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MicroSD Card for best filming?

Bdcole

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I recently purchased an Evo Lite+ for a trip I have coming up and was wondering if anyone had recommendations for the best microSD format to use. V30s seem to be the most popular, but some say V60 or V90 is a “must” for 4k and 6k videos. It wouldn’t be a big deal, but the price difference is significant. Thoughts?
 
Get a 32gb V90 card and test it on your drone. If it records better with no stutters then you know what card is best for your drone.
 
I recently purchased an Evo Lite+ for a trip I have coming up and was wondering if anyone had recommendations for the best microSD format to use. V30s seem to be the most popular, but some say V60 or V90 is a “must” for 4k and 6k videos. It wouldn’t be a big deal, but the price difference is significant. Thoughts?

This is the best microSD card you can buy for any current drone on the market. I have used Sandisk Extreme Pros for all of my cameras for over 10yrs now and never had a single failure. For any of the EVO's you definitely do not need anything more than a v30. The SanDisk V30 tops out at 95MB/s which is 760Mb/s. The EVO drones write speeds top out around 120Mb/s. Resolution doesn't matter, what matters is if the continuous data rate of the card exceeds the data rate of the camera by at least 20%. With my cinema cameras I can select codecs that shoot with data rates as low as 240Mb/s or as high as 2.4Gb/s even though the footage is all 4K footage.

The reader is actually every bit as important as the SD card. I keep things simple and stick with SanDisk for my card readers as well. You are more likely to have a bad reader corrupt your SD card than the card itself as long as you get a SanDisk card. Whatever you do, do not use Lexar cards, they have notoriously inconsistent quality control.
 
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This is the best microSD card you can buy for any current drone on the market. I have used Sandisk Extreme Pros for all of my cameras for over 10yrs now and never had a single failure. For any of the EVO's you definitely do not need anything more than a v30. The SanDisk V30 tops out at 95MB/s which is 760Mb/s. The EVO drones write speeds top out around 120Mb/s. Resolution doesn't matter, what matters is if the continuous data rate of the card exceeds the data rate of the camera by at least 20%. With my cinema cameras I can select codecs that shoot with data rates as low as 240Mb/s or as high as 2.4Gb/s even though the footage is all 4K footage.

The reader is actually every bit as important as the SD card. I keep things simple and stick with SanDisk for my card readers as well. You are more likely to have a bad reader corrupt your SD card than the card itself as long as you get a SanDisk card. Whatever you do, do not use Lexar cards, they have notoriously inconsistent quality control.
Thank you so much for your reply. This was extremely helpful specially when talking about the write speeds (I’ve been trying to find that info for a bit). Definitely will stick with SanDisk!
 
V30 is plenty. V30 guarantees a 30MB/s write speed across the entire capacity of the card. 30 MB/s is 240Mbs which is twice what the drone is capable of using.

The V rating is the only number you need to worry about. A lot of cards advertise big numbers but those are either read speed or burst write speed. If the “95MB/s” speed on that V30’s package was consistent write speed they’d sell it as a V90 for a LOT more money.

Sandisk cards are fine. I’ve had good experiences with ProGrade, Kingston, SP, and Samsung for micro cards too. I’m not overly brand loyal, just don’t buy some weird knockoff on Amazon or eBay.
 
V30 is plenty. V30 guarantees a 30MB/s write speed across the entire capacity of the card. 30 MB/s is 240Mbs which is twice what the drone is capable of using.

The V rating is the only number you need to worry about. A lot of cards advertise big numbers but those are either read speed or burst write speed. If the “95MB/s” speed on that V30’s package was consistent write speed they’d sell it as a V90 for a LOT more money.

Actually SanDisk is the only SD card maker on the market today that has proprietary technology that allows it to exceed UHS-I and V30 speed standards which is why I specifically recommended that card. I use a pair of 1TB SanDisk V30 cards in my cinema cameras with sustained writes that should require V60 SD cards and the SanDisk SD cards are the only ones that do not buffer overflow while shooting for hours at a time. They cannot equal V90 speeds but thanks to that technology I am able to save a lot of money and complexity on SD cards by using V30s instead of V60s or V90s.

Speaking of V90, the Autel drones only have a UHS-I interface and V90 cards require a UHS-II interface to use their full speed which further proves buying a V90 microSD card for an Autel or DJI drone is a waste of money. A lot of people confuse MB/s with Mb/s and think they need a v60 or v90 card when a v30 card is all that is needed.

Sandisk cards are fine. I’ve had good experiences with ProGrade, Kingston, SP, and Samsung for micro cards too. I’m not overly brand loyal, just don’t buy some weird knockoff on Amazon or eBay.


ProGrade is good, I use ProGrade V90 cards when I need V90 speeds because SanDisk does not make high capacity V90 cards; Samsung is also good but they do not even make V90 SD cards. All of the weird knockoff cards on Amazon and eBay are white label cards made by Lexar. I personally stick with SanDisk since I haven't had a single failure in over 15yrs of shooting photography/video so my motto is don't change something that has worked so well.
 
Yeah, I'm familiar with SanDisk QuickFlow... and it has a HUUUUUUGE limitation:

the cards will only be able to reach those maximum promised speeds when inserted into a compatible host device. In most cases, that means a specific SanDisk memory card reader. If the cards are put into a host device that lacks SanDisk’s custom firmware, they will only be able to perform at the UHS-I spec of 104 MB/s max (but often far below that).

First off, QuickFlow only works with a compatible host device. I guarantee no Autel drone (or DJI or Canon camera for that matter) is using QuickFlow. It's a method to get around the limitations of UHS-I. Since no drones I know of even have a UHS-II compatible card slot nor do they utilize more than 104MB/s of throughput it's not really relevant here. I'd be surprised if QuickFlow is doing anything for you at all on the camera side... because it requires that the device implement QuickFlow (and the only devices that do are SanDisk card readers).

Second, those high write speeds are generally only for a short duration. The cards can not sustain those write speeds for the entire capacity of the card. This is specifically what V90/V60/V30 mean. A V90 card can sustain 90MB/s (or greater) over the entire capacity of the card... and that's why V90 cards are so expensive. I guarantee your SanDisk V30s can't sustain anywhere near 95MB/s for the entire duration of their capacity. How do I know this? I've done sustained write tests against SanDisk Extreme Pro cards. If you want sustained write speeds in the V60/V90 range, you simply can't use V30 cards.

As for "all of the knockoff cards on Amazon and eBay being Lexar"... that's silly. They're cranked out of some of the same factories, but there are a lot of flash manufacturers over in China making white-label cards... not just the Longsys factories. I do agree that right now Lexar is a brand to be avoided.

Sandisk DOES make V90 cards... just not microSD cards.

I'm also curious what you're using microSD cards in that requires V90s... because I'm not aware of any drone or other device using micros that needs that kind of throughput. The only cameras I have that need V90 SDs are my Canon C70 and Canon R5 and those are full size SDs. I'm not even aware of a drone that has a UHS-II slot in it.
 
Yeah, I'm familiar with SanDisk QuickFlow... and it has a HUUUUUUGE limitation:



First off, QuickFlow only works with a compatible host device. I guarantee no Autel drone (or DJI or Canon camera for that matter) is using QuickFlow. It's a method to get around the limitations of UHS-I. Since no drones I know of even have a UHS-II compatible card slot nor do they utilize more than 104MB/s of throughput it's not really relevant here. I'd be surprised if QuickFlow is doing anything for you at all on the camera side... because it requires that the device implement QuickFlow (and the only devices that do are SanDisk card readers).

I think you should re-read my post that you are referencing in order to fully understand what it said because I was very specific with my references; admittedly probably not as clear as I should have been but for brevity I did not go into every single detail. But you did make a lot of assumptions and statements that I never made or said.

So first off I never said the technology was needed for any drone that I am aware of, in fact I said the same thing you did; there is no drone that I know of that needs a V90 microSD card or has a UHS-II slot. I also never said the QuickFlow technology was compatible with Autel drones; in fact, QuickFlow technology isn't even available in their 32GB microSD cards and is only available in their larger capacity SD cards. My only point regarding the technology is that it is an indication that SanDisk is pushing the technology boundaries and continuing to innovate and it is also an example where SanDisk V30 cards can in fact exceed their V30 ratings for sustained periods of time when used with compatible HW.

Second, those high write speeds are generally only for a short duration. The cards can not sustain those write speeds for the entire capacity of the card. This is specifically what V90/V60/V30 mean. A V90 card can sustain 90MB/s (or greater) over the entire capacity of the card... and that's why V90 cards are so expensive. I guarantee your SanDisk V30s can't sustain anywhere near 95MB/s for the entire duration of their capacity. How do I know this? I've done sustained write tests against SanDisk Extreme Pro cards. If you want sustained write speeds in the V60/V90 range, you simply can't use V30 cards.


Again, you are saying the same thing I said, but for brevity since it wasn't important to the OP I did not go into all of the details. I never said the SanDisk microSD cards could maintain sustained V60 or V90 speeds; what I said is that the SanDisk Extreme Pro microSD cards tops out (maximum speed not sustained write speed) at 95MB/s I also specifically mentioned sustained write speeds in my post. I have also performed benchmarking write tests against SanDisk cards and I am well aware that they cannot maintain V90 write speeds.

As for "all of the knockoff cards on Amazon and eBay being Lexar"... that's silly. They're cranked out of some of the same factories, but there are a lot of flash manufacturers over in China making white-label cards... not just the Longsys factories. I do agree that right now Lexar is a brand to be avoided.

I actually did a lot of research in this area years ago, it is very difficult to make flash memory at the scale needed to make a profit so no, there's not dozens of mom and pop shops churning out white label SD cards, maybe the word all was a bit strong, but I would estimate over 90% of them can be traced back to Lexar/Longsys and they offer white labelling services. If you trace nearly any generic microSD card through Alibaba you will see it comes from Longsys. When I did the research years ago it was 100%, maybe some others are now offering white label services but the chances are still highest that you are buying a rebranded Lexar microSD card.

Sandisk DOES make V90 cards... just not microSD cards.

Again, re-read my post, I did not say SanDisk does not make V90 cards, I said SanDisk does not make high capacity V90 cards. I also did not say microSD cards because I was referring to SD cards which I also later refer to in the same sentence, I should have been clearer but I did make references to SD cards at that point not microSD cards.


I'm also curious what you're using microSD cards in that requires V90s... because I'm not aware of any drone or other device using micros that needs that kind of throughput. The only cameras I have that need V90 SDs are my Canon C70 and Canon R5 and those are full size SDs. I'm not even aware of a drone that has a UHS-II slot in it.

Again, I was referring to SD cards at this point which I did state SD cards not microSD cards when I was discussing V90 speeds. As far as needing V90 SD cards, I have C70s and the R5 as well, and the C70 is where I discovered that I only need V30 SanDisk SD cards when shooting Cinema Raw LT at 30FPS. This is also where I discovered that the SanDisk Extreme Pro V30 SD cards can in fact maintain sustained write speeds well above the V30 rating, however they cannot support 4K60FPS at Cinema Raw LT or any framerate at Cinema Raw ST. Additionally, SanDisk does not offer any V90 SD cards over 128GB which is why I said SanDisk does not support high capacity V90 SD cards so I got ProGrade 512GB V90 SD cards for those times when I need ST or Raw 60FPS. Since I rarely need either, I instead just use V30 SD cards and stick with LT @30FPS.

I have now shot plenty of longform content (everything from concerts to conferences) using the Cinema Raw LT codec with sustained data rates well above V30 speeds and the SanDisk SD cards have performed flawlessly.
 
SanDisk does not offer any V90 SD cards over 128GB

Wrong. They offer a 256GB.

So first off I never said the technology was needed for any drone that I am aware of

Then why bring it up? It's irrelevant. It's a marketing gimmick. The only place QuickFlow might make a difference is downloading your footage... assuming you're using a SanDisk card reader that supports it.

You said you "specifically recommended that card" because it has QuickFlow. I pointed out QuickFlow does exactly jack and crap for you unless it's in a slot that supports it (which no drone has). What exactly is inaccurate there?

They cannot equal V90 speeds but thanks to that technology...

You tried to say that "thanks to that technology" (QuickFlow) you can shoot higher bitrates than you should be able to... and I'm telling you that's just not true. You can shoot higher bitrates than you should be able to, but it has nothing to do with QuickFlow... because your C70 doesn't have a QuickFlow-compatible slot in it.

Going back to what you apparently felt the need to "correct" (my original post) what exactly was wrong there? I'll stand by the assertion that V30 UHS-I cards are plenty for any drone Autel makes and as long as it's a first-party V30 card (SanDisk, Samsung, ProGrade, etc.) it largely doesn't matter what brand. They all work fine as long as they meet the continuous record throughput required by the device you stick them in. What I did point out is that the MB/s numbers on the box are largely marketing and the only thing that really matters is the V-rating and I'll stand by that.

The C70's CRL-ST bitrate in 30fps is only about 40MB/s so it doesn't surprise me you've had success with a good V30 card there. I have a few V60 cards that will reliably take 60fps CRL-LT (80MB/s) but I'm not sure I'd shoot anything I cared about in that configuration. I don't want stuff that matters on hardware that's on the edge of it's performance envelope. I'll spring for the V90s (or just shoot it on one of my cameras that uses CFExpress where data rates aren't really a concern).

I've used a LOT of different card brands and they all eventually have a failure. Flash memory is a consumable at the scale of shooting I do. They wear out. They fail. They all do. You maybe haven't had a SanDisk failure yet, but given enough writes it WILL happen, it's the nature of flash memory.

If you're all-in on SanDisk, that's awesome and I won't tell you you're wrong. They're a very well-regarded brand of memory cards and I have a few terabytes of their cards in my collection. I also have at least that much ProGrade and Delkin memory and at least a couple of terabytes of Kingston. My microSD cards are pretty evenly split between Samsung and SanDisk.

While SanDisk is a good, solid, first-party memory brand they're not the only one and they ARE generally more expensive per GB based largely on name. That was my original point.

Now I'm bored of this and you can feel free to have the last word and continue to argue with stuff I never said. :D
 

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