Beginner SD Card for 70D - Sandisk Extreme vs Extreme Plus?

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Broric

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I need to get a couple of new 32GB cards and previously I've always gone for the Extreme Plus (80MB/s) cards but wondered if there's any benefit from the Plus version?

Looking online there seems to be conflicting advice so any help would be appreciated :-)
 
I believe the limiting factor here is the speed at which your camera can write the files to the card and not the cards speed. Not sure of the Canons write speed, this would be worth investigating before splashing out on cards that offer 80mbs speed.
 
I am looking at buying a few cards as my backups have vanished. The ones i normally use have gone up in price, to double what I paid for one. So I've been doing some Googling on speeds and came across this site:

http://www.robgalbraith.com/camera_wb_multi_page8e34.html?cid=6007-12454

It doesn't have a huge number of cameras tested, nor a huge number of cards but there are some from the main brands. So maybe you will find your camera on there. I use a D7000, and its on there. For the D7000, it seems to cap out at between 24-25Mbps for raw except on 95MBps cards.
So I'm not going to bother shilling out for a 95Mbps one unless the price difference is minimal.

Edit: Also remember that the advertised speeds are for reading, not writing. Chances are unless you're on a high end camera you will not see any difference.
 
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Writing to camera will be limited by how fast camera can write. But I go for faster cards so can upload to computer more quickly too.
 
Broric said:
I need to get a couple of new 32GB cards and previously I've always gone for the Extreme Plus (80MB/s) cards but wondered if there's any benefit from the Plus version?
Click to expand...

As noted above, the end result depends on both the card and the body. In the 70D's case, you apparently run into a ceiling at about 36MB/s, with the Extreme Plus and Extreme cards faring virtually identically.

http://www.cameramemoryspeed.com/canon-70d/fastest-sd-cards/
 
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Porsupah said:
As noted above, the end result depends on both the card and the body. In the 70D's case, you apparently run into a ceiling at about 36MB/s, with the Extreme Plus and Extreme cards faring virtually identically.

http://www.cameramemoryspeed.com/canon-70d/fastest-sd-cards/
Click to expand...
I was just about to post exactly this! I used this website to work out how best to match SD and CF cards on a d800. It definitely helped me not spend too much on the top of the range cards.

omens said:
But I go for faster cards so can upload to computer more quickly too.
Click to expand...

That is true, I'm guessing this would also depend on your computer/memory card reader transfer speeds too.
 
rob-nikon said:
I was just about to post exactly this! I used this website to work out how best to match SD and CF cards on a d800.
Click to expand...

At the risk of hijacking the thread (eep!) - do you know if the D800 writes to both cards literally simultaneously, when configured for "send everything to both cards", or is it like the D7x00, where it will write to one card, then the other, thereby taking twice as long? (Of course, the time I experimented with that configuration was the day when the local rabbits were in feisty form, so I was running repeatedly into the D7100's *ahem* bijou buffer. Thankfully, rarely an issue. Still, knowing the cards are capable of around 3fps and hearing the shutter release much less frequently when there's a frenetic chase going on.. live and learn)
 
Porsupah said:
At the risk of hijacking the thread (eep!) - do you know if the D800 writes to both cards literally simultaneously, when configured for "send everything to both cards", or is it like the D7x00, where it will write to one card, then the other, thereby taking twice as long? (Of course, the time I experimented with that configuration was the day when the local rabbits were in feisty form, so I was running repeatedly into the D7100's *ahem* bijou buffer. Thankfully, rarely an issue. Still, knowing the cards are capable of around 3fps and hearing the shutter release much less frequently when there's a frenetic chase going on.. live and learn)
Click to expand...

Sorry I don't know, the D800 is known for not having the fastest buffer and 4fps at high speed. I do use the backup function to write to both cards, I'm not sure it writes to both at the same time or one at a time. I do find the d800 fps feels slower than the d7100, there is a noticeable difference betepween the d7100 and d800 if you continuously take photos.
 
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omens said:
Writing to camera will be limited by how fast camera can write. But I go for faster cards so can upload to computer more quickly too.
Click to expand...

For the larger cards this can be a factor to consider.
 
I've got 95mb/s SD cards for my 70D. I use fast cards for future proofing so that I don't need to buy faster if I upgrade of if I fill the card entirely and need to move the files to the computer. The camera will limit the card to it's own speeds but that doesn't bother me for the mentioned reasons.

There's nothing wrong with buying faster than you need as there'll always be a benefit somewhere plus these cards are like £30 which is unlike buying compact flash cards for the pro cameras which can cost quite considerably more.
 
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