# Which SD card for Canon 70d?



## Perio (Nov 7, 2014)

Hi guys, I hope you all are doing just fine. I ordered 70d to use in the dental clinic and I'm curious which SD card I should get. All cameras I used before had slot for CF card, so I'm not that knowledgeable about SD cards.

I did a quick search and found 3 SD cards with good reviews. *(i)* SanDisk Extreme Pro 64GB SDHC UHS-1 Speed Class 3 (U3) With Speed Up To 95MB/s ($90 on Amazon), *(ii)* Transcend 64 GB High Speed Class 10 UHS Flash Memory Card Up to 90 MB/s ($35 on Amazon) and *(iii)* SanDisk 64GB Extreme U3/UHS-I SDXC with up to 60MB/s Read; 40MB/s Write ($36 on Amazon). Which one should I pick up? Does it make sense to choose 95MB/s card vs. 60MB/s? Why is option (i) so much more expensive than option (ii)? If there are other good alternatives, I'm fine with that too. 

Thanks a lot!


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## beforeEos Camaras (Nov 7, 2014)

Perio said:


> Hi guys, I hope you all are doing just fine. I ordered 70d to use in the dental clinic and I'm curious which SD card I should get. All cameras I used before had slot for CF card, so I'm not that knowledgeable about SD cards.
> 
> I did a quick search and found 3 SD cards with good reviews. *(i)* SanDisk Extreme Pro 64GB SDHC UHS-1 Speed Class 3 (U3) With Speed Up To 95MB/s ($90 on Amazon), *(ii)* Transcend 64 GB High Speed Class 10 UHS Flash Memory Card Up to 90 MB/s ($35 on Amazon) and *(iii)* SanDisk 64GB Extreme U3/UHS-I SDXC with up to 60MB/s Read; 40MB/s Write ($36 on Amazon). Which one should I pick up? Does it make sense to choose 95MB/s card vs. 60MB/s? Why is option (i) so much more expensive than option (ii)? If there are other good alternatives, I'm fine with that too.
> 
> Thanks a lot!



hi I use the SanDisk 40mb uhs-i ones and found that's all I really need I can do burst of 15 before the buffer fills that's jpg large and raw combined and I don't know if your going to shoot high speed in a dental office. also I did read some place 45mb write is the most a canon crop and the 6d will do.


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## Perio (Nov 7, 2014)

beforeEos Camaras said:


> Perio said:
> 
> 
> > Hi guys, I hope you all are doing just fine. I ordered 70d to use in the dental clinic and I'm curious which SD card I should get. All cameras I used before had slot for CF card, so I'm not that knowledgeable about SD cards.
> ...



Thanks for your response! No, no high speed shooting. In fact, it's always manual focusing when you hold a mirror in one hand and just move the camera closer/further from the patient to focus.


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## jdramirez (Nov 7, 2014)

I'd recommend sandisk... they have an excellent reputation (and only buy from an authorized retailer... and depending on how often you clear the information, you really probably don't need much more than 8gb...


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## Perio (Nov 8, 2014)

jdramirez said:


> I'd recommend sandisk... they have an excellent reputation (and only buy from an authorized retailer... and depending on how often you clear the information, you really probably don't need much more than 8gb...



Do you format SD card before you start using it? I've heard different opinions about that.


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## RustyTheGeek (Nov 8, 2014)

Perio said:


> jdramirez said:
> 
> 
> > I'd recommend sandisk... they have an excellent reputation (and only buy from an authorized retailer... and depending on how often you clear the information, you really probably don't need much more than 8gb...
> ...



Personally I format the SD card in the camera after every shoot. In other words, every time I am done with the thousand or so images I retrieve from it, once they are imported into Lightroom and exist in 2 places, I format the SD card in the camera to erase it.


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## jdramirez (Nov 8, 2014)

Perio said:


> jdramirez said:
> 
> 
> > I'd recommend sandisk... they have an excellent reputation (and only buy from an authorized retailer... and depending on how often you clear the information, you really probably don't need much more than 8gb...
> ...



I use CF on my mkiii... and I occasionally re-format in camera. With SD... I do, but not that often because I rarely use it. When I had my 60d... I did occasionally. 

Having the re-format, if I'm correct about this, makes the write rates faster, but I didn't care at the time.


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## Mt Spokane Photography (Nov 14, 2014)

Brand and card model does make a difference, some cards do not play as well as others by a large factor. SD cards in general are slower. 

This is a test of 32GB cards, but you can see the differences. They may not apply to 64GB cards, but the usual suspects tend to be best (Lexar, Sandisk)

http://www.cameramemoryspeed.com/canon-7d-mark-ii/fastest-sd-cf-card-comparison/


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## DominoDude (Nov 14, 2014)

Mt Spokane Photography said:


> Brand and card model does make a difference, some cards do not play as well as others by a large factor. SD cards in general are slower.
> 
> This is a test of 32GB cards, but you can see the differences. They may not apply to 64GB cards, but the usual suspects tend to be best (Lexar, Sandisk)
> 
> http://www.cameramemoryspeed.com/canon-7d-mark-ii/fastest-sd-cf-card-comparison/



Thanks for that link, Mt Spokane! *tips hat* I had no recent good one so this will be added to all my other bookmarks.


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## Jane (Nov 14, 2014)

Get a SanDisk SD but why use 64GB. It sounds like a 16GB would fit your needs. You don't need the U3 unless shooting video. Buy a spare one also. They rarely go bad but...
Reformat the card in camera periodically. Cards only match their rated read/write speeds after being freshly formatted. Also, lots of deleting of images a the card will slow down its performance.


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## Tsuru (Nov 17, 2014)

If your only purpose for the camera is within a dental office I would rather get two smaller cards rather than one large one. That way if one card goes down you have a backup so that you can get the image you want for your patient. Again, for dental purposes speed is not an issue, reliability is feature you want. As others have said go with any Sandisk class 10 card from an authorized reseller and you should be gold.


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## Northstar (Nov 19, 2014)

Perio,

Stick with sandisk or lexar, these are the better quality products.

For what you've described, you only need something like this: 
http://www.adorama.com/ILXSD6HU16G2.html

Get two cards. (as someone else had wrote) An extra card is always handy just in case one card gets misplaced or damaged. 

Also, I always format my card after I've finished saving my photos in two places.


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## Big_Ant_TV_Media (Nov 19, 2014)

get a sandisk 32gig extreme pro class 10 and your never go wrong and just format after every use


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## AcutancePhotography (Nov 19, 2014)

Is there any disadvantage to formatting the card, in camera, (SF or SD) after every shoot? I guess my question should be worded, "is it possible to format a card too much?"

I tend to format my cards even if I only take a few shots. I have gotten in the habit of formatting the cards as as soon as I extract the images.


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## Northstar (Nov 19, 2014)

AcutancePhotography said:


> Is there any disadvantage to formatting the card, in camera, (SF or SD) after every shoot? I guess my question should be worded, "is it possible to format a card too much?"
> 
> I tend to format my cards even if I only take a few shots. I have gotten in the habit of formatting the cards as as soon as I extract the images.



that's why i have a bunch of cards....i don't format or erase the images until they're saved in multiple places(which i often don't do right away) so leaving the original images on the SD or CF card and using a new/different card is a good practice.


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## lilmsmaggie (Nov 19, 2014)

If the primary use for this camera is in a dental operatory setting, then I don't think you need a very fast card. 

As to formatting a CF or SD memory card, its best to format the card in the camera to be used. That way, the card's file system conforms to your camera's settings. It follows that you should also format a card previously used and formatted in another camera. This way the camera settings and file system settings of the other camera aren't retained.

The link that Mt Spokane provided should be viewed as a guide, keeping in mind the type of shooting and camera settings YOU anticipate and generally use.

A 32, 64GB SD card for use with dental patients in mind is overkill IMHO. Unless of course you tend to leave images on the card a long time before offloading to a computer or other device. Which, if you're documenting patient treatment probably isn't a good idea to let them remain on the card too long.

Larger capacities also potentially lends itself to issues in the event of card failure. Rather than a single 32 or 64GB card, perhaps a single 16 or 32GB card choice would be less expensive and still provide adequate storage. Personally, I'd opt for 2 16GB cards if I were considering 32GB capacities.

To paraphrase my piano teacher: If I ran the zoo ... I'd consider something in the 16 GB SDHC Class 10 UHS-1 (SanDisk, Lexar or Sony) with read/write speeds in the 30-40mb/sec range. For the application you propose, that should be adequate (assuming of course that you're not shooting RAW).

Just my 2¢'s





Perio said:


> Hi guys, I hope you all are doing just fine. I ordered 70d to use in the dental clinic and I'm curious which SD card I should get. All cameras I used before had slot for CF card, so I'm not that knowledgeable about SD cards.
> 
> I did a quick search and found 3 SD cards with good reviews. *(i)* SanDisk Extreme Pro 64GB SDHC UHS-1 Speed Class 3 (U3) With Speed Up To 95MB/s ($90 on Amazon), *(ii)* Transcend 64 GB High Speed Class 10 UHS Flash Memory Card Up to 90 MB/s ($35 on Amazon) and *(iii)* SanDisk 64GB Extreme U3/UHS-I SDXC with up to 60MB/s Read; 40MB/s Write ($36 on Amazon). Which one should I pick up? Does it make sense to choose 95MB/s card vs. 60MB/s? Why is option (i) so much more expensive than option (ii)? If there are other good alternatives, I'm fine with that too.
> 
> Thanks a lot!


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## wsmith96 (Nov 19, 2014)

I've been happy with sandisk and sony. B&H is having a good sale on the sony cards right now. They aren't as fast as the sandisk, but they appear to be faster than what the camera's can clear their buffers. I can wait a few seconds more for a $18 32G SDHC card.

-w


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