GH2 SD Card that has prove most reliable

Mj882

Mj882

Well-known member
I am about to purchase a Panasonic GH2 and would like to know what you guys would suggest for a memory card. I plan to do quite a lot of video shooting, whilst on holiday.

Transcend Class 10 16GB seems to be popular and cheap. People seem to be recommending it more so than SanDisk.

Any suggestions guys?
 
My buddy that mentored me during my conversion to GH1 told me to buy the Patriot LX Class 10 16gb as that was what his circle was using and they have proven to work well for me.
 
I use Panasonic Gold SDHC cards for all of my critical client work, and I've never had so much as a dropped frame.
 
Cheers guys, will 16GB be enough or is 32GB recommended?

Also, I'll be applying the GH2 Hack as well - are there any preferences for the hack?
 
Personally, I think 16GB is as big a card as I'd ever want. I mean, it IS SD, and something might happen to a card. If you've got a 32GB card, with all of your footage on it, you're hosed. If you have two 16GB cards, and lose one, you're slightly less hosed. And if you've got 4 8GB cards, and one gets FUBAR'ed, you might be able to work around it.

Practice safe shooting. Spread out your data across more cards.
 
Those two are among the most expensive, so it's not surprising they're great. Might opt for something a little more affordable yet still reliable.
 
Mj882 said:
Cheers guys, will 16GB be enough or is 32GB recommended?

Also, I'll be applying the GH2 Hack as well - are there any preferences for the hack?
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A 16GB will get you less than 1 hour recording time on the GH2vk at 50Mbps 1080 24p. Speedwise, class 10 16GB or 32GB makes no difference.
 
I've heard recently of several people having problems of one kind or another with Kingston SD cards, so I'd suggest avoiding those.
 
I have a bunch of Sandisk class 4 and 6 and transcend class 10's both 16gb and 32gb. They all have been great. The Kingston cards I got before doing research here (and having no problems with their CF cards) were dead within a week.
 
I try to buy from a reliable store since there are a lot of fake cards out there on ebay. Not saying that the card you posted was fake but they are floating around.
 
tommyp said:
I try to buy from a reliable store since there are a lot of fake cards out there on ebay. Not saying that the card you posted was fake but they are floating around.
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+1

I use Transcend 16GB (Class 10) I have 6 of them, I have not had any problems, but I do make sure I use reliable retailers.
 
Camera Expert said:
I've used PNY class 10 cards on a SD600, GH1, GH2 and a Z5u and so far no issue.
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I'm not sure which PNY Class 10 card I have, but one of my GH2 shots failed last night using 24H 32mbps. There was no failed message, but the shot in real low light of a chair with a backing mesh drove the bit rate to its the limit. I did not know this until I viewed this 30 second shot which garbled the last half of the clip.

I will test this SD card with Crystal Disk Mark (download free Here) this evening and compare it to my Sandisk Extreme 16GB 30MB/s Class 6.
 
+ 1 with Stephen and Noah on the Panny Gold and Sandisk Class 10 cards. No problems at all. Shot a one hour presentation the other night on 16 gig cards and no dropped frames.....pretty amazing when you stop and think about how much info is on that little tiny card.
Also don't forget to make formatting the card part of your ritual each and every time you shoot.
 
Mj882 said:
Cheers guys, will 16GB be enough or is 32GB recommended?

Also, I'll be applying the GH2 Hack as well - are there any preferences for the hack?
Click to expand...

OK...

for the brands: I'd say follow the advice you get in these forums


For the capacities, it depends on what you're shooting:

a)For long shooting, (weddings, interviews, events where you'll have few chances to swap cards), use bigger capacity if you can afford them;
b) For scripted shoots, use lots of smaller-sized cards, if possible in different colours. This helps speed things up in post. An advantage of using the smaller sizes is the price per GB is usually right in the sweet-spot.

Re GH2-Stalin cameras, I'd say we'll all be revising our card sizes upwards.

Now, a final word re reliability. Files on cards don't just either (1) work, or (2) not work! As with any storage medium, video files on an SDRAM card can remain in that slightly-corrupted state they call "marginal." Such a file, even after being copied from a card to a hard drive can retain its marginal status. The worst part is we never know - until we try to work with that file.

So, for mission-critical video files:

a) Copy them to a hard drive ASAP;
b) Back up by converting to another codec, (eg Quicktime if that's what you're editing in).

That way, when you've sent the actors home, the Apaches have burned the fort and your budget is looking grim, you can retreat to the editing with that smile of satisfaction that comes when you've got it all in the can.
 
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Many thanks for the responses guys.

Roberto - Great advice, I've taken all that into account.

I've opted for the Transcend 16GB Class 10 SDHC cards for the time being, and will most likely upgrade to the Panny Gold and Sandisks later.
 
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