Nikon D500 - Buffer and SD

LtColDavenport · Mar 10, 2023

Hi,

I have just purchased my first D500 and I have a question about the Buffer and the SD card to use.

For slot n. 1, I have the fasted XQD Lexar make. No problem. 200 RAW images.

But, I don't like shooting on just one card and I like to have a back up. So I put inside a UHS-I 95 MB/s card (Lexar Bronze) I had and set RAW+JPG Fine*. I do a first test and I was shocked at first, merely 25 image. I mean I was expecting less, but not that much. I have an X-Pro2 that has both RAW and JPG bigger in file size, slot n.2 it is just UHS-I and I can take around 50 picture at 8 FPS, and the limit it is probably still the RAW, not the JPG. How can it perform better than a D500?

I took a breath and decided that maybe was the card. So I take a UHS-II V60 (Lexar gold, the same used in my X-Pro) and put it in the D500. Repeated the test and...27 images. It was barely an improved, honestly, I am not sure if it is just a normal variance error.

So I did one last test. I turned off all camera correction for JPG, dropped the quality from FINE* to FINE and I got.... 30. Sure, at least it is a sure improvement this time but, is it normal? It almost feels like my D500 write at UHS-I. The card should be twice as first, if not more (tested), why I am getting such a small improvement? If on UHS-I it take 25 images, I would expect something around 50 on UHS-II. Am I doing something wrong?

Reading online, I found out that the D500 haven't worked nicely with Lexar SD, and unfortunately I just have those lying around as far as UHS-II goes. But I also read that Nikon should have fixed it with a firmware update (I have the latest) and Lexar should have also tried to fix it by their part on newer SDs (I bought them 2 months ago, the issue was reported on D500 release, so...).

It may be worth try to buy another brand? Maybe try a V90 card this time? Or it would just be a waste of money and what I am seeing are the performance I should be getting for some reason?

Just for further information, I leave this link , it is a Review I found about the Nikon D500 SD card performance. Not that updated but it's something. Simply based on that site numbers, it seems that the D500 internal SD connection top up at around 160+ MB/s, considering a JPG it is around 11-14 MB, at 10FPS it should be around 110/140MB/s hence less than what the Buffer to SD connection should be. So may be my SD card?

If anyone has any further information it would be appreciated. I don't need a buffer of 200 images, but on the other hand, 25 it is really small, especially for what this camera was designed for. I would be more than happy if I could land in something in between.

Thanks in advance.

fotosean · Mar 10, 2023

I shoot with a Delkin Green CF Express Type B 128GB card in slot one and a San Disk Ultra Plus 128GB UHS-1 card in the 2nd slot. I've never ever had the buffer being an issue, shooting at the highest FPS the D500 does, and almost always with the F-Mount 200-500mm.

I've played around with this but I prefer RAW on the CFE card and JPEGs n the UHS card.

The only thing I would say is that just invest wisely in your cards. I tend to go with what has always worked in the past, even if that means a bit of a premium price and not the cheapest cards I can find on Amazon. I've NEVER had a Delkin or San Disk card fail me. NEVER.

LtColDavenport · Mar 10, 2023

fotosean said:
I shoot with a Delkin Green CF Express Type B 128GB card in slot one and a San Disk Ultra Plus 128GB UHS-1 card in the 2nd slot. I've never ever had the buffer being an issue, shooting at the highest FPS the D500 does, and almost always with the F-Mount 200-500mm.

Could you elaborate more? How many pictures, at least roughly, are you taking in order to consider it a non issue? Something more objective that I can compare with. Maybe you are getting the same 25-30 picture but that's fine because you never shoot for more than 3 second maybe. You should give a bit more context.

fotosean said:
I've played around with this but I prefer RAW on the CFE card and JPEGs n the UHS card.

Could you write what are your settings for RAW and JPG please?

fotosean said:
The only thing I would say is that just invest wisely in your cards. I tend to go with what has always worked in the past, even if that means a bit of a premium price and not the cheapest cards I can find on Amazon.

I have 2 Lexar gold V60 paid something like €60 each, I would not consider them cheap nor a cheap brand.

n057 · Mar 10, 2023

It is the card, not the buffer.

The magic of the "endlesss buffer" in the D500 resides in the write speed of XQD (or CF Express). The naturel size of the buffer is what you see when you half press the shutter button. It appears in the "Number of shots remaining" section of the "Control Panel". In my case, set to RAW only, Number of shots remaining show 350 with a Lexar 2933 32 GB XQD card, When I half-press the shutter button, it shows "r29". But because th D500 can write to the card at breakneck speed, the buffer never fills, it empties before topping out. The D500 stops after reaching 200 shots by design, not because the buffer is full.

Not so with an SD card, those do not accept the maximum speed of the D500, so the buffer fills, and the D500 slows its pace.

As for the firmware upgrade issued by Nikon, it was because there was a problem with the early SD cards, UHS II being in their infancy then, they would throw an error in fast machines, and the D500 would jam. So Nikon issued a "fix" to reset the D500 to a slower pace when it tried to write to SD. Simultaneously, Lexar redesigned their UHS II cards to not throw an error. But the 200 shot magic number cannot be reached.

If you write simultaneously to both slots, your maximum will be limited by he slower card. If you set SD to Overflow, since The D500 only writes there after the XQD card is full, you will not be as impacted.

I never use the SD slot, it is empty. Having lived before with single card Compact Flash cameras, I was not worried with living with one XQD slot. I had a Garmin GPS with an accessory SD slot, and the card there laminated on me, so I did not have any slow SD card to use, and never bothered to buy any.

JC
Some cameras, some lenses, some computers

fotosean · Mar 10, 2023

n057 said:
It is the card, not the buffer.

The magic of the "endlesss buffer" in the D500 resides in the write speed of XQD (or CF Express). The naturel size of the buffer is what you see when you half press the shutter button. It appears in the "Number of shots remaining" section of the "Control Panel". In my case, set to RAW only, Number of shots remaining show 350 with a Lexar 2933 32 GB XQD card, When I half-press the shutter button, it shows "r29". But because th D500 can write to the card at breakneck speed, the buffer never fills, it empties before topping out. The D500 stops after reaching 200 shots by design, not because the buffer is full.

Not so with an SD card, those do not accept the maximum speed of the D500, so the buffer fills, and the D500 slows its pace.

As for the firmware upgrade issued by Nikon, it was because there was a problem with the early SD cards, UHS II being in their infancy then, they would throw an error in fast machines, and the D500 would jam. So Nikon issued a "fix" to reset the D500 to a slower pace when it tried to write to SD. Simultaneously, Lexar redesigned their UHS II cards to not throw an error. But the 200 shot magic number cannot be reached.

If you write simultaneously to both slots, your maximum will be limited by he slower card. If you set SD to Overflow, since The D500 only writes there after the XQD card is full, you will not be as impacted.

I never use the SD slot, it is empty. Having lived before with single card Compact Flash cameras, I was not worried with living with one XQD slot. I had a Garmin GPS with an accessory SD slot, and the card there laminated on me, so I did not have any slow SD card to use, and never bothered to buy any.

JC
Some cameras, some lenses, some computers

+1 here. Exactly correct. This is why I went JPEG only on the 2nd slot and stopped using the 2nd slot as the backup slot. With JPEG only as the 2nd slot, I never have a buffer issue, and I shoot maybe 2-3 second bursts for BIF/wildlife with the D500 and 200-500mm. Probably should put a UHS-II card in the 2nd slot, but never did as it's never been a problem.

fotosean · Mar 10, 2023

LtColDavenport said:
fotosean said:

I shoot with a Delkin Green CF Express Type B 128GB card in slot one and a San Disk Ultra Plus 128GB UHS-1 card in the 2nd slot. I've never ever had the buffer being an issue, shooting at the highest FPS the D500 does, and almost always with the F-Mount 200-500mm.

Click to expand...

Could you elaborate more? How many pictures, at least roughly, are you taking in order to consider it a non issue? Something more objective that I can compare with. Maybe you are getting the same 25-30 picture but that's fine because you never shoot for more than 3 second maybe. You should give a bit more context.

Apologies. See above, and yes you are correct, I almost never lean on the camera for more than 3 seconds, mostly less than that. Some may need to hammer that button for longer, I've never felt the need to in my use case. Of course, yours and others may be different.

LtColDavenport said:
LtColDavenport said:

I've played around with this but I prefer RAW on the CFE card and JPEGs n the UHS card.

Click to expand...

Could you write what are your settings for RAW and JPG please?

Sure...what exactly are u looking for?

LtColDavenport said:
I have 2 Lexar gold V60 paid something like €60 each, I would not consider them cheap nor a cheap brand.

I've not had the best of luck with Lexar and I won't ever buy another one. That's just my experience; maybe I just got a couple of bad cards, there are lots of folks that say Lexar cards work great for them. But, once a card fails me in this day and age, I will look elsewhere.

The bottom line, the D500 is gonna be the best DSLR out there for BIF/wildlife, and even sports with the F mount DX 16-80mm and the excellent F mount 70-200mm f/2.8 (which I see u have; don't ever part with that one!) I've transitioned to mirrorless now, and unless something like the F mount 105mm f/1.4, the aforementioned 70-200mm or the 500mm PF falls into my lap at a screaming deal, I'm probably never going to buy another F mount lens ever. But the D500, well, for me that's just a special beast, and I'm seriously thinking of picking up another one just to have around when this one eventually fails.

--
Location: Below the Tear Line
--... ...-- -.. . -.- ----- -..- --.-
fotosean.com

LtColDavenport · Mar 10, 2023

n057 said:
It is the card, not the buffer.

The magic of the "endlesss buffer" in the D500 resides in the write speed of XQD (or CF Express). The naturel size of the buffer is what you see when you half press the shutter button. It appears in the "Number of shots remaining" section of the "Control Panel". In my case, set to RAW only, Number of shots remaining show 350 with a Lexar 2933 32 GB XQD card, When I half-press the shutter button, it shows "r29". But because th D500 can write to the card at breakneck speed, the buffer never fills, it empties before topping out. The D500 stops after reaching 200 shots by design, not because the buffer is full.

Yes, I knew this.

n057 said:
Not so with an SD card, those do not accept the maximum speed of the D500, so the buffer fills, and the D500 slows its pace.

I know also this and I won't expect 200 shots on an SD, but what I am seeing I find it strange.

How can I see almost identical performance with a UHS-I vs UHS-II v60 card? (25 vs 27 shoots)?

Moreover, even considering a UHS-I card, it write at about 80MB/s ish, a JPG it is around 10MB. At 10 FPS it is roughly 100 MB/s. Again, roughly, 20MB/s build up in the buffer, in 3 seconds (time to shoot 25-30 images) would be +/- 60MB/s 'left' in the buffer due to SD slow speed, that's not enough to fill the buffer.

And if we talk UHS-II speed, it would have no problem writing JPG size images, it should have more than enough bandwidth to not fill the buffer.

TO furthermore stress this:

If I just leave the SD card in, and set QUAL to JPG FIne*, the buffer reads: 55

If the XQD can write faster than the buffer, and the buffer could hold 55 JPG fine* (without accounting for the fact it will write them off the SD), how is it possible, again, to just shoot 25 in RAW+JPG FINE*?

n057 said:
As for the firmware upgrade issued by Nikon, it was because there was a problem with the early SD cards, UHS II being in their infancy then, they would throw an error in fast machines, and the D500 would jam. So Nikon issued a "fix" to reset the D500 to a slower pace when it tried to write to SD.

To EVERY SD card or just Lexar ones?

n057 said:
Simultaneously, Lexar redesigned their UHS II cards to not throw an error. But the 200 shot magic number cannot be reached.

In which circumstances?

n057 said:
If you write simultaneously to both slots, your maximum will be limited by he slower card.

In the sense that, the XQD will write as the same speed as the SD?

n057 said:
If you set SD to Overflow, since The D500 only writes there after the XQD card is full, you will not be as impacted.

Basically like if I would have no SD inside until the XQD fills up?

n057 said:
I never use the SD slot, it is empty. Having lived before with single card Compact Flash cameras, I was not worried with living with one XQD slot. I had a Garmin GPS with an accessory SD slot, and the card there laminated on me, so I did not have any slow SD card to use, and never bothered to buy any.

JC
Some cameras, some lenses, some computers

LtColDavenport · Mar 10, 2023

fotosean said:
n057 said:

It is the card, not the buffer.

The magic of the "endlesss buffer" in the D500 resides in the write speed of XQD (or CF Express). The naturel size of the buffer is what you see when you half press the shutter button. It appears in the "Number of shots remaining" section of the "Control Panel". In my case, set to RAW only, Number of shots remaining show 350 with a Lexar 2933 32 GB XQD card, When I half-press the shutter button, it shows "r29". But because th D500 can write to the card at breakneck speed, the buffer never fills, it empties before topping out. The D500 stops after reaching 200 shots by design, not because the buffer is full.

Not so with an SD card, those do not accept the maximum speed of the D500, so the buffer fills, and the D500 slows its pace.

As for the firmware upgrade issued by Nikon, it was because there was a problem with the early SD cards, UHS II being in their infancy then, they would throw an error in fast machines, and the D500 would jam. So Nikon issued a "fix" to reset the D500 to a slower pace when it tried to write to SD. Simultaneously, Lexar redesigned their UHS II cards to not throw an error. But the 200 shot magic number cannot be reached.

If you write simultaneously to both slots, your maximum will be limited by he slower card. If you set SD to Overflow, since The D500 only writes there after the XQD card is full, you will not be as impacted.

I never use the SD slot, it is empty. Having lived before with single card Compact Flash cameras, I was not worried with living with one XQD slot. I had a Garmin GPS with an accessory SD slot, and the card there laminated on me, so I did not have any slow SD card to use, and never bothered to buy any.

JC
Some cameras, some lenses, some computers

Click to expand...

+1 here. Exactly correct. This is why I went JPEG only on the 2nd slot and stopped using the 2nd slot as the backup slot. With JPEG only as the 2nd slot, I never have a buffer issue, and I shoot maybe 2-3 second bursts for BIF/wildlife with the D500 and 200-500mm. Probably should put a UHS-II card in the 2nd slot, but never did as it's never been a problem.

But...I am also not in backup mode.

I set my camera in RAW-Primary and JPG-Secondary.

I am not writing both RAW and JPG in both cards.

When I unload pictures from the XQD there are only .nef on there. And when I take the SD I see only .jpg files.

Hence all my doubts. An UHS-II should be more than capable of writing JPGs onto it, at least more than 25 for sure IMO, so I am trying to understand if I am doing something wrong, if it may be card or whatever, it just feels strange.

LtColDavenport · Mar 10, 2023

fotosean said:
LtColDavenport said:

fotosean said:

I shoot with a Delkin Green CF Express Type B 128GB card in slot one and a San Disk Ultra Plus 128GB UHS-1 card in the 2nd slot. I've never ever had the buffer being an issue, shooting at the highest FPS the D500 does, and almost always with the F-Mount 200-500mm.

Click to expand...

Could you elaborate more? How many pictures, at least roughly, are you taking in order to consider it a non issue? Something more objective that I can compare with. Maybe you are getting the same 25-30 picture but that's fine because you never shoot for more than 3 second maybe. You should give a bit more context.

Click to expand...

Apologies. See above, and yes you are correct, I almost never lean on the camera for more than 3 seconds, mostly less than that. Some may need to hammer that button for longer, I've never felt the need to in my use case. Of course, yours and others may be different.

fotosean said:

fotosean said:

I've played around with this but I prefer RAW on the CFE card and JPEGs n the UHS card.

Click to expand...

Could you write what are your settings for RAW and JPG please?

Click to expand...

Sure...what exactly are u looking for?

Raw setting, like 12 or 14 it, and the compression (lossless, lossy or not at all)

JPG quality

And if you would like just to try, see how many image you can write. Format both CFe and SD, set your normal setting that you just wrote and shoot until it start to slow see and see how many picture it got. If it will be around 25-30 than that's not me, but if it may be more, there may be something strange with mine.

fotosean said:
fotosean said:

I have 2 Lexar gold V60 paid something like €60 each, I would not consider them cheap nor a cheap brand.

Click to expand...

I've not had the best of luck with Lexar and I won't ever buy another one. That's just my experience; maybe I just got a couple of bad cards, there are lots of folks that say Lexar cards work great for them. But, once a card fails me in this day and age, I will look elsewhere.

Got it.

fotosean said:
The bottom line, the D500 is gonna be the best DSLR out there for BIF/wildlife, and even sports with the F mount DX 16-80mm and the excellent F mount 70-200mm f/2.8 (which I see u have; don't ever part with that one!) I've transitioned to mirrorless now, and unless something like the F mount 105mm f/1.4, the aforementioned 70-200mm or the 500mm PF falls into my lap at a screaming deal, I'm probably never going to buy another F mount lens ever. But the D500, well, for me that's just a special beast, and I'm seriously thinking of picking up another one just to have around when this one eventually fails.

n057 · Mar 10, 2023

I don't know anything more about SD. I just looked at the numbers reachable with XQD and SD, felt comfortable with RAW only and with only the XQD card, felt that using SD in a D500 would be like using bicycle wheels in a Ferrari, and went with XQD Only.

If Nikon came out with a D500 II with two XQD slots, (there is enough space inside to do it), I would go for that. SD I can live without

JC
Some cameras, some lenses, some computers

fotosean · Mar 10, 2023

LtColDavenport said:
fotosean said:

LtColDavenport said:

fotosean said:

I shoot with a Delkin Green CF Express Type B 128GB card in slot one and a San Disk Ultra Plus 128GB UHS-1 card in the 2nd slot. I've never ever had the buffer being an issue, shooting at the highest FPS the D500 does, and almost always with the F-Mount 200-500mm.

Click to expand...

Could you elaborate more? How many pictures, at least roughly, are you taking in order to consider it a non issue? Something more objective that I can compare with. Maybe you are getting the same 25-30 picture but that's fine because you never shoot for more than 3 second maybe. You should give a bit more context.

Click to expand...

Apologies. See above, and yes you are correct, I almost never lean on the camera for more than 3 seconds, mostly less than that. Some may need to hammer that button for longer, I've never felt the need to in my use case. Of course, yours and others may be different.

LtColDavenport said:

LtColDavenport said:

I've played around with this but I prefer RAW on the CFE card and JPEGs n the UHS card.

Click to expand...

Could you write what are your settings for RAW and JPG please?

Click to expand...

Sure...what exactly are u looking for?

Click to expand...

Raw setting, like 12 or 14 it, and the compression (lossless, lossy or not at all)

JPG quality

14-bit lossless and highest JPG quality.

fotosean · Mar 10, 2023

n057 said:
I don't know anything more about SD. I just looked at the numbers reachable with XQD and SD, felt comfortable with RAW only and with only the XQD card, felt that using SD in a D500 would be like using bicycle wheels in a Ferrari, and went with XQD Only.

If Nikon came out with a D500 II with two XQD slots, (there is enough space inside to do it), I would go for that. SD I can live without

JC
Some cameras, some lenses, some computers

That argument is certainly understandable. I use the 2nd slot for JPGs because the D500 works very well with Snapbridge and getting the occasional 'wow! shot on IG, FB, Vero, etc. has some worth to me. Not much, but some.

If it didn't, I would probably leave the 2nd slot cardless, as u do.

--
Location: Below the Tear Line
--... ...-- -.. . -.- ----- -..- --.-
fotosean.com

n057 · Mar 10, 2023

When I need Snapbridge, I just shoot RAW + JPG on the same 32 GB XQD card. One side benefit is that I need a single card model inventory

I carry a few cards with me, as well as two batteries.

JC
Some cameras, some lenses, some computers

fotosean · Mar 10, 2023

LtColDavenport said:
And if you would like just to try, see how many image you can write. Format both CFe and SD, set your normal setting that you just wrote and shoot until it start to slow see and see how many picture it got. If it will be around 25-30 than that's not me, but if it may be more, there may be something strange with mine.

Ok, I tried this:

With my current setup, writing RAW to the Delkin card and the jpegs to the San disc UHS I card the D500 did 35 before it buffered and slowed down considerably. Again, that is something I don't think I've ever done before, never felt the need to.
Pulling the UHS card and just shooting RAW to the Type B card, the buffer kicked in at 65 before buffering, and kept on going at 3/4 FPS after that until i quit the experiment.

My Delkin card I'm using in the D500 is not exactly their top o' the line speed merchant; I now wonder if getting a Delkin Black is now worth the investment, thanks for helping me to spend more $$$

I am now also curious what a decent UHS-II V90 card will do in the 2nd slot if I still want to continue doing RAW + JPEG.

n057 · Mar 10, 2023

fotosean said:
LtColDavenport said:

And if you would like just to try, see how many image you can write. Format both CFe and SD, set your normal setting that you just wrote and shoot until it start to slow see and see how many picture it got. If it will be around 25-30 than that's not me, but if it may be more, there may be something strange with mine.

Click to expand...

Ok, I tried this:

With my current setup, writing RAW to the Delkin card and the jpegs to the San disc UHS I card the D500 did 35 before it buffered and slowed down considerably. Again, that is something I don't think I've ever done before, never felt the need to.

Pulling the UHS card and just shooting RAW to the Type B card, the buffer kicked in at 65 before buffering, and kept on going at 3/4 FPS after that until i quit the experiment.

My Delkin card I'm using in the D500 is not exactly their top o' the line speed merchant; I now wonder if getting a Delkin Black is now worth the investment, thanks for helping me to spend more $$$ I am now also curious what a decent UHS-II V90 card will do in the 2nd slot if I still want to continue doing RAW + JPEG.

If you are after the most shots in one burst while writing to both the XQD card ant the SD card, forget about it. Any SD card will always slow you down before you hit 200 shots. If you want 200 shots, use just one XQD card and write both RAW and JPG to that one card.

Yes, XQD is expensive, but so is a D500.

JC
Some cameras, some lenses, some computers

nonproshooterdad · Mar 10, 2023

on Lexar SD card 300mb/s, 33 raw + fine* JPEG, . 56 raw only.

On Lexar XQD 400mb/s, 33 raw + fine* Jpeg, 200 Raw only.

On OWC SDXC ii V90, 33 raw + fine* JPEG, 80 raw only.

fotosean · Mar 10, 2023

n057 said:
fotosean said:

LtColDavenport said:

And if you would like just to try, see how many image you can write. Format both CFe and SD, set your normal setting that you just wrote and shoot until it start to slow see and see how many picture it got. If it will be around 25-30 than that's not me, but if it may be more, there may be something strange with mine.

Click to expand...

Ok, I tried this:

With my current setup, writing RAW to the Delkin card and the jpegs to the San disc UHS I card the D500 did 35 before it buffered and slowed down considerably. Again, that is something I don't think I've ever done before, never felt the need to.

Pulling the UHS card and just shooting RAW to the Type B card, the buffer kicked in at 65 before buffering, and kept on going at 3/4 FPS after that until i quit the experiment.

My Delkin card I'm using in the D500 is not exactly their top o' the line speed merchant; I now wonder if getting a Delkin Black is now worth the investment, thanks for helping me to spend more $$$ I am now also curious what a decent UHS-II V90 card will do in the 2nd slot if I still want to continue doing RAW + JPEG.

Click to expand...

If you are after the most shots in one burst while writing to both the XQD card ant the SD card, forget about it. Any SD card will always slow you down before you hit 200 shots. If you want 200 shots, use just one XQD card and write both RAW and JPG to that one card.

with the last firmware update, not sure why you would still be using an XQD card. Even the cheapest and crappiest CFE Type B card runs rings around XQD at this point.

I still think if I invest in a decent UHS-II card the camera will write to the slower slot 2 faster than my current setup. The camera is that capable; to your point, the buffer kicks in due to the cards in place.

n057 said:
Yes, XQD is expensive, but so is a D500.

Again, why XQD? Delkin Green and Delkin Black CF-E type B nowadays are affordable and MUCH faster. The D500 writes to cards at a blazing speed, provided the cards are capable of handling it.

twamers · Mar 10, 2023

fotosean said:
n057 said:

fotosean said:

LtColDavenport said:

And if you would like just to try, see how many image you can write. Format both CFe and SD, set your normal setting that you just wrote and shoot until it start to slow see and see how many picture it got. If it will be around 25-30 than that's not me, but if it may be more, there may be something strange with mine.

Click to expand...

Ok, I tried this:

With my current setup, writing RAW to the Delkin card and the jpegs to the San disc UHS I card the D500 did 35 before it buffered and slowed down considerably. Again, that is something I don't think I've ever done before, never felt the need to.

Pulling the UHS card and just shooting RAW to the Type B card, the buffer kicked in at 65 before buffering, and kept on going at 3/4 FPS after that until i quit the experiment.

My Delkin card I'm using in the D500 is not exactly their top o' the line speed merchant; I now wonder if getting a Delkin Black is now worth the investment, thanks for helping me to spend more $$$ I am now also curious what a decent UHS-II V90 card will do in the 2nd slot if I still want to continue doing RAW + JPEG.

Click to expand...

If you are after the most shots in one burst while writing to both the XQD card ant the SD card, forget about it. Any SD card will always slow you down before you hit 200 shots. If you want 200 shots, use just one XQD card and write both RAW and JPG to that one card.

Click to expand...

with the last firmware update, not sure why you would still be using an XQD card. Even the cheapest and crappiest CFE Type B card runs rings around XQD at this point.

I still think if I invest in a decent UHS-II card the camera will write to the slower slot 2 faster than my current setup. The camera is that capable; to your point, the buffer kicks in due to the cards in place.

fotosean said:

Yes, XQD is expensive, but so is a D500.

Click to expand...

Again, why XQD? Delkin Green and Delkin Black CF-E type B nowadays are affordable and MUCH faster. The D500 writes to cards at a blazing speed, provided the cards are capable of handling it.

LtColDavenport · Mar 11, 2023

fotosean said:
LtColDavenport said:

And if you would like just to try, see how many image you can write. Format both CFe and SD, set your normal setting that you just wrote and shoot until it start to slow see and see how many picture it got. If it will be around 25-30 than that's not me, but if it may be more, there may be something strange with mine.

Click to expand...

Ok, I tried this:

With my current setup, writing RAW to the Delkin card and the jpegs to the San disc UHS I card the D500 did 35 before it buffered and slowed down considerably. Again, that is something I don't think I've ever done before, never felt the need to.

Pulling the UHS card and just shooting RAW to the Type B card, the buffer kicked in at 65 before buffering, and kept on going at 3/4 FPS after that until i quit the experiment.

My Delkin card I'm using in the D500 is not exactly their top o' the line speed merchant; I now wonder if getting a Delkin Black is now worth the investment, thanks for helping me to spend more $$$ I am now also curious what a decent UHS-II V90 card will do in the 2nd slot if I still want to continue doing RAW + JPEG.

LtColDavenport · Mar 11, 2023

n057 said:
fotosean said:

LtColDavenport said:

And if you would like just to try, see how many image you can write. Format both CFe and SD, set your normal setting that you just wrote and shoot until it start to slow see and see how many picture it got. If it will be around 25-30 than that's not me, but if it may be more, there may be something strange with mine.

Click to expand...

Ok, I tried this:

With my current setup, writing RAW to the Delkin card and the jpegs to the San disc UHS I card the D500 did 35 before it buffered and slowed down considerably. Again, that is something I don't think I've ever done before, never felt the need to.

Pulling the UHS card and just shooting RAW to the Type B card, the buffer kicked in at 65 before buffering, and kept on going at 3/4 FPS after that until i quit the experiment.

My Delkin card I'm using in the D500 is not exactly their top o' the line speed merchant; I now wonder if getting a Delkin Black is now worth the investment, thanks for helping me to spend more $$$ I am now also curious what a decent UHS-II V90 card will do in the 2nd slot if I still want to continue doing RAW + JPEG.

Click to expand...

If you are after the most shots in one burst while writing to both the XQD card ant the SD card, forget about it. Any SD card will always slow you down before you hit 200 shots. If you want 200 shots, use just one XQD card and write both RAW and JPG to that one card.

Yes, XQD is expensive, but so is a D500.

JC
Some cameras, some lenses, some computers

No, it won’t help him that much. Nikon processing JPG seems incredibly slow.

RAW+JPG both in the XQD won’t still give you 10FPS “unlimited”. It will be better than SD, but not by that much.

Nikon D500 - Buffer and SD

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