Sandisk release world's largest SD card (for now)

[ricktas]

Sandisk have released, what is for the present time, the world's largest capacity SD card.

http://www.sandisk.com/about-sandisk/press-room/press-releases/2014/sandisk-premieres-worlds-highest-capacity-sd-card-for-high-performance-video-and-photo-capture/

http://www.sandisk.com/products/memory-cards/sd/extremepro-sdxc-sdhc-uhs-3/?capacity=512GB

[enseth]

Wow 512gb! Who needs a hard drive.

[bitsnpieces]

Too bad I don't have the money. :(

[MissionMan]

Can't fathom why you would need that much space unless you were headed away for a year but you could guarantee I would want to keep a backup anyway.

[arthurking83]

I'm assuming that it's an action made on the possible future of digital imaging.

We can only assume that they assume that more pixels are coming(in the form of a renewed Mp battle from Sony/Canon/Nikon) in the future .. plus the need to capture 4K video over a longer period of time.

Price of this card, as usual, is a bit silly at over $700.

[MissionMan]

I'm assuming that it's an action made on the possible future of digital imaging.

We can only assume that they assume that more pixels are coming(in the form of a renewed Mp battle from Sony/Canon/Nikon) in the future .. plus the need to capture 4K video over a longer period of time.

Price of this card, as usual, is a bit silly at over $700.

Yeah, I forgot about 4K, that would be sizeable and warranty large cards. A days filming could probably fill a 500GB card.

Apparently uncompressed is close on 32GB per minute. Not sure how many people would be shooting uncompressed but professionals may do

[Grant S]

The only question then would be whether the card is fast enough to handle uncompressed 4K video. Unless your camera has enough on-board buffer memory, the write to the card would take time and the volume may saturate the cards ability to write to it. Not looked into 4K cameras at all, but I know with the HD on my Canon and using a slower card, the buffering can become a problem, even with multi-exposure still images.

[arthurking83]

I don't think the idea of such memory is for 'uncompressed' video as such. Raw video capture generally requires external recorders running SSD drives.

I can't think of any consumer/semi pro type cameras that currently have the ability to do both 4K video and write to a removable type memory card, other than the Panasonic GH4.
Sony's A7s can't write 4K video to it's onboard memory card, and requires an external capture device.

If this new card is fully capable of achieving a guaranteed 45-50 MB/s write speed(which it should), then current 4K video formats should be fine to write directly onto the card(as long as camera processing data bandwidth capacity is up to the task too).

The GH4 seems to do 8 bit 4K video with at about 100Mbps which equates to about 12MB/s data rates.
It can't write to SD card in 10 bit 4K video mode tho, and requires an external recorder in this mode.

Sandisk claim 90MB/s write speeds for this card(and I doubt it .. I reckon it'll be more like 60 or so) so the card's write speed shouldn't be in question.

But to put this all into perspective at those rates of data capture roughly 12.5MB/s, a one minute video will capture approximately 750MB of data. (that's 10 D800 still images!)
As a rough guide 1 minute of video is pretty insignificant, and 10-20mins is a normal capture of something important.
That'll be 7.5 - 15 Gigs of video in those 10-20mins.

[ameerat42]

Thanks for that comprehensive explanation, AK. Sounds like much of what's "out there" is at the stage of gimmickry:(

[arthurking83]

..... Sounds like much of what's "out there" is at the stage of gimmickry:(

I think it just depends on your need(s).

In terms of video cameras such as the Pana and the Sony .. If I were looking for a new camera NOW(because I had to have it now and not in the future) .. I'd definitely be interested in either of them .. more so the Pana due to it's slightly higher quality .. sometimes more so in the Sony due to it's potential wider FOV. ( I have a philosophy that you never have enough FOV through the lens)

In terms of storage card .. I have no need for such a card .. but news capturing entities may have.
They could be sports shooters, conflict zone reporters, etc. At such prices, it would be ludicrous for average Joe's and Jane's like us to invest in such hardware.
I'd personally prefer to have 16 x 32G cards at about $50 each, rather than a single card like this due to the safety in numbers principle (*1).





(*1) Safety in numbers principle is based on the fact that you are going to lose a card at some point in your lifetime. Better to lose a fraction of the available storage space, or data captured, than to lose it all on just the one media card.

[phild]

I agree with Arthur's sentiments. I have a couple of 64gb flash cards and I worry at the prospect of one failing, full of images. My 64gb card will hold around 2,000 images at full res from a 6D, I often think I should have perhaps bought several 16Gb cards instead.

[Kym]

4K video and Pentax 645z :D

[ricktas]

I agree with Arthur's sentiments. I have a couple of 64gb flash cards and I worry at the prospect of one failing, full of images. My 64gb card will hold around 2,000 images at full res from a 6D, I often think I should have perhaps bought several 16Gb cards instead.

I think the camera companies are realising this concern by many newer models having two card slots, that you can use as you wish..fill one then the other, fill one and have the other take a copy of each image as well. My D800 is set to transfer each photo to each card, when taken. So I would need two cards to fail at the same time, to lose my photos taken.

[Analog6]

And if something goes wrong you have lost everything. Not for me - I use 8 - 16 Gb cards and have plenty of them.

[MissionMan]

Buy a new D750 with dual SD slots and put in 2x512's with one as a back up :p

[channeL7]

These would be good for video but for stills it is risky. Losing 16gb is painful. Losing 512 would be tragic and expensive. Especially when you can invest that money in other accessories.

[Kym]

Which is why dual slot cameras are becoming more common.

[arthurking83]

Speaking of losing data .. is it just me(or the age of my cards) .. or is Sandisk just a terrible brand of card.

I don't treat my memory cards with 'kit gloves' .. but neither do I come close to mistreating them in any way .. but I've had about 3 or 4 .. maybe even 5 .. all become totally corrupted, or becoming corrupted(slowly).

The corrupted cards so far have been a couple of micro SD's and at least one or two CF's .. I have one now sitting on my PC as a crash test dummy .. and just the other week, I've noted more corrupted images on the latest one .... so I think that's 3 CF cards now, but they're dropping like flies, and I'm losing count .. and running out of emergency backup cards (if needed).

The problem with the latest card now is 2 corrupted images out of about 500 shot, on a card that is a few years old now, but never given trouble until the other week.

I still have 512Mb and 1Gig cards, both CF and SD from so many years back, that are still perfectly fine ... so it's not age.
And most of those old cards are no name cheapo brands too(and heavily used).

Tell 'ya what Sandisk .. give me a card that lasts me 512 weeks, not 512 days .... 512Gig's are in a single unit is probably of no interest to many of us!

[freelancer]

Can't fathom why you would need that much space unless you were headed away for a year but you could guarantee I would want to keep a backup anyway.


Maybe to sit in speed cameras for weeks on end rather than pay someone to remove the card every few days.
Jon