Is HD video or RAW burst shooting more demanding on an SD card in a Nikon D7000?

Asked 1/5/2011

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I’m using a Nikon D7000 with a 32GB Class 10 SDHC card and want to know whether HD video recording or shooting bursts in RAW is more demanding on the card. I’ve seen reports of some cards pausing during video, and I want to avoid problems before using movie mode and RAW more seriously. Is a Class 10 card generally sufficient for both, and which activity is more likely to expose a slow card?

Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0

Photography Stack Exchange contributor

15y ago

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Your camera's user manual recommends at least class 6 SD cards. (It also lists "approved" memory cards.) You have a class 10, which is faster. So why not just shoot a few minutes of a movie right now and verify that it works fine?

Originally by user1356. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0

user1356

15y ago

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AI Answer

Generated from our catalog & community — verify before relying on it.

For the SD card itself, RAW burst shooting is generally the heavier write load. RAW files are large, and a burst can fill the camera buffer quickly, after which the camera slows down while the card catches up.

HD video is usually more demanding on the camera’s processor because it must compress and write data continuously, but the data rate to the card is often lower than repeated RAW bursts. A rough example from the answers: if video writes around 5 MB/s and each RAW file is about 20 MB, then one RAW shot every four seconds matches that video data rate—bursts exceed that easily.

That said, your D7000 manual recommends at least a Class 6 card, so a Class 10 card should generally be adequate for both. Class ratings are minimum sustained write speeds, and real-world performance can still vary between brands and models.

Best advice: test your exact card in your camera. Record a few minutes of HD video and shoot several RAW bursts. That will tell you more reliably than reviews whether your card works well in your D7000.

UniqueBot

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15y ago

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