06Jun Komputerbay 128GB SDXC Speed test
I’ve been testing out that Komputerbay 128GB SDXC card with the Panasonic GH4 over the last 3 or 4 days and I haven’t run into any problems with write speeds. Even at 1080p 200Mbit/s the card seems to sail along without any trouble. No dropouts or write issues so far, I might even approve it for paid work if it makes it through a few more weeks of road testing.
As promised here are speed tests from CrystalDiskMark. The rest of the information is nice to have but for video work Sequential read and write speeds are what you’ll want to focus on. The advertised speed for the Komputerbay 128GB SDXC card is “60MB/s Write, 90MB/s Read”. As you can see from the results, the read speeds fall a little short of the mark coming in at 76.76 MB/s. However the write speeds for this card seem to be “write” (pun intended) on target at 64.20 MB/s which slightly faster than advertised.
Compare those results to the results (above) from the Sandisk Extreme pro 32GB card and you’ll see that the Komputerbay 128GB SDXC card results are pretty close. The Extreme pro is slightly faster in both reads and writes but both cards are more than fast enough to keep up with the GH4.
Where the Komputerbay 128GB SDXC card really pulls head is in price per GB. A Sandisk Extreme pro 32GB card will set you back about $50 which works out to $1.56 per GB. At $64.50 the Komputerbay 128GB SDXC card works out to 50 cents a GB, that’s 1/3 the price of Sandisk’s offering.
Keep in mind that the Komputerbay CF cards I’ve tested in the past have been a little bit unpredictable from card to card. Some people have reported speed differences as high as 20% from one card to another. This is the first and only Komputerbay SDXC card I’ve owned so I don’t have a very large sample size. From the Amazon reviews I’ve read, it seems like the SDXC cards might suffer from the same quality control issues. About 14% of the reviews are negative out of 1350 total. So make sure you check your card speeds as soon as it shows up.
The other thing to note is that with a large capacity card like this, you are putting all of your eggs in a single basket. If you shoot on 32GB cards, all 4 cards (128GB worth) would have to fail for a shoot to be a total loss. However a problem with a single 128GB card may cause you to lose everything. In the old days I feared using anything over 32GB for that reason, but the hassle of changing out cards every 45min or so has me rethinking that strategy.
Once I’ve had a chance to use the card for a month or two, i’ll let you know how well it works out. So far so good.
June 6th, 2014 at 12:48 pm
Thanks for being our guinea pig. I don’t think I’d have the nerve to try it myself on actual paid work. But if it’s all that everybody says it is, that would be a lot cheaper than San Disk!
June 6th, 2014 at 1:10 pm
I’m taking it out on a very very low paying job this weekend (food+gas+hotel = very very low paying job, at least it’s a hilton), but I don’t trust it enough yet to use it when i’m being paid full rate. I’ll probably shoot on it another month or so before I get brave.
June 6th, 2014 at 1:19 pm
What would probably help a lot to ease some concerns is if the company changed their name and got a graphic designer. Komputer Bay with a “K” sound too much like your run of the mill cheap Chinese brand.
June 6th, 2014 at 2:28 pm
I believe they are based out of florida Ironically. I think their secret is that they buy up B stock from other card manufacturers.
June 6th, 2014 at 12:51 pm
Just for fun I ran a speed test on my SanDisk Extreme Pro 95MB/s 32GB SD card, it has crashed 3 times in the past month while filming in slow motion. That is not too bad considering I have been shooting like crazy, but would suck for the GH4 crash on an important shot.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/davedugdale/14174282879/
June 6th, 2014 at 1:12 pm
Looks like you are getting better speeds than I am out of your Extreme Pro cards. I’m kind of surprised slow motion is give you problems, the data rates seem to be less demanding than 1080P 200MB/s from my little bit of testing.
June 6th, 2014 at 1:13 pm
Each of the 3 crashes in the past month have all been during 96fps clips. Not sure why.
June 6th, 2014 at 1:19 pm
I haven’t had any crashes due to memory cards, but I’ve had the camera lock up a number of times when switching between Photos in A mode and manual video mode. Focus locks up, ISO goes haywire, or the aperture stops all the way down and it requires a battery pull to get things working again. Had any problems like that?
June 6th, 2014 at 3:07 pm
Leaves out the one genuinely useful metric, that Komputerbay opts out of (conveniently): minimum constant write speed. The card of choice for the GH4 guarantees 30 MB/s: http://focuspull.in/128gbSD
June 6th, 2014 at 3:27 pm
Paul, I believe the Komputerbay cards were actually released before the standard came into play. As a “generic” manufacture they are pretty slow to update their lineup. I did mention the Transcend cards you linked to back in April when they were announced and released. They are more expensive than the Komputerbay cards but far less than some of the newer Sandisk cards.
June 6th, 2014 at 3:31 pm
The point here being, I’m anxious and enthusiastic about spreading the word (whenever not yet mentioned) that the conversation going forward is about minimum constant write speed, without exception, the only relevant metric, and where there’s silence, it’s their loss (because customers are wise to avoid any product hiding the ball)…
June 6th, 2014 at 3:48 pm
I’ll run some more tests. I think HDTune reports a min and max write speed, not just the average. You make a good point. Dave Dugdale and I were just talking about dropouts on the Sandisk Extreme pro cards this morning. The card would have to drop below 37Mb/s write speed to cause the problem he was having and the extreme pro cards don’t guarantee a minimum write speed.
I mentioned the concerns you are having about speed in that post I linked to: “the new standard being used, any card with the “UHS-3″ stamp is required to meet a “Minimum constant 30 Mb/s write speed” which is more than enough to handle 4k recording at 24 and 30 fps”. Like you said, the newer standard is the only one that lists a minimum write speed all others do not.
June 7th, 2014 at 8:46 am
Hi Deejay,
A simple question, perhaps you could answer us..
it runs without problem on GH4 in 4K mode and loer , AND..the BMPCC on Proress and RAW? . Many of us are looking for cards for both working without problems. These two cams are my A and B cams! . Thanks a ot.
June 7th, 2014 at 2:43 pm
It should handle the BMPCC, but I don’t know for sure without testing. The card is a bit slower than the Extreme Pro cards they recommend. I don’t have a BMPCC to test.
June 7th, 2014 at 6:01 pm
This has been verified repeatedly to absolutely not work on the BMPC, not only in RAW but even in ProRes. Careful, folks, with the advice that can be costly…
June 9th, 2014 at 7:37 am
Well there you have it, Paul says it “absolutely” does not work. I’d take his advice as I have no BMPCC cameras to test.