Thanks for all the info.

[WerTicus]

what is the maximum speed and size supported by the K-5?

Not sure but is it class 10, 30mb/s? and 32gb?

[RonHendriks1966]

what is the maximum speed and size supported by the K-5?

Not sure but is it class 10, 30mb/s? and 32gb?

There is a test thread about this test, somewhere downline. I tested this and K-5 maxes out at some 18 MB/s writespeed.

[JohnBee]

There is a test thread about this test, somewhere downline. I tested this and K-5 maxes out at some 18 MB/s writespeed.

Yes I saw that too,
Though I really hope that the SDxC cards will change that.
It's unlikely that it will, but it would be reaaaaaly cool if it did

[philippe]

I don't buy SD cards at photo dealers anymore, I get them at record and game shop's, there they are cheaper.
The Sandisc ultra SDHC 16 GB is my favorite...

[djc737]

what is the maximum speed and size supported by the K-5?

Not sure but is it class 10, 30mb/s? and 32gb?

I would like to know also. Is the K-5 able to deal with 32 gb cards. The lexar Pro 32 look like a good deal. I have SanDisk Extreme class 10 16 gig cards now. Would like larger cards for future trips. Thanks, Dave

[macTak]

Like Russ, I bought the WINTEC FileMate 16GB Professional Class 10 card based on good reviews. Rated at 10 MB/sec or better for read & write -- that's the basic Class 10 definition.

I also have the SanDisk Extreme Pro 16GB UHS Speed Class 1 card. Of course the K-5 can't use UHS speed. This card is rated at 45 MB/sec for read & write (300x).

Both have a Limited Lifetime Warranty, although SanDisk says it's a 30 year warranty in Germany. But for those of you who remember floppy drives, their "Lifetime Warranty" was for the lifetime of the product -- not the buyer's lifetime.

With new empty cards I ran a simple speed test on both: filled up the K-5 buffer with continuous RAW images, then clocked the complete write cycle. The results were identical.

So it's clear to me the camera can't take advantage of the more expensive SanDisk Extreme Pro card when flushing the buffer. I didn't test image playback. Not too concerned with read speeds.

But not all Class 10 cards are created equal -- Class 10 only specifies a minimum speed for read & write operations. I plan to buy a cheaper Class 10 card in a couple weeks to compare.

SanDisk does say it has increased endurance through wear leveling. Wear leveling is important since flash devices can only write/delete memory blocks so many times before they are unable to store new data. I understand reading doesn't contribute to wear and you can read data from flash devices even when it won't accept new data.

I'll leave it to someone else to test wear leveling on these cards.

Can I just ask, in your test, did you notice if both cards wrote the same number of image files?

[bar]

Can I just ask, in your test, did you notice if both cards wrote the same number of image files?

Yes, both cards record 18 RAW PEF format images -- I stopped shooting when the capture rate suddenly showed. But the actual PEF file size depends on your subject, maybe ISO, etc. -- so that makes it a bit hard to reproduce. But more importantly, the camera settings and subject remained the same.

[Gimbal]

I would not buy slower then 20MB/s ( my own test showed about 22MB/s write speed).

[macTak]

Does anybody have experience with the Lexar 16GB Professional SDHC card, especially as compared to a 16GB Sandisk Extreme? It's a class 10 card, but they do claim a 20mb/s minimum write speed (which would put it above the K-5's limit)--one review on the internet found it didn't meet that and was slower than the Sandisk on their Canon 60D. It is quite a bit cheeper than the Sandisk, and AFIK, it is the card dpreview uses to test continuous shooting speeds.

[JohnBee]

Does anybody have experience with the Lexar 16GB Professional SDHC card

I ran Lexar Pro's for about a year and had no issues with them. They were a cheaper alternative to running Sandisk Extremes and proved to be every bit as fast.

However this year I decided to upgrade my cards from 16 -> 32GB using Silicon Power C10 cards. Which followed some tests last year with the 16GB models, and proved to be every bit as fast as the Lexars and Sandisk's. So my guess is, that any card designed to deliver 20MB/s will yield the same performances on a K-5 or older body.

[macTak]

I ran Lexar Pro's for about a year and had no issues with them. They were a cheaper alternative to running Sandisk Extremes and proved to be every bit as fast.

However this year I decided to upgrade my cards from 16 -> 32GB using Silicon Power C10 cards. Which followed some tests last year with the 16GB models, and proved to be every bit as fast as the Lexars and Sandisk's. So my guess is, that any card designed to deliver 20MB/s will yield the same performances on a K-5 or older body.

Thanks, JohnBee. I recall you being a fan of those Silicon Power cards. When tomshardware ran its big SDHC card test, they found the Silicon Power Class 10 card to only get 18.7 MB/s max and 10.2 MB/s min, rather less than the Sandisk extreme--with an off brand like that, you never know when and if they change suppliers such that the performance becomes lower.

Edit: I happened to look at Lexar's website and the card I mentioned, which several major retail websites claim has a 20MB/s minimum WRITE speed, is actually only listed as having a 20MB/s minimum READ speed. I just wanted to correct this in case anyone else here was tempted based on that incorrect fact. I'd still love to know from others who have these Lexar cards, as the 32GB on is the same price as the 16GB Sandisk Extreme.

[rfortson]

I just ordered three 8GB Transcend Class 10 cards from Amazon for a total of 45 bucks. Lots of dslr users seem happy with them for both burst and video response. About 500 reviews and mostly highly positive. I'll report back what I find!

I've used Transcend for a while, and have nothing but good to say about them. I used several 8gb cards on my K20D. All good.

Note - I speak mainly from a reliability standpoint. I don't push the cards speed-wise. For me, I'd say video would be the biggest test as I don't shoot many bursts.

[JMaher]

Just for consideration by others making a purchase. Based on a few comments on this thread (and price) I ordered and just received a WINTEC 16GB card. Unfortunately it is DOA.
Jim

[JohnBee]

Thanks, JohnBee. I recall you being a fan of those Silicon Power cards. When tomshardware ran its big SDHC card test, they found the Silicon Power Class 10 card to only get 18.7 MB/s max and 10.2 MB/s min, rather less than the Sandisk extreme--with an off brand like that, you never know when and if they change suppliers such that the performance becomes lower.

Yes its true, and I vaguely remember that particular test.

However, I believe the test referenced was conducted with class 6 cards rather than class 10 ones.
Also, if memory served me right, the Silicon Power card proved to have sustained write speeds of 19.7 MB/s which was(at the time) considered top be the highest minimum write throughput of all the cards

And of course there is the throughput and read tests, but I never cared about those myself.

Having said that, They may have conducted some new tests since then(with class 10 cards?). But since my 32GB cards perform on equal footing to my Sandisk Extreme cards I never really bothered to look into it any further.
The only caution I'd advise to anyone looking for a bargain with SDHC's is to make sure you're not buying counterfeit products. They are quite popular on eBay and so I'd recommend researching the sellers prior to buying.

On a side note, I am somewhat disapointed that the K-5 will most likely not gain any read/write performances with the addition of SDxC Card support. Not that I needed this or anything(I find the existing buffer to be quite adequate) its just that it would have been nice to improve LV recovery times. - Again just very slightly disappointed