Professional photography and videography have overlaps in terms of what equipment is needed for both. Knowing these overlaps can be a big money saver for most hybrid shooters (those offering both photography and videography). For example, I use my 35mm Sony 1.8 for both photography and videography due to various reasons such as performance, weight and focal length. However, it's not just about the lenses, camera-body and cage attachments, etc. that need to be considered. In fact, one of the most important considerations to make is your SD card.
And it's not just about the amount of memory storage...
This professional photography and videography blog article by Martin Creates can be treated as a guide for choosing the best SD cards for your camera. If you're a photographer or videographer - anywhere in the world - reading this, then you are probably aware that there is a big variety of SD cards to choose from. Martin Creates offers this guide based on facts and professional experience from photoshoots and video shoots.
V30, V60, and V90 SD cards are the most common types of SD cards in the world of professional photography and videography. The key differences lie in their minimum sustained write speeds.
- V30 cards guarantee a minimum sustained write speed of 30 MB/s.
- V60 cards guarantee a minimum sustained write speed of 60 MB/s.
- V90 cards guarantee a minimum sustained write speed of 90 MB/s.
These classifications are important for recording high-resolution video such as 4K or more, as they ensure that the card can keep up with the data being written to it without dropping frames or experiencing other issues.
Higher speeds are needed for recording higher resolutions or frame rates.
So which one should you be getting?
The short answer is V90 SD cards.
If budget allowed, I'd have x12 V90 cards each 256gb. Each one would typically cost upwards of £200.
...But is that the one you need?
I'm a professional photographer and videographer and I have several client bookings every week that require me to be snapping away and/or recording for the duration of the shoot reliably. I have x2 V90 cards which are great for hybrid work. I also have x2 V60 cards and x2 V30 cards at the time of writing this blog post. All of them work for 4K videos shot in log but I typically only use the V90s for videography and sometimes a V60 SD card when necessary, and very rarely do I rely on V30 for video.
For a professional photographer, a V60 or even a V30 SD card would suffice because they don't require extremely high sustained write speeds. The only exception to this would be if you are shooting high-speed burst photography in large RAW files.
Just for the sake of clarity, below we will see that the quality of output was not affected on the following shoots when using V30 SD cards:
Similarly, I used a V60 SD when recording this video. Here is the final result once I finished editing the clips and stitching them together:
But, these purchases are an investment for professional photographers and videographers. Whilst £200 might sound like a lot, you get that money back with half a shoot usually and it's reliable. Sometimes, it's better to think about what's best for your business and reputation rather than the alternatives that you could use that money to purchase.
I am a professional freelance photographer and videographer based in London, UK. I started Martin Creates in order to help empower people and brands worldwide. One of the ways I do that is by publishing blogs with free information to help any creatives out there reading this. I welcome you to check out my work on this website as well as my newly launched site martincreatesweddings.com. If you have any questions, don't hesitate to reach out.
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