I was curious to find out just how much faster the new UHS-II SD card is in an X-T1 than an older type card. So I performed a down-and-dirty face off using a stop watch. I set the camera to all manual settings on the ISO, shutter speed, and also set it to manual focus so there would be no delays there, and performed the test shooting in RAW on high speed (8fps), starting the timer the instant the camera speed slowed down and began writing to disc, which was after 22 images.
The results?
My older SanDisk Extreme rated at 80MB/s took 15.46 seconds to write the images to disc. The newer SanDisk Extreme Pro SDHC UHS-II did the same thing in 8:49 seconds - almost twice as fast.
Funny thing is that when transferring the images to my hard drive over a USB 3.0 connection, both SD cards took about the same about of time, 47 sec for the older SD and 43 for the newer UHS-II.
Once the buffer filled in the camera and the card continued to shoot at a slower frame rate, the newer UHS-II card was still twice as fast writing to disc and slowed down to a frame rate at almost 3fps, while the older card slowed to a rate of only 1.4fps.
Admittedly, all this was done with a hand held stop watch and prone to some user error, but after several trials with consistent results, I'm convinced the speed difference is sufficient to justify the newer card.
Yet one more side benefit of the new X-T1 camera!
You can order the new 16GB SD UHS-II card here: BH-photo Amazon
You can order the new 32GB SD UHS-II card here: BH-photo Amazon
You can order the new 64GB SD UHS-II card here: BH-photo Amazon
The new Sandisk USH-II card reader cab be ordered here: BH-Photo Amazon
I see they have a new reader for these cards, were you using that too Tom? I ordered both cards and reader, but we are a bit slow to see any stock on these in Canada yet. Am also waiting (anxiously) for my new T1 too :)
ReplyDeleteGreat site Tom, I stop by every day. I enjoy your shots and shouts alike :)
Bradley
From what I've read, Bradley, the new card reader offers nothing more than a USB 3.0 connection for a dedicated SD card. I don't think it offers anymore speed boost than that. I was already using a USB 3.0 connection when I did by tests.
ReplyDeleteWill a UHS-II memory card speed up the process of transferring images from X-T1 to computer using a usb cable? Also my computer has 2 USB 3 ports. I pull the images directly from camera with a usb cable. I very seldom take my sd card out of the camera. I usually just transfer photos from camera with a usb cable.
DeleteYes, the UHS-II transfers much faster than UHS-I when transferring through a USB 3.0 port into a computer. That is one of the main reasons I use the cards even with my cameras that cannot take advantage of the speed. At least the computer transfer goes faster.
DeleteCheck for errors in your BH-photo referer links:
ReplyDelete1). Size in GB, not MB.
2). Bottom link for 64GB card.
3). I think that a bit faster speed comparing with SanDisk Extreme Pro rated at 95 MB/s just doesn't justify 3X price, for casual photograhers.
Thanks for catching the typos.
ReplyDeleteI agree with your assessment for casual photographers. You really need to be pushing the limits of consecutive frame shooting for such a high speed card to be worth the difference.
Can you comment on this http://aboutphotography-tomgrill.blogspot.ru/2014/02/adobe-photoshop-camera-raw-84-now.html?showComment=1393253368238#c3112744366752101009 ?
DeleteVery useful review, thanks!
ReplyDeleteYou will need to purchase a UHS II enabled card reader to achieve UHS II speeds on your computer.
ReplyDeleteCorrect. A UHS-II card reader is now available from Sandisk. See the link at the end of the blog post.
ReplyDeleteThere is a problem when using ush-II card with x-t1 - write errors and data lost. You can read user's comments here http://photofocus.com/2015/04/09/uhs-ii-sd-card-speed-shootout-memory-for-the-fujifilm-x-t1/
ReplyDelete