Memory cards can be the most annoyingly pricey part of your kit. Modern cinema cameras like the Sony FX6 are asking for more and more expensive media as their capabilities continue to grow.
Having a few top-spec cards on hand is usually easy to do. However, it starts getting tough when you have to get a sizable collection ready for travel or critical shoots.
absorb media has been working with the FX6 and found some cards that will do just fine for all your most common shooting modes and will be easy on your wallet.
You might not always need those expensive CFexpress Type A cards.
There are going to be some tradeoffs, but let’s look at these cards.
The first is a SanDisk Extreme PRO UHS-I Class 3 U3 SD Card. This is rated for speeds up to 170 MB/s and you can pick up 512GB for under $100.
Image Credit: SanDisk
Compare that to the Sony 80GB TOUGH CFexpress cards which are $200. That’s more than five times the storage for half the price. You can even get cheaper cards if you don’t need that high capacity.
In price per GB that is $0.20/GB for the SD card and $2.50 for the CFexpress card.
Image Credit: Sony
However, those SD cards will not do 4K 120p. They just aren’t fast enough. They are plenty fast for shooting in 4K 24p, which is honestly what you are shooting in most of the time.
You’ll still be good going up to 60p in the standard (non-S&Q mode) shooting modes.
Moving into S&Q Mode you will find the issues. The 60p modes are still okay, but 100p and 120p are not usable.
You’ll usually get some sort of error out if you try it. Still, 60 fps should be plenty good for most of your shoots.
Image Credit: Sony
If you bump down to Full HD you will start having issues at the maximum 240 fps mode. Makes sense.
Ideally, what you might want to consider is splitting your media slots. You have two for a reason. Pick up one fast card to handle your fast 120p slow motion recording and then one big, cheap card to handle all your standard recording needs.
[source: absorb media]
Order Links:
- Sony FX6 Cinema Camera (B&H)
- SanDisk 128GB Extreme PRO UHS-I SDXC Memory Card (B&H, Amazon)
- Sony 80GB CFexpress Type A TOUGH Memory Card (B&H, Amazon)
Disclaimer: As an Amazon Associate partner and participant in B&H and Adorama Affiliate programmes, we earn a small comission from each purchase made through the affiliate links listed above at no additional cost to you.
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