dmitrizigany
Veteran
Will a 64gb 45mb/s SDXC card work?
a7s - SD cards
- Thread starter Samuel H
- Start date
wilecoyote
Member
I'm a bit confused.
On the one hand. the manual says that you just need a SDXC UHS-I card to record in XAVC-S. On the other hand, not every SDXC card is made equal… I've seen more than a few of them that are UHS-I, but claim only 10 MB/sec. of writing speed, like for example:
http://www.fnac.es/mp989332/Verbatim-64GB-SDXC-Memoria-flash
The one I ordered is the following one, which advertises more than 50 MB/sec. writing speed:
http://www.amazon.es/Transcend-TS64...s&ie=UTF8&qid=1417308476&sr=1-3&keywords=SDXC
But it will take a few days to arrive, and in the meantime, they are almost impossible to find in retail stores (plus, they tend to be hideously expensive). Can anybody confirm that the more "normal" SDXC UHS-I cards will work too? (The PNY Samuel mentioned had 90MB./sec. writing speed, so I consider it among the "high-end" ones).
Edit: also, I forgot to ask: can I read the cards using a conventional USB SDHC card reader? Or will I need a SDXC card reader too?
On the one hand. the manual says that you just need a SDXC UHS-I card to record in XAVC-S. On the other hand, not every SDXC card is made equal… I've seen more than a few of them that are UHS-I, but claim only 10 MB/sec. of writing speed, like for example:
http://www.fnac.es/mp989332/Verbatim-64GB-SDXC-Memoria-flash
The one I ordered is the following one, which advertises more than 50 MB/sec. writing speed:
http://www.amazon.es/Transcend-TS64...s&ie=UTF8&qid=1417308476&sr=1-3&keywords=SDXC
But it will take a few days to arrive, and in the meantime, they are almost impossible to find in retail stores (plus, they tend to be hideously expensive). Can anybody confirm that the more "normal" SDXC UHS-I cards will work too? (The PNY Samuel mentioned had 90MB./sec. writing speed, so I consider it among the "high-end" ones).
Edit: also, I forgot to ask: can I read the cards using a conventional USB SDHC card reader? Or will I need a SDXC card reader too?
Last edited:
dmitrizigany
Veteran
I have a SanDisk card that says 45mb/s that is working fine...
I can't directly answer your question, but I can tell you what I did:
I wanted a larger capacity card so that I didn't have to carry more than one. This allows me to shoot without ever worrying about time constraints -- and it avoids the potential negative impact of changing a card in bad weather, exposing the card to excessive handling and dirt, and the risk of misplacing or losing the card. Of course, there are even larger capacity cards, but I felt my final choice was the "sweet spot" for my particular workflow.
I wanted a fast enough card so that I never had to worry about fragmentation or dropped frames. This is clearly not an issue with XAVC-S, but I wanted a very substantial margin of performance above the minimum required bit rate.
I also wanted a card that was fast enough to accommodate a new feature that might be included in a future firmware update. Unfortunately, we're talking about Sony here -- so I knew this was highly unlikely, but I'm tired of buying things twice and I wanted to hedge my bets.
More importantly, if possible, I wanted to be able to maybe use the same card in a year or two with my "next" camera, one that might very well require more speed than the A7s requires. Again, tired of buying things twice.
Lastly, even though it's not the fastest or largest card they make, I wanted to buy from a manufacturer that had a very good reputation.
There are plenty of smaller cards -- and larger cards.
There are plenty of slower cards -- and faster cards.
And there are plenty of other good manufacturers.
However, this is the card I bought and it has worked flawlessly for me.
HTH.
I wanted a larger capacity card so that I didn't have to carry more than one. This allows me to shoot without ever worrying about time constraints -- and it avoids the potential negative impact of changing a card in bad weather, exposing the card to excessive handling and dirt, and the risk of misplacing or losing the card. Of course, there are even larger capacity cards, but I felt my final choice was the "sweet spot" for my particular workflow.
I wanted a fast enough card so that I never had to worry about fragmentation or dropped frames. This is clearly not an issue with XAVC-S, but I wanted a very substantial margin of performance above the minimum required bit rate.
I also wanted a card that was fast enough to accommodate a new feature that might be included in a future firmware update. Unfortunately, we're talking about Sony here -- so I knew this was highly unlikely, but I'm tired of buying things twice and I wanted to hedge my bets.
More importantly, if possible, I wanted to be able to maybe use the same card in a year or two with my "next" camera, one that might very well require more speed than the A7s requires. Again, tired of buying things twice.
Lastly, even though it's not the fastest or largest card they make, I wanted to buy from a manufacturer that had a very good reputation.
There are plenty of smaller cards -- and larger cards.
There are plenty of slower cards -- and faster cards.
And there are plenty of other good manufacturers.
However, this is the card I bought and it has worked flawlessly for me.
HTH.
I'd say you'd be way more than fine if cards considerably slower are working. I'm going to pickup some cheapies tomorrow.