# One for the Techi's  I need some insight please



## Stevepwns (Mar 20, 2014)

I was reading this post on another forum. 

A77 memory card write speed: Sony Alpha SLR/SLT A-mount Talk Forum: Digital Photography Review 

It talks about the write speed of the Sony A77.  It seems that the A77 does not use all of the available write speed of the 95mbs cards.  

Can anyone explain to me if spending the money is actually worth it.  I have 2 now and want to get some more cards.  But dont want to waste the money just so I can say I have those cards.....


EDIT:  Sorry I didnt realize this would be a Sony thing.  The question is more about the card than the camera.


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## Kolia (Mar 20, 2014)

Assuming my A65 has the same performance, you are correct, it will not benefit much from the faster card.

Using the same Sandisk card in the A65 and RX100m2, the RX writes much faster despite the RAW file size being similar. The difference is more obvious when writing a video to the card.  Shooting still, I'm careful not to fill the buffer. 

I use my A65 with the "slow" 45MB/sec cards.


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## Stevepwns (Mar 21, 2014)

Kolia said:


> Assuming my A65 has the same performance, you are correct, it will not benefit much from the faster card.
> 
> Using the same Sandisk card in the A65 and RX100m2, the RX writes much faster despite the RAW file size being similar. The difference is more obvious when writing a video to the card.  Shooting still, I'm careful not to fill the buffer.
> 
> I use my A65 with the "slow" 45MB/sec cards.



Do you even see a difference between the 45 and the 95?


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## Kolia (Mar 21, 2014)

It's marginal on the A65 but obvious on the RX100


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## BGeise (Mar 21, 2014)

I only notice a difference when reviewing images or processing video.


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## FilledwLight (Mar 22, 2014)

Are you sure that the write speed is 95Mb/s?  Many cards show the read speed on the label because it is typically much faster than the write speed.  I tested some cards with the same listed "speed" and one was much faster.  Then I checked the fine print in the packages and saw that one had a write speed of 45Mb/s, and the other was 90.  I use 400x and 600x cards in my a77, and the 600x's are faster for both writing in camera and reading on my laptop.  So, obviously the a77 can handle the current high speed SD cards.  I have yet to try the 633x cards,  mainly because it's not that big of a jump.  Now, when shooting most of my pro work, the type of card makes no difference whatsoever. The only time I make sure I'm using a faster card is when shooting fast action like sports. So, card speed is not as important to me. If I ever get a cam in the future with a resolution like > 32 megapixels, then card speed will be more important. My real world, on-site experiments (albeit qualitative) have shown, however, that my a77 can use higher speed cards, if desired.


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## Stevepwns (Mar 23, 2014)

FilledwLight said:


> Are you sure that the write speed is 95Mb/s?  Many cards show the read speed on the label because it is typically much faster than the write speed.  I tested some cards with the same listed "speed" and one was much faster.  Then I checked the fine print in the packages and saw that one had a write speed of 45Mb/s, and the other was 90.  I use 400x and 600x cards in my a77, and the 600x's are faster for both writing in camera and reading on my laptop.  So, obviously the a77 can handle the current high speed SD cards.  I have yet to try the 633x cards,  mainly because it's not that big of a jump.  Now, when shooting most of my pro work, the type of card makes no difference whatsoever. The only time I make sure I'm using a faster card is when shooting fast action like sports. So, card speed is not as important to me. If I ever get a cam in the future with a resolution like > 32 megapixels, then card speed will be more important. My real world, on-site experiments (albeit qualitative) have shown, however, that my a77 can use higher speed cards, if desired.




Thanks for the informed input. I appreciate it, and welcome to TPF.


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