Using Micro SD Cards with Adaptors

[PakkyT]

Has anyone used micro SD cards with adaptors in their Mu-43 cameras?

I use one in my infrared converted E-P2. When I got it I only had one full size SD card in my E-M1 but had a couple mSD cards laying around, so I threw a 4GB in the E-P2 via adapter and it works fine. The only hiccup is sometimes when I first put it back in the camera, the camera does not see it, but reseating it always fixes the issue and until the next time I remove it, I have never had any issues with it while in use suddenly being not seen or anything like that.

Even though I now have a spare full size SD card I could throw into that camera, I have been using the mSD card in it for years now so I have just left it. That camera only gets limited use anyway so no need for high capacity cards. Also I don't shoot video with it.

 

[John M Flores]

I'm transitioning to using micro SD cards in my SD-equipped cameras because my new laptop is micro SD as is my 360 camera.

 

[Dinobe]

I have mSD card and adapter in my old ep1 for ages , no issues to report, but hardly use that camera anymore...

 

[BDR-529]

Has anyone used micro SD cards with adaptors in their Mu-43 cameras?
After getting my G85 card slot repaired I dont want to have to get it done again. I often take my SD cards out twice a day and that was a bit much for the G85.

Now that you mentioned it I checked my Panny and found out that this card is indeed a 128GB Sandisc micro SD with the adapter that was delivered with it. This is what they are selling nowadays. Some of the older ones in my other cameras are still SD cards but they don't have this high speed rating.

I have never had any problems with micro SD+adapter and I have been filming for example full soccer games (2*45 min video or 2000-3000 stills per day).

It seems that development is going towards micro SD because smartphones are sold by billions and this is the card type which they use (if external memory is supported at all). Even if you manage to buy an old school SD card, it's likely that the chip inside is the same as in micro SD anyway. They just molded more plastic over it.

As long as the speed rating is OK and you buy only top brand memory cards from reliable sources, you should not have any problems. Fastest rating at the moment is UHS-II but you really need that only for high quality 4k@60p or insanely long still bursts, neither of which will ever happen with G85.

NOTE: the write protect tab on these adapters is typically really loose but I'm not sure if it is actually connected anywhere. Design is such that if this tab touches anything when you insert the card into slot, tab will slip into write protect position. With true SD-cards this caused some strange error messages in my old Canon bodies. If I remember correctly, they claimed that no card is inserted or something like that.

 

[kinlau]

I use both, typically 32gb or larger. My G9 uses two 128gb u3 class cards.

If you cut open most full size SD cards now, you’ll likely see that it’s mostly plastic housing, the circuitry is essentially microsd sized.

I don’t like swapping cards unless I have to, so smaller capacity cards are just waiting to be misplaced or lost, or mis-managed. For me, the more you have to manage a collection of cards is the more opportunity to mismanage them. I’ve yet to lose or accidentally format the wrong card in my camera if I’m not swapping them around.

 

[SandyO]

I've micro sd cards in my last 3 camera with zero issues. As for speed you can get class 10 micro sd cards. I switched to micro sd a few years ago for the convenience of using the micro sd slot on my android devices for easy file transfers.

 

[John King]

Class 10 cards do not come close to the sort of write speeds needed by e.g. the E-M1 MkII, which writes at up to 300 MBps ...

 

[Mike.K]

Yeah, I bought a couple of 32GB Samsung Micro SD's off the eBay for some ridiculous low price -like $10 each or something, I kind of expected them to be fake or not up to spec, but surprisingly they actually exceeded their advertised performance. This is in the adapter too. View attachment 837170

I also have bought cheap mSD cards off ebay but they all failed, Dealers choice! never again. I have also had Genuine Sandisk mSD cards fail.

 

[BDR-529]

Class 10 cards do not come close to the sort of write speeds needed by e.g. the E-M1 MkII, which writes at up to 300 MBps ...

I'm pretty certain that you mixed b with B here.

This is quite common because camera specs talk about megabits per second, also Mbps whereas SD and SSD read/write speeds are expressed in megabytes per second = MBps

It's not just semantics because one byte has 8 bits. This 300Mbps also translates into 37,5MBps so you need SD card with "V60" rating. This V-number indicates the maximum continuous write speed that manufacturer guarantees for this card.

OM M1.3 specification lists 237Mbps (29,6MBps) as the highest 4K video bit rate so in theory V30 should be enough if the card actually exceeds it's specification in real world (spoiler alert: they never do)

 

[John King]

I'm pretty certain that you mixed b with B here.

This is quite common because camera specs talk about megabits per second, also Mbps whereas SD and SSD read/write speeds are expressed in megabytes per second = MBps

It's not just semantics because one byte has 8 bits. This 300Mbps also translates into 37,5MBps so you need SD card with "V60" rating. This V-number indicates the maximum continuous write speed that manufacturer guarantees for this card.

OM M1.3 specification lists 237Mbps (29,6MBps) as the highest 4K video bit rate so in theory V30 should be enough if card actually exceeds it's specification (spoiler alert: it doesn't)

Ahem ...

159 MBps according to these tests ...

https://www.cameramemoryspeed.com/olympus-e-m1-ii/sd-card-speed-comparison-test/

Note that this test was done prior to faster cards being available, e.g. the Sony Tough cards, with actual write speeds of 297 MBps.

The E-M1 MkII dumps data onto its internal bus at well over a gigabyte per second ... 60 fps at around 20 MB each ...

And after being a computer consultant for well over 40 years, I understand the difference between Mbps and MBps ... .

 

[BDR-529]

Ahem ...

159 MBps according to these tests ...

https://www.cameramemoryspeed.com/olympus-e-m1-ii/sd-card-speed-comparison-test/

Note that this test was done prior to faster cards being available, e.g. the Sony Tough cards, with actual write speeds of 297 MBps.

The E-M1 MkII dumps data onto its internal bus at well over a gigabyte per second ... 60 fps at around 20 MB each ...

So you are talking about burst speed, not continuous write as in 4k video. My apologies.

In that case even 15fps RAW is already well over 300MBps which will cause internal buffer to fill pretty soon because images can't be uploaded to SD card fast enough.

OM M1.3 specs claim that max number of RAW images at 15fps is 101 when tested with Toshiba SDXU-D032G (write speed 260MBps). Strangely they even specify a lens for which this number is valid.

Total number of images in one burst will indeed increase if a faster SD card is used. Unless the real limit comes from something overheating. I believe that this is the case because the max number of JPG:s in one burst is only 134 even though they are something like 20% of the RAW file size. So, no matter how fast the card is, something inside the camera is overheating or some internal buffer is filling up. If it was only about data transfer to SD card, 101 RAW files should equal 500 jpegs or so.

In any case, even OM 1.3 can continue writing at this speed for less than 10 seconds.
If the rate is dropped to 10fps, though, specs claim that OM1.3 can keep shooting JPG:s untill the card fills up.

 

[John King]

So you are talking about burst speed, not continuous write as in 4k video. My apologies.

In that case even 15fps RAW is already well over 300MBps which will cause internal buffer to eventually fill because images can't be uploaded to SD card fast enough.

OM M1.3 specs claim that max number of RAW images at 15fps is 101 when tested with Toshiba SDXU-D032G (write speed 260MBps). Strangely they even specify a lens for which this number is valid.

Total number of images in one burst will indeed increase if a faster SD card is used. Unless the real limit will come from something overheating.

I have yet to see a single instance of an E-M1 MkII overheating.

The longest 4K video I have taken was about 30 minutes, immediately following several shorter takes. The camera didn't even get warm ...

All of the E-M1 models have very, very deep buffer memory. My MkII is deeper than my MkI.

If you shoot an E-M1 MkII in LSF JPEG at maximum burst speed, a large fast card will fill before the buffer does ...

It's not solely about video speed, raw speed or JPEG speed. It is how it behaves for the use a particular user wants it for. I shoot RAW + LSF JPEG with all my cameras. When I shoot bursts, they are almost always short bursts. However, I am yet to fill the buffer.

I'm not quite sure what you are trying to demonstrate here ... ?

 

[BDR-529]

I'm not quite sure what you are trying to demonstrate here ... ?

I'm trying to demonstrate the simple fact that very few - if any - camera owners actually need these extremely expensive 300MBps SD cards even if your camera actually could transfer data to card at that speed.

" Class 10 cards do not come close to the sort of write speeds needed by e.g. the E-M1 MkII, which writes at up to 300 MBps ... "

My rule of thump would be to buy the card which will match the highest video data rate you might ever actually use. In this case it's 29,6MBps for M1.3 so there is really no need to waste money on more than V30 card.

In reality anyone who shoots just still images with M1.3 and doesn't need bursts longer than a couple of dozen images, could spend their money better by buying just "fast" standard SD-cards with 2-4 times the storage space for the same amount of money. The standard 4k quality video in M1.3 is only 12MBps which is a bit too much for the Class 10 you mentioned (rated 10MBps as name implies) but even so inexpensive card could work just fine for full HD and non-sports photographers.

 

[John King]

So your use is the only possible valid use case?

Please try to understand that people have all sorts of requirements.

I never shoot long high frame rate bursts. Quite a few people I know do, however.

What matters to me is the responsiveness of the camera. That is improved by using fast cards in a fast camera with a deep buffer.

 

[BDR-529]

So your use is the only possible valid use case?

What exactly is this "your use"

My recommendation was that photographers should figure out what data rate they actually need and buy their SD cards accordingly. Price will increase exponentially when you approach the maximum rate available at the moment.

It's plain stupid to go and buy the most expensive SD card you could possibly find if you don't need the data rate.

For example 128GB v30 card from Sandisc will cost around 25€ in Europe but Sandisk 300MBps of same size will set you back by 150€. 6x more price for the same amount of storage.

If you know that you truly need the 300MBps, then by all means, go and buy it. None of those users would need to ask advice from this kind of forum to start with.

I just hate when all sorts of experts and sales guys try to convince new camera owners to buy this 150€ card when they really needed just the one that costs 1/6th.

 

[John King]

I am certainly not trying to tell anyone what they 'need'.

However, you seem to be mixing up your usage with every one else's.

All sorts of people have all sorts of needs and wants, for all sorts of reasons. Their reasons - not your reasons or my reasons.

As a retired CPA, I would never recommend that anyone should spend more than is reasonable to fill their needs/wants. But even that is just my opinion ...

 

[BDR-529]

However, you seem to be mixing up your usage with every one else's.

And I'm somehow expressing this by telling over and over again that every camera owner has different needs and they should first figure out themselves what data rates they need before they buy unnecessarily expensive SD cards?

 

[John King]

You could try saying this more directly in future.

If I wanted to be part of an Inquisition, I would still be posting at DPR ...

 

[L0n3Gr3yW0lf]

I have been using Micro SD cards for about 5 years now. Haven't had any issues. The last time I had a memory card fail was on my holiday to the Netherlands back in 2017 where my last full-size SD card failed and lost a few hundred pictures completely. That's when I fully changed to Micro SDs and there are plenty of fast-ish/enough cards from most major brands.
I've had:
*Toshiba Exceria 64GB 90MB/s UHS-I,
*Samsung EVO Plus 128GB 100MB/s UHS-I,
(And after I got my Big Oly (E-M1 III) upgrade
*2x SanDisk Extreme Pro 512GB 170MB/s UHS-I.
I am looking at upgrading to one UHS-II for the main slot to speed up Birds in Flight and Wildlife writing files.

The reasons I prefer Micro SD are quite simple (though they rarely people agree or like the reasons):
*No annoying Lock switch, they have a tendency to break if mishandled and when they do break in On setting it completely destroys the usefulness of the card,
*Smaller and denser packed on area, making it less likely to get pins broken,
*A lot more compatible with portable devices IF needed for quick access and usage on such devices like phones and tablets (many tablets still do not come with full SD size compatibility slot),
*More compatible backup solution for portable storage: aka if you forget to put in a memory card use the one from your phone (always keep an SD adapter lying around, like in your backpack, camera bag, wallet, card, etc)

 

[PakkyT]

The last time I had a memory card fail was on my holiday to the Netherlands back in 2017 where my last full-size SD card failed and lost a few hundred pictures completely

Any chance the failed card was the Samsung? I have never experienced a flash card failure (usually I outgrow the capacity and move on to bigger cards) but a buddy of mine & I have tried saving photos off a couple cards for people whose SD cards failed and both times they were Samsung SD cards.