SanDisk’s New 1TB SD Card Takes Speed to V60
SanDisk now offers a massive 1TB capacity SD card that can hit transfer speeds fast enough to nab a V60 rating, making it fast enough to use for many 4K and even 6K video recording applications.
Previously, only Angelbird has been able to offer the combination of high capacity and relatively high speed performance in an SD card, and while Angelbird is still doing so for cheaper, at least the company now has some competition.
SanDisk says that its new V60 series cards, available in capacities starting at 32GB all the way up to 1TB, are designed to support “prosumers” and professionals shooting with a variety of cameras, from DSLRs through cinema cameras. The company says that its new cards are fast enough to support the capture of 6K, 4K, and Full-HD video with standard and slow motion frame rates as well as raw photos, timelapses, and continuous shutter bursts.
The cards are rated to perform at up to 280 MB/s read speeds and up to 150MB/s write speeds. However, given the rating of V60, it doesn’t appear as though the cards are capable of holding that high write speed consistently.
As explained in PetaPixel‘s guide to memory cards, the video speed class rating is broken down into three categories: V30, V60, and V90. V30 is capable of a minimum 30 MB/s, V60 is capable of a minimum of 60MB/s, and the fastest, V90, has a minimum write speed of at least 90MB/s.
Based on that simple definition, these cards might be capable of peak speads that exceed 60 MB/s, but the cards can’t hold that speed consistently. The V60 rating means that it can hold that consistently somewhere between 60 MB/s and 90 MB/s, but since SanDisk doesn’t publish a sustained write speed number, photographers can only assume performance at the lower end of that range.
“A Video Speed Class 60 rating ensures a minimum sustained write speed of 60 MB/s which delivers cinema-quality 6K video capture in standard recording modes,” SanDisk says. “Capture brilliant 4K UHD video in standard or slow motion and Full HD in super slow motion to get the special effects you want.”
Even though it has limitations and won’t be able to keep up with higher bitrate video recorings, a huge 1TB capacity is often not available with any speed promises above 30 MB/s, so double that allows SanDisk’s latest series to actually be used for some video production.
When connected to a computer, SanDisk claims this card will transfer 60 minutes of 6K video in 397 seconds and 1,000 24 megapixel (69 MB) photos in 204 seconds.
SanDisk’s 1TB Extreme Pro UHS-II SDXC memory card is priced at $450, which is significantly more expensive than the Angelbird equivalent which costs $300. It’s also not clear when these cards are expected to hit the market, as Adorama has them on backorder through December — that might just be a placeholder until more information from SanDisk arrives.
