If you use the wrong memory card then your camera might overheat,
or stop working completely.
You could end up losing all your photos and video files!
But what is the right memory card?
And what is the difference between Class 2 and Class 10?
Do you really need a V30 card? Or should you get a V90 instead?
And is there any real difference between UHS-One and UHS-Two?
Today I’m going to answer all those questions and more!
[MUSIC]
Whatup nerds? I’m Jay Shareef. And once again I’m talking tech.
There are thousands of different memory cards for sale.
The choice can be really overwhelming.
In this video, I’m going to explain which ones are best for your camera and why.
Let’s start with the basics.
Memory cards are what’s known as “Flash Memory”.
And Flash Memory has been around since the 1980s.
It’s the same type of memory that stores the information in USB sticks, smartphones and Solid State Drives.
There are many kinds of memory cards available,
but if you have a digital camera there are three main types of card in use:
Firstly, we have COMPACT FLASH Cards like this one.
These are also known as CF cards.
Despite the name, these are actually the biggest cards in common use.
Much more popular nowadays are SD cards and micro SD cards - also known as TF cards.
Obviously these three types are different shapes and sizes.
But, on the inside, they’re basically the same technology.
However, just because a card will fit inside your camera
doesn’t mean it’s the right card for you.
Which is why you need to understand what all these symbols and numbers mean.
Two warnings I need to give you right at the start.
Firstly, these memory cards are not ideal for long-term storage.
So you should transfer your photos and video over to your computer, the cloud
or a hard drive on a regular basis.
Secondly, there are a LOT of counterfeit cards in circulation.
So you need to be careful where you buy them from.
A counterfeit card will be of a much lower quality than the real thing.
It will usually be slower than the real thing, have less memory than it claims,
and is much more likely to fail.
Unfortunately, ebay has been inundated with fake cards.
So NEVER buy memory cards on ebay.
Amazon is not immune either. If you’re buying memory cards from Amazon,
make sure they’re the ones being sold by Amazon itself.
Definitely do NOT buy cards on Amazon that are being sold by third party sellers.
A good option is to visit any reputable supermarket or electronics store
and they should have genuine SD cards.
However, the safest way to get memory cards is to buy them direct from the manufacturer.
They all have websites nowadays.
I recommend you buy memory cards directly from:
Samsung, Integral Memory, Kingston or Western Digital.
Personally, I use Integral Memory Cards because they’ve always worked well for me.
That’s the warnings out of the way. So let’s talk numbers.
Specifically, THESE numbers. The ones written on memory cards themselves.
All these numbers are doing is telling you the speed of the card.
Essentially, how fast it will let you read and write information.
The memory card manufacturers always focus on the Read Speed.
And they do that because the Read Speed is usually a lot higher than the Write Speed.
However, Write Speed is much more important
because that tells you how quickly you can transfer data onto your card.
That’s especially important for cameras because when you take photos or record videos,
you are writing lots of data on to your card in a short space of time.
There are four types of speed measurements a card will show.
The basic Speed Class.
The UHS speed.
The Video Speed.
And the Application Speed.
All of those are very complicated and technical.
And most of us don’t need to know the details.
For someone like me, the Video Speed is my main consideration,
because I’m mainly recording videos. So that’s what I will focus on.
But I'm going to quickly explain the rest in very simple terms.
Let’s start with the basic Speed Class.
I’ve been using cameras for a long time.
And in my personal collection, I’ve got cards that are Class 2, Class 4 and Class 6.
But all of those are VERY slow by modern standards.
You CAN still buy them. But you really shouldn’t.
So... I’m going to ignore those completely in this video.
The absolute MINIMUM you should be looking at is Class 10.
A Class 10 card is identified by a circle with the number 10 inside.
And there are two main categories of Class 10 card. The U1 and the U3.
The U1 cards are the slowest. They’re also known as V10 cards.
The V-number refers to the Video Speed of the card.
And a V10 card has a minimum Write Speed of 10 MegaBytes per second.
A card with a U1 or V10 rating tells you that it should be capable of recording HD video.
And if ALL you need is to take photos or record HD videos
then any Class 10 card will work just fine.
Knowing that fact can save you a lot of money.
Let me give you an example.
I have a doorbell camera that records in HD.
I also have a dashcam in my car that records in HD.
Now... I could put a superfast, very expensive memory card in those devices.
But I really shouldn’t.
Because, for HD video, a Class 10 memory card will be fast enough.
And here’s why it matters.
For £15... I can buy a V30 superfast memory card with 32GB capacity.
Alternatively, for less than £15, I can buy a V10 card with 128 GB capacity instead.
Either card will work just fine in my dashcam.
So it makes sense for me to buy the regular U1 / V10 card with the bigger capacity.
Buying the faster, more expensive card is a waste of money for my doorbell or dashcam.
However, a V10 card in my 4K action camera could give me issues.
And it’s obvious why when you do the maths.
Your 4K camera might be sending 12 MBytes per second of data to the memory card.
But a V10 card is only rated for a Write Speed of 10 MegaBytes per second.
That’s very likely to cause problems.
That card simply isn’t capable of recording the data it’s receiving from the camera.
If I use a V10 card in my 4K camera then there’s a very good chance my memory card will overheat,
my camera will fail and my footage will get corrupted.
Now, it’s worth noting that it is possible for some V10 cards to work well in a 4K camera.
And that’s especially true for V10 cards made by the reputable brands.
The V10 rating guarantees a certain MINIMUM level of performance.
The ACTUAL performance of the card might be a lot higher than the minimum stated on the packaging.
But if you’re going to film in 4K then do the sensible thing. Get a card that has a V30 rating.
A V30 rating means the card is able to record at least 30 Megabytes of data per second.
And that’s more than enough for most 4K cameras.
In fact, it’s fast enough for most 5K and 6K cameras.
So, for most people, a V30 memory card
is perfect for their day-to-day needs.
If you’re using a DJI or GoPro, or a Sony ZV-1, or Canon M50, or any other consumer camera,
then a V30 card will do the job.
Buying a faster card is a complete waste of money.
And at this point, you have pretty much all the information you need.
But I know what you’re like. You want to know whether they make even faster cards?
The answer is YES, they absolutely do make even faster cards.
The V30 cards might be the most popular.
But you can also get V60 cards and even V90 cards.
By now most of you will have worked out that the V60 cards
have a minimum Write Speed of 60 MegaBytes per second.
And the V90 cards have a minimum Write Speed of 90 Megabytes per second.
However, the price differences between the V30 and the V90 cards are really extreme.
A Sandisk 128GB V30 card costs about £25.
A Sandisk 128GB V90 card costs about £175. That’s SEVEN TIMES the price of the V30 card.
So you should only buy the ultra-fast cards if you absolute need them.
Unless you plan to film in 8K resolution, stick to the V30 cards.
There is, however, another reason why you might need a V60 or V90 card.
Which brings us on to the UHS number. With UHS referring to "Ultra High Speed".
Most of the cards on sale today have UHS-ONE written on them.
THIS is the memory card I normally use to film YouTube videos.
But recently, I bought THIS memory card for my main camera.
At first glance, these two SD cards look pretty much identical. But they’re not.
The first clue that they’re not the same is that my new card has UHS-TWO written on the front.
Obviously, that stands for Ultra High Speed Two.
And when I turn them over, you can see the difference.
The UHS-TWO card has as extra row of contacts.
You might guess that these extra contacts help make the card operate faster.
And you’d be absolutely right.
This UHS-TWO card will work in pretty much every camera that has an SD card slot.
But a lot of high-end professional cameras are designed to work with UHS-TWO cards
to operate at much higher speeds by utilising these extra contacts.
And a lot of the time that extra speed isn’t needed for video recording.
Many professional cameras will have a burst mode, where they take lots of photos one after another.
And many professionals will take photos using the high-resolution RAW format.
The real benefit of UHS-TWO is that I can take lots of photos, in quick succession, in the RAW format.
Photos taken in the RAW format have a lot more information in them,
and will be AT LEAST 20 MegaBytes in size, and up to 60 MegaBytes sometimes.
Which means if I take ten raw photos in one second, that’s at least 200 MegaBytes of data.
And a burst of twenty images could be 400 MegaBytes of data or more.
A normal V30 card absolutely CANNOT record that much data per second.
However, this UHS-TWO card has three times the speed of the UHS-ONE equivalent.
THIS card is fast enough to deal with the extreme requirements of burst mode, raw file photography.
All V30 cards are rated at UHS-ONE.
All V60 and V90 memory cards are rated at UHS-TWO.
I have heard of UHS-Three cards as well.
However, I couldn’t find any for sale anywhere.
So I imagine those will become more common in the next few years.
But right now there isn’t much need or demand for UHS-THREE.
So by this point in the video, we’ve learned that V30 cards will be the right choice for most people
and that only professional photographers and videographers will need V60 or V90.
But, before we end, I should tell you about Application Class.
Over the last few years, memory cards, especially micro SD cards have started showing an A-number.
This tells you the Application Class.
And you’re given a choice between A1 and A2 cards.
The Application Class tells you how well these cards perform when used in smartphones to store your data.
If you want to download apps, photos and videos on to a micro SD card and access them quickly
on your smartphone, then an A2 card is better for you than an A1 card.
In theory, this shouldn’t make much difference when you use these cards in your camera.
However, I have heard that some action cameras occasionally have problems with A2 cards.
That’s not been my experience, and the evidence so far is limited.
But I do think you should keep that in mind when buying micro SD cards (TF cards) for your GoPro.
It might be worth sticking to V30 A1 cards for now.
In conclusion...
If you film in HD then you need a V10 memory card.
If you film in 4K, 5K or 6K then you need a V30 memory card.
And if you’re a professional photographer then you might want to get a V60 or V90 card.
Always buy good quality cards from a trusted brand.
Transfer files to your computer as soon as you can.
And format your cards regularly.
That’s all for today. I hope that was helpful.
I’ll be back with another video very soon.
Later nerds.