D850 memory card upgrade dilemma

[Pam Jensen]

Hi All,
I have been using my D850 for landscape photography and never really paid attention to my memory card type/speed, I was only concerned with the size of the memory card.
Last year I started to shoot mostly wildlife/birds and I started to notice the buffer limits when shooting action/BIF.
I've read several threads/discussion on this forum and watched some youtube videos about CF Express cards but I am still not clear what would work best for me with the D850 specifically.

I am currently using the Sandisk Extreme Pro SDXC cards. I have several "95MB/s UHS-I V30 Class 10 128GB" and one "170MB/s UHS-I V30 Class 10 256GB".
I ran some simple tests and my results are as following:
- I get about 20-21 frames on both cards before the buffer gets full which is about 3sec of shooting at 7fps.
- The 128GB card takes roughly 15-16sec to clear the buffer completely.
- The 256GB card takes roughly 12-13sec to clear the buffer completely (in the first 2 tries it took 19-20sec for some reason but then it dropped consistently to 12-13sec).

I checked the prices for UHS-II, XQD and CF Express-B memory cards and all of them seem to cost similarly so the decision to upgrade boils down to performance vs cost.

I found some test on youtube with Sony 128GB CF Express-B where the camera went up to ~30 frames@7fps before the buffer got full (seems like a decent increase over my current cards) but I couldn't find any test that shows how long it takes for the buffer to clear. Has anyone tried to test this on D850 with CF Express card?
I am hoping that it drops well below the 10sec mark .

Thanks a lot.

Just a mention. The camera, in this case D850, can only go as fast as the slowest link. Put a slow disk in the second slot as a back up, in the D850 - and it will impact the speed writing to the other card (CFEXPRESS or XQD).
- additionally, if every option available in the D850’s menu is turned on the camera will slow down as well.
There are numerous variables to consider, not just the obvious.

 

[ilya]

Thanks again to everyone who replied!
In case anyone is interested to know or would need this info in the future, I ended up getting the Delkin Black 128GB CFExpress Type-B card. I did get ~25% gain in terms of extra frames before the buffer gets full (it went up from 20-21 frames with my SD card to 26-27 frames with the Delkin), but the speed to clear the buffer was a staggering improvement, it went down from 12-13sec using my fastest SD to ~3.5sec with the Delkin Black.
I also didn't experience any heat issues when using the memory card with the card reader (ProGrade dual slot CF Express B & SDXC UHS-II). The card reader does not run hot at all, it only gets a bit warm compared to when it is not in use or when the Delkin memory card is sitting idle in the reader, though it is expected to have some heat generated.

 

[Pam Jensen]

Hi Ilya - I have a D850, a Z9, and a Z6ii paired with a Sony XQD 128gb, a Sony CFe tough G 128gb, and a Delkin Black 128gb. I've done research (check Ricci Talks on youtube, and https://alikgriffin.com/best-memory-cards-for-nikon-cameras/ among others), and testing. I'll give you the TL;DR version haha

-- If you're concerned about the future, get a CFe card.

-- If you're looking toward a better camera in the next few years, get the best CFe card you can (i.e. Delkin Black, or Prograde Cobalt atm). Faster cards make a big diff in a camera like the Z9 (but no diff in the D850). These cards are _are_ more expensive. The Delkin Black runs the coolest of all the current cards, and is fastest (I hear the 512gb version is even faster, but much more expensive).

-- If you're only concerned about the D850 for a couple/few years, get the cheapest XQD, or "reasonable" CFe (not the cheapest there imo) - e.g. SanDisk, Delkin Power.

-- If you're interested in SD for compatibility reasons, get what you like (but not too slow) The fastest SD cards aren't in the same class as the middlin' CFe cards.

-- Caveat: Later this year I understand we will see CFe cards that are distinctly faster than those that are now available.

HTH, and cheers!

...Dave...

Spot on Dave!
I concur.
p-

 

[EricBowles]

Just a mention. The camera, in this case D850, can only go as fast as the slowest link. Put a slow disk in the second slot as a back up, in the D850 - and it will impact the speed writing to the other card (CFEXPRESS or XQD).
- additionally, if every option available in the D850’s menu is turned on the camera will slow down as well.
There are numerous variables to consider, not just the obvious.

Have you tested this recently? I thought this was resolved with a firmware update so the speed of the second card only makes a difference in backup mode. My understanding is also that if you use a fast CFExpress card as the Primary card, you will get a longer burst than using the SD card as the primary card.

You are right - there are some camera settings that can impact frame rate as well as the size of the file which can impact burst length. One of my first tests before testing card speed was configuring the camera so it could achieve the stated maximum frame rate.

When it comes to maximum write speed, it's faster to shoot uncompressed RAW which has the least processing. Adding time to compress the file will decrease file size resulting in more FILES being written per second even though the MB/s is lower.

 

[Calson]

I use the second slot in the D850 as an Overflow card so there is no writing to it other than when the first card is full or I am shooting video. Form factor for XQD and CFexpress is identical so only the firmware needed to be updated in the D850.

The most reliable CFexpress cards at this time are the Cobalt ones from ProGrade. The cost will drop over time so I bought only a couple for use with my Z9 and I continue to use my inventory of XQD cards in my D850.

File size is reduced on average by 17% with 12-bit instead of 14-bit RAW capture with the D850 and for general wildlife photography I cannot see an impact on image quality and if one is shooting at ISO settings greater than 400 the dynamic range is reduced to the point where 14-bit capture is not going to make a difference.