Best SD card that will work in 3 cameras?

[Vivid Color]

I have a Canon 6D, T1i, and s100. I am planning to take all 3 on an upcoming photo safari in Tanzania. To reduce weight, I'm thinking of just taking cards, although I will have my iPhone and maybe my iPad. (I don't have a laptop and am trying to avoid taking one even if I had one.) Is there an SD card that you would recommend that I could use in all 3 cameras? I know my new 6D will take different cards than the T1i for example, but I was thinking it might be easier to take just one type of card. I know this can be done, but is this a good approach and if so, what SD card would you recommend? If this is not a good approach, please suggest alternatives. I've read some discussion about cards on this forum, but not this exact point. That said, please forgive me if this is repetitive. I'm really looking for guidance here as buying cards with all the variations they have seem more confusing to me than buying a camera.

 

[mathino]

I have a Canon 6D, T1i, and s100. I am planning to take all 3 on an upcoming photo safari in Tanzania. To reduce weight, I'm thinking of just taking cards, although I will have my iPhone and maybe my iPad. (I don't have a laptop and am trying to avoid taking one even if I had one.) Is there an SD card that you would recommend that I could use in all 3 cameras? I know my new 6D will take different cards than the T1i for example, but I was thinking it might be easier to take just one type of card. I know this can be done, but is this a good approach and if so, what SD card would you recommend? If this is not a good approach, please suggest alternatives. I've read some discussion about cards on this forum, but not this exact point. That said, please forgive me if this is repetitive. I'm really looking for guidance here as buying cards with all the variations they have seem more confusing to me than buying a camera.

Hi,

You can use all types of SD cards in 6D. 6D is compatible with UHS-I standard so you can use very fast cards - up to 95 MB/s. Note that UHS-I cards are backward compatible with card readers and cameras. I have tested my SanDisk 16 GB Extreme Pro 95 MB/s which I bought for 6D (that is on the way) in my 450D and it works perfectly.

Importatnt thing is continuos shooting and movie recording. If you want to have more shots in burst on 6D then UHS-I cards are better (14 vs. 17 RAW files). If you want to shoot video in ALL-I compression then you need at least 20 MB/s transfer rate. Note that on 16 GB card you can shoot approximately 23 minutes of video in ALL-I format.

So the question is how fast cards you want to use and if you need the extra speed ? I would recommend 45 MB/s card as a general purpose.

P.S.: Once my 6D arrives I'm sure that I'm gonna buy 32 GB 45 MB/s just for video.

 

[mathino]

Here are official numbers from 6D manual about cards and number of shots possible (and burst).

 

[Rienzphotoz]

I have a Canon 6D, T1i, and s100.
Is there an SD card that you would recommend that I could use in all 3 cameras?

All 3 of your cameras can take the same kind of card ... I use SanDisk SDHC Memory Card Extreme Pro Class 10 UHS-I ... it comes in 8GB, 16GB, 32GB & 64GB capacities ... their speed is also really good at 95MB/s Read & 90 MB/s Write
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/824139-REG/SanDisk_SDSDXPA_016G_A75_Extreme_Pro_16_GB.html

 

[Vivid Color]

Thank you both very much for your replies. Your answers are extremely helpful and it sounds like the newer SDHC USH-I cards are the way to go.

You also both mentioned the sped of the cards. I mostly plan to shoot skills, but maybe some limited video. Also, while most of my shots will probably be single shot, some pix may be shot using continuous. Any additional advice on the speed of the cards would be appreciated. Should I just get the 95MB/s cards to be safe?

And, finally advice on the size of cards would be helpful. Is there any image quality differences among the different sizes?

 

[Mt Spokane Photography]

Thank you both very much for your replies. Your answers are extremely helpful and it sounds like the newer SDHC USH-I cards are the way to go.

You also both mentioned the sped of the cards. I mostly plan to shoot skills, but maybe some limited video. Also, while most of my shots will probably be single shot, some pix may be shot using continuous. Any additional advice on the speed of the cards would be appreciated. Should I just get the 95MB/s cards to be safe?

And, finally advice on the size of cards would be helpful. Is there any image quality differences among the different sizes?

First, you may have been given some incorrect information.
A SDXC or SDXC UHS-1 card is not compatible and will not work in a T1i. There may be a firmware update, but I haven't located one.
It will work at reduced speed in your S100.

Also beware of card write speed ratings.
The claimed high write speeds are only for a new or erased cards. Formatting a card in camera does not erase it unless you do a low level format.
A low level format takes a long time, and might eatup your battery if done in camera.
The only cards compatible with all three cameras are SDHC cards.

Be sure to update firmware in all three bodies.
The size of the card does not make a difference in image quality. SDHC cards are limited to 32GB while SDXC cards are commonly found up to 128GB

 

[pwp]

I know it's vital to travel light, but if you're planning to shoot RAW which I fully expect you are, you may be surprised how much you shoot in a day. It's not hard to do a 50Gb day in that sort of shooting environment. Just something to think about. You'd hate to feel restricted in your shooting because of that nagging feeling that you're running out of storage. Do the sums and see how many Gb per day you'd have with the number of cards you plan to get.

-PW

 

[Rienzphotoz]

I mostly plan to shoot skills, but maybe some limited video. Also, while most of my shots will probably be single shot, some pix may be shot using continuous. Any additional advice on the speed of the cards would be appreciated. Should I just get the 95MB/s cards to be safe?

And, finally advice on the size of cards would be helpful. Is there any image quality differences among the different sizes?

If you shoot a lot of RAW images, then a larger capacity card like a 64GB is the way to go ... since you are going to do a Safari in Tanzania I assume you would want to capture a lot of wildlife and if the wildlife that you plan on shooting happens to be birds or fast moving animals, and you want to shoot RAW, than yes 95/MBs is the way to go. But if you only shoot in jpeg and/or particularly not so fast animals, even a 45 MB/s card will be more than sufficient ... these days the 64GB capacity 45MB/s cards are not very expensive, in fact B&H is having a sale on SanDisk 64GB 45MB/s card till 31 March 2013 - it only costs $65.56 now