Is class 10 card overkill for HX9V?

[rhoadsV]

I currently have a 8GB Patriot class 6 card but am thinking about upgrading to a class 10 if there is a significant difference in terms of speed and overall video quality. I called Frys Electronic, and was told if you absolutely want the best, they recommend Panasonic class 10 card.

 

[low-fi]

No difference. The sony manual recommends class 4, and that is plenty fast if it's up to spec and not some fake.

 

[Darren AM]

I buy Class 10 Transcend... but only because it's cheap and good bang for the buck. I agree that anything Class 6 and above should be fine. I honestly would never pay large amounts of money for the "higher end" branded SDHC cards.

 

[nutzo]

Anything Class 4 or better should be fine, however I wouldn't use anything less than class 6 just in case, especially if it's not a high-end card. The highest video setting needs 3.5MBytes/sec, so Class 4 @ 4.0MByte/sec doesn't leave much headroom.

The main advantage of a faster card, is how much quicker you can copy the files from the card to your computer. Imaging how long it would take to copy 32GB of videos off a class 4 card at 4MB/sec.

Many of the cheaper cards tend to barely meet the class ratings. I've seen some class 4 cards that shouldn't have been rated class 4, since they would fall under the 4Mbyte/sec rating on some benchmarks.

I have a few older Sandisk Ultra III cards that are rated class 6, however they test out at almost 20MB/sec. My Transend Class 6 card tests out around 9MB/sec.

 

[Jambi]

Nutzo I think you're mixing read speeds and write speeds together. Writes to a class 4 card are at a minimum of 4MB/s but reads are much faster. So copying files from the class 4 card will be a lot faster than 4MB/s. The SD Ultra II's read at 15+ MB/s

 

[madecov]

The major advantage to a faster card is the download speed from the card to the computer,especially in smaller slow speed cameras. I also own a Nikon D7000 that has a reletively small buffer. The new high spees UHS-1 cards help to clear a buffer faster. In my HX-9V a really high speed card would be overkill and a waste of money. I have a transcend class 10 in the camera. It downloads a bit faster than other cards.
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[nutzo]

Nutzo I think you're mixing read speeds and write speeds together. Writes to a class 4 card are at a minimum of 4MB/s but reads are much faster. So copying files from the class 4 card will be a lot faster than 4MB/s. The SD Ultra II's read at 15+ MB/s

No mixing here, those where based on actual write tests. Read speeds on the cards are faster, but that's not always the case. I have a generic class 2 memory card that both the read and write speeds are barly over 2Mbytes.

 

[nutzo]

Here's a review from a couple years ago where they tested a number of cards.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/sdhc-memory-card,2143-10.html

They got 18Mbyte write and almost 20Mbyte read from a 4GB sandisk card.

 

[Darren AM]

Sandisk are generally regarded as the most reliable and fastest cards. They also are generally the most expensive. I personally don't think there is much advantage to purchasing them over a Class 10 Transcend but certainly for peace of mind I wouldn't discourage someone away from purchasing them... although make sure it's from a legit source as there are a lot of fakes out there.