Camera Memory Card
Today we are going to talk about a very important thing that all content creators use in their camera, which is the Memory card, which most people do not know about its types. Therefore, they choose types that are not suitable for the nature of their work, and this can cause many problems, whether it is in the photo or video shooting. We will talk about the different types of SD cards and how to choose the right card for the nature of your work.
- Do I Need A Memory Card For My Camera?
- SD Card Types For Cameras
- Camera Memory Card Speed
- Best SD Card for Camera
Do I Need A Memory Card For My Camera?
If photography is just a hobby for you and you only use the individual shooting system, And you never use the continuous shooting system, and you almost do not shoot a video at all.
Most of the time, any camera memory card will work for you because you simply do not need to do anything with special specifications, but if you are a professional photographer and use the continuous shooting system A lot, whether for shooting sports, action, or others, and shooting videos in high quality, you must make sure that your SD card can withstand the nature of your work.
SD Card Types For Cameras
There are two things that you need to take into consideration when you choose the SD card.
Noting that I am talking about the camera memory card specifically, because there are types of cameras that use other memory cards, for example, the canon 5d mark IV uses cf compact flashcards and the camera canon 1D-x mark III and the latest camera from Canon EOS R5 uses cf express cards read more about Canon Cameras, and Nikon mirrorless cameras such as the Z6 and Z7 use XQD cards and these are semi-cf express cards, but with different technology and system.
All of these camera memory cards are high and expensive, which are used by very high cameras because they have many advantages, I will not talk about it now will save them for later, but the most important thing is that there are many different types of cards, and you buy the card based on the storage space, and most probably the card will work very well and you will not face any issues, but for the SD card, you will find many different types in the market, and here I do not mean different brands like SanDisk or Lexar I mean the type of camera memory card in terms of technology, and therefore if the nature of your work needs a card of a certain type and you install a card with lower specifications, you will surely encounter many problems during filming.
Camera Memory Card Speed
For example, if you use the continuous imaging system a lot, there will be many problems. This means that the camera shoots a large group of photos in a short time and the pictures can be very large, also if you are shooting Raw and JPEG at the same time.
Each camera has something called Buffer, you can say that it is an intermediate temporary storage space between the camera and the memory card when you shoot with the camera firstly Your photos are transferred from the camera to the buffer, and then they are transferred from the buffer to your memory card, and the first time the pictures are transferred from the buffer to the card, the pictures are erased from the buffer.
Suppose that your memory card speed is slow, this means that the photos will take time to be transferred from the buffer to your camera memory card and you will not be able to use the camera because the buffer must finish the transferring process first to the card so that you can use the camera again.
Now suppose that your camera memory card is a fast memory card, this means that the pictures will be transferred from the buffer to the card very quickly, and this means that your waiting time will be shorter and you will be able to complete filming quickly.
For your information, every camera has a certain transfer speed from the buffer to the card, but in the high-quality cameras the transfer speed remains very high, and in cheap or economic cameras, the transfer speed is somewhat slower, but the important thing that matters is that your memory card should have a suitable speed concerning the speed of the buffer files.
Before we go into the details of the subject, I would like to say that many technical details exist that I will not talk about in this article, and in most cases, you won’t benefit from knowing it. In any case.
Best SD Card for Camera
My goal in this article is to help you know how to choose the best SD card for your camera and the Best card, which you will choose based on two things.
• The SD card size.
• The card speed.
Camera Memory Card Size
Regarding the Size, It is very simple, but in any case, I will tell you about some tips based on which you can decide whether you need a card with a large area, or not.
• If you shoot raw.
• Use a lot of continuous imaging shooting.
• Shoot for a long time.
• Also if you shoot a lot of videos, especially If you shoot in high quality or a lot of slow motion.
If you do all these things, you will most likely need a large space card.
You should take into consideration that memory cards that have a larger size often support newer technology and faster transfer speeds, And for cards that have a smaller space, they will often be old cards that support slow transfer speeds.
Also regarding sizes, you will always find on the SD card the sign of the card category in terms of space.
The smallest space is only 2GB, we have cards up to 32 GB, and you will find written on it SD-HC, and after that, we have cards up to 2 TB, you will find written on it SD-XC.
By the way, the SD card stands for secure digital, and there is an official institution that is responsible for the development of the SD card called the SD Association, and to keep you aware of the invention of the SD card, it was the result of the joint efforts of three major companies, SanDisk, Panasonic and Toshiba. Of course, the most famous brand of SD cards is SanDisk.
I will not go into a lot of technical details as I said before, but I will tell you about some of the signs that will be written on the card itself and the card case, and through these signs, you will be able to know the speed of the card and if it is suitable for you or not.
First, there is something called the level or class of the card.
From class 2 to Class 10, your card must at least be Class 10, and this does not mean that your card is the fastest in the world, but the class determines the minimum transfer of information, and Class 10 means that the minimum transfer speed of the data is 10MB/s, and this is not considered fast, but I think that this is the minimum speed of data transfer, meaning that the card can transfer at speeds much higher than that, but at least it is not less than 10 MB/s.
The second sign that you need to look for is the sign for the speed of video transmission, and this appears on the card through the letter v, next to it is a number, and it starts from v6 to v90, and this number expresses the speed in MB/s.
In most cases, it will be safe if you use a card written on its box v30 But this topic has something to do with the bit rate of the camera, and this is a technical need that most people do not think of.
Bit rate means, in short, the amount of data that the camera records in one second while shooting the video, Most cameras do not exceed 100 MB/s, and you must take into consideration what is the difference between megabyte and megabit, and this means that a card that is written on it v6 or v10 It will not be enough, the card must have at least v30 written on it.
For your knowledge, there are cameras like the EOS R whose bit rate is very high, especially if you record 4k 30 frames per second, or if you record full HD 60 frames per second, so if you use a high camera, you must check the bit rate of the camera to make sure that the memory card is suitable for it.
We also note the bit rate of EOS R when you shoot in HD at 60 frames per second, which is 180 MB/s per second, meaning that the card must be v30 at least and If you shoot for less than that, the camera will be cut off during filming, because the camera brings out much more data than the card can withstand, so if you use its bit rate v30 card, it will remain safe unless you use it very high, The bit rate in the video is very high.
The third thing is related to the speed of the card, which is the generation of the card, and it is the generation of the card in terms of the method of data transfer.
If you look on the back of the card, you will find a set of data through which the data will be transferred when you find one row of data this means You are from the UHS-1 category, and this is an abbreviation of the ultra-high-speed 1st generation, in other cards, much faster than that, UHS-2 and UHS-3.
In most cases, you will not need UHS-2 cards unless you use a very high camera.
The sensor is very high-resolution read more about camera sensors, a camera like the Sony A7r mark IV read more about Sony cameras or EOS R or even the versions of the cameras in which the sensor is greater than 30 megapixels, of course, you can know the UHS generation by looking at the back of the card and at the same time you find it written on the camera memory card, the number 1, 2 or 3 in Roman symbols.
Two other things should be written on the camera memory card.
The transfer speed is in MB/s, and therefore everywhere this number is higher everywhere The card will generally be faster.
Secondly, you will find a number written inside a large letter U.
This number indicates the minimum speed of data transfer through the UHS generation of the card.
If you find number 1 written Inside the letter U that means that this is the minimum transfer speed Which is 10 MB/s, and if you find number 3 written inside the letter U, that means that the minimum transfer speed is 30 MB/s.
And with this, we have finished the most important things that you need to take care of when you come to buy the camera memory card that is appropriate for the nature of your work, first in terms of space, second in terms of speed, and regarding speed, we said that the card should be at least Class 10, and if you shoot a lot of videos, it must be at least v30 It is better that your card is of the U3 category, and in most cases, you will not need UHS 2 unless you use a sensor camera that has a very high resolution, more than 30 megapixels, or if the bit rate in the video is very high.
