SD Express - Revolutionary Innovation for SD Memory Cards

Wow, that is a lot of data to put through an SD card. This paves the way for RAW video to become just as common as RAW photos in cameras. Hopefully a farewell to highly compressed 8bit 4:2:0 land forever. Faster memory might help balance out the CPU bottlenecks that higher resolutions are bringing. Being able to acquire with less compression takes the load off of the CPU at the editing stage. Yes the files are larger but storage has become quite affordable. I think the trade is better in the long run to stop this ultra compression approach and bring more data home with you from a job. It is kind of the one area where cell phones will always be trapped in consumer design.
 
GH6 with ProRes RAW... would be incredible.

Does this mean v90 SD cards are pretty much outdated before they really got off the ground?
 
"The SD Association has announced the introduction of SD Express. Changes allow for PCIe and NVMe interfaces to be used on the legacy SD interface offering up to 985 MB/s of throughput on the new SD 7.0 specification.
Previously, SD cards were limited to 2TB with SDXC but will now be able to scale all the way up to 128TB using SD Ultra Capacity (SDUC) cards. The microSD form factor will also receive SD Express. Even though the technology may not be ready to put all that storage into a standard form SD card today, this removes one of the barriers."

Unclear when it will be available.
Costs?
So..for use on legacy slots, does this mean a cable to external interface?
 
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Keep in mind that a faster interface doesn't mean faster media. If the bottleneck nowadays is the speed of the memory chips, then all this does is remove the interface bottleneck before it appears. But you still have to push on the chip speed front.
 
"Something to look forward to: Higher capacity SD cards with much faster read and write speeds are on the horizon with the introduction of the SD 7.0 specification."
Question is...how much "forward"?
I know unrealistic for a number of reasons, but this would be tremendous if it could be implemented on a not so "forward" cam like BMPCC 4k.
Not that the dangling Samsung USB drive isn't attractive...
 
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https://www.anandtech.com/show/1302...sd-70-spec-sd-express-interface-up-to-985-mbs

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Yay! Yet another standard/spec/media that we will have to buy. My old P2, CF cards, SD and now CFast 2.0 cards were getting lonely, they need another new neighbor in the card holders in my camera bags!
 
Considering the cost of SD cards capable of the 400mbps from the GH5 and EVA1 I'm not going to hold my breath that these will be at a realistic price point anytime soon. Hopefully they at least drive down the cost of the V60 and V90 cards where those become the bottom feeder cards you can pick up at a drug store.
 
There has not been any UHS-III cards out yet so I don't think SD Express will be out anytime soon but the 2020 GH6 should have dual SD Express slots good for 8K 60p !
 
Madness. I was at the LA Final Cut Pro User Group last night for the 18th Anniversary meeting. A lot has changed in the industry since we began that group in 2000. What I observe now is the snake is eating it's own tail. If you think about it, they industry has kind of ran out of things to sell it's customers in a way. The transition from SD to HD was big. Huge. Significant, not only upped the resolution but took us out the 4x3 world and brought television into the aspect ratio world that film shooters had taken for granted for three quarters of a century. Major change, billions of dollars spent to make it, it took forever. But since then?

Resolution wars. Pointless and obviously a money grab. 3D, a bust like anyone who had studied a little history knew it would be. VR, meh, interesting and survives on as a different animal than "digital cinema/video", it's viable as a format but won't likely soon take over "narrative" or "television" but those terms are becoming more blurry by the moment. HDR? Meh, interesting incremental idea but nothing revolutionary. Full format/frame, the latest ploy to make you buy a new camera and new lenses you don't need. Arguably a barely lateral move, not really an improvement for 99% of users and definitely a poor value proposition at this time. Makes me wonder if we are finally reaching a bit of stasis in our industry? My career has already gone through two periods of relative stasis, the Betacam era and the S16/35mm era. Sure, things changed then but much more slowly. My first Betacam made me a lot of money for almost six years. My Arri SR2, even longer. I can't imagine buying any camera on the market today and expecting it to be commercially viable for 6 or 8 or 10 years, can you?

To be fair, card format wars are just the newest version of tape format wars. I was at NAB, cannot recall the year (mid 90s?) and I remember visiting Sony's booth and seeing Betacam SP, Betacam SX, MPEG IMX, Digital Betacam, HDCAM, HDCAM SR, all displayed in one booth in one year. And those were just the high end formats, at the same booth you had Mini DV, DVCAM and a few others as well. And that was just Sony, Panasonic was doing all of their variants too. So I guess some things never change.
 
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joe1946 said:
There has not been any UHS-III cards out yet so I don't think SD Express will be out anytime soon but the 2020 GH6 should have dual SD Express slots good for 8K 60p !
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Mmmmm, that is tasty! Would love to have some 8K 60p on an 8K OLED!
 
puredrifting said:
Madness. I was at the LA Final Cut Pro User Group last night for the 18th Anniversary meeting. A lot has changed in the industry since we began that group in 2000.
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Takes time, but after twenty years things really look different. Ha!

puredrifting said:
What I observe now is the snake is eating it's own tail. If you think about it, they industry has kind of ran out of things to sell it's customers in a way.
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They kind of screwed themselves with the term "High Definition". Nowhere to go from there.


puredrifting said:
The transition from SD to HD was big. Huge. Significant, not only upped the resolution but took us out the 4x3 world and brought television into the aspect ratio world that film shooters had taken for granted for three quarters of a century. Major change, billions of dollars spent to make it, it took forever. Buit since then?
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It felt bigger only because of how set our industry was in NTSC. But HD is digital. Computers had been doing it for years. Once you go digital, resolution is a non issue. What sucks is the way 4k and 8k is marketed and therefore understood by most people: buzz words. Even though most people are happily watching 720p at home on their 4K sets, they are just glad they have a "good" TV. The kind of thing they can buy for Christmas and everyone can see the "HD" or "4k" or whatever marketing "better" is on the box.

I felt the BIG change during the "HD era" was going digital. Because once you go digital, all the rules change. Content is freed from analog rules. You can have any resolution, frame ratio, or whatever. Things like modular CLED can exist.

1080HD resolution was always a compromise and a stepping stone. 16:9 is too. Always hated those two. 16:9 is so boring. Doesn't do anything. HD is not impressionistic and beautiful like SD was, and at the same time, it doesn't resolve fine detail like 8K, so you don't get those photorealistic textures and gradients. You know it is going to be awesome when you can put your Nikon D950 images up on an 8K OLED. Because you aren't going to print them all that size!



puredrifting said:
Resolution wars. Pointless and obviously a money grab.
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While true, I am happy for more resolution. The sad thing is the push for camera owners to be the first to adopt, when it is actually not important. People should be buying 8K TV's so they can look at their family photos or for having more information on screen when studying or learning. Resolution is always cheap for the masses. But highend video early adopters get totally screwed! And for irrelevant reasons!

The reasoning is to produce 8K content so the consumer is compelled to get an 8k TV.... It should be the other way around. People should be getting 8K TV's and then as bandwidth gets faster, and 8K technology gets cheaper, then camera guys get 8K cameras. Because people with 4K TV's are happy with their TV's even though they rarely ever watch 4K, except for movie night. So, why would every camera owner op or broadcast business have to go 8K before people even care?

The marketing should focus on the benefits of having a photorealistic display as an interface in the home for so many other things than just watching the game, or watching a movie. Make people feel like they are living in a Sci-Fi and have a huge 88" retina display that they use for life, not just for vegging out. You don't need anything beyond 720p to be a couch potato. I still watch shows in SD if it is a good one.



puredrifting said:
3D, a bust like anyone who had studied a little history knew it would be. VR, meh, interesting and survives on as a different animal than "digital cinema/video", it's viable as a format but won't likely soon take over "narrative" or "television" but those terms are becoming more blurry by the moment.
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puredrifting said:
HDR? Meh, interesting incremental idea but nothing revolutionary.
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I feel HDR is very exciting. bring 10bit tech to affordable large displays. I am a fan.

puredrifting said:
Full format/frame, the latest ploy to make you buy a new camera and new lenses you don't need.
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I like APS-H, for motion. So, I enjoy the options. But the FF35 and Large format buzz words are very annoying. they do very little for most circumstances. No doubt it can be very beautiful, but I can't imagine most people really need it for motion capture. I still enjoy a good 2/3" camera.

puredrifting said:
Arguably a barely lateral move, not really an improvement for 99% of users and definitely a poor value proposition at this time.
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I like Full frame for fashion, art, and film world, but agreed, it seems too much like a craze.

puredrifting said:
me wonder if we are finally reaching a bit of stasis in our industry? My career has already gone through two periods of relative stasis, the Betacam era and the S16/35mm era. Sure, things changed then but much more slowly. My first Betacam made me a lot of money for almost six years. My Arri SR2, even longer. I can't imagine buying any camera on the market today and expecting it to be commercially viable for 6 or 8 or 10 years, can you?
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I don't think we are in a stasis. Digital just opens up the a lot of possibilities with out being tied to standards. There is a lot of room for niche. At the same time, we are in a good enough stage for most people. So, there is an overall lack of excitement for all of the really great changes happening.

puredrifting said:
To be fair, card format wars are just the newest version of tape format wars. I was at NAB, cannot recall the year (mid 90s?) and I remember visiting Sony's booth and seeing Betacam SP, Betacam SX, MPEG IMX, Digital Betacam, HDCAM, HDCAM SR, all displayed in one booth in one year. And those were just the high end formats, at the same booth you had Mini DV, DVCAM and a few others as well. And that was just Sony, Panasonic was doing all of their variants too. So I guess some things never change.
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Haha! it is relentless. We have VR, social media, and everything in-between now too.
 
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puredrifting said:
To be fair, card format wars are just the newest version of tape format wars. I was at NAB, cannot recall the year (mid 90s?) and I remember visiting Sony's booth and seeing Betacam SP, Betacam SX, MPEG IMX, Digital Betacam, HDCAM, HDCAM SR, all displayed in one booth in one year. And those were just the high end formats, at the same booth you had Mini DV, DVCAM and a few others as well. And that was just Sony, Panasonic was doing all of their variants too. So I guess some things never change.
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Had to be the 2000's. IMX was introduced around 2001 and SR was like 2003. MPEG IMX was originally designed as a sort of archival/editing/intermediary format, BUT they actually produced a camera that shot on IMX tape.
 
Coming soon to a camera near you: 128 TB of corrupted video because you somehow bought a counterfeit SD Express card.
 
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