All Things XQD, SD, CF Express Card Brands and Capacity.

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DavidT

DavidT

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I am curious as to if you have a go to brand of card or buy based on price at the time?

Do you have a preferred size of card you use?

Do the read and write speeds matter to you when you buy a card?
 
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Same as Gordon, at least for XQD and CF Express. Sony just works and has proven to be very reliable - and fast. For SD cards I also use SanDisk and, again, I go with the fastest I can find (really pay attention to the write speeds too - sometimes they are substantially less than the read speeds).
 
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For XQD and CFe it's Sony. Always a minimum of 2 cards, dedicated to a given body. D500 has a pair of 32's, D5 has 3-32's, D850's have a pair of 128's and the D6 has a pair of 128 CFe's..
 
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They are not up to CFExpress yet, but here you can find some information about memory cards for cameras.
As @Steve and @gordon_g I decided to use Sony XQD cards for my D4S, mainly because there performance and good reputation regarding reliability.
In my D750 and D7200 I use Sandisk Extreme Pro 32GB.
Unless you are a pro shooting "once in a lifetime events" I think you can live with using one card, because XQD cards are probably the most reliable cards around - although I have no input regarding the differences to CFExpress so far. But after many modern cameras can take CFExpress and are backward compatible to XQD cards in the same slot, I would expect them to be at least on the same level here and just varying in the interface electronics.

The recommendation with one card is just a personal experience and compromise, because my D4S has two different format slots, so I run it with one XQD only and my D750 and D7200 I run with deactivated backup function to optimize the use of their tiny buffer.

That said, if you are using a camera with SD card slot(s) you should buy the cards corresponding to the controller generation in your camera. E.g.:

My D750 and D7200 have UHS-I controller. They can mechanically take UHS-I and UHS-2 cards. The latter have more contacts, but the camera would use this type of card just like a UHS-I card because the second row of contacts is missing in the camera slot. BUT it can happen that a UHS-2 card - that is normally much faster for read and write - is actually slower than a UHS-I card if it is used in a camera with a UHS-1 controller. So, check what card type your camera can take and buy the fastest one of this category.
In my case it was the Sandisk Extreme Pro 95MB/sec. and I use 32 GB which give me about 750 shots with 12 bit RAW lossless compressed.
 
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I've only had one problem with a Sony 120 XQD card. It got glitchy at temps below 35F. I confirmed by putting the card in the freezer for a few hours, acted up but when it warmed up, it was fine. Sony exchanged it and the replacement is fine. Oddest part, it was one of their new "extreme" cards! Never had a problem with the "regular" cards, go figure!
 
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I have a 64Gb Lexar XQD and 2 x 128Gb Sony XQD cards that I use in my D500 and Z6. I have never had a problem with an XQD card.

I prefer SanDisk SD cards and they can usually be found at good prices.

I am really cautious to check on any cards read and write speed. I have found that manufacturers will often label cards with the max read speed and you have to do a little search ing to find the write speed. The write speed seems to be the most important in terms of the card being fast enough to clear the cameras buffer quickly. I have seen write speeds that are well below read speeds for some card brands. SanDisk seems to be very consistent with their read and write speeds being very close to the advertised speed.
 
Sony XQD G series 64GB and 128GB and fastest read and write Sandisk I can find currently Sandisk Extreme Pro 128gb 300MB/s
and I have two Sony XQD/SD card readers one for the macbook and one for the desk.

I just don't understand spending thousands on equipment and thousands on travel and other costs then worrying about an extra hundo for a decent card or two.....lol
Remember when a 4GB sata hard drive cost way more than that.
 
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Hut said:
Remember when a 4GB sata hard drive cost way more than that.
Click to expand...

To show you how old I am, the first hard drive I installed (on an Apple IIe network) was a 5Mb (not a typo) drive that cost $3500.

Hut said:
Do CFExpress cards fit into XQD slots?
Click to expand...
It is my understanding that CFExpress cards have the same form factor as XQD cards. The Z6 and Z7 had firmware updates that will allow the use of some CFExpress cards. The D500 is also supposed to get a firmware update allowing the use of CFExpress cards.
 
MartyD said:
To show you how old I am, the first hard drive I installed (on an Apple IIe network) was a 5Mb (not a typo) drive that cost $3500.
Click to expand...
Yeah exactly lol


MartyD said:
It is my understanding that CFExpress cards have the same form factor as XQD cards. The Z6 and Z7 had firmware updates that will allow the use of some CFExpress cards. The D500 is also supposed to get a firmware update allowing the use of CFExpress cards.
Click to expand...
Great thanks, I probably should have googled it first but I really appreciate the info. :cool: (y)
 
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On my D500 I use the Sony XQD G128GB + one spare Lexar XQD 128GB. On my D850 I have two Sony XQD G64GB cards. All my 5 SD cards are Sony Tough Series 64GB and one of them is 128GB. All the Sony including the Lexar cards have been very reliable and have no problems what so ever till date.
 
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MartyD said:
To show you how old I am, the first hard drive
Click to expand...

Sadly, I remember as a very young and naïve fellow, using a mainframe computer that took up a whole room and data was input using a punch card system. Now the iphone in my pocket is a billion times more powerful and capable.
 
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Hi alI, I use an adobe converter for my files from my D500. If I start to use a XQD card (SD at the moment) apart from a new reader would I need anything else to download to LR5 via adobe convertor ? Thanks for your replies. Robin.
 
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Robin said:
Hi alI, I use an adobe converter for my files from my D500. If I start to use a XQD card (SD at the moment) apart from a new reader would I need anything else to download to LR5 via adobe convertor ? Thanks for your replies. Robin.
Click to expand...
Nope, the card format doesn't matter to the file - XQD, SD, don't matter. Just the card and reader and you're good to go. (y)
 
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Oztours said:
Sadly, I remember as a very young and naïve fellow, using a mainframe computer that took up a whole room and data was input using a punch card system. Now the iphone in my pocket is a billion times more powerful and capable.
Click to expand...
Yes, but do you use it for anything more useful than that old mainframe? My most productive personal computer setup ever was an IBM Ps-2 with OS 2 v 1.3; 4MB RAM and a 25 MHz CPU. Other than video and photo editing, it did everything my 2 GHz CPU and 40GB RAM allow me todo today...:) All those teraflops go to fancy user interfaces and graphical effects and spyware I think!
 
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128gb and 64gb XQD cards from Sony and Lexar. Never had a problem with either, XQD's seem to be extremely reliable with no pins to bend and a self-monitoring slot system. CF Express will be the same.
 
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