Sd card digital camera
Kingston Canvas React Plus SDXC UHS-II memory card review
Digital Camera World Verdict
Kingston may not be the most widely-recognised memory card brand but the Canvas React Plus SDXC UHS-II card proves itself to be very reliable and a great choice for photographers looking for a more affordable alternative to better-known brands or CFexpress cards. Don’t expect to be able to record 8K raw video though - cameras demand CFexpress speed for that.
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Cons
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Slower than CFexpress
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Largest capacity still expensive
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Usual plastic construction
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Kingston Technology offers a fairly limited collection of memory cards with just three SD card series and three microSD series. The Canvas React Plus series is the flagship line of SD cards with capacities of 32GB, 64GB, 128GB and 256GB. The 32GB card is an SDHC card whereas the 64GB and larger cards are SDXC units.
The Canvas React Plus SD cards are UHS-II compliant and have a video speed class of V90, meaning the minimum data transfer rate is 90MB/s. They also have maximum read speeds of 300MB/s and write speeds up to 260MB/s. Consequently, they are capable of recording high-resolution images at fast continuous shooting rates or video at 4K or even 8K resolution.
Specifications
(Image credit: Angela Nicholson/Digital Camera World)Max read speed: 300MB/s
- Kingston Canvas React Plus SDXC 300MB/s at Amazon for $66.16
Max write speed: 260MB/s
Available capacities: 32GB, 64GB, 128GB, 256GB
Build and handling
SD cards have been the dominant memory card format for several years now and consequently, their form is very familiar to most photographers. A little larger and thicker than a standard UK postage stamp, SD cards aren’t as easy to lose as microSD cards but they don’t fee quite as robust as CFexpress cards .
(Image credit: Angela Nicholson/Digital Camera World)The tell-tale sign that the Kingston Canvas React Plus SD card is UHS-II compliant is that it has two rows off connection points on its rear rather than the single row that’s seen on UHS-I cards.
As usual, there’s a small sliding switch on the left of the card that enables the card to be locked or unlocked. This moves smoothly with appropriate resistance so it isn’t shifted too easily.
I’ve used the 128GB Canvas React Plus card in a wide range of cameras and it always slides in easily. It’s released by pressing down on the top edge so that pops out a little from the camera’s card slot and can be withdrawn.
Performance
(Image credit: Angela Nicholson/Digital Camera World)After using the 128GB Kingston Canvas React Plus SD card extensively, I can say without reservation that it’s reliable. It has performed flawlessly when I’ve shot on high-resolution cameras like the 45.7MP Nikon Z7 II at its fastest rate (10fps) and when shooting 4K video. It’s also proved capable of recording 8K video, however, it doesn’t allow the most demanding formats like 8K raw.
When the Z 7II was set to shoot uncompressed 14-bit raw files at 10fps, I was able to capture 39 images in a single sequence lasting just under 4 seconds. That’s just 9 images short of what Nikon claims is possible with a good CFexpress card. Switching to capture Fine* quality Jpegs extended the sequence to 96 images, taking around 9 seconds. Meanwhile, shooting Fine quality Jpegs sees 127 images captured in one blast - above the 113 claimed for with a CFexpress card.
In another real-world test, I was able to transfer around 9.7GB of images (100 Fine* Jpegs and 100 14-bit uncompressed raw files) from the Nikon Z 7II in 1 minute 44 seconds.
Blackmagic Design’s Disk Speed Test indicates that the Canvas React Plus SD card has a write speed of around 204MB/s and a read speed of 249MB/s. As usual, those speeds are a little lower than the stated maximums, but they’re very good. The software also indicates that the card can be used to record 8K raw video at up to 24p, but this may be limited by the camera.
Verdict
(Image credit: Angela Nicholson/Digital Camera World)Kingston isn’t one of the first names that springs to mind when considering buying a memory card and the price of the SDXC UHS-II card reflects that. Nevertheless, the V90 UHS-II SDXC proves to be a reliable card, enabling 4K and 8K video recording as well as delivering impressive stills burst depths with the highest-quality raw files that are only a little behind those claimed with faster and usually more expensive CFexpress cards.
While the 256GB card may be a bit too pricy, for $107.89/£127.19 at the time of writing, the 128GB card is very attractive with enough capacity for the average day’s shoot for all but the most prolific photographers.
Read more
Best memory cards
Best memory card readers
Why do some SD cards have two rows of pins?
Memory card symbols explained
Best CFexpress card s
What is CFexpress Type A?
Best CFast cards
Kingston Canvas React Plus SDXC 300MB/s: Price Comparison
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Angela has been testing camera gear from all the major manufacturers since January 2004 and has been Amateur Photographer’s Technical Editor and Head of Testing for Future Publishing’s photography portfolio (Digital Camera Magazine , PhotoPlus: The Canon Magazine , N-Photo , Practical Photoshop , Photography Week and Professional Photography magazines, as well as the Digital Camera World and TechRadar websites).
What Is an SD Card, and Which SD Cards to Buy
If you own a digital camera — be it a compact, mirrorless or DSLR camera — you need to pair it with an SD in order for it to save your photos and videos. Most digital cameras actually don't come with an SD card so it's kind of up to you, the photographer, to buy one that fits your digital camera and your shooting needs.
When searching for an SD card for your digital camera, there are a lot of different options out there and it can get complicated fast. Here are the basics you need to know.
What is an SD card?
An SD (Secure Digital) card is a small removable memory card that can be inserted in a number of different consumer electronics — including digital cameras, printers, laptops, smartphones and video game consoles (like the Nintendo Switch) — to save, store and transfer data. A lot of smartphones have transitioned to using Micro SD cards, which is a smaller (in size and capacity) version of an SD card.
The cards: SD, SDHC or SDCX?
There are a few different types of SD cards —SD, SDHC (Secure Digital High Capacity) and SDXC (Secure Digital Xtra Capacity) — but they all effectively do the same job: add storage to your digital camera. SD cards are older and generally have lower capacities and slower transfer speeds. SDHC and SDXC cards are newer (and better) types of SD cards that have higher storage capacities and faster transfer speeds. And yes, they're more expensive.
It's important to check which type of memory card your digital camera is compatible before buying one. Most new digital cameras should support three types of SD cards. If the digital camera is more than 10 years old, there's a decent chance it won't support support SDHC cards and SDXC cards because they weren't around, but that's a problem that should be pretty uncommon.
Why is speed important?
The speed of the SD card refers to two different speeds: there's the "write speed" and the "read speed. " The write speed is how quickly the SD card is able to record all the information while you're taking photo or video with your camera, while the read speed is how fast you can transfer data off of the SD card. The write speed and the read speed are typically the same on most SD cards.
The speed of an SD card is important as a quality-of-life feature, but it's crucial for people shooting with higher-end digital cameras. Higher-resolution photos and videos require an SD card to be fast so that it can record all the data as fast as possible. Most SD cards with a high-capacities generally also tend to have high speeds, so you don't have to worry as much about a high capacity card with a low speed.
If you don't see the speed of the SD card advertised, the other thing you want to look out for is its class rating. The SD Association (the governing body of SD cards) created a class system to help standardize SD card speed ratings, and each SD card is given a class rating. The higher the class rating, the faster the write speeds of the SD card
Here are the various classes and their minimum write speeds: Class 2 (2MB/s), Class 4 (4MB/s), Class 6 (6MB/s) or Class 10 (up to 10MB/s).
Why is capacity important?
SD card capacities are typically measured in gigabytes (GB) and range from just a handful of gigs up to 512GB. When deciding what SD card capacity you should get, you need to have a knowledge of what size photos or videos you're taking.
If you have a fairly modern mirrorless or DSLR camera, uncompressed RAW photos will take up in the neighborhood of 7 megabytes (MB) apiece. With this knowledge, you can fit about 325 photos on an SD card with a capacity of 16GB, or 650 photos on a 32GB card.
Videos take up more space than photos and complicate things in an additional direction; in addition to resolution and bitrate, you also need to factor in things like video length and aspect ratio. If you're shooting a 4K video at 60fps (which is pretty standard these days for action cameras, compact shooters and even smartphones), a 16GB card can store about ten 4K 60fps videos.
Some buying advice
• If you can, buy the most advanced card that your camera is capable of accepting.
• Buy from a well-known SD card maker, such as SanDisk or Lexar.
• Before buying an SD card, check to see if there are higher-capacity models available — you might be able to get better deal on one.
All that said, here are some great picks.
Lexar Professional Class SDXC (64GB)
Lexar
Best All-Around
The Lexar Professional line of SDXC cards is one of the best you can buy. Its boast Class 10 speeds and a relatively high capacity, and it's fully capable of handing your camera's 4K photos and videos. And it's still really affordable. This line ranges in capacities from 32GB to 1TB.
SanDisk Extreme SD (16GB)
SanDisk
Best Budget
The SanDisk Extreme SD line is a great affordable option. Despite its price, it still delivers relatively Class 10 speeds (up to 90MB/s) that are only a slight drop off from the Lexar Professional SDXC line (above). It's available in a range of capacities, from 16GB to 256GB.
SanDisk Extreme PRO SD UHS-II (64GB)
SanDisk
Best Upgrade
The SanDisk Extreme Pro is a beast of SDXC card. Its extreme fast read and write speeds — Class 10 — have made it a go-to choice for professional photographers and videographers who shoot in the highest resolution. It's available in capacities up to 128GB.
How to choose a memory card for photography and video shooting | Articles | Photo, video, optics
Any user of a camera or camcorder, when buying or in the process of using it, is faced with the choice of a memory card.
Which memory card should I choose?
Maybe you should use a memory card from an old device if this is not your first camera? But in this case, you may encounter insufficient speed of the memory card.
Using a slow memory card can result in some problems in operation: nine0003
- Burst mode does not work because the write speed of the memory card is too slow.
- Movie recording creates corrupted files or reduces the video resolution to match the speed of the card.
- When you press the shutter button, the camera does not immediately allow you to take a second photo (recording to the memory card).
- Movie recording creates corrupted files or reduces the video resolution to match the speed of the card. nine0012
- The camera freezes and the video cuts out suddenly when the maximum write speed of the memory card is reached, producing short movies.
So, let's say we don't have a memory card or the existing card is not compatible with the new device, doesn't fit in terms of speed or volume.
We have come to the choice of a new memory card. What do you need to know in this case?
Types and speeds of memory cards
First, you need to know what kind of memory card your device supports and what maximum write speed cards of this type can have. nine0003
The most common type of memory card at the moment is the SD card (Secure Digital) and its varieties. The format is developed by the SD Card Association, established by Toshiba, Sandisk and Matsushita. Two varieties are relevant: SDHC up to 32 GB and SDXC - 64 GB and above.
The so-called speed class indicates the maximum possible write speed. For example, there are 2nd, 4th, 6th, 10th grades. The class number indicates the minimum allowed write speed for the memory card in megabytes per second. nine0003
Speed class 10 cards are currently common - they, respectively, have a minimum speed of 10 Mb per second.
The UHS standard has also been introduced for SD cards - a high-speed data exchange protocol, within which there are also speed classes, denoted by Roman numerals. UHS Class 1 (denoted by the Roman numeral I enclosed in a U) has a minimum write speed of 10 Mb per second, UHS Class 3 is 30 Mb per second.
The card speed can be used as a multiplier, eg 133x. In this case, 1x corresponds to a speed of 150 KB per second. For example, a speed of 10 Mb per second corresponds to an index of 66x. Unfortunately, this standard does not specify what speed the memory card means: write or read. Therefore, manufacturers often indicate in this way the read speed, which is greater than the write speed and does not matter when photographing and when shooting video. nine0003
In the most convenient case, manufacturers directly indicate the speed of the memory card on the package and on the card itself, while if only one value is indicated, then this is most likely the reading speed (again, for advertising purposes, whichever is higher is indicated). If it is indicated that this is the write speed, then we can not guess and thank the manufacturer for this.
Another important point, and it should be emphasized: SDHC memory cards use the FAT32 file system, the maximum file size on which is 4 GB. Therefore, when recording, the maximum duration of one video will be limited (on most devices, about half an hour maximum). SDXC, on the other hand, uses the exFAT file system, which has no such limitation. nine0003
In certain cases (usually when the size of the device is small) microSD cards are used, but they have all the designations and standards correspond to SD cards, so we will not mention them specifically.
Many professional cameras use a Compact Flash memory card developed by Sandisk in 1994.
This type of card may have a higher speed and capacity than SD cards.
They almost always use the familiar “x” index with a numerical coefficient, where 1x = 150 Mb per second. nine0003
Also, the manufacturer may indicate the speed of the card, in megabytes per second, as with SD cards.
Also worth mentioning is the XQD memory card, which is used in the Nikon D4 professional camera and has a speed of 125 MB per second (until it is widely used).
So, we have decided on the type of memory card.
Memory card capacity
Naturally, one of the important characteristics when choosing a memory card is its capacity. It is logical that in this case the choice depends on who, how much space the photo or video taken on the device will take. For example, with the volume of one photo of 5 MB, 1 GB of memory will fit about two hundred photos. nine0003
However, for example, in Canon EOS 5DS the volume of only one RAW photo is 65 MB, that is, 100 photos (which is not so much) will take more than 6 GB.
Also, if you shoot 4K video, you need to take into account that one second in this quality can take at least 10 MB, that is, approximately 1 hour of shooting will fit on 32 GB.
The easiest way is to put a test card when buying a camera and see how many photos of different formats will fit on it. Further, it is easy to calculate how many photos or videos will fit on a particular volume. nine0003
High-speed load on the memory card
We have decided on the type of memory card and the volume. Now you need to understand what speed to choose.
We need that the load on the memory card (the maximum data stream that the device issues) does not exceed its maximum write speed.
So, what kind of information flow does a camera or video camera create when information is written to a card?
All modern cameras use the JPEG format when it is required to save photographs in acceptable quality with a minimum volume. Cameras designed for enthusiasts can save images in RAW format (“raw” format) for further processing in RAW converter programs. The RAW format for each manufacturer has its own file extension and takes up a different amount. nine0003
Also, cameras are capable of making a different number of frames per second: as a rule, high-level cameras have a higher “rate of fire” than simple “soap dishes”.
At the same time, cameras “can” record each photo in two formats at once (RAW + JPEG).
So, let's try to summarize information about several common models in a table: