Memory cards can be a minefield. There are so many different types, made by many different companies, and selling for very, very different prices. So which is the best memory card for your camera, dashcam, doorbell or smartphone? In this video, I explain exactly which memory card you should get, and how to avoid paying too much for a memory card that isn’t right for your needs.
After watching this video you’ll appreciate the difference between Class 2, 4, 6 and 10 cards. You’ll know whether U1 or U3 is the most suitable choice for HD video recording. And whether V90 is the better choice than the V60 and V30 options. I’ll also explain the reason why you might be better off getting an older A1 card instead of the newer A2 version.
Integral V30 SD cards: https://amzn.to/33NICcr
Integral V30 microSD cards: https://amzn.to/3srufVo
Integral V60 SD cards: https://amzn.to/3Jab8oH
Integral CF cards: https://amzn.to/3q89hrU
TRANSCRIPT
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If you use the wrong memory card
then your camera might overheat,
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or stop working completely.
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You could end up losing all
your photos and video files!
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But what is the right memory card?
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And what is the difference
between Class 2 and Class 10?
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Do you really need a V30 card?
Or should you get a V90 instead?
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And is there any real difference
between UHS-One and UHS-Two?
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Today I’m going to answer
all those questions and more!
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[MUSIC]
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Whatup nerds? I’m Jay Shareef.
And once again I’m talking tech.
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There are thousands of different memory cards for sale.
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The choice can be really overwhelming.
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In this video, I’m going to explain which
ones are best for your camera and why.
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Let’s start with the basics.
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Memory cards are what’s known as “Flash Memory”.
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And Flash Memory has been around since the 1980s.
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It’s the same type of memory that stores the information in USB sticks, smartphones and Solid State Drives.
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There are many kinds of memory cards
available,
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but if you have a digital camera there are three main types of card in use:
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Firstly, we have COMPACT FLASH Cards like this one.
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These are also known as CF cards.
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Despite the name, these are actually
the biggest cards in common use.
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Much more popular nowadays are SD cards and micro SD cards – also known as TF cards.
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Obviously these three types are different shapes and sizes.
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But, on the inside, they’re basically the same technology.
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However… just because a card will fit inside your camera
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doesn’t mean it’s the right card for you.
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Which is why you need to understand
what all these symbols and numbers mean.
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Two warnings I need to give you right at the start.
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Firstly, these memory cards are not ideal for long-term storage.
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So you should transfer your photos and
video over to your computer, the cloud
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or a hard drive on a regular basis.
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Secondly, there are a LOT of
counterfeit cards in circulation.
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So you need to be careful where you buy them from.
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A counterfeit card will be of a much
lower quality than the real thing.
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It will usually be slower than the real thing,
have less memory than it claims,
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and is much more likely to fail.
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Unfortunately, ebay has been inundated with fake cards.
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So NEVER buy memory cards on ebay.
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Amazon is not immune either. If you’re buying memory cards from Amazon,
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make sure they’re the ones being sold by Amazon itself.
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Definitely do NOT buy cards on Amazon
that are being sold by third party sellers.
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A good option is to visit any reputable
supermarket or electronics store
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and they should have genuine SD cards.
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However, the safest way to get memory cards
is to buy them direct from the manufacturer.
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They al have websites nowadays.
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I recommend you buy memory cards directly from:
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Samsung, Integral Memory, Kingston or Western Digital.
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Personally, I use Integral Memory Cards
because they’ve always worked well for me.
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That’s the warnings out of the
way. So let’s talk numbers.
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Specifically, THESE numbers. The ones
written on memory cards themselves.
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All these numbers are doing is
telling you the speed of the card.
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Essentially, how fast it will let
you read and write information.
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The memory card manufacturers
always focus on the Read Speed.
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And they do that because the Read Speed
is usually a lot higher than the Write Speed.
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However, Write Speed is much more important
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because that tells you how quickly
you can transfer data onto your card.
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That’s especially important for cameras because
when you take photos or record videos,
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you are writing lots of data on to
your card in a short space of time.
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There are four types of speed
measurements a card will show.
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The basic Speed Class.
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The UHS speed.
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The Video Speed.
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And the Application Speed.
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All of those are very complicated and technical.
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And most of us don’t need to know the details.
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For someone like me, the Video Speed is my main consideration,
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because I’m mainly recording videos.
So that’s what I will focus on.
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But I’m going to quickly explain the rest in very simple terms.
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Let’s start with the basic Speed Class.
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I’ve been using cameras for a long time.
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And in my personal collection, I’ve got cards that are Class 2, Class 4 and Class 6.
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But all of those are VERY slow by modern standards.
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You CAN still buy them. But you really shouldn’t.
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So… I’m going to ignore those
completely in this video.
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The absolute MINIMUM you
should be looking at is Class 10.
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A Class 10 card is identified by a
circle with the number 10 inside.
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And there are two main categories of
Class 10 card. The U1 and the U3.
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The U1 cards are the slowest.
They’re also known as V10 cards.
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The V-number refers to the
Video Speed of the card.
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And a V10 card has a minimum Write
Speed of 10 MegaBytes per second.
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A card with a U1 or V10 rating tells you that
it should be capable of recording HD video.
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And if ALL you need is to take
photos or record HD videos
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then any Class 10 card will work just fine.
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Knowing that fact can save you a lot of money.
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Let me give you an example.
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I have a doorbell camera that records in HD.
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I also have a dashcam in
my car that records in HD.
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Now… I could put a superfast, very
expensive memory card in those devices.
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But I really shouldn’t.
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Because, for HD video, a Class 10
memory card will be fast enough.
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And here’s why it matters.
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For £15… I can buy a V30 superfast
memory card with 32GB capacity.
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Alternatively, for less than £15, I can buy
a V10 card with 128 GB capacity instead.
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Either card will work just fine in my dashcam.
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So it makes sense for me to buy the regular
U1 / V10 card with the bigger capacity.
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Buying the faster, more expensive card is a
waste of money for my doorbell or dashcam.
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However, a V10 card in my 4K action camera could give me issues.
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And it’s obvious why when you do the maths.
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Your 4K camera might be sending 12 MBytes
per second of data to the memory card.
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But a V10 card is only rated for a Write
Speed of 10 MegaBytes per second.
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That’s very likely to cause problems.
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That card simply isn’t capable of recording
the data it’s receiving from the camera.
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If I use a V10 card in my 4K camera then there’s
a very good chance my memory card will overheat,
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my camera will fail and my
footage will get corrupted.
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Now, it’s worth noting that it is possible for
some V10 cards to work well in a 4K camera.
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And that’s especially true for V10
cards made by the reputable brands.
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The V10 rating guarantees a certain
MINIMUM level of performance.
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The ACTUAL performance of the card might be a
lot higher than the minimum stated on the packaging.
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But if you’re going to film in 4K then do the
sensible thing. Get a card that has a V30 rating.
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A V30 rating means the card is able to record
at least 30 Megabytes of data per second.
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And that’s more than enough
for most 4K cameras.
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In fact, it’s fast enough for most 5K and 6K cameras.
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So, for most people, a V30 memory card
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is perfect for their day-to-day needs.
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If you’re using a DJI or GoPro, or a Sony ZV-1,
or Canon M50, or any other consumer camera,
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then a V30 card will do the job.
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Buying a faster card is a complete waste of money.
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And at this point, you have pretty much
all the information you need.
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But I know what you’re like. You want to
know whether they make even faster cards?
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The answer is YES, they absolutely do make even faster cards.
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The V30 cards might be the most popular.
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But you can also get V60 cards and even V90 cards.
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By now most of you will have
worked out that the V60 cards
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have a minimum Write Speed
of 60 MegaBytes per second.
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And the V90 cards have a minimum
Write Speed of 90 Megabytes per second.
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However, the price differences between the
V30 and the V90 cards are really extreme.
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A Sandisk 128GB V30 card costs about £25.
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A Sandisk 128GB V90 card costs about £175.
That’s SEVEN TIMES the price of the V30 card.
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So you should only buy the ultra-fast
cards if you absolute need them.
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Unless you plan to film in 8K
resolution, stick to the V30 cards.
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There is, however, another reason why
you might need a V60 or V90 card.
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Which brings us on to the UHS number.
With UHS referring to “Ultra High Speed”.
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Most of the cards on sale today
have UHS-ONE written on them.
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THIS is the memory card I normally
use to film YouTube videos.
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But recently, I bought THIS
memory card for my main camera.
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At first glance, these two SD cards look
pretty much identical. But they’re not.
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The first clue that they’re not the same is that
my new card has UHS-TWO written on the front.
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Obviously, that stands for Ultra High Speed Two.
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And when I turn them over,
you can see the difference.
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The UHS-TWO card has as extra row of contacts.
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You might guess that these extra contacts
help make the card operate faster.
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And you’d be absolutely right.
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This UHS-TWO card will work in pretty much
every camera that has an SD card slot.
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But a lot of high-end professional cameras
are designed to work with UHS-TWO cards
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to operate at much higher speeds
by utilising these extra contacts.
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And a lot of the time that extra speed
isn’t needed for video recording.
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Many professional cameras will have a burst mode,
where they take lots of photos one after another.
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And many professionals will take photos
using the high-resolution RAW format.
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The real benefit of UHS-TWO is that I can take lots of photos, in quick succession, in the RAW format.
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Photos taken in the RAW format have a lot more information in them,
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and will be AT LEAST 20 MegaBytes in size,
and up to 60 MegaBytes sometimes.
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Which means if I take ten raw photos in one
second, that’s at least 200 MegaBytes of data.
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And a burst of twenty images could
be 400 MegaBytes of data or more.
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A normal V30 card absolutely CANNOT
record that much data per second.
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However, this UHS-TWO card has three times
the speed of the UHS-ONE equivalent.
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THIS card is fast enough to deal with the extreme
requirements of burst mode, raw file photography.
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All V30 cards are rated at UHS-ONE.
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All V60 and V90 memory cards are rated at UHS-TWO.
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I have heard of UHS-Three cards as well.
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However, I couldn’t find any for sale anywhere.
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So I imagine those will become more common in the next few years.
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But right now there isn’t much
need or demand for UHS-THREE.
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So by this point in the video, we’ve learned that
V30 cards will be the right choice for most people
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and that only professional photographers
and videographers will need V60 or V90.
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But, before we end, I should tell
you about Application Class.
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Over the last few years, memory cards, especially
micro SD cards have started showing an A-number.
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This tells you the Application Class.
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And you’re given a choice between A1 and A2 cards.
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The Application Class tells you how well these cards perform when used in smartphones to store your data.
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If you want to download apps, photos and videos
on to a micro SD card and access them quickly
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on your smartphone, then an A2 card
is better for you than an A1 card.
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In theory, this shouldn’t make much difference
when you use these cards in your camera.
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However, I have heard that some action cameras
occasionally have problems with A2 cards.
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That’s not been my experience,
and the evidence so far is limited.
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But I do think you should keep that in mind when
buying micro SD cards (TF cards) for your GoPro.
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It might be worth sticking to V30 A1 cards for now.
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In conclusion…
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If you film in HD then you need a V10 memory card.
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If you film in 4K, 5K or 6K then
you need a V30 memory card.
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And if you’re a professional photographer then you might want to get a V60 or V90 card.
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Always buy good quality cards from a trusted brand.
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Transfer files to your computer as soon as you can.
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And format your cards regularly.
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That’s all for today. I hope that was helpful.
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I’ll be back with another video very soon.
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Later nerds.
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