More and more, faster.

SD and SDHC cards are an absolute winner: For compact cameras dominate it for years, with digital SLR cameras oust them increasingly compact flash cards - the specialist magazine "Color Photo" has six models tested, and advises what speed is worthwhile.

 

Only three years after the introduction of the SDHC format is its maximum capacity (32 GB) is reached. The growing proliferation of HD video makes the requirements for storage media to the top fast. The successor SDXC is already in the starting blocks (see box).

Although not much more storage, you can optimize the speed, if not more from each manufacturer that is always the fastest card in its generation portfolio to have.

The forerunner is SanDisk, which is the end of 2008 the pace of its top series Ultra II and Extreme III by 50 percent to respectively 15 and 30 MB / s has increased. An Extreme IV, such as Compact Flash, there are not.

FOUND IN ...

Color photo 6 / 2009

The magazine for digital and analog photography

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www.colorfoto.de

Besides the two fast SanDisk cards in our test, a standard SDHC Class 2 of the same manufacturer as well as a Panasonic Class-4-SD with 5 MB / s, a class-4-SDHC from Kingston and a class-6 - by takeMS SDHC investigated.

Nikon D90

At the Nikon and the Pentax also provides the standard SDHC SanDisk always comes last. Otherwise, related to the D90 only photos in the raw data in RAW format - that is about ten megabytes of large files - with notable differences. Here, the Extreme III three pictures in series as the main field. At the time it exceeds the two slowest card by 20 seconds and the Ultra II for five seconds. The class-4-Map of Kingston surprised with better results than the class-6-Pendant by takeMS and is only slightly behind the Ultra II

Pentax K20D

SDXC: 2 TByte AND 300 MB / S

The SD Association has in early 2009 under the name SDXC (eXtended Capacity) presented a new format, whose specifications are in themselves have a capacity of up to 2 TB and speeds of 104 MB / s this year and up to 300 MB / s in the future. It will certainly take up to 2 - TB-cards in the shops are available. But 64 GB, one could safely expect soon. These cards are the new file system exFAT work designed specifically for flash memory has been developed. The change means that today's devices with slots SD/SDHC- not readily compatible with the next format will be.

With 14.6 mega pixels and around 23 megabytes large RAWs Pentax makes greater demands on the cards. Therefore, the results from the K20D differentiated.

At the time, the two fast SanDisk cards about 25 to 52 s (RAW) or 13-22 s (JPEG) ahead of the competition. In the series of pictures, they create two to four (RAW), and 10-13 shots (JPEG) more. The difference between Ultra II and Extreme III remains low. Kingston also indicates the Pentax a better performance than takeMS, while Panasonic again on the penultimate place lands.

Conclusion

TABLE

SD and SDHC cards - Test results at a glance

The test shows, firstly, the speed classes mention only the minimum, but not the actual capabilities of a card. A significant example is the measurement of Kingston in comparison with takeMS and Panasonic. Second, cards with speeds of 15 MB / s such as Ultra II or comparable competitive models achieve top results.

A further doubling of the speed with Extreme III shows no practical advantage. However, the Extreme III winner, but with little advantage over the Ultra II and cost, around six to seven euros per GB higher.

Both the Ultra II as well as Kingston Class 4 SDHC deliver at a price of four or two euros per GB a good and sufficient for most performance: a clear price-performance recommendation.