iPad Pro New Pros and photo import speeds from SD

[Donka]

Can anyone with a new Pro test out the photo import speeds from SD card reader - either official or third party and feedback please?
I'm curious if the switch to USB-C has opened the door to improved speeds.

 

[ryuworks]

Previously it was already at USB 3 (with the USB 3 lightning SD adapter), I don't know how much faster they can go.

 

[Donka]

Previously it was already at USB 3 (with the USB 3 lightning SD adapter), I don't know how much faster they can go.

Yes, I have that for the 2017 Pros and it is noticeably faster than the previous SD Card reader but I was curious if there are any improvements with the latest releases.

 

[macduke]

Yes, I have that for the 2017 Pros and it is noticeably faster than the previous SD Card reader but I was curious if there are any improvements with the latest releases.

The old one (USB 3.0 iPad Pro version) doesn’t mention UHS-II, and this one does, so if you have UHS-II SD cards like mine (300MB/s) then you should theoretically get better speeds. I can test it tonight.

 

[Donka]

The old one (USB 3.0 iPad Pro version) doesn’t mention UHS-II, and this one does, so if you have UHS-II SD cards like mine (300MB/s) then you should theoretically get better speeds. I can test it tonight.

Thanks - that sounds encouraging.

 

[macduke]

Thanks - that sounds encouraging.

Yeah, it's all about the speed of the SD card bus and not so much about the speed of the USB connection. UHS-II has an extra row of contacts. It's easy to tell—on the left is UHS-I and on the right is UHS-II:

If your cards don't look like the one on the right, it's unlikely you'll see much of a performance increase. USB 3.0 can handle speeds up to 640MB/s (in theory, probably more like 580MB/s typically) so it's all about the technology in the new cards and reader itself. If you have UHS-I cards, they will still be backwards compatible, but you should know that UHS-II is currently a bit more expensive if you plan to upgrade. That being said, I absolutely love UHS-II cards. I can clear the buffer in my Sony a7R III (42MP RAW files at 10fps) much faster with UHS-II and it makes it so much faster to dump cards to my Mac and external SSDs with my Lightroom library. I had to buy a UHS-II card reader though because the one in the MBP isn't fast enough. The new iMac Pro features UHS-II card slot, but I think that's the only one as of now. I suppose I could have used my current reader with an adapter on the new iPad Pro, so I might test that since I already bought an Anker adapter, so we'll see if I keep the Apple one. But UHS-II card adapters are hard to find and not much cheaper than Apple's, at least when I ordered mine early this year.

 

[Dammit Cubs]

Aren't you still bottlenecked by UHS protocol?