Do very fast SD cards help in a camera that doesn't support UHS?
Asked 4/2/2012
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If my camera does not support UHS SD cards, is there any real performance benefit to buying a very fast SD card anyway? For example, with a camera like the Pentax K-5, would a card rated above about 30 MB/s improve burst clearing or write performance, or would the only advantage be faster transfer to a computer or card reader that supports those higher speeds?
Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Photography Stack Exchange contributor
14y ago
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A camera can only write out information so fast. So once you have a card that can be written to as fast as the camera can write out there is no benefit to getting a faster card. The I/O bottleneck is on the camera side. The only benefit you'll see is when it comes to reading off the card onto the computer. Whether that benefit is worth the cost difference is a personal decision.
Honestly, for me, I generally stick with slower cards. The camera buffer is large enough to handle short bursts and by the time I'm ready for another burst the card has had sufficient time to clear the buffer.
Originally by user8677. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user8677
14y ago
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Generated from our catalog & community — verify before relying on it.
Usually, no. If your camera does not support the faster bus mode, the card falls back to the older interface, so the camera can only write as fast as its own hardware allows. In that case, once the card is already fast enough to keep up with the camera, buying an even faster SD card will not meaningfully improve in-camera write speed or buffer clearing.
A very fast UHS card can still work in a non-UHS camera, but it will operate at the slower compatible mode. So the main benefit is often faster read/transfer speed later, if you use a computer or card reader that can take advantage of it.
In short: for a non-UHS camera, don't expect much or any shooting-performance gain from a >30 MB/s SD card. The benefit is mostly offloading files, not capture speed.
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