ALL: What SD Cards do you use?

S

Speedster159

Active member
Just curious what cards do you use on the camera? Also do you use a Full-size SD or a MicroSD adapted to Full-size?

B&H Reccomends any Class 10 or higher card.
Panasonic USA Professional Video support reccomends any Class 4 or higher card.
And the PS mode 28Mbps says that a card that writes 3.5MBps is fine so theoretically a SanDisk Ultra would be enough with a Minimum of 10MBps.

EDIT: Figures above are specifically for the AC90.
 
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I have always found Panasonic's recommendations to be reliable. Remember that your camera was designed at a time when memory cards were slower and smaller in capacity than they are today, so even a relatively slow card by modern standards will probably work fine. I have several of those Sandisk Ultras and they work great in my AF100 (same formats and data rates, including PS mode, as your AC90).

Just as important is sticking with a sturdy and reliable brand. Sandisk is kind of the gold standard, along with Panasonic's own SD cards. I've had no trouble with Lexars either. There are a lot of counterfeit SD cards out in the marketplace, so I always order online from a reliable retailer like one of the big box camera stores, which I assume deals in large quantities directly with the manufacturer and can verify the provenance of the cards they sell.

I wouldn't use a microSD card except in an emergency. Using the adapter gives you twice as many moving electrical contacts in the signal path to become unreliable, and the cards are so small they are tricky to handle, easy to lose and impossible to label. And they lack the write-protect switch that gives you just a little extra confidence that your footage will make it from camera to post.

Even high end SD cards are really pretty cheap in the scheme of things compared to the value you put into gathering your footage. There's no gain, and plenty of potential downside, from trying to cut corners on media.

- Greg
 
I use the SanDisk Extreme memory cards in my camera (t3i), the SanDisk Ultra in my sound recorder, and plan on trying a Sandisk Extreme Pro soon.
 
BTW, I just stopped using the 3 original Panasonic 16GB cards that I bought with my first new HMC150. That was 6 years ago. Never felt like using others, because I knew these ones had worked so well. But I needed to get faster cards for use with others cams, so I put them out to pasture. But I never had a single issue with them. Card failure was my concern when I first went tapeless, but they have proved much more reliable than tape.
 
I was and still using Maxell 32GB CL10/U1 without any issues my camera rep sold me. I have been also using Sony 32GB CL10/U1 with no issues and they have a faster read speed.
Just about a week ago I got Sony 64GB U3 cards (4 pack) for $20 a piece after discount. It works fine and they can handle 4k when I am ready to get a 4K camera.

FYI: I now have a AC160A. My AC130 is soon to be my spare.
 
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