Memory card - D600

[Gabbe]

Memory card for D600? Speed and size recommendations? What do you use?

Regards

Gabbe

 

[tyler_dx]

i'll go for two 64 gig sdhc class 10 cards.

 

[AllOtherNamesTaken]

Gabbe wrote:

Memory card for D600? Speed and size recommendations? What do you use?

Regards

Gabbe

Not all class 10 cards are created equal. Make sure you buy one with the highest possible SUSTAINED WRITE speed. Most manufactures only advertise the read speed which is easier.

The card you want is a Sandisk Extreme pro 95MB/s, they are the fastest right now and they are dirt cheap. 8GB is $20.

I like to us 2 X 8GB so all my eggs aren't in one basket if the card(s) fail. I would never use 32 or 64 GB cards unless I was heavy into video.

Also note the camera's images remaining estimates are extremely conservative and nowhere near accurate on a blank card. I can easily get about 550 Imgaes on a pair of 8GB cards, lossless compressed 14 bit RAW. Buffer clears nice and fast, I've never had the camera slow down on me once.

 

[FrankoManno]

tyler_dx wrote:

i'll go for two 64 gig sdhc class 10 cards.

Sandisk makes the most reliable stuff in my experience, though others may have a different experience. I have a dozen Sandisk SD cards, none have ever gone bad.

 

[Gabbe]

I only use RAW files. How big is the biggest RAW file from D600?

What you are saying is that I need 95MB/s and not 45MB/s for a D600 camera? I don't want that the card is slower than the camera.

Regards,

Fredrik

 

[D Knisely]

Gabbe wrote:

Memory card for D600? Speed and size recommendations? What do you use?

Regards

Gabbe

I have used two Transcend inexpensive, but reliable card types. Neither is fast enough to keep up with the D600 buffer:

- SDHC class 10 "High Transfer Rate" -- buffer blocks after about 8-9 shots (single slot) or 4-5 shots (mirroring to both slots). Takes so long that I gave up timing for the buffer to empty after that. Rated at about 15 MB/s write speed. About $16 on Amazon.

- SDHC class 10 UHS-1 "Ultra High Speed" -- buffer blocks after about 11-12 shots (single slot) or 5 shots (mirroring to both slots). Takes about 11 seconds for buffer to empty after that. Rated at 45 MB/s write speed. About $33 on Amazon.

Keep in mind that the D600 apparently writes to the two SD slots in series rather than in parallel, so if you mirror, you lose half the available buffer capacity.

As you can see, the more expensive cards are totally not worth it and produce no notable improvement. Either card works with video; neither lets you get close to the rated 20 shot buffer limit of the D600.

In my experience, the "class" rating is completely meaningless. I don't see any difference between Class 6 through 10 cards.

That's all the experience I have to offer...

Doug

 

[EgonVLC]

I disagree. I have one Trascend Class 10 SD (real write speed about 12MB/s) and a Sandisk Extreme UHS-1 (supposed 45MB/s). The diference between them is night and day. In JPEG mode, the trascend card chockes after little more than 3 seconds. The Sandisk card does not choke in burst of 10-15 seconds (the card keeps with the buffer speed). In raw mode there's a hefty diference too, but neither card can keep the buffer speed for ever.

If you ever use burst shooting, get at least a fast UHS-1 card. I haven't tested the Sandisk Extreme Pro (95MB/s), but I can rightfully confirm that the Sandisk Extreme 45MB/s feels waay faster than a normal (real) class 10, as the Trascend.

 

[lock]

But the step up from 45 to 95mb/s is not too spectacular. I actually use Lexar pro 600x (which is about equivalent to the Sandisk 95mb/s) and I can do 15 frames in raw at a full speed before it start to slow down. My 45 mb/s Sandisk (unfortunately I lost that one on the beach) slowed down after 11-12 frames.

To see any effect of these fast cards on the pc, you do need an usb 3 reader.

 

[JonRoberts]

I'm using 2 of these: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...2gb&qid=1353846242&s=pc&sr=1-6&srs=2530343011

at a time with no issues. I've used San Disk cards forever without issue. Only cards I've ever had fail on me were non-San Disk.

 

[AllOtherNamesTaken]

Gabbe wrote:

I only use RAW files. How big is the biggest RAW file from D600?

What you are saying is that I need 95MB/s and not 45MB/s for a D600 camera? I don't want that the card is slower than the camera.

Regards,

Fredrik

The lossless compressed 14 bit RAWs from a D600 is around 25-32MB.

And yes the camera will be faster with cards having a write speed of 95MB/s vs the 45MB/s. They are so cheap just grab the fastest ones. I suggest a pair of 8GB for $20 each, and that is good for around 550 RAWs. IMHO at that point you should be backing up your images anyways - you don't want 2000++ images in your camera if something happens to it.

 

[jbart1]

Hmmm. I did not realize the cards were written to in series. That sucks as I have mine set up to write RAW files to slot 1 and JPEG to slot 2. In slot 1 I have a 64GB SanDisk Extreme Pro 95mb/s card and in slot 2 I have a Polaroid 64 GB 45MB/s card. I figured the slower Polaroid card would not matter since JPEG files are half the size of RAW and that they would essentially be written to the cards in the same amount of time. Now it sound like I would be better off using the the Polaroid card in slot 2 for just overflow and video, knowing that once I ran out of space on the primary card my speeds would slow down. My issue is that the D600 is only representing that I can hold 1100 images on the 64GB card in RAW mode, but by my calculations it should be closer to 2,000. If I change to RAW+JPEG on the same card it says 700 images. I think it should be closer to 1400. It is almost like the card only sees the first 32gb.

 

[SethG]

jbart1 wrote:

Hmmm. I did not realize the cards were written to in series. That sucks as I have mine set up to write RAW files to slot 1 and JPEG to slot 2. In slot 1 I have a 64GB SanDisk Extreme Pro 95mb/s card and in slot 2 I have a Polaroid 64 GB 45MB/s card. I figured the slower Polaroid card would not matter since JPEG files are half the size of RAW and that they would essentially be written to the cards in the same amount of time. Now it sound like I would be better off using the the Polaroid card in slot 2 for just overflow and video, knowing that once I ran out of space on the primary card my speeds would slow down. My issue is that the D600 is only representing that I can hold 1100 images on the 64GB card in RAW mode, but by my calculations it should be closer to 2,000. If I change to RAW+JPEG on the same card it says 700 images. I think it should be closer to 1400. It is almost like the card only sees the first 32gb.

I believe Thom Hogan mentioned that the write speed "max speed" is set based on the slowest card you have in the camera. So I guess experiment with your setup. I just got a D600 and have a SanDisk Extreme (45mb/s) and a SanDisk Ultra (30mb/s) in my two slots. I'll be breaking the camera in on Tuesday, so I'll see how they perform.

Also, Nikon is EXTREMELY conservative in its estimations of shots remaining. Seeing only half of the available shots left is normal. My D300 does that, and my D70 and D200 both did that as well. So don't sweat it...

 

[Aly Oops]

I pick up two, 32gb Sandisk Extreme Pro (95MB/s), for 59.99 each, at Future Shop and Best Buy, Northland mall. I use it on the Nikon D600 with iMac SD card slot for importing.

 

[jbart1]

Did a test and it is definitely faster, although not terribly significantly, to have both files written to the faster card. I guess that is fine. I only have 2 batteries right now so I will probably run out of juice before I run out of memory space anyway. I kind of wanted to keep my RAW and JPEGs separate but I also see an advantage, during review and post processing to have both files on the same card, no switching cards to get the other file format. It also means I will have more space available on card 2 for Hi-def video.