. Class 4's are fine for Point & Shoot cameras, but for DSLR's, you want to go with a Class 6 or preferably higher. Class 10, of course, being the best at the moment.
Click to expand...

All class 10 cards are not equal and have different speeds some are much slower than others. Not all class 10 cards are even 30mb in their speed and some are not as fast. I agree that you are pretty safe in using a class 10 card but they are not all equal. In my previous post I stated that I have two differnt class 10 cards with one being 30mb and the other class 10 is 95mb but some class 10 cards are less than 30mb. The only reason I am posting this is so that you check out the one you are interested in buying.
 
Last edited:
P

Phillydog1958

Senior Member
I agree with both FotoJack and Grandpaw. The brand isn't the most important issue and class 10 is best, but also all class 10 rated cards are not alike. Some are faster than others. I saw some that were rated at 20mb/s, 30mb/s and 45mb/s. Then I saw the 95mb/s, which really is confusing and makes me wonder. Note the leap from 45 to 95, with nothing in between.
 
Last edited:
F

fotojack

Senior Member
I totally agree with Jeff and Philly. I didn't mean to imply that ALL Class 10 cards are superior. Some are better than others, of course. The gist of my message is that ALL Class 10 cards are FAR superior to any other class of card....those being the Class 4 & 6 cards. I'll take ANY 10 over ANY 4 or 6 card! :)
 
C

ChristianBender

Senior Member
What size cards are recommended to shoot Raw with on the d600. I was thinking about a couple 32gig cards at around a 30mb/sec write speed. Seems like a lot of these cards are promoting their read speed. Makes it hard to make an informed decision. Obviously I don't want a cheap card, but on the other hand I would like to get some bang for my buck, and not just buy some companies marketing and waste$$
 
Horoscope Fish

Horoscope Fish

Senior Member
ChristianBender said:
What size cards are recommended to shoot Raw with on the d600. I was thinking about a couple 32gig cards at around a 30mb/sec write speed. Seems like a lot of these cards are promoting their read speed. Makes it hard to make an informed decision. Obviously I don't want a cheap card, but on the other hand I would like to get some bang for my buck, and not just buy some companies marketing and waste$$
Click to expand...
There is no "recommended size" really; a bigger card holds more files but why pay for space you won't use? A 16GB card holds almost 700 RAW files on my D5100 which suits me fine; but then that's me.

As for brands, everybody has a favorite I suppose. Having tried many I don't think you can beat SanDisk memory cards and they're all I use now; specifically their Extreme 16GB SDHC which is rated at up to 45MB/s. Be it known those advertised speeds are maximum speeds the card CAN achieve, not the speed the card WILL achieve. I'd love to be getting that kind of throughput but even so, these are definitely some fast cards.

If I couldn't use SanDisk I'd fall back on Transcend memory cards and not have a worry about it.
 
Last edited:
GeeAirMo

GeeAirMo

Senior Member
I've been using the Sandisk Extreme Pro 95mbs for the past year or so in my D7000 and they have been just fine.

I even used them on my D600 with no apparent issues till I got a second replacement with the Dust Issue.

I now use them with my D800 and they seem Ok, except for the size when I'm shooting pictures of my kids Soccer & Baseball games. I just bought 2 of the 32GB cards because of this. I'm using the others as back ups.

As of today, places like Best Buy have the 16GB version on sale for $39.99.

http://m.bestbuy.com/m/e/product/detail.jsp?skuId=2300092&pid=1218318852603
 
M

Mfrankfort

Senior Member
I use 2 35mb/s for the D600. One is set to get JPEG, and the other to RAW. Seems to work pretty good for me, and makes importing/managing files much easier. The 95/s would be awesome, but might be a bit much unless you have something like the d3 that shoots 1000fps.
 
Top