Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

SD Card Preferences

bunnspecial

bunnspecial

macrumors G3
Original poster
May 3, 2014
8,358
6,498
Kentucky
I'm mostly a CF guy, and the only high end SD card I've bought was the 64gb Sandisk that stays in my D800 as a place to dump JPEGs.

With that said, I have a D600 on lay-a-way at the local shop and I need to beef up my SD card "collection" as I expect 24 mp RAW files will fill up 4 and 8gb cards quickly(I know I can get about 300 RAW files from my D800 on a 32gb card, so I'd expect about 500 RAWs from the D600 on a 32gb).

So, with that in mind, I need to get some big SD cards. I prefer name brands, and a look at B&H seems to show SanDisk as the most dominant of the big names.

I'd want to 32gb at least. I'd probably like one 64 or 128gb to leave in the camera for JPEGs, and then a couple of 32s or 64s to rotate for RAWs.

The speed ratings do confuse me a bit, though. I don't THINK that Nikon has anything that uses UHS-II(or whatever it's called) so it won't necessarily speed up writing files in the camera. With that said, I DO have a nice Lexar USB 3.0 CF and SD card card reader that can get files off of fast cards fast.

So, with that in mind, can anyone give me suggestions on SD cards?
 
Stick with Sony and Sandisk. I still have Lexar 128GB cards which have worked without a hitch.
 
Sandisk all the way. Watch their naming convention. The extreme and extreme pro monikers mean current fast and fastest when you buy them. For example Extreme Pro is now 300mb/s or something in a year the 300mb will become the extreme as it gets bumped off the top spot. You dont need that. Also I think SD as a tech has hit its speed limit and the push now is to move the market to use QXD (someone correct me if i am wrong).

I get the silver Sandisks at 80mb/s and they work absolutely fine across all my cameras including shunting huge raws aff a Sony A7Rii. However, caveat. I rarely machine gun my camera so writing multiple files has never been something I have had to worry about.

Normally I put in 32GBs but recently I started buying 64s as the price point is close enough. A Sandisk 32 can be had here in the Uk for £21, 64 is about £30 on Amazon.

Hope this helps.

The D600, make sure it has had the fix for the oily curtain (think thats the name for it) read up on it. One of the reasons the D610 was released so quickly was to fix a design flaw in the 600 IIRC. Not necessarily an issue but make sure you know what you are buying. Lots of people love their 600s. Not bashing, just a heads up.
 
I have Sandisk Exteeme Pro 280MB/s cards. More expensive but doesn’t become a bottleneck when shooting.
 
I'm happy with SandDisk, I need to pick up another for my next trip,just so I have enough and SanDisk is going to be go to choice
 
Thanks everyone. Sounds like Sandisk is the way to go. I'm also a heavy film shooter(including medium and large format) so I don't and never have been a "machine gunner."

kenoh said:
The D600, make sure it has had the fix for the oily curtain (think thats the name for it) read up on it. One of the reasons the D610 was released so quickly was to fix a design flaw in the 600 IIRC. Not necessarily an issue but make sure you know what you are buying. Lots of people love their 600s. Not bashing, just a heads up.
Click to expand...

I raised this concern, and the shop is sending it to Nikon while I have it on lay-a-way to pre-emptively fix the problem even though it LOOKED fine when I was examining the camera.
 
  • Like
Reactions: kenoh
As above, yet another Sandisk recommendation, go Class 10, I'm surprised no one mentioned that, maybe it's assumed knowledge these days.

I tried hunting for it, but couldn't find it, sorry, but there's a very technical report out there that recommends not going for larger than 32Gb cards, from a reliability, technical and potential loss point of view. I found it very interesting reading and really wish I could link to it for you, I think you would have appreciated it.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Mark0 and kenoh
Been looking into UHS-II cards since I ordered my OM-D EM1 Mk II. It has 2 slots so that's new for me! Anyway, I came across a couple of speed test write ups here and here. I usually stick to SanDisk as they are reliable but I've also used Transcend and Lexar cards in the past and had no problems with them. I have had problems w/ Sony cards so I stay away from those.

So I've purchased the following pairs for my new camera - I'm not sure how I'll set up the cards yet but this gives me some flexibility:
Sandisk Extreme Pro - 32 GB - SDHC UHS-II + SanDisk Extreme Pro 32GB SDHC UHS-I (from Amazon)
Lexar 32GB Professional 2000x UHS-II U3 + Lexar 64GB Professional UHS-II U3 SDXC (way cheaper on Adorama)

With the 64 GB Lexar card, they have max transfer at 150mb/s but it's still UHS-II so it can be used effectively in slot 1 but at a price point at half the cost so I don't mind using it in the UHS-1 slot either.

We'll see how it goes!
 
Last edited:
E3BK said:
Been looking into UHS-II cards since I ordered my OM-D EM1 Mk II. It has 2 slots so that's new for me! Anyway, I came across a couple of speed test write ups here and here. I usually stick to SanDisk as they are reliable but I've also used Transcend and Lexar cards in the past and had no problems with them. I have had problems w/ Sony cards so I stay away from those.

So I've purchased the following pairs for my new camera - I'm not sure how I'll set up the cards yet but this gives me some flexibility:
Sandisk Extreme Pro - 32 GB - SDHC UHS-II + SanDisk Extreme Pro 32GB SDHC UHS-I
Lexar 32GB Professional 2000x UHS-II U3 + Lexar 64GB Professional UHS-II U3 SDXC

With the 64 GB Lexar card, they have max transfer at 150mb/s but it's still UHS-II so it can be used effectively in slot 1 but at a price point at half the cost so I don't mind using it in the UHS-1 slot either.

We'll see how it goes!
Click to expand...
Are both slots UHS-II or just the first slot like on the fudgee?
 
I've used Sandisk for all of my Nikon cameras. The difference between the Sandisk Extreme and Extreme Pro is speed. If you are going with the D600 you should get the Sandisk Extreme Pro because you want the fastest card to help you in buffering. Also, when you upload images to your computer which is was I love.

Two 32GB cards are plenty. My setup is a D750. I have 1st card set to store RAW. The 2nd card slot stores videos and overflow of the 1st card.

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/prod..._sdsdxxg_032g_gn4in_extremepro_sdhc_32gb.html
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back