Hi, everybody! Does anyone here uses the samsung evo+ 128gb micro sdxc [1] card in the P4P and can confirm if everything works fine, including 4k 60fps recording? I know that sandisk is a better-known brand, but where I live the samsung evo+ is significantly cheapper and would make a big difference in my budget.
Thanks in advance!




[1] https://www.samsung.com/uk/memor ... r-100/MB-MC128GAEU/

If you are concerned about cost, why buy a 128GB card at all?
Even if you aren't concerned about cost, there's no need for a card that can hold that much video or photos.

Labroides Posted at 2018-7-7 05:42
If you are concerned about cost, why buy a 128GB card at all?
Even if you aren't concerned about cost, there's no need for a card that can hold that much video or photos.

Hi Labroides, thanks for your response! Sometimes a make short trips and take my drone with me, and I don't have a computer or any other equipment to backup my files on the go. That's the reason why I was looking for a 128gb card. After some research, I saw that the samsung evo+ 128gb was much cheaper than the sandisk extreme 128gb. So I was wondering if anyone uses or know somebody that uses the evo+ and if it works correctly on the P4P.

Hi there, thank you for reaching DJI forum. Kindly check the recommended SD cards below so that you have options.

DJI Paladin Posted at 2018-7-7 05:56
Hi there, thank you for reaching DJI forum. Kindly check the recommended SD cards below so that you have options.
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I wasn't aware of that list, thank you!

georgebguedes Posted at 2018-7-7 05:58
I wasn't aware of that list, thank you!

You're welcome. Enjoy and  have a safe flights.

georgebguedes Posted at 2018-7-7 05:49
Hi Labroides, thanks for your response! Sometimes a make short trips and take my drone with me, and I don't have a computer or any other equipment to backup my files on the go. That's the reason why I was looking for a 128gb card. After some research, I saw that the samsung evo+ 128gb was much cheaper than the sandisk extreme 128gb. So I was wondering if anyone uses or know somebody that uses the evo+ and if it works correctly on the P4P.

If you value your work, it's poor practice to risk your video or stills by sending it out again (and again and again).
Using a number of 16 GB cards makes a lot more sense than one big one.

I've used Samsung Evo Plus 64GB cards for years with my P3A, P4 and Sony a7Rii with no issues whatsoever and I've been using the Samsung Evo Plus 128GB for around 4 months without issues. The 128GB is faster than the 64GB with a 90MB/s write rate vs around 50-60MB/s for the 64GB. Much faster read rates too.

Don't take any notice to the others re sizes - they're either not shooting in 4K and/or shooting JPG and not taking shooting RAW or don't have many batteries. I often shoot for long periods of time because I've got 4 batteries and charge batteries in my car during the day, sometimes I'll get >64GB of data over a day so don't listen to them.

Buy what you want and if you want those faster read/write speeds so you can clear your drone's buffer faster and also read out the files faster to your computer then grab the 128GB. You won't go wrong with Samsung. I've had lots of issues with Sandisk with cards failing and losing images which is why I switched to Toshiba and Samsung and I've never had a problem since.

gyrex Posted at 2018-7-7 06:33
I've used Samsung Evo Plus 64GB cards for years with my P3A, P4 and Sony a7Rii with no issues whatsoever and I've been using the Samsung Evo Plus 128GB for around 4 months without issues. The 128GB is faster than the 64GB with a 90MB/s write rate vs around 50-60MB/s for the 64GB. Much faster read rates too.

Don't take any notice to the others re sizes - they're either not shooting in 4K and/or shooting JPG and not taking shooting RAW or don't have many batteries. I often shoot for long periods of time because I've got 4 batteries and charge batteries in my car during the day, sometimes I'll get >64GB of data over a day so don't listen to them.

Don't take any notice to the others re sizes - they're either not shooting in 4K and/or shooting JPG and not taking shooting RAW or don't have many batteries. I often shoot for long periods of time because I've got 4 batteries and charge batteries in my car during the day, sometimes I'll get >64GB of data over a day so don't listen to them.
Perhaps you've never shot any worthwhile images or videos?
Your advice is only good for those shooting junk or only flying in their backyard.

Anyone who values their work should not listen to your advice.
Once you bring the Phantom back, risking your work by sending it out again makes no sense.
You can't fill a 16GB card in one flight so there's no need for anything bigger.
It's very simple to use multiple small cards and swap them out at each battery change.
Because I use a lot of batteries, I carry 8 SD cards.

Buy what you want and if you want those faster read/write speeds so you can clear your drone's buffer faster.
Have you done any testing to see how fast the camera writes to those cards or how fast you clear the buffer?
The numbers would be interesting because the camera's write speed is the speed bottleneck, not the SD card.

gyrex Posted at 2018-7-7 06:33
I've used Samsung Evo Plus 64GB cards for years with my P3A, P4 and Sony a7Rii with no issues whatsoever and I've been using the Samsung Evo Plus 128GB for around 4 months without issues. The 128GB is faster than the 64GB with a 90MB/s write rate vs around 50-60MB/s for the 64GB. Much faster read rates too.

Don't take any notice to the others re sizes - they're either not shooting in 4K and/or shooting JPG and not taking shooting RAW or don't have many batteries. I often shoot for long periods of time because I've got 4 batteries and charge batteries in my car during the day, sometimes I'll get >64GB of data over a day so don't listen to them.

'Buy what you want and if you want those faster read/write speeds so you can clear your drone's buffer faster and also read out the files faster to your computer then grab the 128GB.'

The Aircraft has virtually no buffer at all. The read speed is not in the least important, the most important factor is SUSTAINED write speed, and many cards do not list this specification. The top level Samsung cards are very good, but don't expect the cheaper ones to do the job.

And Labroides advice is good. You are better off having a number of cards and swapping them when you come in to change batteries. It avoids the risk of losing all your movies or stills if you lose the aircraft.

Labroides Posted at 2018-7-7 14:27
Don't take any notice to the others re sizes - they're either not shooting in 4K and/or shooting JPG and not taking shooting RAW or don't have many batteries. I often shoot for long periods of time because I've got 4 batteries and charge batteries in my car during the day, sometimes I'll get >64GB of data over a day so don't listen to them.
Perhaps you've never shot any worthwhile images or videos?
Your advice is only good for those shooting junk or only flying in their backyard.

I don't crash my drones so I don't have to worry about losing footage. I value speed over the slight chance my drone might fail mid flight. You're free to keep swapping 16GB cards, I prefer to swap batteries and dump my photos and videos at the end of the day. There's a significant difference between slower 16GB cards and larger, faster cards especially when writing AEB photos. I'd prefer to shoot and keep flying rather than waiting for the buffer to flush.

Also, at the end of the day, I don't want to be sitting there swapping cards and waiting stupid amounts of time for all my 4K videos and photos to transfer which I was doing with the slower 16GB cards. I've also got to transfer photos and videos from my Sony a7Rii so I'd prefer a faster workflow.

Geebax Posted at 2018-7-7 15:21
'Buy what you want and if you want those faster read/write speeds so you can clear your drone's buffer faster and also read out the files faster to your computer then grab the 128GB.'

The Aircraft has virtually no buffer at all. The read speed is not in the least important, the most important factor is SUSTAINED write speed, and many cards do not list this specification. The top level Samsung cards are very good, but don't expect the cheaper ones to do the job.

How do you know it's got no buffer? It has to have some kind of buffer from the sensor, there's no way it would write directly from the sensor to the SD card, there'd be so much rolling shutter if this was the case while it waits to write each frame of a video.

The Samsung 128GB cards sustain 90MB/s write speeds and 100MB/s read speeds, I've tested this using dd. Most decent brand cards (Sandisk, Toshiba, Samsung etc) sustain the speeds they quote. SD cards aren't like hard disks which could potentially deliver fast burst speeds when reading and writing to the buffer but suffered degradation when the buffer filled and had to write to the platters.

gyrex Posted at 2018-7-9 07:30
I don't crash my drones so I don't have to worry about losing footage. I value speed over the slight chance my drone might fail mid flight. You're free to keep swapping 16GB cards, I prefer to swap batteries and dump my photos and videos at the end of the day. There's a significant difference between slower 16GB cards and larger, faster cards especially when writing AEB photos. I'd prefer to shoot and keep flying rather than waiting for the buffer to flush.

Also, at the end of the day, I don't want to be sitting there swapping cards and waiting stupid amounts of time for all my 4K videos and photos to transfer which I was doing with the slower 16GB cards. I've also got to transfer photos and videos from my Sony a7Rii so I'd prefer a faster workflow.

I don't crash my drones so I don't have to worry about losing footage. I value speed over the slight chance my drone might fail mid flight. You're free to keep swapping 16GB cards.
That's good for you but given the places and conditions I fly and and the prices some of my work sells for, I can't afford to take that kind of risk.

gyrex Posted at 2018-7-9 07:36
How do you know it's got no buffer? It has to have some kind of buffer from the sensor, there's no way it would write directly from the sensor to the SD card, there'd be so much rolling shutter if this was the case while it waits to write each frame of a video.

The Samsung 128GB cards sustain 90MB/s write speeds and 100MB/s read speeds, I've tested this using dd. Most decent brand cards (Sandisk, Toshiba, Samsung etc) sustain the speeds they quote. SD cards aren't like hard disks which could potentially deliver fast burst speeds when reading and writing to the buffer but suffered degradation when the buffer filled and had to write to the platters.

First of all I know what is inside the image processor, and secondly, the disc sub-system is not writing frames to the card, it is writing an MPEG transport astream. And to write it successfully, it must be able to keep up with the stream bitrate, and you cannot use a buffer to do that when it runs continuously. For writing long period streams, a buffer will over-run if the destination media cannot sustain the writing speed.

I agree that the cards you mention are good quality and will most likely sustain the speeds quoted, but not all m,anufacturers are as honest with their specs. Even Sandisk have slower cards that cannot keep up.  If a card cannot keep up with the stream rate, it simply stops recording.