Hi folks,

I would like to buy a good SD card for my Mavic Pro, but I'm not sure which one to buy.

I was thinking of buying the Lexar x1800 with 32 gb, which is a Class 10 UHS-2 U3 card, featuring 270 MB/s reading and 250 MB/s writing speed. I was about to buy it when I asked myself if it makes any sense buying such a good SD, since if I have understood correctly the max. video bitrate of the Mavic is 60 Mbit/s (= aprox. 7,5 MB/s).

The prices do really change between different classes of SD cards and I really would like to have a good SD in my Mavic, but maybe for the same price I can get two SD cards which are maybe not as good as the Lexar x1800, but work in rthe Mavic as good as the x1800.

For example the Lexar x1000 costs less than the half and has 150 MB/s reading and 45 MB/s writing speed...

Can anyone help me?  

Cheers,
M.

agzela Posted at 2016-11-7 17:05
Well, if you do get that card at least you will import faster
Cant beat this price

Yeah, exactly..the "only" advantage as far as I have understood, would be the higher download speed of the clips on my Mac.

I have found the Lexar x1000 32gb for 23€ on amazon.it (I'm from Italy)

There is no faster card for the money than the SanDisk Micro-SD 64GB "Extreme Pro".  No Lexar or other card comes close to the "Extreme Pro" write speeds of 90mb/sec.  Remember to look at the write speed and not the usually advertised read speed. About $45 on Amazon.

fans72676ae7 Posted at 2016-11-7 11:50
There is no faster card for the money than the SanDisk Micro-SD 64GB "Extreme Pro".  No Lexar or oth ...

I'm sorry to be the bearer of bad news... but there are faster cards and I've been using them in my GoPro's for several months now.

Check out this amazon link for Lexar 1800x microSD cards: http://amzn.to/2fUgcTQ

These claim  270 MB/s read speeds and I routinely transfer data (daily) off these cards at well over 130MB/s.Some have claimed "Average write speed is about 180MB/sec" therefore knocking the socks off your treasured Sandisk Extreme Pro cards.

You are correct regarding absolute speed, and I was aware of these cards before I made the above post.  That is why I qualified my recommendation with the statement, "no faster card for the money."  90mb/write speed for $45 is more than fast enough for 4K video files.  The faster write speeds of the much more expensive "super write" speed cards is diminished returns for the same GB card.

SanDisk Extreme PLUS 128 GB up to 95MB/s Class 10 U3 microSDXC will work beautifully.

This one: http://tinyurl.com/qyp9uez

I just use the SanDisk Ultra 64GB - 80MB/s. I don't really care too much about that extra 10MB/s you get with the SanDisk Extreme. You can get two 64GB SD Cards of the Ultra for about the same price as just one 64GB of the Extreme so for me I'd rather have more cards for more footage & for a cheaper price than less cards just to have a bit of extra speed when moving the files off the card onto my computer/laptop.

Kuzz Posted at 2016-11-8 14:29
I just use the SanDisk Ultra 64GB - 80MB/s. I don't really care too much about that extra 10MB/s you ...

The main biggest difference between them is that SanDisk Extreme is made specifically for writing/reading Ultra 4K HD (2160p) content. Whereas the SanDisk Ultra is for Full HD (1920x1080)

Enkeixpress Posted at 2016-11-8 14:47
The main biggest difference between them is that SanDisk Extreme is made specifically for writing/r ...

What drawbacks are there of this? What could this cause? I noticed on my first video that the footage was a little choppy, would this be anything to do with the SD Card?

Kuzz Posted at 2016-11-8 15:02
What drawbacks are there of this? What could this cause? I noticed on my first video that the foo ...

Probably. If you're going to be writing 4K Ultra HD content with any device, whether it being through a drone or a camcorder, SanDisk Extreme is the way to go.

SanDisk Ultra is pretty old now, was mostly used for writing 1080p HD content. Newer and more efficient technology has come along.
Put it this way, it's better to have zero limitation for the Mavic while it's recording the 4K video. So why not get the best type of SanDisk SD Card for it? Nothing to lose.

Kuzz Posted at 2016-11-8 15:02
What drawbacks are there of this? What could this cause? I noticed on my first video that the foo ...

theoretically like the op pointed out, 60Mb/s equates to ~7.5MB/s and any class 10 card would do that. However, the reality is that a card that is at least U3 would work better for 4K. I can't really say why but I guess it's a combination of false advertising and variable bit rates.

SanDisk Extreme Pro MicroSD SDXC UHS-II is most likely the best type of SD card to purchase and use for the Mavic Pro. There's two variants of it, 64 GB and 128 GB. Write speed of up to 100 MB/s sounds f**king amazing to be honest. Read speed of up to 275 MB/s. Plenty of performance for 4K content. That's the one I'll be picking up for my Mavic Pro.
https://www.sandisk.co.uk/home/m ... epro-microsd-uhs-ii

leostark Posted at 2016-11-8 15:22
theoretically like the op pointed out, 60Mb/s equates to ~7.5MB/s and any class 10 card would do t ...

But I checked my original footage before it was put into Adobe Premiere and it seems smooth and not choppy. So I think it's something to do with my render settings on Adobe Premiere.

Enkeixpress Posted at 2016-11-8 15:40
SanDisk Extreme Pro MicroSD SDXC UHS-II is most likely the best type of SD card to purchase and use  ...

See above comment.

leostark Posted at 2016-11-8 08:22
theoretically like the op pointed out, 60Mb/s equates to ~7.5MB/s and any class 10 card would do t ...

Yeah, you got the point. That's what I meant and I don't understand. On one hand we have a max video bitrate of 7,5 MB/s of the Mavic and on the other hand plenty of people and SD Card producer stating that you need at least a 80-90 MB/s of writing speed.

It's a huge difference and the SD Card is really important for quality recording.

I'd like to understand what's the point I'm missing.

Enkeixpress Posted at 2016-11-8 15:40
SanDisk Extreme Pro MicroSD SDXC UHS-II is most likely the best type of SD card to purchase and use  ...

that's obviously an overkill for Mavic IMHO, any U3 card should do.

ueuezaza Posted at 2016-11-8 18:27
Yeah, you got the point. That's what I meant and I don't understand. On one hand we have a max vid ...

I'm no expert but I think false advertising is part of it. That is to say a card that is rated class 10 doesn't sustain a write speed of 10MB/s. Variable bit rate may explain the other part as we typically see even these sub par cards performing ok in some circumstances so my guess is those circumstances are where the variable bit rate selector decides to use a lower bit rate (ie: a scene without a lot of detail to capture).

Understanding what class the original, included 16 GB SD Card is, would maybe help

Does somebody know that?

ueuezaza Posted at 2016-11-8 18:44
Understanding what class the original, included 16 GB SD Card is, would maybe help

Does s ...

I think it's usually U3, at least that's the case in Phantom 4

leostark Posted at 2016-11-8 11:57
I think it's usually U3, at least that's the case in Phantom 4

Ok, than probably I will go for the Lexar x1000.
Up to 150 MB/s reading
45 MB/s writing

24€

Anyway, I would like to know the truth and understand the initial problem: why we need such fast SD Cards if the output bitrate is that much lower on the Mavic Pro.

If it's just marketing or if I am missing something.

Does somebody know if the Mavic Pro supports UHS-II micro SD's st full speed? I am asking because to use the UHS-II SD's at full speed you also need the reader (in this case the Mavic) that can read the UHS-II cards, otherwise it reads them at UHS-I speed. If that would be the case, I simply buy a UHS-I card and save a lot of money.

The difference is that the UHS-II cards have a second row of pins to allow such high reading/writing speeds.

Some experts here? Ken?

Definitely can confirm on the Lexmark pro cards they do fine running DNG raw 24 on BMPCC and to my opinion no other cam can be more Picky than that. Best bang for you buck 256gb for 90 bucks tested with true 85/62 read/write

From the Mavic Pro page itself:
- Supported SD Card Types Micro SD™
- Max capacity: 64 GB. Class 10 or UHS-1 rating required
Source - https://www.dji.com/mavic/info

Given that max capacity is at 64GB, you can narrow down your range of SD cards to anything 64GB or below with a UHS-I rating.
- I'm not an expert on SD cards, but I'm sure if you have a UHS-II it will be used as a UHS-I, so if you are purely using that card for the Mavic Pro, there's no point spending the extra cash on the UHS-II.

Can't find the post, but from what was mentioned:
- Given the Mavic Pro has a 25-27 minute flight time, you can only record so much on an SD card and therefore better off buying smaller cards e.g. 32GB and replace them as you swap out batteries.
- This will ensure if you loose the Mavic Pro mid flight, you don't loose all your videos.

This is the list of SD Cards someone has put together http://mavichelp.com/Mavic-Pro/#MemoryCards. (Scroll down to memory cards section)

If you're planning to get something like the P4Pro, you might want to invest that bit extra now with something that can record at the new 100 MB/s rate that the P4Pro captures in. I buy my cards for the equipment I'll be using 3 years from now. By then the capacity will be your limiting factor, or it gets lost or destroyed in a crash :/

disguy2k Posted at 2016-11-21 19:37
If you're planning to get something like the P4Pro, you might want to invest that bit extra now with ...

The P4P records at 100 megabits, not megabytes. 100mbps, what it can record at is equivalent to about 12.5MB/s. There is a big difference there. If you want to buy a card that is capable of writing at 100MB/s then you will probably be good with it lasting for a long generation of improving electronics, but you're probably overpaying for that tech since it's not necessary yet and will for sure drop in price by that time.

I have a SanDisk Extreme PLUS 128 GB up to 95MB/s Class 10 U3 microSDXC waiting to fit into the drone when it turns up.

I use the same card for my Samsung 360 vr camera at 4k and it works amazing.

I wouldn't buy anyway an SD larger than 32/64 gb. If I buy an UHS-2 and use it in the Mavic Pro, even if the high writing speed of the card is not being used 100%, at least I can copy the files faster on my Mac.

I'm having SD card issues...this isn't really helpful but here's DJI's response:
Thank you for contacting DJI Technical Support

We apologize for the inconvenience that you are experiencing with your DJI Product.

We would like to verify if what specific phone are you using and have you enable the Multiple Flight modes on your DJI Go App.

In regards to the SD card here are the list of the SD card that is compatible with your unit and it must be a Class 10 SD card.

Lexar 633X Class10 16GB MicroSDHC UHS-I；
Panasonic 16GB MicroSDHC UHS-3 ；
Sandisk Extreme 16GB MicroSDHC UHS-3

I'm due to get a Mavic pro on Tuesday and wanted to purchase some Sandisk Extremes but noticed the manual says it only supports up to 64gb cards. Does this mean there's no point in getting a 128GB?

fans900ff4d9 Posted at 2017-1-15 10:11
I'm due to get a Mavic pro on Tuesday and wanted to purchase some Sandisk Extremes but noticed the manual says it only supports up to 64gb cards. Does this mean there's no point in getting a 128GB?

I'm using the sandisk 128gb extreme plus (read 95mg and writes 90mbs) with no problem. The mavic has a max write speed of 60mbs

fans900ff4d9 Posted at 2017-1-15 10:11
I'm due to get a Mavic pro on Tuesday and wanted to purchase some Sandisk Extremes but noticed the manual says it only supports up to 64gb cards. Does this mean there's no point in getting a 128GB?

I'm using the sandisk 128gb extreme plus (read 95mg and writes 90mbs) with no problem. The mavic has a max write speed of 60mbs

I bought 2 64GB SanDisk Extreme Pro MicroSD SDXC UHS-I version, not the newer UHS-II version as this was on special. Works well on the mavic, the other one is for my gopro hero 5.

I think the difference between Extreme Pro and Extreme plus is the extra toughness of pro version, they are waterproof and shockproof.

devGOD Posted at 2017-1-15 19:09
I'm using the sandisk 128gb extreme plus (read 95mg and writes 90mbs) with no problem. The mavic has a max write speed of 60mbs

So DJI says: max. capacity of mSD: 64 GB

YOU say: You use a 128 GB mSD

Please verify if You have access to ALL 128GB on Your microSD or if You can only use 64GB of 128GB capacity

here are my findings with micro SD cards.

- 64 gb sandisk works fine (had one hiccup on 1 flight)
- 64 gb ultra uh3 SanDisk perfect
- 64gb extreme pro perfect
- 200gb SanDisk ultra app Keeps asking for reformat. but works fine and all 200 gb usable.

my suggestion is.... get a bunch of 32gb or 64 gb pros for peace of mind. cards do fail. so you don't want a 200gb card with all your data to fail. you're screwed then. I just carry a bunch of 32gb and 64gb pro cards. and for photography I carry a few 64gb cards also cuz if I have a shoot and my card dies...... well yeah...

Here is proof

I use a 128gb Sandisk extreme plus $99 on amazon. Like mentioned above SD cards do fail but Sandisk is the top brand with a low failure rate. For me the 128 is great for weekends. I have 5 batteries and I use them all. I off load new videos every weekend.  Zero worries about space for 4K or raw images

devGOD Posted at 2017-1-16 00:41
Here is proof

Thanks !!!!!! You made me really happy, cause I have a 128GB mSD from my Smartphone which I can use now !

THANKS !   

People are forgetting to mention one of the biggest features of the SanDisk Extreme Pro, it is water-proof, shock-proof, temperature-proof and X-ray-proof. In the event your Mavic gets exposed to any of the elements mentioned, at least you get to keep your footage. Another thing, the faster you transfer, the more likely your file can become corrupt by missing bits in the insane transfer speeds. One last thing, I don't think the Mavic supports UHS-II, not entirely sure, but I know most of the cameras out there don't support UHS-II.