Preferred recording format for D800

M

Marc Lucas

Active member
I'm hopefully getting my D800 this week (Yipee) coming from an EX1 background I use class 10 SDHC cards. I know the D800 takes both CF & SDHC cards so which one is preferred for shooting both stills and video in DSLR's (D800)? and what would be suggested as to whats the minimun speed card(s) to use? I have seen on other forums and blogs that a lot of existing cards aren't compatible with the D800 so want to pick the right ones straight away.
Thanks
 
Marc Lucas said:
I'm hopefully getting my D800 this week (Yipee) coming from an EX1 background I use class 10 SDHC cards. I know the D800 takes both CF & SDHC cards so which one is preferred for shooting both stills and video in DSLR's (D800)? and what would be suggested as to whats the minimun speed card(s) to use? I have seen on other forums and blogs that a lot of existing cards aren't compatible with the D800 so want to pick the right ones straight away.
Thanks
Click to expand...

I don't think there is a preferred card type, but rather a preferred card speed. And, so the answer would be, whichever card captures your video fastest.
 
Marc Lucas said:
... I use class 10 SDHC cards. I know the D800 takes both CF & SDHC cards so which one is preferred for shooting both stills and video in DSLR's (D800)? and what would be suggested as to whats the minimun speed card(s) to use?
Click to expand...

There are 3 performance considerations for CF/SD cards: Video, Still Photography, and File Transfer.

Video:

  • The HQ video bit rate for D4/D800 is 24Mbits per second, or 3MBytes per second. This is easily within the performance capabilities of any Class 10 SD/SDHC card. A Class 6 card is probably fast enough, but Class 10 cards are so cheap, why bother with anything slower?
  • You probably cannot find a CF card made in the last 5 years which is too slow for 3MB/second video. Anything rated "133x" (20MBytes/sec) or faster is sufficient (and then some).

Still Photography:

Do you take 15 photos every minute, or less? If so, then any old memory card will be fast enough. The D800 has a nice big memory buffer to store image files while waiting for the memory card to record them.

If you take long, sustained continuous bursts of photos, then you have to do some head scratching.

  • A D800 JPEG file size is around 10-12 MBytes.
  • A D800 RAW file size can be 35-70 MBytes.
  • The D800 can rip out 4 FPS.

This pretty much tells you how fast your memory card must be to keep up. Don't forget the memory buffer... The D800 memory buffer can queue up to 100 JPEG files before it's full (that's 25 seconds at 4 FPS). Any card will allow you to shoot 36MP at 4FPS... until the internal memory buffer fills up. Once the buffer is full, you'll be tapping your fingers until the memory card catches up and empties the buffer.

CF cards rated for up to 60-100 MBytes/second are available.
SDXC cards (the latest and greatest iteration of the SD card) up to 60 MBytes/second are available (but not easy to find).

If you are writing 50 MByte files, there is no card on the market which will keep up with this rate (200MB/sec) forever.
If you are writing 10MB JPEG files, there are a number of cards which will keep up with a sustained rate of 40MB/sec.
It's risky to pick individual cards without first testing them with the D800, if you are seeking near-perfect performance.

File Transfer:

You have completely filled your 16GByte memory card.
You are now transferring the files to your computer with a card reader.
The best USB2 card readers working with decent memory cards can manage 25-30MBytes/second transfers.
The very fastest USB3 card readers working with the very fastest memory cards can manage up to 100MBytes/second transfers.

When you are emptying your memory card, while waiting for the entire contents of your memory card to transfer, would you prefer to:
  • take a quick run to the kitchen to fill your coffee mug?
  • take a nice long hot bath?
  • walk to the store for your monthly grocery shopping?

Here is an excellent resource for assessments of both CF and SD cards transfer speeds (with a variety of different card readers): SD and CF.

I have seen on other forums and blogs that a lot of existing cards aren't compatible with the D800 so want to pick the right ones straight away.
Click to expand...

The D800 hasn't been available long enough to reliably determine which memory cards, if any, are not compatible. Unless we're discussing Type II CF cards (e.g. microdrives, SD => CF adapters) which will not fit in the thinner Type I only CF card slot. Or the XQD CF card which (so far) is supported by only one camera in the world: the Nikon D4.

-- Bob Elkind
 
Last edited:
eteam said:
There are 3 performance considerations for CF/SD cards: Video, Still Photography, and File Transfer.

Video:
  • The HQ video bit rate for D4/D800 is 24Mbits per second, or 3MBytes per second. This is easily within the performance capabilities of any Class 10 SD/SDHC card. A Class 6 card is probably fast enough, but Class 10 cards are so cheap, why bother with anything slower?
  • You probably cannot find a CF card made in the last 5 years which is too slow for 3MB/second video. Anything rated "133x" (20MBytes/sec) or faster is sufficient (and then some).
Still Photography:

Do you take 15 photos every minute, or less? If so, then any old memory card will be fast enough. The D800 has a nice big memory buffer to store image files while waiting for the memory card to record them.

If you take long, sustained continuous bursts of photos, then you have to do some head scratching.
  • A D800 JPEG file size is around 10-12 MBytes.
  • A D800 RAW file size can be 35-70 MBytes.
  • The D800 can rip out 4 FPS.
This pretty much tells you how fast your memory card must be to keep up. Don't forget the memory buffer... The D800 memory buffer can queue up to 100 JPEG files before it's full (that's 25 seconds at 4 FPS). Any card will allow you to shoot 36MP at 4FPS... until the internal memory buffer fills up. Once the buffer is full, you'll be tapping your fingers until the memory card catches up and empties the buffer.

CF cards rated for up to 60-100 MBytes/second are available.
SDXC cards (the latest and greatest iteration of the SD card) up to 60 MBytes/second are available (but not easy to find).

If you are writing 50 MByte files, there is no card on the market which will keep up with this rate (200MB/sec) forever.
If you are writing 10MB JPEG files, there are a number of cards which will keep up with a sustained rate of 40MB/sec.
It's risky to pick individual cards without first testing them with the D800, if you are seeking near-perfect performance.

File Transfer:

You have completely filled your 16GByte memory card.
You are now transferring the files to your computer with a card reader.
The best USB2 card readers working with decent memory cards can manage 25-30MBytes/second transfers.
The very fastest USB3 card readers working with the very fastest memory cards can manage up to 100MBytes/second transfers.

When you are emptying your memory card, while waiting for the entire contents of your memory card to transfer, would you prefer to:
  • take a quick run to the kitchen to fill your coffee mug?
  • take a nice long hot bath?
  • walk to the store for your monthly grocery shopping?
Here is an excellent resource for assessments of both CF and SD cards transfer speeds (with a variety of different card readers): SD and CF.



The D800 hasn't been available long enough to reliably determine which memory cards, if any, are not compatible. Unless we're discussing Type II CF cards (e.g. microdrives, SD => CF adapters) which will not fit in the thinner Type I only CF card slot. Or the XQD CF card which (so far) is supported by only one camera in the world: the Nikon D4.

-- Bob Elkind
Click to expand...


Thanks for the informative info Bob the original post was sparked by this blog article were many users told of their cards not working with the D800

http://www.wynner.ie/photography/certain-cf-cards-may-not-work-with-nikon-d800/

Thanks
 
Marc Lucas said:
Thanks for the informative info Bob the original post was sparked by this blog article were many users told of their cards not working with the D800
http://www.wynner.ie/photography/certain-cf-cards-may-not-work-with-nikon-d800/
Click to expand...

Thanks for the link. On the dpreview.com forums, I haven't noticed a wave of complaints of CF cards not working. Just a few... And Kingston cards seem to be mentioned more than others as problematic in the D800.

The Rob Galbraith (D4) test report conflicts with the blog on several cards: the Transcend 400x card and a few (but not all) Kingston cards. These work in the Galbraith (D4) test, but are blacklisted by the blog.

Hmmmm.....

-- Bob Elkind
 
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