Memory cards are all the same, right?

The post Memory cards are all the same, right? appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Sime.

Memory cards are all the same, right?

Well, yes and no. I believe that if you’re simply a hobbyist and you’re not too worried about ever losing data on a card then it’s not going to make much difference if you get a pricey card or a cheap card. Though I would also suggest if you always get cheap cards, get small ones that don’t store too much data, that way, when, not if they fail, you don’t lose too many photos or videos.

There is an old saying, that goes “there are too kinds of digital storage, those that have failed and those that haven’t failed yet”. Cheaper and more expensive cards can both fail, they are both physical manufactured things. But the difference I have often found is that with some products that cost more, you’re not just paying for how they perform but also how the company that makes them performs when something goes wrong.

I have been exceptionally luck over the years, that I haven’t had more than 2-3 horror stories of hard drives or memory cards failing on me. Though most of the times when they have failed it hasn’t been a huge horror story as I am fanatical about backup, but that is for another article. 

I got my first set of ProGrade memory cards back in 2020. I was sent them for long term review and I think 5 years later defiantly counts as long term. I got sent 1x V90 128gig and 1x V90 256gig and have been using them solidly for 4 or so years since. Not only that, but those two worked so well for me that I also bought 3 more of the 256gig cards.

I’ve have used them on countless projects for my production company as well as my Youtube channel over these last few years, they have captured probably thousands of hours of 4K and 6K high bitrate content, in some pretty challenging conditions and never missed a beat. 

I’ve used them in cameras ranging from Sony, Panasonic, Canon and Nikon.

Even though I’ve never really needed to make use of ProGrade’s support, they have some pretty useful features. They have a free app you can download for Mac or Windows called PreFresh Pro which you can use to check your cards health. After all my cards have been though they all still show as 99.9% healthy. The app suggests that if you card gets down by 10% then you should look at replacing it as soon as possible.

You can also “Sanitise” your cards with the ReFresh app with will wipe then clean, but also optimise them for best speed and use. Though I’ve never really noticed the cards having any issues with speed on read or write. Please note that you do need to use a ProGrade card reader in order for the app to recognise your cards and work with them. Also even though the software is free, you do need to “order it” via their website. I am assuming they do this to limit the bandwidth of people downloading it over and over again from them website.

ProGrade also sell a $49 USD app called Recovery Pro for recovering lost data from a card. Of course this will depend on what has gone wrong with the card if you can get anything off it or not. So your mileage will vary, but it’s nice that they sell an option for this. Also note the purchase price a one year licence only, but they do have a free valuation copy you can use to scan your files and see if they app thinks it can recovery anything you can use before you buy.

Thankfully, I’ve never had the need for that app and fingers crossed I never will.

In conclusion, even though I generally hesitate to ever outright recommending something, I have no hesitation outright recommending the ProGrade SD cards. I’ve not used any of their other cards, but from the last 5 years of my experience with these cards, they work every time and have never given me any issues. Which is pretty much all you want from a memory card, isn’t it?

This article in from our friend and Filmmaker, Lee Herbet – Find out more about Lee here

The post Memory cards are all the same, right? appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Sime.