I just got my K-3 in the mail yesterday, and realized I only have a couple of class 4 cards from my old K100D.

I'm planning to shoot in RAW 24MP, and was wondering what you guys do or would recommend doing for memory cards. I'm not so much concerned with the brand or speed, but more interested in sizes and quantities. Do you use both card slots? What is a good configuration to run, 2x 64GB? 1x 32GB? Etc.

Thanks!

[photolady95]

You might want to check this deal. And slower cards will cause you to miss a shot while it's writing to the card.

https://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/94-pentax-price-watch/324075-lexar-sdhc-s...-sale-b-h.html

[pepperberry farm]

twin 64Gb PNY Elite cards in my K-3, I've never filled them in a single session and never missed a shot because of them...

[photolady95]

64Gb PNY Elite

I used PNY until putting one in my card reader it snapped in half. Mine weren't the Elite version though, what's the write speed on them? I like PNY cause I could buy them locally.

[pathdoc]

As large and as fast as the camera will take and you can afford.

Sure, the camera might not be able to match the write speed for the 80+ MB/s cards and nominally the speed is "wasted" - but that means it won't be a choke point for you, and depending on the read speed of your computer interface, it will be quicker to get them off for post-processing and storage. Plus you are future-proofing yourself, at least for a little while, if you trade camera bodies up to something bigger and better down the road.

[TaoMaas]

It really depends upon what you usually shoot. If you shoot static subjects, most any card will do. But if you're shooting action, you'll want a card with a high write-speed. I shoot nature/landscapes so most of my subjects aren't moving. That lets me get buy with really cheap, slow cards.

[nomadkng]

I just got my K-3 in the mail yesterday, and realized I only have a couple of class 4 cards from my old K100D.

I'm planning to shoot in RAW 24MP, and was wondering what you guys do or would recommend doing for memory cards. I'm not so much concerned with the brand or speed, but more interested in sizes and quantities. Do you use both card slots? What is a good configuration to run, 2x 64GB? 1x 32GB? Etc.

Thanks!

You should very much be concerned with brand AND speed. Certain brands have a much better reputation for a very good reason.

Secondly, read/write speeds make a big difference in camera functionality, especially shooting RAW at 8 fps. Not to mention d/l the images later to your HD.

This forum is littered with complaints from people about their K3 underperforming and the reason was eventually revealed to be slow read/write times of older cards.

[BigMackCam]

I always use both card slots, and have the camera set to write raw files to both simultaneously so that if one fails, the other is OK. I'm using two 64Gb Kingston SDXC UHS-I U3 Professional 90Mb/s cards. Prior to that, I used two 16Gb Samsung Pro UHS-I cards which I think were rated slightly slower, but actually seemed a little faster to me (perhaps something to do with the capacity?)... but I'm quite happy with the Kingston Pro cards.

[UserAccessDenied]

You might want to check this deal. And slower cards will cause you to miss a shot while it's writing to the card.

https://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/94-pentax-price-watch/324075-lexar-sdhc-s...-sale-b-h.html

I bought this exact card in a 2-pack from amazon a few months back.

I just was in the islands for 10 days without my computer (so no chance to upload).
I filled one card and just barely tapped into the 2nd in my K-3ii

I shoot RAW only
This allows 600 images on a 32GB Lexar.

If you shoot Jpeg I think you get about 1400 per 32GB card... Not sure though as I never shoot jpeg or RAW+

[TER-OR]

I use 32GB cards as well. They're inexpensive and as noted hold a lot of images.

[pepperberry farm]

I used PNY until putting one in my card reader it snapped in half. Mine weren't the Elite version though, what's the write speed on them? I like PNY cause I could buy them locally.

my cards are never out of the slots (until just now when I looked at the write speed) - 95MB/s is what's claimed on them...

[photolady95]

my cards are never out of the slots (until just now when I looked at the write speed) - 95MB/s is what's claimed on them...

Thanks. I'm going to my local store and see if they have these. Though my new 64GB Lexar will be here today, I noticed in the description on B&H that, write speeds are only 45MB/s and read speeds are 95MB/s. That means this card isn't any faster writing than my present Sandisk class 10 UHS-1 32GB cards are, bummer!

[ramseybuckeye]

Sandisk Extreme Pros have Max. Read Speed: 95 MB/s and Max. Write Speed: 90 MB/s, plus they are waterproof, shockproof, x-ray proof, etc.

[photolady95]

Sandisk Extreme Pros have Max. Read Speed: 95 MB/s and Max. Write Speed: 90 MB/s, plus they are waterproof, shockproof, x-ray proof, etc

My two are only Sandisk Extremes, not Pro version.

[Medex]

According to tests write speed in the k3ii is no more than 40 mb/s (about 37 mb/s). So you actually don't need SDXC card, SDHC is enough. Sandisc extreme pro 95 mb/s is more than enough. 2x32 Gb.