SD Card Slot in New MacBook Pros Supports UHS-II With Speeds Up to 250 MB/s [Updated]

[nquinn]

Don't make the fatal mistake that many people do of confusing backup with cloud syncing! iCloud might be a recovery option if your local storage device fails, but if you accidentally delete or overwrite something, a file gets corrupted or your files get infected with malware then all of that will also be reflected in your cloud-based files.

I still remember reading a desperate post from a few years ago where a user had wiped his local photo library as it seemed to be corrupted, with the intention of restoring it from the cloud, but when he'd deleted every photo locally, that deletion had been synced to his cloud-based library meaning he lost everything - including all the photos of his children growing up.

This is also why expensive local storage on macbooks is so frustrating.

People here will say to just use iCloud and 'manage storage', resulting in a single version of the file in the cloud which could be deleted easily.

Dealing with proper data backups and Apple is very expensive unless you are willing to use a NAS or external USB drive.

 

[sideshowuniqueuser]

Pros: Hey Apple, can we get some of those ports back that we used to use every day. Pretty please.
Apple: Grrrr, no you can't, we know better than you.
Pros: Come on, pleeeeeeaaaaaseee!
Apple: Fine, here's your stupid HDMI and SD card ports.
Apple: [But I gimped them ha ha ha ha ha ha. You are going to have to realise that only the One-Port-To-Rule-Them-All will have the full speed to do what you want ha hahahahahahahahha haha h. Now go and buy a dongle.]

 

[dogstar]

SD Card is outdated or the read speed of this new slot is outdated? Again, single use ports are a waste of time, but people cried and whined and stomped their feet to get these ports back, and Apple caved, so basically I don’t want to hear anyone complaining anymore. They wanted them they got them, suck it up buttercups.

Please tell me which single HDMI port on what device allows both In and Out? I’ve never seen that before on any device that I own. I have several monitors with HDMI In/HDMI Out as separate ports. You’re basically asking for Apple to make an Atomos Ninja and give it away for free to customers, which isn’t going to happen.

Please tell me MacBook Pro is waterproof cause I’m only interested if it is?

 

[Fomalhaut]

In both cases they're practically emergency only type ports. USB C will handle everything else.

Unless you use to connect to your monitor via HDMI and regularly transfer photos &videos to your computer, which many people do…in which case these are extremely welcome!

 

[dogstar]

That is better than expected so those still using SD cards will have about as good as it goes, great for consumers but professionals have long moved on to CF Express (1700 MB/s at the same £ per GB).

Even better than that would be if we could hook up an ultra-fast sdd via tb3… Oh wait.

 

[dogstar]

I kind of agree. Maybe it's just me but I would never use the HDMI port on a MacBook and if you are including an SD card slot you really ought to include CFExpress too. Personally I was happy with 4 TB3/4 ports. I'm just glad I can still charge from either side.

SD is 10x more prominent in consumer electronics than cf. we aren’t just talking about cameras. Almkst every synth and sampler supports sd. It’s just completely pervasive.

 

[lockerc18]

OK, then as backup to that backup suggestion, my next suggestion would be periodic "clones" using SuperDuper or Carbon Copy Cloner. Since they are doing WHOLE backups too, they will also be SLOW. But at least you would have a generational complete copy however often you choose to create a clone.

For example, maybe that's monthly. Something happens during the month that kills important files and also kills them in iCloud. Worst case is you go back about 32 days to the last clone. Best case is you made the clone minutes before the disaster.

I do NOT think trying to use an SD card will be great as a TM backup... but that option would be better than nothing.

I also think you will have a better experience with a direct connection instead of trying to backup over LAN. Hook up a hard drive directly and TM will be faster. The downside here is that your files and your TM backup are side by side. So if one is stolen, odds are the other is too.

However, the solution is to rotate TM drives. For example, I also backup one over LAN but also have 1 to directly connect. The latter I store away from home office. I pick it up for an updating backup about every 30 days or so. So the LAN TM backup is fresh and always as recent as minutes ago. The 30-dayer is for catastrophic scenarios where I've lost the computer and the LAN backup too. Worst case is I'll only be able to recover files up to about 30 days old and back.

Apple TM software is smart enough to simply alternate when there are 2 backup drives. So I don't have to think about it much or do anything in particular other than hook up the 30-dayer and let it backup to that one. Then eject and get it back to offsite storage until next month.

If that LAN drive you have will double as direct connect, do that for the initial "full" backup and then do the incremental over LAN. That will give you a faster one-time backup and then make regular backups in the background for you. I THINK I recall that if you will start the backup over LAN and then stop it... and then directly attach a drive... it will "finish" the TM backup as if it is still connected via LAN (but much faster because it is directly connected). Then when you put it back on the network, it will just continue with TM backups as if you let the whole initial backup happen over LAN. That may not still be necessary but I think I recall it being that way several years ago.

You could also just let it backup the whole thing over LAN and simply wait out that slower pace. At least it does its thing in the background.

Thanks for the perspective. This has been a very good discussion, which is different than the normal slings and arrows I see around here.

I have used a direct connection between my My Cloud and my Mac to do a TM backup. The time it took wasn't much different, though I don't recall exactly how much. But I don't think what I'm seeing is a network performance problem. I think TM is just incredibly inefficient and poorly designed, the user interface aside. I'll experiment with different connectivity options to my new Mac and see what happens. But what I'm after is a completely transparent experience. I don't want to have to consciously fiddle around with devices to get a backup done. And, in case this might be due to my ancient My Cloud, I'll take a look at getting a new, current tech drive to replace it. In any event, I expect that the performance with my new system will be better. How much, I'm anxious to see. But, man, I can't wait for my new Mac to get here...!

 

[Yggbert]

Those using 10+ year old pro cameras will be using CF, CFast, or XQD. The most popular line is the Canon 5-series which are all running on CF cards.

Canon 5D III and follow ups have support for SD as well as CF - dual slots. Any wedding photographer who doesn't want to have an extremely angry couple at their throat will be using dual card backup to mitigate card failure, so they will be able to grab the same photos from the CF or SD card. I realise the 5D III isn't 10 years old yet, but it's very close.

Nikon D750, Nikon D810, Nikon D850, Sony A9, Canon 5D IV, Sony A7R IV, Canon R6 all support SD cards still. Do I need to continue listing more? Some of those cameras are less than 3 years old. The Canon R6 came out in July 2020...

Even Nikon, who dumped SD for the Nikon Z7, brought back an SD card slot for the Z7 II which came out in October 2020.

You said it yourself, you are only using a Sony A7R III so I would understand you complaining that the MacBook Air doesn't have a SD slot. But not about laptop supposedly designed for professionals.

What? The A7R III is a professional high resolution camera from 3 years ago, maybe you're confusing it with something cheaper and less advanced. It competes in the same class of camera as the highest end non-sport focused Nikon and Canon cameras. Not sure if that's some sort of weird fanboy insult towards Sony but if it is I'm not interested in brand fanboy mouthbreathers.

Most cameras don't need XQD or CF Express. The SD slots with UHS-II are more than fast enough as I already said. There is no issue with read or write speeds as I can shoot 42 megapixel 10 FPS bursts without waiting very long for the card to finish writing. It's the new sports cameras with insane 30 FPS bursts that are going to need the newer, faster cards.

The narrative on here that all pros have moved on from SD card is completely false. Yes, a handful of cameras have ditched SD completely and moved on at the high end and things are slowly shifting, but not everyone doing professional work actually has a "pro" camera and it's still going to take many years for SD cards to fade away.

Stop posting misinformation in this thread. I will leave it at that.

 

[HobeSoundDarryl]

Thanks for the perspective. This has been a very good discussion, which is different than the normal slings and arrows I see around here.

I have used a direct connection between my My Cloud and my Mac to do a TM backup. The time it took wasn't much different, though I don't recall exactly how much. But I don't think what I'm seeing is a network performance problem. I think TM is just incredibly inefficient and poorly designed, the user interface aside. I'll experiment with different connectivity options to my new Mac and see what happens. But what I'm after is a completely transparent experience. I don't want to have to consciously fiddle around with devices to get a backup done. And, in case this might be due to my ancient My Cloud, I'll take a look at getting a new, current tech drive to replace it. In any event, I expect that the performance with my new system will be better. How much, I'm anxious to see. But, man, I can't wait for my new Mac to get here...!

I can offer- without the usual Apple worship/hate that can fly around here- that TM does seem VERY transparent in my day to day uses. It's practically a "get it going and forget about it" technology. The one thing I do is that offsite drive swap but only because I want to protect against the most catastrophic scenario of "whole house" or both computer and backup drive theft, etc. Other than that, I really don't think about it.

It WILL occasionally pop up needing to do a "whole drive backup" again and that very well could be sloppy programming or similar. But I just click the button to let it do it and get back to work. Many hours later, a fresh backup is on the drive and then it resumes transparent backups for upwards of months before it does that again.

I DO think there is something to a faster direct-attached vs. network drive and I am efficiently networked. In my experience, local is definitely faster than the full, initial backup to a NAS drive.

When I've needed to recover files, TM seems very easy and logical, so I've always liked it for this purpose. If there is something out there that does the range of what it does better for Macs, I don't know what it is. I have used Carbon Copy Cloner and Super Duper too but TM has basically won my "default" backup system need. I hope you have better luck/experience with it this next time you give it a fresh try.

 

[Yggbert]

Pros: Hey Apple, can we get some of those ports back that we used to use every day. Pretty please.
Apple: Grrrr, no you can't, we know better than you.
Pros: Come on, pleeeeeeaaaaaseee!
Apple: Fine, here's your stupid HDMI and SD card ports.
Apple: [But I gimped them ha ha ha ha ha ha. You are going to have to realise that only the One-Port-To-Rule-Them-All will have the full speed to do what you want ha hahahahahahahahha haha h. Now go and buy a dongle.]

Already explained in my previous post how prevalent SD cards are for photography (didn't even mention videography which also makes ample use of SD). No idea why people are saying SD card slots are outdated and no longer used.

It's pretty funny tbh. Just cus you guys don't use something doesn't mean nobody does. Apple know the market better than you and I'll be enjoying the functionality. I'm not even gonna bother posting more about this cus there's way too many ignorants.

 

[sgtaylor5]

I recall some company making SD cards way back when that were specifically designed to fit flush into the side of a MBP. Don't recall the company name. I wonder if they're still around, or if some other company will take up the mantle.

https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...-up-to-250-mb-s-updated.2318421/post-30484627

It isn't an SD card; it's a holder for a micro SD card. They are made specifically for each model of MacBook Pro or Air.

 

[Morgenland]

Will also find its way to the next iMac.

 

[iPadified]

I have not checked but should not cameras come with a USB-C port for file transfer? Seem to be more pleasant I/O speed for moving large data sets. Considering the number of different cards on the market, it is difficult to understand why only SD is supported.

 

[HackMacDaddy]

I have not checked but should not cameras come with a USB-C port for file transfer? Seem to be more pleasant I/O speed for moving large data sets. Considering the number of different cards on the market, it is difficult to understand why only SD is supported.

you need to be able to swap cards quickly and keep recording instead of connecting and transfering first, then start shooting again.

 

[Thebrochure]

Why no standard USB ports?

 

[ruka.snow]

Canon 5D III and follow ups have support for SD as well as CF - dual slots. Any wedding photographer who doesn't want to have an extremely angry couple at their throat will be using dual card backup to mitigate card failure, so they will be able to grab the same photos from the CF or SD card. I realise the 5D III isn't 10 years old yet, but it's very close.

Nikon D750, Nikon D810, Nikon D850, Sony A9, Canon 5D IV, Sony A7R IV, Canon R6 all support SD cards still. Do I need to continue listing more? Some of those cameras are less than 3 years old. The Canon R6 came out in July 2020...

Even Nikon, who dumped SD for the Nikon Z7, brought back an SD card slot for the Z7 II which came out in October 2020.

So bar the consumer focused R6 and Nikon D750. Are you expecting professional shooters to take out their backup card(which is often just for JPEGs to not too slow down the memory card) and slot that into the new MBP instead of connecting their reader and pulling the files from the main card?

 

[ruka.snow]

I have not checked but should not cameras come with a USB-C port for file transfer? Seem to be more pleasant I/O speed for moving large data sets. Considering the number of different cards on the market, it is difficult to understand why only SD is supported.

USB-C over say USB 3.2 is fine for cameras with only SD cards but far to slow for CF Express. And photographers will have two or more CF Express readers so we can transfer from multiple cards at once.

 

[ruka.snow]

Why no standard USB ports?

It has 3 of them

 

[Fomalhaut]

That is better than expected so those still using SD cards will have about as good as it goes, great for consumers but professionals have long moved on to CF Express (1700 MB/s at the same £ per GB).

Considering there are only about a dozen camera that use CFExpress, many of them very recent, I hardly think that professionals have “long moved on” to it. (https://camerajabber.com/buyersguides/which-cameras-use-cfexpress-cards/). Please add to the list if you know of others! The vast majority of high-end cameras are using SDXC in APS-C and full-frame cameras.

Please show me where you can get the same capacity CFExpress cards at the same $/GB as SDXC cards? Looking at B&H all the CFExpress cards seem to be about 3x the price as SDXC cards of the same brand and capacity. https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/prod...ss|cfexpress-type-a|sdhc-4-32gb|sdxc-64-512gb

Yes, CFExpress is faster (up to 1000Mb/s for type A), and may be the future, but it’s hardly necessary for most applications, so why pay 3x the price for media?

 

[Fomalhaut]

Canon 5D III and follow ups have support for SD as well as CF - dual slots. Any wedding photographer who doesn't want to have an extremely angry couple at their throat will be using dual card backup to mitigate card failure, so they will be able to grab the same photos from the CF or SD card. I realise the 5D III isn't 10 years old yet, but it's very close.

Nikon D750, Nikon D810, Nikon D850, Sony A9, Canon 5D IV, Sony A7R IV, Canon R6 all support SD cards still. Do I need to continue listing more? Some of those cameras are less than 3 years old. The Canon R6 came out in July 2020...

Even Nikon, who dumped SD for the Nikon Z7, brought back an SD card slot for the Z7 II which came out in October 2020.



What? The A7R III is a professional high resolution camera from 3 years ago, maybe you're confusing it with something cheaper and less advanced. It competes in the same class of camera as the highest end non-sport focused Nikon and Canon cameras. Not sure if that's some sort of weird fanboy insult towards Sony but if it is I'm not interested in brand fanboy mouthbreathers.

Most cameras don't need XQD or CF Express. The SD slots with UHS-II are more than fast enough as I already said. There is no issue with read or write speeds as I can shoot 42 megapixel 10 FPS bursts without waiting very long for the card to finish writing. It's the new sports cameras with insane 30 FPS bursts that are going to need the newer, faster cards.

The narrative on here that all pros have moved on from SD card is completely false. Yes, a handful of cameras have ditched SD completely and moved on at the high end and things are slowly shifting, but not everyone doing professional work actually has a "pro" camera and it's still going to take many years for SD cards to fade away.

Stop posting misinformation in this thread. I will leave it at that.

I’ve had this discussion with @ruka.snow before. She thinks professionals only use $10,000+ medium format cameras from Leica and Hasselblad. Sorry, put your entry-level Sony A7R iii away in the children toy box…

 

[ruka.snow]

Please show me where you can get the same capacity CFExpress cards at the same $/GB as SDXC cards? Looking at B&H all the CFExpress cards seem to be about 3x the price as SDXC cards of the same brand and capacity. https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/prod...ss|cfexpress-type-a|sdhc-4-32gb|sdxc-64-512gb

Sony SDXC Tough Series 128GB 300mb/s | Park Cameras

The Sony 128GB SF-G Tough Series UHS-II SDXC Memory Card can read and write up to 300MB/s making it ideal for the most demanding applications. Order now

www.parkcameras.com

Sony 128GB CFexpress Tough Series Type B | Park Cameras

Sony CFexpress Tough Series 128GB 1700mb/s Read Speed 1480mb/s Write Speed Type B memory card for demanding video and high speed shooting. Buy today

www.parkcameras.com

£214.00 vs £259.00

So on this particular week you are paying £45 more for a more reliable and 5x faster card. Hardly 3x the price.

Or from Amazon

Sony 128GB SF-G series TOUGH specification UHS-II U3 V90 SDHC Digital Memory Card Card - Read 300MB/s Write 299MB/s SF-G128T

Sony 128GB SF-G series TOUGH specification UHS-II U3 V90 SDHC Digital Memory Card Card - Read 300MB/s Write 299MB/s SF-G128T

www.amazon.co.uk

SonyMemory 128GB Tough CFexpress Card Type B Ultra Speed Memory Card (Read, 1700MB/s Write, 1480MB/s) - CEB-G128/J, CEB-G128/J SYM

Cfexpress Type B 128Gb R1700/W1480.

www.amazon.co.uk

Today it is £219.95 vs £245.29 for a grand total of £25 and some change you get the much faster and more reliable card.

 

[ruka.snow]

Considering there are only about a dozen camera that use CFExpress, many of them very recent, I hardly think that professionals have “long moved on” to it. (https://camerajabber.com/buyersguides/which-cameras-use-cfexpress-cards/). Please add to the list if you know of others! The vast majority of high-end cameras are using SDXC in APS-C and full-frame cameras.

And before they used CF Express they used CF, XQD, and CFast. And yes, your list is missing the Nikon D500, D850, and D5 which all had their XQD slot upgraded to CF Express. That Nikon D850 stands up there with the Canon 5D IV(CF main card) as one of the most popular professional cameras in use. The amount of Canon 5-series cameras in use is staggering and they all still use CF as their primary or only card. Why don't we put CF on the MBP? The Canon 5-series has outsold both all of Nikon and Sony's models (perhaps even combined given some of them where on sale when Canon where at nearly 80% marketshare).

 

[sideshowuniqueuser]

Already explained in my previous post how prevalent SD cards are for photography (didn't even mention videography which also makes ample use of SD). No idea why people are saying SD card slots are outdated and no longer used.

It's pretty funny tbh. Just cus you guys don't use something doesn't mean nobody does. Apple know the market better than you and I'll be enjoying the functionality. I'm not even gonna bother posting more about this cus there's way too many ignorants.

Yeah, but why limit the speed? And your explanation on why the HDMI is 2.0 and not 2.1? I mean, it's only been out since 2017, 4 freaking years ago!!!

 

[Rashy]

Yeah, but why limit the speed? And your explanation on why the HDMI is 2.0 and not 2.1? I mean, it's only been out since 2017, 4 freaking years ago!!!

Just for you again (do you even read Apple news, blogs or forums at all?), it has been explained countless times: There is no sufficient bandwidth capacity to drive 3x TB4 ports, the HDMI, the SDXC and other peripherals like webcam at full speed. That's why the M1 models only have two TB ports and nothing else. Now we have 3 TB ports + HDMI + SDXC + Magsafe, which is awesome. HDMI has to purpose for business purposes (projectors, monitors) or TVs (at home, in hotels), where HDMI is still dominating. For those purposes, you do NOT need 120Hz at all. For that you still have your TB ports. With HDMI being 'just' 2.0 and the SDXC reader UHS-II, the other 3x TB ports retain their full capabilities.

Some people may NEVER connect anything to HDMI, 3.5mm, Magsafe 3 or this SD slot. But then again, some people may never connect anything to Thunderbolt 4 or USB-4 too. However, those people are NOT all people. As visible in this very thread, there are a number seeing the intended use for the slot as useful... and thinking about other uses of the slot that could be helpful for almost anyone. Add me to the group that sometimes use an SD slot and regularly use an HDMI connection. It's GREAT to have those back inside again! Retire the iffy dongles!!! Kick that extra junk/weight OUT of the laptop bag.

The HDMI and SD slots aren't there for your super HDR 6k display or the CF super-express-plus-bingo camera body you're going to buy in 2 years' time - they're for boring but common scenarios, like when you want to want to plug into a data projector at a meeting or a hotel room TV, or offload photos from your camera or drone to free up space in a muddy field and it's really, really convenient not to need an adapter. What the new MBPs have done is to give you fewer, higher bandwidth bandwidth "universal" ports (...), plus a reasonable selection of single-use ports so you don't have to waste the universal ports on single use devices.

Finally, some guys with sanity, thank you. I can't listen to those "I need 4 TB-Ports only! Dongles rulez!" guys anymore. We now have a great selection of ports, seven in total, making these PRO machines usable and convenient for the majority of users again, without the need for silly dongles. MagSafe is magnetic, has a Status-LED and doesn't wear down the port; HDMI 4k@60Hz is more than enough for TVs at home/hotel, projectors and business monitors; and SDXC with 250MB/s can be used by photographs, movie guys and music enthusiasts (most DJ and producing equipment rely on SD-cards, too!), or simply for storage extension for less critical data/junk. And everyone else still has 3x TB4 ports left. This is what I call 'Pro' worthy ports.

Apple has finally listened to the majority, and they delivered. End of story.

 

[theluggage]

Yeah, but why limit the speed? And your explanation on why the HDMI is 2.0 and not 2.1?

Because SD Express needs a whole PCIe lane's worth of bandwidth to satisfy a handful of users with the fastest cards (who haven't gone to CF instead), whereas UHS-II can share a spare USB 3.0 lane (or equivalent) with other internal peripherals still satisfy the majority of users (which, as people keep pointing out, includes users of drones, dashcams, synthesisers, Raspberry PIs etc. and not just those with high-end digital cameras).

Likewise with the HDMI: there's only so many pixels that the GPU can drive, and no point having HDMI 2.1 without the horsepower to actually use the >4k, >60Hz, HDR displays it supports. The M1 Pro is still relatively limited (c.f. desktop GPUs) in its external display support - Apple have chosen a sensible compromise so that a M1 Pro lets a video creator use the internal display + a 6K XDR display for editing and a regular 4K@60HZ for full-screen preview of what the vast majority of their viewers will see, while still leaving them with the choice of 2 6k displays via Thunderbolt if they have deep pockets. Plus the whole advantage of connecting to data projectors, domestic TVs etc "on the road" - which rarely even needs HDMI 2.0.