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Good cheap SDHC for hacked cameras
  • Hi All,

    What are the best/fastest SDHC cards you guys have had success with for HD videos with GH1 without breaking the bank?
    I'm looking to buy a class 10 but what brands/type(speed/transfer rate/kind) would you recommend? I'm not concerned about the size(GB) of the card but I am keen about the type of the card.

    I'm your average/casual user.

    Please let me know what's the best price/performance point for a good SDHC? Patriot seems good but then sandisk are supposed to be the best. Aren't they but there are just so many choices. Not sure which ones will even work with GH1. The site just says SDHC.

    Thanks in advance.

    Vishal
  • 66 Replies sorted by
  • I don't know if it's weird or not, but since I own GH2 with Sanity v5 patch installed, I use SDHC card 16GB Class 6 without any issues. Is that normal?!?

    I tried many patched with the same success, only Flow Motion videos can't be played back in the camera, otherwise they are successfully recorded and can be played back and edited fully on the computer.

    In that matter, I want to ask: is it possible to have a quality loss although the videos are recorded on the Class 6 card without any problems?

  • Post removed

  • update on silicon power 16gb class 10 cards. The price on these dropped to 980yen locally, and I have tested with CM Night, and some of Driftwoods newest patches, and this card works flawlessly in all modes. They have a couple 32GB cards at the shop for 2400yen I am tempted to snatch up, but it seems all cards are dropping in price right now, so I may wait a bit.

  • hello everyone, hello @thepalalias

    I wanna try FlowMotion v2 or Apocalypse Now. What kind of cards I have to buy ?

    Transcend 64 GB Class 10 SDXC Ultra Speed 25MB/S Flash Memory Card TS64GSDXC10 http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004XIB9T6/

    Or SanDisk Extreme Pro 64 GB SDXC Class 10 UHS-1 Flash Memory Card 95MB/s SDSDXPA-064G-X46 http://www.amazon.com/SanDisk-Extreme-UHS-1-Memory-SDSDXPA-064G-X46/dp/B005LFT3UW/

    Or SanDisk Extreme 64 GB SDXC Class 10 UHS-1 Flash Memory Card 45MB/s SDSDX-064G-X46 http://www.amazon.com/SanDisk-Extreme-Class-Memory-SDSDX-064G-X46/dp/B0070WU51U/ref=pd_cp_pc_2

    Or SanDisk Extreme 32 GB SDHC Class 10 UHS-1 Flash Memory Card 45MB/s (SDSDX-032G-X46) http://www.amazon.com/SanDisk-Extreme-Class-Memory-SDSDX-032G-X46/dp/B004Q3C98S/ref=pd_cp_pc_3

    I need to record long interviews (+ 1 hour) and outdoor shootings. 1024/24

    Actually, I'm lost. I really don't know what to choose. Do I need 45 MB/s or 95 MB/s ? How many minutes can I shoot with a 32 GB and with 64 GB ?

    Also, I'm planning to try the GH3...

    Thank you so much.

  • I just ordered the 64gb Patriot fast version which is on sale at Newegg for $35 if you include the rebate. Will report when it arrives. On paper, it is very fast, 50 read 35 write. Part PEF64GSXC10233.

  • sandisk 45mb/s 32gb are cheap here for under 30 euros. they give me no problems with driftwoods quantum 9b - streamparser showing 118 mbit/s :)

  • Nice well I bought the more expensive one now with a nice new fast card reader to make sure I know all my speeds will report back about my old card once I am sure of what happend...

  • Out of in the moment necessity I picked up 2 Silicon Power 16gb class 10 cards, for the lovely price of 1100 yen each (about $13 USD). On L mode using Sedna A max detail their were zero issues. In H mode it seemed to crash around 30 seconds in, but that is 20 seconds longer than my other lower end card. Maybe with some gentle persuasion the SP card may not crash. Either way top version of the top hack, so I suspect these cards will perform very well on most other hacks. These are last years cards too, hence the price. I am very impressed, and the price can't be beat.

  • @thepalalias Ok well as I dont know how far I will go with the hacks yet and 32GB is enough for me for now I went and got the http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B005LFT3QG/ref=oh_details_o00_s00_i02 san disk pro and if I get any errors with the low spec hacks ill cry... :D ill report back later

  • @vtablix SanDisk tended to make products that exceeded the specifications of a given class. They have class 6 cards that go way beyond class 6 and class 10 cards that go way beyond class 10 bandwidth, etc. Also, some of their high-performance cards were released before the class 10 designation started being used (so you had "class 6" cards that were way faster than competitors class 10 ones).

    But what I have not encountered is a legitimate SanDisk card that peformed below the class rating.

    For compactflash cards, if a SanDisk and Transcend card had the same speed rating (and mind you, the speed ratings are more consistently specific for CF cards) then the Transcend performance tended to be 80 to 85% of a similarly rated SanDisk card. In the U.S., that means you are typically getting >80% of the performance for 50 to 60% of the price, so they are a good value.

    It is not that the speed ratings do not matter, it is that different brands treat them differently. SanDisk is one of the most stringent in their ratings.

    Honestly, due to how much is changing with the GH2 hacked settings (and how frequently) it is no surprise that is difficult to be sure whether a given card will work with a given setting, etc.

    But the good news about the most expensive card I mentioned (the SanDisk 64GB 95MB/s) is that it is not just one of the highest performing ones, it is also very frequently tested.

    Anyway, Transcend, Delkin or SanDisk - possibly Lexar. But I would not mess with other brands at the moment because there simply is not enough testing data to make good suggestions.

  • @thepalalias Yer but my card is class 10 and not working 100 percent with no adverse effects which is reported to work 100 percent with class 4s (the test was 92Mbps on my laptop with it - way above the 42Mbps needed on paper - very strange!). Also what I saw on a shoot out was some class 4 cards were in the top 3 and some class 10s were in the bottom 2 and then there was burst rates etc. so it just made me think its not so clear cut. All very confusing but I am just thinking Ill get a fast one and it'll clear things up with weather its that as a problem.

    Hmmm to buy 45 or 95 is tricky but I am wondering if I want to try other things later or use it on other cameras - ill decide tmrw - thanks...

    Not liking the wrong info amazon have posted on that link: "can be used with a huge range of devices, boasting super-fast Class 6 data transfer speeds of up to 30MB/s, making it ideal for the capture of HD video" :O

  • @vtablix Keep in mind, a class 4 card is supposed to have a minimum write speed of 4MB/s (so only 32mbps). It makes sense that it would have trouble with even Sanity 5 (38mbps).

    As far as cards, a class 10 Transcend card is rated for at least 10MB/s minimum write speed (80mbps) so you could run several of the moderate hacks just fine.

    A SanDisk 30MB/s, 45MB/s or 95MB/s or a Delkin 633x (with a 95MB/s read speed and a write speed of at least 80MB/s) would be my suggestion for anything more demanding than that.

    And remember that if you want longer record times, you also do not want your bitrate to go too high. Try FlowMotion 2.02, Cluster 6, Sanity 5, Natural or No Adverse Effects.

    Here is a less expensive cards from the same site (also SanDisk, shipped by Amazon) that should do well with settings designed for longer record times. I would try that one first and only get a more expensive one if you need it.

    http://www.amazon.co.uk/Sandisk-32GB-Extreme-Video-Memory/dp/B00428N88M/ref=sr_1_38?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1347404022&sr=1-38

    I am guessing you are in the U.K. from your mention of prices, so I would mention that some of the settings are much better for 25P HBR than others. Back before Driftwood released Canis Majoris, I had a chance to test a lot of settings on SanDisk 95MB/s 64GB, Delkin 95MB/s 16GB and a Transcend Class 10 64GB. In 25P HBR mode, many Driftwood settings had difficulty, even with the SanDisk 95MB/s 64GB.

    Sedna AQ1 A, Sedna Q20 A and Mysteron all worked properly but did not span in 25P HBR on that high-end card. FlowMotion 2.02 spanned in a wider variety of modes on a wider variety of cards.

    Also, you can get a rough idea of the card overall performance (not GH2 specific) by finding it in Rob Galbraith's database. http://www.robgalbraith.com/bins/multi_page.asp?cid=6007

  • @thepalalias Yer thanks I have been researching and I get the feeling read write speeds dont tell the full story and some class 4 cards are better than class 10 in some test I saw :O ! So it does feel more like the card cant handle something like you say maybe a burst or something even though it appears to be way above whats needed. I was trying all settings and I am pretty sure it was the top / more stressful that was tripping it up - I need to be using most of these settings so I guess sandisk extreme pro it is then! I would rather not spend £100 right now so Ill get the 32GB for £50 and that will be enough for now - I am pretty sure I can get at least an hour on that with the low hacks yer? Should be enough as I shoot mostly a matter of seconds in my shots. Luckily my wife needs a new sd card for her snappy camera so she will get this old one heh I shall report back if anything more crops up :P

    lol first time I seen a product with 0 1 star review on amazon: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B005LFT3QG/ I see some people warn against amazon but this is directly from them and all those reviews :O and Ill test it quick and send it back if its fake :D ...cheers!

  • @vtablix I am afraid that it does not sound like your card can take advantage of the increased bitrate for any of the hacks. Sanity 5 is only 36 mbps and sometimes the files are even smaller than un-hacked settings.

    Honestly, I have not even tried class 4 cards during my testing and my guess is that the Class 4 cards that were tested were from the higher performance brands.

    But, before we give up on this completely, what mode and framerate/resolution were you shooting? The 24L mode will work at lower bitrates than 24H. Keeping the lens in manual focus will keep the camera from working too hard, and the same goes for making sure that iDynamic and IR are disabled. Also, shooting without ETC is more stable than shooting with ETC mode engaged. And just like 24L uses less than 24H, keep that for other framerates "H" uses less than "SH" and "FH" less than "FSH".

    But if you want to use the hacked settings more fully, you really should get at least at Transcend Class 10 card.

  • @thepalalias Ok well thanks for the help I am trying out sanity 5 from here: http://www.personal-view.com/talks/discussion/2642/sanity-4-and-5/p1 ah yep its just crashed - doing the canceled due to writing limitation of card messages. Ok I hmmm argh it should work surely?! Is there anything else that might affect it? I see I got 1.4 software for the lens which is 14 -140 HD mega ois lens. Maybe I should re-format the card on a PC and start again? I was using no adverse effects before sanity 5 and its reported to be working with class 4 cards and my test show this card is fast enough by quiet a way - strange :( ...confused. Thanks for any help...

  • @vtablix Write speed errors can come up if you have a lot of detail suddenly and the card happens to be hitting a "minimum write speed" moment. That is why some of the cards are rated much higher when they are needed for a high performance setting. For example, I used a card with a write speed of 80 MBps (so 640 mbps) to make sure I would not have any chance of problems whenever I used one of the more demanding settings. But that is a topic for another time.

    Until you get a faster card (if you decide you want to do that) you may want to try No Adverse Effects and Sanity V5. They are 2 of the lower bitrate settings I can think of off the top of my head, but I only have shot professional material with Sanity 5, so I cannot tell you much about No Adverse Effects.

    A SanDisk Extreme 30MB/s or 45MB/s would perform much, much better than what you have. If you cannot afford that, a Transcend Class 10 (black label) 32GB should be somewhere between what you have and the SanDisk cards I just mentioned. I used to use one to run some 60-75 mbps settings without any trouble.

  • @thepalalias Ok I am a noob so sorry about that so now I am assuming just about all hacks are in megabits and SD in megabytes - I have just used the h2testw 1.4 program as the usbflashspeed program didnt work unfortunatly (couldnt find the drive due to error). And the speed was 11.5 MBps (megabytes per second) I thats like 92 Mbps (bits :D ) ok that makes sense. The maximum setting in the hack I am using is 42 Mbps well under and out of about 10 videos one crashed saying the transfer rate was not fast enough or something like that (was too fast and only on screen for a second). It also crashed / froze the viewer just after it finished this particular shot and I had to take the battery out to turn it off - couldn't turn it off with the on off. The camera was fine in the original 1.1 firmware -so it all looks like it should just work but I am stuck :( .

    @duartix see above :D

    I suppose it might be helpful if someone could direct me to very stable low end settings using the hack?

  • @vtablix

    Just to rule out any possible misunderstanding, are you sure that both are being measured using the same abbreviation?

    MBps = MegaBytes/second mbps = megabits/second

    18MBps = 144 mbps

    If your card could only handle 18 mbps, it could sometimes struggle just with the factory settings.

    Cheap newer class 10 Transcend cards (like the 32GB ones with black labels) do a lot better than that and can properly handle several moderate settings. I have not tested the card you mentioned.

  • @duartix Ok thanks - will have to do tmrw - I think someone already did it and it was around 18 Mbps max write but I will test...which makes me think how the hell do cards like this handle a 42 Mbps hack :O ?!

  • @vtablix Benchmark it first. Then you'll have an idea of what it's really capable of. http://usbflashspeed.com/

  • I am having trouble with a hack which is apparently stable even on class 4 cards! I was wondering if it could possibly be my SD card? See here: http://www.verbatim-europe.co.uk/en_1/product_sdhc-(class-10)_8995_0_34141__14187.html For a start how can this card rated at supposed 10MB up and down speeds actually manged to record at a 42MB top speed that I am using in the hack?...thanks!

    Just incase the post looks weird I was told to post here by Vitality...

  • @iket

    @tinbeo

    We have separate topic for SDHC deals in Marketplace.

  • http://www.amazon.com/dp/B007BZRXKM/

    This might be a good deal also because it included the rescue software.