The following is a simple price comparison between brands of SD-type cards in early May 2024. Two stars for mid-price, one star for low price, three stars for high price. These prices are for top-spec V90 cards with a lower-end capacity, all UHS-II. I tried to find cards of the closest comparable specification, but not all the specs are identical. Bear in mind that V90 is for video, and is overkill for stills-only shooters unless you do a lot of shooting on high-speed continuous settings. The prices are from B&H Photo, TOP's recommended source for authentic cards. The hope is that these prices are a typical representation of each brand, but bear in mind they might not be. Prices fluctuate as well.
The information about reviews gives some sense of the relative popularity of each brand, at least at B&H. Because the number of one-star reviews is meaningless alone, I also give them as a percentage of all the overall number. Be mindful that one-star reviews are sometimes given for delivery, packaging, or customer service issues irrelevant to the actual product, and that any negative review might be the result of operator error.
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★★ SanDisk Extreme Pro 64 GB, V90, UHS-II, W (write speed in MB/s) 260, R (read speed) 300:$59.99
Max write speed notated on label: No
611 reviews, 4.86 avg. score, 13 1-star reviews (2.1%)
★ Kingston Canvas React 64 GB, V90, UHS-II, W 260, R 300: $49.99
Max write speed notated on label: No
74 reviews, 4.61 avg. score, 3 1-star reviews (4%)
★★★ Sony SF-G TOUGH 64 GB, V90, UHS-II, W 299, R 300: $93.00
Max write speed notated on label: Yes
317 reviews, 4.64 avg. score, 8 1-star reviews (2.5%)
★★ Lexar Professional 2000x 64 GB, V90, UHS-II, W 260, R 300: $59.99
Max write speed notated on label: Yes
230 reviews, 4.24 avg. score, 29 1-star reviews (12.1%)
★★★ Delkin Devices Black 64 GB, V90, UHS-II, W 250, R 300: $69.99
Max write speed notated on label: No (but a unique serial number is)
13 reviews, 4.92 avg. score, 0 1-star reviews (0%)
★ Delkin Devices POWER 64 GB, V90, UHS-II, W 250, R 300: $44.99
Max write speed notated on label: No
28 reviews, 4.68 avg. score, 1 1-star reviews (3.6%)
★★★ ProGrade 64 GB, V90, UHS-II, W 250, R 300: $69.99
Max write speed notated on label: Yes
365 reviews, 4.71 avg. score, 14 1-star reviews (3.8%)
★★★ OWC Atlas Ultra 64 GB, V90, UHS-II, W 250, R 300: $74.99
Max write speed notated on label: Yes
1 review, 5 stars (0% 1-star)
★★ Nextorage 64 GB, V90, UHS-II, W 299, R 300: $59.99
Max write speed notated on label: Yes
3 reviews, all 5 star (0% 1-star)
★★★ Angelbird 64 GB, V90, UHS-II, W 280, R 300:$89.00
Max write speed notated on label: No
67 reviews, 4.64 avg. score, 3 1-star reviews (4.8%)
★★★ Panasonic 64 GB, V90, UHS-II, W 250, R 280: $198.82 (special order)
Max write speed notated on label: Yes
4 reviews, 4.25 avg. score, 0 1-star reviews (0%)
★ PNY Elite-X PRO90 64 GB, V90, UHS-II, W 280, R 300: $49.95
Max write speed notated on label: Yes
14 reviews, 4.2 avg. score, 1 1-star review (7.1%)
★★★ Exascend Essential 64 GB, V90, UHS-II, W 260, R 300: $85.00
Max write speed notated on label: Yes
0 reviews
★★★ Exascend Catalyst 64 GB, V90, UHS-II, W 280, R 300: $89.00
Max write speed notated on label: Yes
0 reviews
★ Sabrent Rocket 64 GB, V90, UHS-II, W 250, R 280: $39.99
Max write speed notated on label: Yes
4 reviews, 5 avg. score, 0 1-star reviews (0%)
★ Transcend 700S 64 GB, V90, UHS-II, W 180, R 285: $41.99
Max write speed notated on label: No
32 reviews, 4.41 avg. score, 2 1-star reviews (6.3%)
★ Patriot EP 64 GB, V90, UHS-II, W 260, R 300: $37.99
Max write speed notated on label: No
2 reviews, 5 avg. score, 0 1-star reviews (0%)
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Highest number of reviews: SanDisk, 611
Lowest: Exascend, 0
Highest average review among cards with more than 10 reviews: Delkin Black, 4.92
Lowest: PNY, 4.2
Lowest percentage of 1-star reviews among cards with more than 10 reviews: SanDisk
Highest (by far): Lexar, 12.1
Lowest price: Patriot EP; runner-up: Sabrent Rocket
Highest price: Panasonic; runner-up: Sony TOUGH
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Next up: what I bought.
Mike
Original contents copyright 2024 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. (To see all the comments, click on the "Comments" link below or on the title of this post.)
Featured Comments from:
Daniele: "So if V60 are more than enough for photography, why are all these V90? Are you moving to video? :-) "
Mike replies: Good question. It's because I wanted to give an apples-to-apples comparison between brands, and some of these brands, such as Delkin Devices, don't offer V60 cards.
Greg: Do people give good reviews for expensive items to justify the purchase to themselves—I have no idea, but I think it's been seen in other realms. I haven't read the reviews, but unless a card fails early what's to rate on unless on does extensive tests? Four to one price spread. Maybe you mentioned it, but what's your need for a V90 card? Don't you shoot stills? And aren't most of your readers still shooter. V60 or V30 would suffice? Is it good or bad that the max write speed is noted on the label? Honest question since I don't know how relevant it is?
Mike replies: Write speed is important because it gives an idea of how quickly the card is able to record continuous sequences without hitting its buffer and slowing way down, and it affects how fast the buffer will be cleared. It all depends on the camera's capabilities of course, but many of today's cameras are capable of faster operation than U1/V10 or U3/V30 cards can keep up with.
If you shoot like I do—at a slower, more contemplative pace (I focus manually and have the drive mode set on single frame), then V60 is certainly overkill and V30 will do. Some sources recommend using cards that match the camera's bus speed, so I opted to get V60 cards because they're UHS-II. I'm pretty sure I would have coped just fine with V30 UHS-I cards. Some of the old cards I actually use aren't even that good.
Patrick Perez: "So which is the one clear winner? ;-) ."
Mike replies: After having looked into it, I think I'll defer to Kirk and call the Delkin Black the best card money can buy. They're probably tougher than the Sony TOUGH, seem to have a very low failure rate, are immune to shock and moisture, and Delkin only sells them though a select number of qualified dealers—and marks each card with a unique serial number—so they're well protected from counterfeiting. Their physical durability is going to prevent a significant number of failures all by itself. For the excellent specs and features offered, the prices are not excessive, and Delkin makes both V30 UHS-I and V90 UHS-II versions.
For the best bargain without sacrificing quality, my pick would be the SanDisk 32GB Extreme PRO UHS-I V30 SDHC for $11.68 per card. I have lots of experience with earlier versions of that card with almost the same spec. A real workhorse, and if you need a cheaper memory card than that you're probably in the wrong hobby. :-)
Samsung is also good (good price, good reviews). Available from Amazon.
[In full-size SDXC, Samsung makes only UHS-1 V30 cards. So they don't make a card of the kind compared here. --Mike]
Posted by: Yuan | Tuesday, 07 May 2024 at 05:15 PM
In a world of price hikes, camera memory cards have really came down over the years. In 2003, I bought my brother a Canon digicam that took CF cards. It was only a 1.3mp camera, so I got him a 256K card which cost $79. Today, I shoot 16G SD cards that I buy in bulk for below $5 a card.
I've been using the Sandisk cards (linked) for years without ever having a failure. The 10 pack comes in at under 5 bucks per card. FWIW, I prefer multiple moderate capacity cards versus a single high capacity card. If that single card gets lost or fails, you lose a lot.
Sandisk 16GB (10 Pack) SD Card Bundle SDHC Class 4 Flash Memory | Model SDSDB-016G-B35
https://amzn.to/3UN6p4a
Posted by: Albert Smith | Tuesday, 07 May 2024 at 06:06 PM
The price of the Panasonic card seems….excessive. Is it carving the bits onto the bones of bald eagles(or am I missing something)? Also, it /seems/ as though those cards have been discontinued:
https://na.panasonic.com/us/audio-video-solutions/broadcast-cinema-pro-video/broadcast-cinema-pro-video-accessories/64-gb-v90-class-sdxc-card
Posted by: Noah | Wednesday, 08 May 2024 at 01:59 PM
Isn't a photography blog meant to be about... Oh never mind. This does, though, make me depressed.
Posted by: Patrick Dodds | Friday, 10 May 2024 at 02:17 PM