GH2 Card Tests : Patriot EP : 32GB SDHC Card / 64GB SDXC UHS-I

T

TheDingo

Veteran
...I finally found a store in Toronto that had the Patriot EP cards in stock.

I've been buying Patriot SD cards for the past 4 years, and over all I've found them to be one of the best low cost cards on the market. I was stoked when I first heard about the Patriot EP cards, but figured I would wait until I could find them for sale here in Toronto. ( I don't like being an early adopter, as sometimes manufacturers take a couple of months to work out the production bugs when they first start making a new product )


ATTO DRIVE BENCH TEST

To test these new cards I used the free ATTO Drive Bench utility ( ATTO Drive Bench Download ) and the very old FutureMark 3DMark 2001SE video card benchmark. ( FutureMark 3DMark Download Page )

...First I ran the ATTO benchmark. The Patriot EP 32GB SDHC card tested very close to what I see with my Sandisk 64GB SDXC 95MB/sec card, which is kind of what I was hoping for. I ran this test on a USB 2.0 connection because the only computer I own that has USB 3.0 ports suddenly died with a hardware error and I haven't had time to get it fixed. The READ speed would be a lot higher for both cards when running under a USB 3.0 connection. ( my Sandisk card tested at about 72MB/sec READ speed a couple of months ago reading from a USB 3.0 port )

For some reason the ATTO Drive Bench refused to test the Patriot EP 64GB SDXC UHS-I card, but the card works perfectly in my GH2 camera, so I am guessing that this is some problem with the ATTO benchmark software. All ATTO tests used an IoGear USB 3.0 card reader. ( Iogear SuperSpeed USB 3.0 SD/microSD Card Reader : $13 from B&H Photo )

Here are the results of the ATTO test comparing the Patriot EP 32GB SDHC card against the Sandisk 64GB SDXC 95MB/sec card:

Patriot_vs_Sandisk.jpg


FutureMark 3D2001SE "NATURE" TEST

...To test these cards with my GH2 camera running Lee Powell's excellent Flow Motion ver 2.02 patch, I set up a laptop to run the FutureMark 3DMark 2001SE benchmark in an endless loop of just the 3D "nature" test. I chose the 3DMark "nature" benchmark because I wanted something that would stress the Flow Motion patch with lots of fine details that are constantly in motion, and because I wanted to see if the new Patriot EP SDXC 64GB UHS-I card would span properly when being stressed like this.

The Patriot EP 32GB SDHC card worked perfectly, but would NOT span running the Flow Motion patch at the 24H setting. This is pretty much what I expected, as it seems like you must have the SDXC UHS-I memory controller built in to the 64GB cards to span at very high bit-rates.

The Patriot EP 64GB SDXC UHS-I card also worked perfectly, and it DOES span running the Flow Motion patch at the 24H setting. This is a BIG deal, as this is the first low cost 64GB card that I can confirm will span at 100 Mbit/sec recording rates, at least when running the Flow Motion ver 2.02 patch. ( I ran the 3DMark benchmark for 50 minutes and the 64GB card spanned perfectly )

I ran the video file from the Patriot EP 32GB SDHC card through C Brandin's Stream Parser 2.70 software, and here's the result:

C Brandin Stream Parser 2.70 Patriot EP Card Test.jpg

NOTE: The Patriot EP 64GB card would show similar results, I just didn't want to wait for Stream Parser to digest the full 28 GB / 50 minute video file.

...So to sum up, these new Patriot EP cards look like a great bargain in high performance memory cards for your GH2. Cheap and Fast!
 
Hey Dingo,
How reliable would you say these patriot cards are? I have only used Sandisk, Panasonic, PNY, and Kingston cards and have not had a problem with any of them for the past 3 years I have owned them. I have 7 cards total, 4 of them are Sandisk and one of each brand for the rest of the cards and are all 8gb cards. The "Sandisk HD Video" card just gave me an error on a shoot a week ago. I was using my HMC150 and got a card error, this card was my main card for shooting work for clients and after the card error I moved it down the list and now the Panasonic is my main card. I am starting to use my GH2 for work and am about to apply the flowmotion hack to it. I want a card that is reliable and also span while using the high bit rate. Do you think its worth giving the 64gb sdxc uhs card a shot, or spend three times the amount and go with the Sandisk extreme pro 64gb?
 
Marduk said:
How reliable would you say these patriot cards are?
Click to expand...

I've been shooting mostly with Patriot SD cards over the past 4 years, and so far I have not had one card error. The new Patriot EP cards come with a 5 year warranty, and the manufacturer appears to be very active in solving customer problems. ( check the comment section on the NewEgg.com website, and you will see Patriot reps doing everything they can to stand behind their product )

I always reformat my SD cards before every shoot, which I think helps to ensure the cards are working properly. I also keep my cards in a waterproof hard-shell Pelican memory card case. ( I turn cards upside down in the case once they are shot, so I know which ones are fresh, and which ones need to be dumped to my computer )

Marduk said:
The "Sandisk HD Video" card just gave me an error on a shoot a week ago. I was using my HMC150 and got a card error, this card was my main card for shooting work for clients and after the card error I moved it down the list and now the Panasonic is my main card.
Click to expand...

For paid jobs where you have money and reputation on the line, I would stick with the Sandisk 64GB SDXC 95MB/sec cards for now. These new Patriot EP cards looks like a great bargain, but I won't know how reliable they are until I've shot with them for a few months. Based upon my past experience with Patriot cards, I expect these new EP cards will prove to be great cards, just make sure you format your cards before every shoot ( it only takes 10 seconds ) and store them properly as you shoot.

For myself, I am going to buy another Patriot EP 64GB SDXC UHS-I card, and rotate between my Sandisk and Patriot cards as I shoot new jobs.

...One other thing to consider, it really looks like the 64GB SDXC cards have a better memory controller than the SDHC cards do, so I think standardizing on 64GB SDXC cards might help improve reliability. These new EP cards are cheap, $45 for a 64GB SDXC card ( $54 from NewEgg.ca for us Canadians ), so why not?
 
These cards have bad reviews on Amazon and B&H doesn't even stock them. Personally I have used Patriot cards in the past, but the truth is there's better/more professional memory cards out there. Media is important to me and especially after using the GH2 Hack I seriously need the best, if not close to it.
 
J.F.R. said:
These cards have bad reviews on Amazon and B&H doesn't even stock them.
Click to expand...

Four years ago I bought six Patriot SD cards after testing all of the low and medium cost SDHC cards I could get my hands on. The Patriot cards were faster ( running the same ATTO Disk Bench test ) and they were fairly low cost. I also liked the idea that Patriot was a company that sold pretty much only memory, so their future was tied to producing a good product.

Over the past 4 years I've shot about 500 hours of video using ten Patriot SD cards ( six original plain blue 16GB Patriot Class 6 cards, then two 16GB Patriot LX Class 10 cards, then two 32GB Patriot LX PRO Class 10 cards ), and in all this time I have never had any Patriot card fail. Not one. Maybe I'm lucky?

Last March I bought two SanDisk 64GB SDXC Extreme Pro Class 10 UHS-I cards at $200 each so I could use the 100 Mbit/sec patches with my GH2, these two SanDisk cards have worked flawlessly, with one small exception ( the cards "stalled" on one GH2 shoot, where I had to press the GH2 red REC button twice to start recording ) that I don't blame on the cards. ( no footage was lost, everything worked out great in the end )

J.F.R. said:
Personally I have used Patriot cards in the past, but the truth is there's better/more professional memory cards out there.
Click to expand...

I have used Patriot cards over the past 4 years and they have NEVER failed me. I don't know what you consider to be "more professional" ( maybe SanDisk cards ), but not failing in over 500 hours of shooting is a pretty good track record for me.

J.F.R. said:
Media is important to me and especially after using the GH2 Hack I seriously need the best, if not close to it.
Click to expand...

...Media is important to me too, which is why I consider ALL manufacturers specs to be bullsh*t until I can run my own tests, and see how the products stand up in my own hands.

This is why I test every piece of computer/audio/photographic/video gear I've ever bought to find out what was actually good and what was marketing B.S.

I consider my two $200 SanDisk cards ( the price is currently $137 at B&H Photo ) to be some of best cards made for the GH2, but I am happy to spend one third of the price on Patriot EP cards if they can do the same job. Patriot backs their cards with a 5 year warranty, and they appear to be very active in fixing any customer problems if you contact them.

The proof is always in the pudding for me, which is why I published the links to the software I used to test with, so other people can download and run the same tests, and see if they get the same results as me. ( just make sure you test with a good USB 3.0 card-reader, or you won't be seeing the real speed of the memory cards )

I like to try different brands to see how they compare. If the Patriot EP cards prove reliable for me over the next 6 months, then I will be a happy man.

Nobody is forcing you to buy Patriot EP cards. If you prefer to stick with SanDisk or some other brand, that's your choice.
 
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TheDingo said:
Four years ago I bought six Patriot SD cards after testing all of the low and medium cost SDHC cards I could get my hands on. The Patriot cards were faster ( running the same ATTO Disk Bench test ) and they were fairly low cost. I also liked the idea that Patriot was a company that sold pretty much only memory, so their future was tied to producing a good product.

Over the past 4 years I've shot about 500 hours of video using ten Patriot SD cards ( six original plain blue 16GB Patriot Class 6 cards, then two 16GB Patriot LX Class 10 cards, then two 32GB Patriot LX PRO Class 10 cards ), and in all this time I have never had any Patriot card fail. Not one. Maybe I'm lucky?

Last March I bought two SanDisk 64GB SDXC Extreme Pro Class 10 UHS-I cards at $200 each so I could use the 100 Mbit/sec patches with my GH2, these two SanDisk cards have worked flawlessly, with one small exception ( the cards "stalled" on one GH2 shoot, where I had to press the GH2 red REC button twice to start recording ) that I don't blame on the cards. ( no footage was lost, everything worked out great in the end )



I have used Patriot cards over the past 4 years and they have NEVER failed me. I don't know what you consider to be "more professional" ( maybe SanDisk cards ), but not failing in over 500 hours of shooting is a pretty good track record for me.



...Media is important to me too, which is why I consider ALL manufacturers specs to be bullsh*t until I can run my own tests, and see how the products stand up in my own hands.

This is why I test every piece of computer/audio/photographic/video gear I've ever bought to find out what was actually good and what was marketing B.S.

I consider my two $200 SanDisk cards ( the price is currently $137 at B&H Photo ) to be some of best cards made for the GH2, but I am happy to spend one third of the price on Patriot EP cards if they can do the same job. Patriot backs their cards with a 5 year warranty, and they appear to be very active in fixing any customer problems if you contact them.

The proof is always in the pudding for me, which is why I published the links to the software I used to test with, so other people can download and run the same tests, and see if they get the same results as me. ( just make sure you test with a good USB 3.0 card-reader, or you won't be seeing the real speed of the memory cards )

I like to try different brands to see how they compare. If the Patriot EP cards prove reliable for me over the next 6 months, then I will be a happy man.

Nobody is forcing you to buy Patriot EP cards. If you prefer to stick with SanDisk or some other brand, that's your choice.
Click to expand...

It is clearly documented on the internet that these cards have a higher failure rate, I mean there is a reason why they cost less. I also own Patriot Cards and I can tell you they do not match up quality wise nor speed wise to my extreme Sandisk cards. I recently bought this pro card from Lexmark
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/841486-REG/Lexar_LSD32GCTBNA600_32GB_SDHC_Memory_Card.html
And I can say it works flawless so far and cost less than Sandisk.

Any card can fail, but from my readings and personal experience I choose to stay away from Patriot.
 
J.F.R. said:
I also own Patriot Cards and I can tell you they do not match up quality wise nor speed wise to my extreme Sandisk cards.
Click to expand...

...I see lots of people talking smack about different cards, but very little firsthand experience with details of the problems they have experienced, and virtually nobody is posting benchmarks that prove how fast their cards truly are. The specs are meaningless half the time, so you have to test to see if the card actually works at the speed it is supposed to. Can you post some benchmarks to prove what you are saying?

J.F.R. said:
I recently bought this pro card from Lexmark http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/841486-REG/Lexar_LSD32GCTBNA600_32GB_SDHC_Memory_Card.html And I can say it works flawless so far and cost less than Sandisk.
Click to expand...

Great. Use the free ATTO benchmark and post your results. I want to see how fast this Lexmark card truly is. Words are meaningless unless you post some proof to go with it.

J.F.R. said:
Any card can fail, but from my readings and personal experience I choose to stay away from Patriot.
Click to expand...

There are lots of people who don't know how to use or test the technology they own, so I read a lot of anecdotal comments where the person sounds like they don't know what they are buying, if it's compatible, or how to properly use it.

UHS-I SD cards are only compatible with gear designed for this format. As far as I know the GH2 was not designed for the UHS-I spec, but it seems to function with no problems.

I've had fantastic luck with Patriot SD cards, but I would be very curious to see if other manufacturers ( like Lexar ) are producing SDXC cards that benchmark like the SanDisk and Patriot EP cards do. It's always good to have alternatives.
 
I'm not signing up just to download some software to Make you happy.... You need to seriously relax dude, do you own stock in the company or something? All I posted was what I have read online, if any product averages bad reviews it's for a reason. great products generally do not receive bad reviews.

You're taking this WAY to serious........
Done here, nothing positive can come from this thread
 
J.F.R. said:
You're taking this WAY too serious.
Click to expand...

I shoot for a living, so yes this is important to me.

If you want to compare products from different companies, then you have to be prepared to do some real tests, otherwise you've got nothing to add to the conversation.

Lot's of people are trying to get the most from their GH2 cameras, especially with these high bit-rate patches that require high performance memory cards.

Using a 100 Mbit/sec patch, you need a very fast memory card that can span, otherwise your longest take is about 6 minutes. I shoot lots of long form interviews, which average 20-60 minutes per shoot, so spanning is an absolute must.

The big deal about this thread is that I found one brand of cards that enables you to span with high bit-rate patches at a low cost. There may be other brands that can do the same thing.
 
So I received the card in the mail a few days ago. I also purchased this card reader from B&H. http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/produ...DDR_289_A20_ImageMate_All_in_One_USB_3_0.html

I used the card on a photo shoot yesterday and seemed to work ok. I am planning to hack my gh2 using the flowmotion2.2 hack and run a few tests on it. I want to run a test at the highest bit rate and i believe that the card will fail because it did not do to good in the benchmark. read and write speeds are pretty low compared to the sandisk extreme pro.

Here's I what I got using the ATTO Benchmark tool

Edit: this is using a usb 3.0 card reader on usb 3.0 port on a ASUS P8Z77-V Motherboard
 

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Marduk said:
Read and Write speeds are pretty low compared to the SanDisk Extreme Pro.
Click to expand...

Thanks for posting this. Running the ATTO benchmark from a USB 3 port provides a better idea of the actual speed of the Patriot EP card.

I know that the Patriot EP cards are not as fast as the SanDisk 95MB/Sec cards ( there is a reason why the SanDisk cards cost 3 times more ), but they should be more than enough for Lee Powell's FlowMotion ver 2.02 patch at 100 Mbit/sec.

I can't remember what the write speed of my SanDisk Extreme Pro SDXC 64GB card was when benchmarked under a USB 3 connection ( it was slower than the read speed ), but I do remember that the read speed was 72MB/sec, so if your Patriot EP card is showing a read speed of 53MB/Sec that's not bad at all. ( the 37MB write speed is quite good too )

I shot a 40 minute interview last week using a Patriot EP SDXC 64GB and FlowMotion ver 2.02 and everything worked flawlessly. ( high bit-rate, great image, no problem spanning for the full 40 minute interview )

I have another long interview to shoot this Thursday ( and a "pilot" for a series of corporate training videos later this month ), so I plan on ONLY shooting with the Patriot EP cards for the next couple of months to see how well they hold up. ( I will still carry my SanDisk 95MB/sec cards with me as back-up, as these are paid jobs and I have to guarantee results, but so far the Patriot EP cards are doing a great job )
 
...I'm at work right now, but I dug around in my Google Drive account ( the magic cloud that stores everything ) and found the results of my original SanDisk 95MB/sec card running the ATTO benchmark under a USB 3 connection, back before my ACER laptop died with a hardware error.

As you can see the SanDisk 95MB/sec card is significantly faster at everything when running under a USB 3 connection, but this doesn't mean the Patriot EP card is a bad card. My main goal was to find a cheap card that could reliably span when using the 100 Mbit/sec GH2 patches, and so far the Patriot EP cards are holding their own.

SanDisk SDXC 64GB 95MB Card.jpg
 
Dingo, I just hacked the gh2 with flomotionv2.2 and about to do some tests on it if i can later today if not then tomorrow for sure. The reason is because i have a paid gig on Wednesday and want to make sure this card will hold up. Will keep you guys updated on

Question - on flowmotion hack, is the difference between 24h and 24l just the bit rate or does it change other settings also. so 24h is 95Mb/s and 24L is 32Mb/s, and no resolution change or anything right?
 
Marduk said:
Dingo, I just hacked the gh2 with flomotionv2.2 and about to do some tests on it if i can later today if not then tomorrow for sure.
Click to expand...

The worst case scenario for a patched GH2 is a moving camera filming something with lots of detail using an electronic Lumix lens with OIS turned on. If the card is going to crap out, this is when it's going to happen. ( I shoot mainly with manual lenses, but occasionally I simulate "Stedi-cam" using my cheapo Lumix 14-45mm bolted to a HaloRig with OIS turned on. )

Marduk said:
The reason is because i have a paid gig on Wednesday and want to make sure this card will hold up. Will keep you guys updated on.
Click to expand...

Cool. Thanks.

Marduk said:
Question - on flowmotion hack, is the difference between 24H and 24L just the bit rate or does it change other settings also.
Click to expand...

Lee Powell is the man to answer this, but as far as I know it's mainly a data-rate change. I haven't shot with FlowMotion v2.02 at 24L, but everything I've seen shot at 24L looked great.
 
Ok so here goes. I did not end up having anytime to test my card thoroughly. I did a few simple tests around the house and transferred the footage to my machine. It seemed like everything was good until i got to the shoot today, I inserted the card into the camera and formatted the card and everything seemed OK. I shot a 1 minute interview that took only 3 takes. I turned the camera off and later turned it back on to do another shot of someone else and the camera immediately gave me a "insert card again" I'm assuming error message. I'm new to the camera so i still don't know all the ins and outs, error messages etc.. I turned the camera off and turned it back on and same message, even after taking the card out and putting it back in. I turned the camera off and used my HMC150 for the rest of the shoot. When i got home i ran to my card reader and luckily the reader read the card right away and i was able to transfer the data. I took the card and tried it in the camera one last time but same error message. So i plugged it back in the card reader and formatted it using the computer and tried it back in the camera and it was able to read the card again which is weird. Looks like i might have to put this card to the side for any paid gigs and fork over the cash for the sandisk extreme pro 64gb card.

Oh and btw I'm on flowmotion v2.02 and was shooting 1080 24p at 24L which is 32MB/s when i got the error. Lenses were canon FD 50mm 1.4 and a Canon FD 28mm 2.8.
 
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