SD Card Write Speeds

Most of the Class 10 UHS-1 cards I see on Amazon don't write faster than about 20-25mb/s. What am I missing here?


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You are probably missing the difference between bits and bytes. They are very commonly confused, so forgive me if you do know the difference.

The P3P records at a max of 60 Mbit/s which is 7.5 MB/s. Class 10 and UHS-1 have a minimum of 10 MB/s write speed, so that is already faster than the highest setting of the P3P.

20-25 MB/s as you noted would be about 2-3x faster than the P3P is physically capable of writing due to is internal bottleneck.

This is why the mods constantly tell people that spending so much for super fast writing cards is not really adding value when the cards are used in a P3. Even so, people seem to not want to hear it and insist that only the fastest write cards should be used with the P3. Note that there are certainly use cases other than a P3 that do benefit from much faster write speeds, but we are talking about the P3 here.

However, as noted earlier it does add value to have a faster read card to save you time when transferring your media off of the card. Of course for use with a P3 you'd still need to stay with at least Class 10/UHS-1 for write speed.
 
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Most of the Class 10 UHS-1 cards I see on Amazon don't write faster than about 20-25mb/s. What am I missing here?
Many sellers do not post the write speed and/or make it hard to find it. The read speed is almost always higher, so that's what they like to advertise. I show the write speeds in my recommended list of memory cards here.
 
Great info guys. Thanks a ton for clarifying for me. Much appreciated


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I had problems with a basic card and now use a uhs 100 mb/s and now my video is smooth, only paid £19.99 worth every penny.


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As many have stated, the faster cards don't mean much inside the P3. I have several sandisk (extreme, extreme plus and pro). I haven't noticed a difference with video or photos. Only transferring content from the card to the computer. I only use the P3S at the highest photo and video settings, and I've yet to see a difference from the card that came with the kit vs. the other I purchased. On a side note.... what size cards are you guys buying? I have 32gb and have tons of extra space. I have 3 batteries and still plenty of room. Maybe I should do 16gb instead?
 
As many have stated, the faster cards don't mean much inside the P3. I have several sandisk (extreme, extreme plus and pro). I haven't noticed a difference with video or photos. Only transferring content from the card to the computer. I only use the P3S at the highest photo and video settings, and I've yet to see a difference from the card that came with the kit vs. the other I purchased. On a side note.... what size cards are you guys buying? I have 32gb and have tons of extra space. I have 3 batteries and still plenty of room. Maybe I should do 16gb instead?
As far as density of the card, I go against the grain somewhat. I prefer smaller sized cards and swapping them more frequently. Sometimes with each battery change for example.

I always feel better when I take out the card. It sort of feels like that media is now banked and cant then become corrupt or lost before I offload the files. I cant imagine losing a full 64GB card that I've left in my Phantom for many flights.
 
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As far as density of the card, I go against the grain somewhat. I prefer smaller sized cards and swapping them more frequently. Sometimes with each battery change for example.

I always feel better when I take out the card. It sort of feels like that media is now banked and cant then become corrupt or lost before I offload the files. I cant imagine losing a full 64GB card that I've left in my Phantom for many flights.

Couldn't agree more. However prices between 16 & 32 are not much of a difference. Often about $5. However from 32 to 64 is sometimes almost double. I guess 32 could be the sweet spot based upon the sale price.
 
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I can't see the point in 64 GB cards either.
Do you want to store the work of many flights on one card and keep sending it out and risk losing it all?
My preference is a number of 16 GB cards in different colours so I don't get them mixed up.[/QUOTE]

Thanks for the valuable info! I shoot video at 3840 and RAW stills. A 32g card is full before the battery is at minimum, so I don't start until I'm aloft, and stop before landing, and have missed a few good shots. I was thinking with 64g card, I can record full flights, right?


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