SanDisk Extreme 32 GB SDHC Class 10 UHS-1 Flash Memory Card 45MB/s (SDSDX-032G-X46)

The speed of this card may be overkill for standard shooting/filming. However, I use Magic Lantern on my 60D, which is a firmware modification that runs off of the SD card. I noticed that my Transcend 32 GB Class 10 SDHC Flash Memory Card TS32GSDHC10E had a hard time keeping up with some of the functions of the additional software. I decided to give the faster card a try, and the functions (such as magic zoom and focus peaking) work much better now.

Of course, pulling pictures and video off the card is also quicker than with the Transcend. Although both cards are “Class 10,” the SanDisk is 50% faster than the Transcend.

I just received the card today, so not a lot of time logged… But it is smokin’ fast! I had some issues recording 1080/30fps on my D5100 with previous PNY Professional card. Several tests with HD video and consecutive still frame bursts never even hiccuped! I’m 99.4% sure this is going to cure all of the past woes. (The PNY is now relegated to my sweet new Samsung TL500. No HD video on it, so No worries!)

What I wanted to point out to those looking is that this IS the latest 45MB/s SDHC Extreme 16GB card. AND it’s at the same or better price as others selling the previous models!

Maybe I’m the only one that’s confused about the different versions of the SanDisk SDHC cards. But I searched and searched trying to make sure I was getting the latest card instead of overpaying for old stock. I even contacted SanDisk, and their customer support didn’t even know that the Extreme is now 45MB/s! They actually told me that I would have to buy the (now outdated and overpriced) SDSDXP1-016G to get 45MB/s. I researched this for a couple of evenings, and still knew enough to explain to SanDisk that the SDSDXPA-016G is the new version of what they told me to buy, and it’s now 95MB/s for the same price!

So here’s the breakdown of what I found as of 3/22/12:

Lower price Extreme SDHC:
SDSDRX3-016G – 30MB/s – OLD
SDSDX-016G – 45MB/s – CURRENT (Apparently Brand New)

Higher price Extreme Pro SDHC:
SDSDXP1-016G – 45MB/s – OLD
SDSDXPA-016G – 95MB/s – CURRENT

The cards are all about the same price if you buy the same classification and GB size. (A 16GB Extreme is going to be twenty-five to thirty bucks regardless if it’s 20MB/s, 30MB/s, or 45MB/s.)

I don’t know if you really need this Extreme card vs. Ultra or Extreme Pro. You can determine that… But don’t Overpay for the same performance! Be sure you Get the Latest Version of whichever you choose.

I recently purchased a GoPro HD Hero2 which shoots both video/still pictures and have been very satisfied with the performance of this card. Without going in to what a GoPro can do and why I matched it with this card I will simply say that it handles approx. 5 hours of video time in various settings and easily handles the rapid burst photo setting of 10 photos/sec…fast!

After a bit of research I purchased this card when I bought my Canon EOS 60D. I shoot RAW + JPG and have no trouble shooting at full speed with this SD card. Full HD video isn’t a problem either.

I’ve put the card in both my desktop and laptop computers and haven’t had any problem reading the images off them.

If you’ve spent a bunch of money on a DSLR why go cheap when it comes to the storage? A slow card can reduce the performance of the camera if you’re shooting rapid fire. After looking at many reviews here and at photography websites I decided on this card and I haven’t been disappointed.

When I bought the new Canon DSLR camera I got what I thought was a fast memory card for it. The camera would stop “automatically” after a few seconds of HD video which was VERY irritating. The suggested fix was higher speed memory. After installing the Extreme memory the problem disappeared entirely. The price was good and the function is great! I recommend it!

Finding high-speed digital media that actually WORK with your DSLR, audio recorder, HD Cam, or other digital media device, can be tough. Most of us have taken a chance on a lesser brand name (probably trying to save money) only to find the storage won’t read or write as consistently or as quickly as specified.

This SanDisk Extreme card isn’t as expensive as some of the others out there, but it actually works as specified. I’m using this card with a Nikon D7000 Digital SLR for shooting RAW and JPG still images and HD video. You might be able to get by with a lesser card if you’re only shooting JPG stills, but if you want to push the capabilities of your device and avoid read/write errors, you need to get a card capable of dealing with the data your device is trying to store. I won’t ever again try to save a few bucks buying off-brand digital media, because I’ve had so many problems.

I ordered one of these SanDisk Extreme cards to test out. It works perfectly, so I’m going to order a couple more. Well worth it!

I shoot RAW, 14bit, “lossless compressed”. The files are about 20mb in size. I usually take about 2000 pictures at a 10-hour event and 64gb is just the perfect size for this amount of shooting.
I also use dual memory card slots on my camera for instant back up. Which means the time that it takes to clear the buffer is twice as long. That’s where the 45 MB/s come into play. Of course there’s also the 64gb Sandisk Extreme Pro, which is twice as fast and costs twice as much, but it may be an overkill especially if you’re not doing the instant back up.

I think this card is just the perfect compromise between the cost and the speed, but if money is burning a hole in your pocket might as well go for the Extreme Pro version. For my purposes 45 MB/s is plenty.

Btw, this card is a little bit slower in real life tests. The two cards that I bought topped out at about 42 MB/s (obviously it was tested over USB 3.0)
I remember when Sandisk cards used to be 2-3 MB/s faster than the speed they were rated at, even when the fastest cards were only 15 MB/s, but I guess Sandisk isn’t trying to make a name for itself anymore so no real need to go the extra mile. I think as long as it’s within 5%-10% of the advertised speed it’s not a big deal.

Word of advice: make sure that your equipment is compatible with the SDXC standard and can take advantage of UHS-I, because most of the stuff out there isn’t, so the card will either not perform at the rated speed or won’t work at all.

There’s also a 128gb version of this card. I’d go for it if I shot a lot of HD video, but for taking pictures 64gb should be enough.

I have had the chance to use this card a lot over the last six months and have no complaints so far. I am using a Nikon D7000 camera. First, the storage space is amazing. I typically shoot raw images and I can store about 900 images on a single card. If I shoot .jpg I can store around 16,000 images. Second, the most important reason I bought this card was for the write speed in shooting images and video. With other cards I was somewhat limited when I was taking rapid photos in either single or burst mode. I was limited in the write speed and would often have to wait for the images to save before shooting more. With this card there is no waiting. I am able to capture the images at any speed I would like. This comes in handy when shooting action shots like wildlife or children (same difference . The write speed also allows me to capture full 1080p high quality video. Personally, I think this card is a great deal at the price. I plan on purchasing a second card for my other card slot in my camera for my upcomming trip to Spain. That way I don’t have to worry about lugging a device to offload the images.

Considerably faster than the cheaper class 10 cards. I have been using the Transcend TS16GSDHC10 16 GB SDHC Class 10 Flash Memory Card, which currently retail for 69% of what this card does. I performed a simple comparison between 2 of these cards (brand new) and 2 of said Transcend cards (~1.5 years old, not sure how much this matters).

I filled the buffer of my Nikon D7000 with 9 RAW images, then measured the time to write that entire buffer to the card. This is about 192 MB. I formatted each card in camera, and then performed three consecutive runs on each card.

Results (time in seconds):

SanDisk 1: 6.9, 7.2, 7.3; 26.9 MB/s avg
SanDisk 2: 6.9, 7.0, 7.1; 27.4 MB/s avg

Transcend 1: 12.0, 11.4, 11.9; 16.3 MB/s avg
Transcend 2: 15.8, card error, reformat, 15.4, 15.8, 15.5; 12.3 MB/s avg (for last 3 runs)

So, if we toss the 2nd card for being sketchy with the card error (I have encountered that only once or twice in the field, and I didn’t lose the photos already recorded), we find that the Transcend card has 60% of the SanDisk’s speed. So it would appear this SanDisk card has pretty good bang for your buck, with considerably better absolute performance, and better performance per dollar.