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Pentax K5lls & Memory Card Speed

RobE17
Posted 10/07/2014 - 10:27 Link
Over the weekend I'll be using the K5lls to take quite a lot of aircraft photos (hopefully). I've got a combination of Sandisk Extreme Pro 95 MB/s & Lexar 600x SDHC cards (16gb), also have one 32gb Lexar 400x & a Transcend 32gb 600x card.

Has anyone else used any of these cards on the K5lls and is there any card which is significantly better or are they all about the same speed-wise? I'll be shooting in the RAW format.
Edited by RobE17: 10/07/2014 - 10:28
McGregNi
Posted 10/07/2014 - 11:23 - Helpful Comment Link
I think the cameras processor will be the limiting speed factor well before the write capabilities of these cards. Any card with a rating of 10 now will be easily capable of copying photo files faster than the camera delivers them, as well as continuous HD video recording.

you're shooting RAW, so make sure you switch off the in-camera corrections such as shadow & highlight distortion & CA. These will all cause the processing to take longer as the effects are written to the embedded JPEG (which displays on the LCD). Just deal with these issues if needed on the computer later.

It will not affect the cards writing speed, but will mean the camera will take longer to finish the processing and send the data to the card, and that will delay you in taking more shots straight away.
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Edited by McGregNi: 10/07/2014 - 11:25
SteveLedger
Posted 10/07/2014 - 21:28 Link
FYI: When you see cards boasting 400x and 600x (or even higher) they are referring to 'read speed' - not write.
Mike-P
Posted 10/07/2014 - 21:49 Link
I had the same problem, I have loads of different cards, all different speeds and recently I purchased a couple of Transcend 32gb 600x so I wanted to check if they were worth keeping.

Download this and run it ... the Transcends are quite a bit faster than the rest.

You going to Riat Rob? I was too late to buy a ticket for Saturday so I'm going to try out the K-3 in a farmers field
McGregNi
Posted 10/07/2014 - 22:01 Link
sledger wrote:
FYI: When you see cards boasting 400x and 600x (or even higher) they are referring to 'read speed' - not write.

That's interesting. I guess they want to quote the highest numbers they can find. I wonder what is the use if 'read speed' ? This would be how fast you could copy data off in a computer saving to hard drive or playing video straight from the card ...nothing of much significance frankly. But the class 10 standard is a kind of benchmark isn't it, but more than enough for our cameras buffer and write capacities I believe?
My Guides to the Pentax Digital Camera Flash Lighting System : Download here from the PentaxForums Homepage Article .... link
Pentax K7 with BG-4 Grip / Samyang 14mm f2.8 ED AS IF UMC / DA18-55mm f3.5-5.6 AL WR / SMC A28mm f2.8 / D FA 28-105mm / SMC F35-70 f3.5-4.5 / SMC A50mm f1.7 / Tamron AF70-300mm f4-5.6 Di LD macro / SMC M75-150mm f4.0 / Tamron Adaptall (CT-135) 135mm f2.8 / Asahi Takumar-A 2X tele-converter / Pentax AF-540FGZ (I & II) Flashes / Cactus RF60/X Flashes & V6/V6II Transceiver
Edited by McGregNi: 10/07/2014 - 22:13
SteveLedger
Posted 11/07/2014 - 03:22 Link
Yes, it's deceiving to anyone who just looks at numbers and relates them to how fast the card can store data sent from the camera (which has the last word in how fast it can push data onto a card).
As you say, Class 10 is the type to buy when you want the best performance from modern devices.

From the LEXAR site

Comment Image
Quote:


*Up to 90MB/s read transfer, write speeds lower. Speeds based on internal testing. Actual performance may vary.

Pentaxonian
Posted 11/07/2014 - 11:09 Link
The K5 i/ii/iis does fully use the technology (ie UHS)
K5iis and a couple of lenses.
RobE17
Posted 14/07/2014 - 14:11 Link
Thanks for all the replies, very helpful!

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