My local Costco has regular and high speed micro sd cards on sale. The fast cards are labeled as suitable for 4K. Is this useful or just marketing BS?
high speed micro sd card
- Thread starter pixelzombie
- Start date
It is necessary to have a very fast card when recording 4K. Otherwise the videos might have parts with lower framrate and/or jumps. I am using the SanDisc Extreme Pro Series.
Need spec numbers. The word highspeed and 4k compatible dont mean anything with out spec numbers like UHS-1 U3 V30
Agreed... ignore the salesperson and advertising labels. Look at the specs of the card. Frankly the only relevant ones, are the U rating of U3 and a write speed of 80 MB p/s or better.
(b=bits, B=bytes)
OR better yet bits/bytes per second REQUIRED 'write' speeds !!
do not forget that unlike stills cam (DSLR type) which can be writing 20, 24, 42, 50 mega pixel RAW pictures needs fast writing just to be ready for next shot (24mp x 14bits = ~42mega BYTES per picture - that needs an extreme pro SD)!
If a 10x fps DSLR cam with 42mp then you need very high WRITE speed to clear the buffer for next shot(s), NOT SO for video !
video is EASIER on write speed, it is continuous and is only writing (4kHD) ~8mp frames at 30fps for the cg03/+ OR up to 100mbps/12.5mBps, so much less than above REAL DSLR example.
in the case of cg03, it is writing 4khd at a depth of 8 bits per pixel (~8mBps) or (HDR 4kHD is 10bits) so far less than the above DSLR example, so nearly any current uSD is good enuf.
we know more or less (can find out) the needed bit rate of the yuneec cameras (seems 60mbps or 100mbps) being used at your higher video setting, so you only need a card fast enuf for that bit rate plus a margin (the specs say UP TO).
it seems some modes of video are 100mbs which is 100/8 = 12.5 mBytes/sec WRITE speed (no reading allowed you are flying!).
so a mentioned above Sandisk extreme Pro which I believe has 'up to' 100 mega Bytes per second (800mbps!!) write speed, so ~8x over kill.
slower is cheaper ! I really think that a 20mByte/s write speed is surely adequate for the CG03/+ or a 40mByte/s card for the 100mbps C23.
btw a 64gb Sandisk extreme Pro uSD is $26.40 on amazon, the full size SD is $24, a 128gb extreme uSD (up to 60mBytes/ss write) is $38.40.
so even uSD cards that are way faster than needed are pretty cheap depending on size of course.
always buy for future use if cost is affordable, cards can last many years and many uses these days.
ps: i hate hate hate uSD cards, too small for my big hands, easy to hide under things if dropped, almost lose in pockets or cases, i hate hate hate them !
OR better yet bits/bytes per second REQUIRED 'write' speeds !!
do not forget that unlike stills cam (DSLR type) which can be writing 20, 24, 42, 50 mega pixel RAW pictures needs fast writing just to be ready for next shot (24mp x 14bits = ~42mega BYTES per picture - that needs an extreme pro SD)!
If a 10x fps DSLR cam with 42mp then you need very high WRITE speed to clear the buffer for next shot(s), NOT SO for video !
video is EASIER on write speed, it is continuous and is only writing (4kHD) ~8mp frames at 30fps for the cg03/+ OR up to 100mbps/12.5mBps, so much less than above REAL DSLR example.
in the case of cg03, it is writing 4khd at a depth of 8 bits per pixel (~8mBps) or (HDR 4kHD is 10bits) so far less than the above DSLR example, so nearly any current uSD is good enuf.
we know more or less (can find out) the needed bit rate of the yuneec cameras (seems 60mbps or 100mbps) being used at your higher video setting, so you only need a card fast enuf for that bit rate plus a margin (the specs say UP TO).
it seems some modes of video are 100mbs which is 100/8 = 12.5 mBytes/sec WRITE speed (no reading allowed you are flying!).
so a mentioned above Sandisk extreme Pro which I believe has 'up to' 100 mega Bytes per second (800mbps!!) write speed, so ~8x over kill.
slower is cheaper ! I really think that a 20mByte/s write speed is surely adequate for the CG03/+ or a 40mByte/s card for the 100mbps C23.
btw a 64gb Sandisk extreme Pro uSD is $26.40 on amazon, the full size SD is $24, a 128gb extreme uSD (up to 60mBytes/ss write) is $38.40.
so even uSD cards that are way faster than needed are pretty cheap depending on size of course.
always buy for future use if cost is affordable, cards can last many years and many uses these days.
ps: i hate hate hate uSD cards, too small for my big hands, easy to hide under things if dropped, almost lose in pockets or cases, i hate hate hate them !
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I actually just ordered a 128 Extreme Card as Best Buy has already started their black friday sales.
actually it depends on the size of the file and the speed of the electrical interface that is transferring the bits.
xfer a 3gb file and you will see a sustained speed w/ only small variation, and certainly much more that 50% or 33% of full write speed, it will be much closer and SHOULD be what it is capable of - this is the TO of UP TO.
now xfer a large web page with large # very small files, it will slow down bc of the overhead of opening and closing all of the files, updating the toc and other file overhead.
so writing video is much more like writing a large file, it is essentially continuous xfer of bits, no opening and closing of files, it is a single large file, whereas a DNG stills write is a sizable single file but then the next DNG comes along to be written.
The key difference is the fact that particularly with a larger chunk of data (for example, a fast moving pan), comes more buffering and introduction of artifacts showing up in the resulting video file. However, I have never seen a claim of a degraded quality DNG that could be attributed to writing errors.
You may call it overkill, but the bigger the data pipe, the less writing errors there will be. The faster the card, the bigger the data pipe... at least until the UHS-II capable cameras come out. The other factor is the size of the files being written. The DNG and JPG files written by the C23 are going to be considerably larger at 20 MP.
You may call it overkill, but the bigger the data pipe, the less writing errors there will be. The faster the card, the bigger the data pipe... at least until the UHS-II capable cameras come out. The other factor is the size of the files being written. The DNG and JPG files written by the C23 are going to be considerably larger at 20 MP.
i disagree a bit, the panning errors are the in-cam processing speed NOT the uSD writing speed, unless very very slow, if card can write at more than 100mbps then it is certainly NOT the card. Jiggly/Jello only further reduces the fast pan quality, the in-cam systems are simply not powerful enuf, still NOT the uSD card's fault.
UHS-II (SD 64gb $100) is yet to be used even in high end DSLR/MILC multi thousand dollar cameras, whereas some of the more PRO like cams are using CFAST cards (64gb $150) which can have 430mByte write speeds, i am disappointed that no UHS-II are used but then they are very expensive!
also the buffer size in a cam system is static, same size for stills or video, but if the cam's system processing is too slow then you are correct it does NOT process the video well or even throws away frames/sensor scans, NOT the fault of the uSD write speed.
It is the complete camera system, from the speed of read/scan of the sensor, the A/D processing, the demosaicing of the sensor data, noise reduction, sharpening, etc then transforming into either a video frame, a jpeg, or a DNG file. The video is being written as a stream of frames, jpeg,DNG to a file.
the buffering is of some depth, cams this cheap are not very deep, but all of the actual video/picture processing is sufficient to that buffer and if the uSD is fast enuf then the fast pans are just ugly, no fault of the writing speed of card, and the yuneec cams are not writing faster than 100mbits/s, which is just 12.5mByte/s, so not such a fast card is required.
BUT vid/pan is also based upon the fps of the vid, and since 30fps is NOT fast, then that is part of the reason for bad fast pans, i am guessing but a fast pan may need 240fps or more, much like those vids of bullets in flight but much less than that of course.
the cams in most drones are NOT high quality cams in the big scheme of cameras, they are just very basic P&S quality sensors/electronics, I would estimate the cam system is a <$50 item, you can spend much more for the lens for these cams, like $140+, these lens are offered and can be higher quality, but these are NOT professional grade cams, fine for UTube, but for professional you need much larger sensor (especially for low light) &/or much more computational processing, much like cell phones that look good use.
the C23 is a 1" sensor, the largest for non pro use, but that is still much smaller than a aps-c or 35mm DSLR/MILC sensor and they do not require a super fast SD card, for vid or stills.
professional type cams can/will output video of high quality via HDMI to external recorders, and some may record to very fast CFast type cards, more data from sensor to later process and edit, these drone cams are NOT that quality.
hollywood/professional cam setups are likely $50k and way more, go look at the cost of a RED system.
Write speed and pan quality also depends on the manner of the sensor scan, if a mechanical shutter (afaik all yuneec cams have this, does C23?) then you will get the wobbly/slanted straight line UGLY issue & pans will suffer even more, whereas if you have a fast GLOBAL shutter rate (electrical scan/reading of sensor, requires lots of access lines and fast reading processor) and a 'high' fps then you will get better looking fast pans.
so NO, ugly panning is likely hugely due to the in-cam processing speed NOT the uSD.
blurred 'fast' pans have been an issue since early days of filming, that is/was mostly 24fps (T Edison came up with that fps in 1930's iirc), and that is ONLY the speed that most ppl do NOT see FLICKER, same for a computer monitor, i could/can easily see a 100hz scan of monitor under ugly lights, many can - retention of image of the human eye varies a bit.
these days many professional movie directors like to capture even normal scenes at 48-96fps w/ digital and if a fast moving scene maybe even faster, but then the playback is still the same old display speed issue we all have.
UHS-II (SD 64gb $100) is yet to be used even in high end DSLR/MILC multi thousand dollar cameras, whereas some of the more PRO like cams are using CFAST cards (64gb $150) which can have 430mByte write speeds, i am disappointed that no UHS-II are used but then they are very expensive!
also the buffer size in a cam system is static, same size for stills or video, but if the cam's system processing is too slow then you are correct it does NOT process the video well or even throws away frames/sensor scans, NOT the fault of the uSD write speed.
It is the complete camera system, from the speed of read/scan of the sensor, the A/D processing, the demosaicing of the sensor data, noise reduction, sharpening, etc then transforming into either a video frame, a jpeg, or a DNG file. The video is being written as a stream of frames, jpeg,DNG to a file.
the buffering is of some depth, cams this cheap are not very deep, but all of the actual video/picture processing is sufficient to that buffer and if the uSD is fast enuf then the fast pans are just ugly, no fault of the writing speed of card, and the yuneec cams are not writing faster than 100mbits/s, which is just 12.5mByte/s, so not such a fast card is required.
BUT vid/pan is also based upon the fps of the vid, and since 30fps is NOT fast, then that is part of the reason for bad fast pans, i am guessing but a fast pan may need 240fps or more, much like those vids of bullets in flight but much less than that of course.
the cams in most drones are NOT high quality cams in the big scheme of cameras, they are just very basic P&S quality sensors/electronics, I would estimate the cam system is a <$50 item, you can spend much more for the lens for these cams, like $140+, these lens are offered and can be higher quality, but these are NOT professional grade cams, fine for UTube, but for professional you need much larger sensor (especially for low light) &/or much more computational processing, much like cell phones that look good use.
the C23 is a 1" sensor, the largest for non pro use, but that is still much smaller than a aps-c or 35mm DSLR/MILC sensor and they do not require a super fast SD card, for vid or stills.
professional type cams can/will output video of high quality via HDMI to external recorders, and some may record to very fast CFast type cards, more data from sensor to later process and edit, these drone cams are NOT that quality.
hollywood/professional cam setups are likely $50k and way more, go look at the cost of a RED system.
Write speed and pan quality also depends on the manner of the sensor scan, if a mechanical shutter (afaik all yuneec cams have this, does C23?) then you will get the wobbly/slanted straight line UGLY issue & pans will suffer even more, whereas if you have a fast GLOBAL shutter rate (electrical scan/reading of sensor, requires lots of access lines and fast reading processor) and a 'high' fps then you will get better looking fast pans.
so NO, ugly panning is likely hugely due to the in-cam processing speed NOT the uSD.
blurred 'fast' pans have been an issue since early days of filming, that is/was mostly 24fps (T Edison came up with that fps in 1930's iirc), and that is ONLY the speed that most ppl do NOT see FLICKER, same for a computer monitor, i could/can easily see a 100hz scan of monitor under ugly lights, many can - retention of image of the human eye varies a bit.
these days many professional movie directors like to capture even normal scenes at 48-96fps w/ digital and if a fast moving scene maybe even faster, but then the playback is still the same old display speed issue we all have.
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