Best SD Card for Video on CANON R6
If you want your camera to give you the best performance, whether you're using it to record 4K video or capture continuous burst shots, then watch this video to help you choose the right memory card.
I have an SD memory card in my hands. Unfortunately, but often, just such a trifle can ruin not only important shooting, but even the pleasure of working with the camera. In this video, I will analyze the specified characteristics on the front side and help you figure out which SD card is right for you. I will choose it for the Canon EOS R6, but after watching this video, by analogy you can choose a memory card for absolutely any camera.
Let's discuss a few important markings on the front of the SD card and compare them with the Canon EOS R6's requirements for video recording cards.
The first marking of the speed class for ordinary cards is a number inscribed in the Latin letter C, in this case "C10", which means the guaranteed minimum write speed to the card, equal to 10 MB / s (megabytes per second). There are cards of the 2nd, 4th, 6th, 8th class. The table indicates that with grade 10, FULL HD shooting at approximately 60 frames per second is possible.
By choosing a memory card with this option, you can fully process RAW photos and shoot videos in FULL HD quality. Today, Class 10 is our minimum. By purchasing such a memory card, you can save money, but limit yourself to other video capabilities of the camera. But if shooting FULL HD 60 frames per second is enough for you, then here is an example of such memory cards with the actual cost at the time of video recording.
Similar to the previous labeling, there is a UHS speed class (often called a rating), where one or three fits into the Latin letter U. Cards operating on the high-speed UHS bus provide even more stable video recording and cover almost all recording modes except 4K at 60fps and 4K time-lapse shooting. UHS (Ultra High Speed) rating almost completely repeats the concept of a card class, which we talked about earlier, but UHS is primarily a new data bus standard. Number 3 indicates the minimum write speed to a memory card, which is 30 MB / s. This is the sweet spot for the Canon EOS R6! I would advise you to consider memory cards with this setting. Still, grade 10 with a minimum write speed of 10 MB / s (megabytes per second) will limit the video capabilities of the camera. As you can see, the prices of these cards are reasonable even with the declared 512 GB drive.
The next marker is the Roman numeral I or II. I stands for UHS-I. Such a memory card has one row of connectors, while UHS-II has two rows of connectors. With UHS-II cards, reading speeds are three times faster than I. The Canon EOS R6 is compatible with the latest UHS II technologies and also supports older cards.
The third marking, the most important for video recording, translates as "Video Speed Class" or "V Class" and serves as a marker of the transfer of data from the camera to the card. The number next to it indicates the number of megabytes per second that the camera can record, for example, the V30 has a recording speed of 30 megabytes per second. And here difficulties arise, because the camera codecs refer to megabits, not megabytes, so it is necessary to convert megabytes to megabits. I converted 30 megabytes and got 240 megabytes. To understand how we can apply this number, refer to the second table that is available in the Canon EOS R6 manual. So the resulting speed is ideal for most FULL HD video codecs below 240 megabits per second.
But if you want to shoot in absolutely all modes without limits, you'll need a more expensive V60-rated UHS II SD card to keep up with those recording speeds so you don't have dropped frames or recording errors with your video. From the table you can see that for the EOS R6 camera to record 4K video (time-lapse), we need 470 megabits per second. We convert this number to megabytes and get 58.75.
Thus, an SD memory card labeled UHS II, V60 will reveal all the video capabilities of the Canon EOS R6.
Now you need to decide on the amount of memory. The table shows the volume in megabytes of one minute and the total recording time, which will fit on a 128 GB memory card. Here is an example with the prices of such a card. Of course, I picked up memory cards labeled UHS II, V60, which will reveal the maximum capabilities of the camera. You will probably need a larger card, so I made a selection with the same suitable parameters, but with an increased amount of memory.
As for a few more parameters indicated on the card, for example, two numbers 270 after the letter R and 120 after the letter W, these parameters refer to the data transfer rate to the computer.
More details in the video.