K1 Write Speed slowness

2351HD · 05-30-2016, 05:51 AM

Hi,
I am experiencing what I feel are slow write times on my K1. Can anybody point me in the direction of a thread or article with recommended SD cards for the K1 and what the fastest write times can be achieved?
Thanks

elho_cid · 05-30-2016, 05:58 AM

I do not have an answer, but I'm also interested in the replies. Currently I have 64GB UHS MicroSD Kingston and an older 32GB Pretec card and the writing is not only slow, but sometimes downright fails. I get a message that "image saving failed" and the photo is lost.

**monochrome** · 05-30-2016, 06:23 AM

I'm using Sandisk Extreme Pro SDXC UHS-1 U3 Class 10 95MB/s, which Adam said in a Price Watch post is the fastest card K-1 can write. [EDIT: Recommended card in the Speed Test linked in Post#3 above].

I think using RAW+ (RAW1 / JPEG2) slows things down.

Na Horuk · 05-30-2016, 06:49 AM - **1 Like**

I think currently Lexar and SanDisk are recommended, the ones with 80MB/s and higher (Beware! SD cards generally only have lebels with the fastest possible READ speed, not WRITE speed. Write speed can be as low as 1/3 of the read speed. Some cards mention this only in passing, others have an actual number in the fine print)
Remember that there are many things that slow down the camera, particularly jpeg processing. Even if you shoot raw, this processing still happens, at least to the preview thumbnails. If you shoot raw, I recommend you disable Distortion correction, CA correction, Shadow correction, Vignetting correction, Diffraction correction.
Another thing that can give the illusion of a slowed down camera can be the Preview duration. Turn it off, and the camera will feel much speedier.
Before using the SD card, you should format it in-camera. Make sure you backed up all your photos, as formatting will erase them and make them difficult, maybe impossible, to recover. A card that has been taken care of will work better than one that had all sorts of clutter on it.

Originally posted by elho_cid

I get a message that "image saving failed" and the photo is lost.

Does that card work normally in other cameras? I have a Sony card that sometimes gives me errors, but it is only that card. It is probably a card issue, not a camera problem. You can test this if you have multiple cameras. I think there are even computer tools that let you test an SD card..? Maybe you can google it

I avoid cards from some manufacturers. We had plenty of threads about this already, so feel free to search for them. Another thing to consider is to buy the cards from a reputable store, as there have been cases where people bought online and got fakes, with poor performance.

elho_cid · 05-30-2016, 07:37 AM

Originally posted by Na Horuk

Does that card work normally in other cameras? I have a Sony card that sometimes gives me errors, but it is only that card. It is probably a card issue, not a camera problem. You can test this if you have multiple cameras. I think there are even computer tools that let you test an SD card..? Maybe you can google it

I avoid cards from some manufacturers. We had plenty of threads about this already, so feel free to search for them. Another thing to consider is to buy the cards from a reputable store, as there have been cases where people bought online and got fakes, with poor performance.

The Kingston never had problem when used in my windows tablet as memory expansion and the Pretec worked flawlessly for years in the K-5. Both worked in a computer card reader. But both sometimes fail in the K-1. I will continue investigating the problem and perhaps I'll have to return the camera in warranty.

Dipsoid · 05-30-2016, 07:42 AM

Samsung makes great flash memory that's often cheaper than Lexar or SanDisk. Look up benchmarks for the memory cards. Keep in mind that brands like Kingston and Patriot don't make their own flash modules and often buy the cheapest modules they can buy and rebrand them. The only requirement for UHS I and Class 10 cards is 10mb/sec write speed, extremely slow. Making cards with a quick read speed and skimping on write speed is how these companies cut costs and skirt the line on false advertising. Making matters worse, there are lots of counterfeit SD cards being sold on Amazon which have spoofed capacities and slower write speeds than advertised.

**RKKS08** · 05-30-2016, 07:45 AM

Also keep in mind that write speed can vary quite a lot because of the block writing with memory cards.

Storing just one file as done on a hard disk will only happen if it writes to a new (=completely empty) block. If storing to a partly used block, the complete block will be read in, the area cleaned, and then the complete block - including the newly added file - will be written again. That is the main reason why writing is so much slower than reading.

User and operating system have no influence on where a file will be stored - with SD cards, this is managed by the controller on the card itself.

As a result: if you, let's say, delete every second picture in-camera, the controller MAY decide to fill these blocks first (instead of writing to empry parts of the card). And if you now start continuous shooting, writing can easily be 6-8 times slower than what the SD card is capable of. Only in-camera formatting can help (for a while!).

88lukas88 · 05-30-2016, 08:00 AM - **1 Like**

Look here .... https://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/190-pentax-k-1/321296-write-speed-sd-card-test.html

**TomTom** · 05-30-2016, 09:22 AM

Something else that should be mentioned is that the faster SanDisk cards have lifetime warranties. I had a two year old Extreme Pro 95MB/s card that recently stopped working in my camera but worked fine in my laptop. I realized that a very small piece of plastic on the edge of the card splintered off. I went through the RMA process and SanDisk is to ship a new card soon (if it hasn't already been shipped). I'll continue to buy their cards based on performance and my experience with their warranty.

kenspo · 05-30-2016, 09:41 AM

I only use Lexar, and they work perfect with K-1. I use the faster ones..x1000 and up!

biz-engineer · 05-30-2016, 09:55 AM

I use exclusively Transcend x600 and x300, 32Gb and 64Gb, and it works great with any of the cards, no issue at all. Of course, if I do a pixel shift 36Mpixels x 4 writing in the SD card takes a while but there're nothing wrong with that given the amount of data to be saved.

Kunzite · 05-30-2016, 10:25 AM

Originally posted by 2351HD

Hi,
I am experiencing what I feel are slow write times on my K1. Can anybody point me in the direction of a thread or article with recommended SD cards for the K1 and what the fastest write times can be achieved?

I would get a fast UHS-I card. Not UHS II (as they'll work slower on an UHS I device).

Rudy · 05-30-2016, 11:10 AM

+1 for Sandisk Extreme Pro SDXC UHS-1 U3 95MB/s
Fast and reliable

aikilink · 05-30-2016, 11:51 AM

Originally posted by monochrome

I'm using Sandisk Extreme Pro SDXC UHS-1 U3 Class 10 95MB/s, which Adam said in a Price Watch post is the fastest card K-1 can write. [EDIT: Recommended card in the Speed Test linked in Post#3 above].

I think using RAW+ (RAW1 / JPEG2) slows things down.

Shooting with a pair of these and writing RAW to both is really slow... Doing portraits last weekend I found myself multiple times unable to take a photo because of a full buffer. Even a minute later it would still be chomping away with the orange light flashing.

Na Horuk · 05-30-2016, 01:19 PM

I would mention one more thing - if you have a card for a long time, damage accumulates. I recently had an SD card's plastic crack a little, but that card is probably.. almost 6 years old and was used a lot.
Finally, dust and other particles in the card compartment can cause problems. If your new camera has problems, shine a light in the compartment and see if there is anything in there.

05-30-2016, 05:51 AM	#1
2351HD Veteran Member Join Date: Apr 2013 Location: Brisbane, Australia Photos: Albums Posts: 750	K1 Write Speed slowness Hi, I am experiencing what I feel are slow write times on my K1. Can anybody point me in the direction of a thread or article with recommended SD cards for the K1 and what the fastest write times can be achieved? Thanks

05-30-2016, 07:42 AM	#6
Dipsoid Senior Member Join Date: Feb 2015 Posts: 241	Samsung makes great flash memory that's often cheaper than Lexar or SanDisk. Look up benchmarks for the memory cards. Keep in mind that brands like Kingston and Patriot don't make their own flash modules and often buy the cheapest modules they can buy and rebrand them. The only requirement for UHS I and Class 10 cards is 10mb/sec write speed, extremely slow. Making cards with a quick read speed and skimping on write speed is how these companies cut costs and skirt the line on false advertising. Making matters worse, there are lots of counterfeit SD cards being sold on Amazon which have spoofed capacities and slower write speeds than advertised. Last edited by Dipsoid; 05-30-2016 at 07:48 AM.

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05-30-2016, 05:58 AM	#2
elho_cid Veteran Member Join Date: Dec 2007 Location: Prague Photos: Gallery Posts: 1,199	I do not have an answer, but I'm also interested in the replies. Currently I have 64GB UHS MicroSD Kingston and an older 32GB Pretec card and the writing is not only slow, but sometimes downright fails. I get a message that "image saving failed" and the photo is lost.

05-30-2016, 06:23 AM	#3
monochrome Loyal Site Supporter Join Date: Mar 2008 Location: Working From Home Photos: Gallery \| Albums Posts: 26,276	I'm using Sandisk Extreme Pro SDXC UHS-1 U3 Class 10 95MB/s, which Adam said in a Price Watch post is the fastest card K-1 can write. [EDIT: Recommended card in the Speed Test linked in Post#3 above]. I think using RAW+ (RAW1 / JPEG2) slows things down. Attached Images Last edited by monochrome; 05-30-2016 at 08:39 AM.

05-30-2016, 06:49 AM - 1 Like	#4
Na Horuk Veteran Member Join Date: Feb 2012 Location: Slovenia, probably Photos: Gallery \| Albums Posts: 11,186	I think currently Lexar and SanDisk are recommended, the ones with 80MB/s and higher (Beware! SD cards generally only have lebels with the fastest possible READ speed, not WRITE speed. Write speed can be as low as 1/3 of the read speed. Some cards mention this only in passing, others have an actual number in the fine print) Remember that there are many things that slow down the camera, particularly jpeg processing. Even if you shoot raw, this processing still happens, at least to the preview thumbnails. If you shoot raw, I recommend you disable Distortion correction, CA correction, Shadow correction, Vignetting correction, Diffraction correction. Another thing that can give the illusion of a slowed down camera can be the Preview duration. Turn it off, and the camera will feel much speedier. Before using the SD card, you should format it in-camera. Make sure you backed up all your photos, as formatting will erase them and make them difficult, maybe impossible, to recover. A card that has been taken care of will work better than one that had all sorts of clutter on it. Originally posted by elho_cid I get a message that "image saving failed" and the photo is lost. Does that card work normally in other cameras? I have a Sony card that sometimes gives me errors, but it is only that card. It is probably a card issue, not a camera problem. You can test this if you have multiple cameras. I think there are even computer tools that let you test an SD card..? Maybe you can google it I avoid cards from some manufacturers. We had plenty of threads about this already, so feel free to search for them. Another thing to consider is to buy the cards from a reputable store, as there have been cases where people bought online and got fakes, with poor performance.

05-30-2016, 07:37 AM	#5
elho_cid Veteran Member Join Date: Dec 2007 Location: Prague Photos: Gallery Posts: 1,199	Originally posted by Na Horuk Does that card work normally in other cameras? I have a Sony card that sometimes gives me errors, but it is only that card. It is probably a card issue, not a camera problem. You can test this if you have multiple cameras. I think there are even computer tools that let you test an SD card..? Maybe you can google it I avoid cards from some manufacturers. We had plenty of threads about this already, so feel free to search for them. Another thing to consider is to buy the cards from a reputable store, as there have been cases where people bought online and got fakes, with poor performance. The Kingston never had problem when used in my windows tablet as memory expansion and the Pretec worked flawlessly for years in the K-5. Both worked in a computer card reader. But both sometimes fail in the K-1. I will continue investigating the problem and perhaps I'll have to return the camera in warranty.

05-30-2016, 07:45 AM	#7
RKKS08 Site Supporter Join Date: Mar 2010 Location: Frankfurt am Main Posts: 1,241	Also keep in mind that write speed can vary quite a lot because of the block writing with memory cards. Storing just one file as done on a hard disk will only happen if it writes to a new (=completely empty) block. If storing to a partly used block, the complete block will be read in, the area cleaned, and then the complete block - including the newly added file - will be written again. That is the main reason why writing is so much slower than reading. User and operating system have no influence on where a file will be stored - with SD cards, this is managed by the controller on the card itself. As a result: if you, let's say, delete every second picture in-camera, the controller MAY decide to fill these blocks first (instead of writing to empry parts of the card). And if you now start continuous shooting, writing can easily be 6-8 times slower than what the SD card is capable of. Only in-camera formatting can help (for a while!).

05-30-2016, 08:00 AM - 1 Like	#8
88lukas88 Junior Member Join Date: Jan 2016 Posts: 32	Look here .... https://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/190-pentax-k-1/321296-write-speed-sd-card-test.html

05-30-2016, 09:22 AM	#9
TomTom Site Supporter Join Date: Apr 2014 Location: Dallas, Texas Photos: Gallery \| Albums Posts: 539	Something else that should be mentioned is that the faster SanDisk cards have lifetime warranties. I had a two year old Extreme Pro 95MB/s card that recently stopped working in my camera but worked fine in my laptop. I realized that a very small piece of plastic on the edge of the card splintered off. I went through the RMA process and SanDisk is to ship a new card soon (if it hasn't already been shipped). I'll continue to buy their cards based on performance and my experience with their warranty.

05-30-2016, 09:41 AM	#10
kenspo Veteran Member Join Date: Mar 2014 Location: Oslo Posts: 2,207	I only use Lexar, and they work perfect with K-1. I use the faster ones..x1000 and up!

05-30-2016, 09:55 AM	#11
biz-engineer Pentaxian Join Date: Feb 2015 Photos: Gallery Posts: 12,232	I use exclusively Transcend x600 and x300, 32Gb and 64Gb, and it works great with any of the cards, no issue at all. Of course, if I do a pixel shift 36Mpixels x 4 writing in the SD card takes a while but there're nothing wrong with that given the amount of data to be saved.

05-30-2016, 10:25 AM	#12
Kunzite Pentaxian Join Date: Apr 2007 Location: Romania Posts: 15,132	Originally posted by 2351HD Hi, I am experiencing what I feel are slow write times on my K1. Can anybody point me in the direction of a thread or article with recommended SD cards for the K1 and what the fastest write times can be achieved? I would get a fast UHS-I card. Not UHS II (as they'll work slower on an UHS I device).

05-30-2016, 11:10 AM	#13
Rudy Senior Member Join Date: Jan 2013 Location: Texas Photos: Gallery Posts: 109	+1 for Sandisk Extreme Pro SDXC UHS-1 U3 95MB/s Fast and reliable

05-30-2016, 11:51 AM	#14
aikilink Senior Member Join Date: Jul 2014 Posts: 124	Originally posted by monochrome I'm using Sandisk Extreme Pro SDXC UHS-1 U3 Class 10 95MB/s, which Adam said in a Price Watch post is the fastest card K-1 can write. [EDIT: Recommended card in the Speed Test linked in Post#3 above]. I think using RAW+ (RAW1 / JPEG2) slows things down. Shooting with a pair of these and writing RAW to both is really slow... Doing portraits last weekend I found myself multiple times unable to take a photo because of a full buffer. Even a minute later it would still be chomping away with the orange light flashing.

05-30-2016, 01:19 PM	#15
Na Horuk Veteran Member Join Date: Feb 2012 Location: Slovenia, probably Photos: Gallery \| Albums Posts: 11,186	I would mention one more thing - if you have a card for a long time, damage accumulates. I recently had an SD card's plastic crack a little, but that card is probably.. almost 6 years old and was used a lot. Finally, dust and other particles in the card compartment can cause problems. If your new camera has problems, shine a light in the compartment and see if there is anything in there.