If you are experimenting with the new, uber-popular 4K video, you need to make sure your memory cards are up for the challenge. With the high transfer rate of today’s action cams and aerial drones, a slow card can severely challenge your project. A couple to consider are Lexar’s new 1,800x micro SDXC UHS-II or their 2933x XQD 2.0.
1800x micro SDXC UHS-II
I recently had the chance to put the 1800x card through its paces and it never skipped a beat. Fast moving scenes in a bouncing GoPro were no challenge. Never dropping a frame, it recorded it all.
Not only is it valuable for capturing your vision during filming, it’s also wonderful when you get back to the studio and want to transfer the footage to your computer for editing.
I was using the 64GB microSDXC UHS-II and it boasts up to 270MB/s read and 250MB/s write speeds. In my DSLR, it more than kept up with any shooting I could do, helping to clean out the buffer as quickly as possible, even when shooting very high-res RAW files.
The 1800x comes with a microSD UHS-II USB reader as well as an SD-sized card for transfer to just about any device. You’ll need to use the UHS-II reader to achieve those blistering transfer speeds, but older readers will work as well at a lower transfer rate.
Your investment is also protected with a limited lifetime warranty on the card. See the Lexar line of microSD cards here.
2933x XQD 2.0 Cards
If you are a pro or prosumer shooting with equipment that will handle the newest format, XQD, Lexar will up your game even further with their new 2933x speed cards.
Backwardly compatible with USB 2.0, these new cards with a transfer rate up to 433MB/s are available from Lexar here. Choose from 32GB, 64GB or 128GB capacities.
256GB Portable SSD
You’ve shot that epic footage, but your laptop Is running out of storage. Or, you’re out in the field, conditions are perfect, but you’re running out of cards and you want to keep shooting. What’s a photog to do?
That’s where the Lexar Portable SSD (Solid State Drive) comes in so handy. Smaller than a pack of cigarettes, this sleek little external drive will let you unload your card contents at almost the same 245MB/s write speed and then read them back at almost twice that speed – 450MB/s.
If the “cloud” is nowhere to be found, it’s great to know you can stream your movies, music or other data at a barn-burning pace whenever you want to.
LED’s across the front of the unit are a convenient way to determine how much space you have left on the drive.
The unit comes with a 40” long, transfer cable with a USB 3.0 B-Type connector, my only dislike. It’s the only device I have with that type connector, so I need to make sure that specific cable always stays with the SSD.
While not everyone will want to custom format their hard drive, it’s good to know that this drive can be formatted in either NTFS, FAT32, or exFAT. If you regularly have files over 4GB in size, you’ll appreciate the flexibility.
Lexar’s portable SSD are available presently in 512GB and 256GB. Check out Lexar’s portable SSD’s here.
Disclosure: Lexar provided samples of the 64GB microSD card and 256GB SSD for us to test for this review.