Help choosing a memory card for a K-5 IIs?

I've recently acquired a K-5 IIs, and would like to get a new memory card to use with it. I realize the camera is more than a dozen years old, and a lot has changed in terms of storage tech in the meantime.

Since I don't intend to shoot any video on it, just stills (primarily RAW) the storage capacity of a modern card isn't quite as important to me as speed, which I'd like to maximize. It's not valuable to me to have more storage space than I can possibly fill up shooting stills with one or two batteries and a couple hours' time, but I'd be really into anything that speeds up the camera's shot cycle a tad.

Based on what limited information I know about the camera's hardware specifications, would I be correct in understanding that the K-5 IIs is compatible with SDXC, UHS-I? Would a UHS-II or UHS-III card actually perform any faster inside the camera, or only when sticking them into my computer to dump them? Thanks for educating me on this, I don't know much about how the different UHS levels work at a hardware level.

I have updated the camera body to its most recent firmware, if that's a factor.

I've never really thought about it. However, I have a SanDisk Ultra 16GB in my original K5 that performs perfectly well for me. I do delete all the "rubbish" after transfer and processing so I can't really comment on how quickly it fills up. Its transfer speed is fine.

Sandisk seem to be the preferred choice for many photographers and are considered to be very reliable. Choosing the best for your needs can be a minefield with so many different and confusing symbols. There is some good information to be found on Youtube but be careful to sift the facts from the opinions. I'll leave two links below which might prove useful to you but apologise in advance if these are too basic for you.
There is also lots of useful information to be found on Pentax forums: link Further searches there will reveal a great deal more.
Good luck....

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I would think that anything that has the V30 specification would provide more than enough speed for a K-5. I get 128GB V30s for about €17.

My tuppence for what it's worth...

I use a K-5IIs for shooting rowing and motorsport.

I generally use a Sandisk 32 or 64GB SD card...i've used various ones...Ultra SDHC at 120MB/s but also more recently a 64GB SDXC at 140MB/s which has become my 'Go to' card generally.

I've also used Transcend cards in 16 or 32GB capacity although with a slower transfer speed many times without issues.

I've currently got a Samsung Evo Plus 128GB U3 A2 V30 micro SD card in my K-5IIs and another in my K-3...both using the SD adaptors that came with the card and can report that they work fine. I 'won' both of these on this site for POTW and it seemed a shame to have them stuck there with them being micro SD doing nothing...but no..work great.

Now for the not so good news...the latest cards i'm using and probably I suspect the Sandisk Ultra 64GB U1 140MB/s transfer speed probably offer a level of performance i'm not able to fully utilise in my K-5IIs which is limited by its very slow internal processing speed when shooting motorsport and the like.

I'm more of a 'sniper' than a 'machine gunner' but even so I find that after about 6 or 7 shots over a 2.5 - 3 second period is enough to overload the processor in the camera and it then freezes for several seconds during which i'm unable to take any more shots and it takes sometimes up to about 8-10 seconds to display any image on the back screen at all. I generally only take images in JPEG as well...usually at highest or second highest file size and most 'stars' for quality setting. The situation would be even worse if you intended multishots at using RAW I presume.

It's not ideal but i've learnt to live with this limitation and accept it for what it is. I really love using the camera in every other respect and when i'm not shooting fast sports this limitation doesn't matter.

Hope this helps.

regards

Karlo

I've used many different SD cards in 5 different Pentax cameras and quite frankly can't tell the difference for single shots. Using a higher speed card than the maximum your camera is designed for won't get you any better performance from the camera, the camera's electronics can't do better than its best. As for copying files to computer, to get the fastest a card can achieve requires the card reader, computer and (if relevant to you) network all to be able to operate at that speed. In any case, the difference is only likely to be tens of seconds or a minute or so unless your are copying lots of big files. If you do want to read up on what the symbols on SD cards mean and why they are there, here's a reasonably simple guide (link). At the end, it says "Note, using a higher-rated card that goes beyond the speed class requirement for a device will still work, but you won’t be experiencing the full benefits of the higher speed class since the device only supports the lower speed class". Personally, I'm happy to live with transfer speeds that are probably less than the very, very quickest possible, secure in the knowledge that I've saved a lot more time than that by not trying to find the very best/fastest/optimum card then finding that it costs more than I'm willing to pay.

My advice is therefore to get a couple of cards from well known brands (Sandisk, Kingston etc.) which are the fastest your camera is designed for then start taking photos. You need at least two because one will inevitably fill up just before you spot a perfect photo opportunity. If you really want to see how much performance varies for the sort of photography you'll be doing, get different speeds of brands for each card and compare. I'd be surprised if you notice much if any difference in practice.

Steve

Testing done over on the Pentax Forum site indicates the 5IIs only need a High Speed class 10 card. There's a report in their Articles and Tips section - Comprehensive SD Card Guide for Photographers.

Though higher speeds could mean you'd get a faster read when transferring the image files onto a computer etc.

I use the Samsung card too. No issues and good build quality. I use mine in a K5 and K3 mainly for landscape and street photography so buffering is not a problem. I suggest buying from a reputable retailer as there seem to be many fake cards based on internet commentary.