The Canvas line of Flash Cards, available in SD & Micro SD formats.    Courtesy of Kingston Technologies.

Article by Marcus Siu

Before the days of HD video becoming popular and when point and shoot cameras were the main reason why consumers bought SD cards, memory card companies designated speed classes with numbers 1-10 on them.  If a card was rated a “4”, then it meant 4 MB per second.  If it was rated a “10”, then it meant 10 MB per second.

At that time, “ten” was the absolute best.

Then hi-speed camera, HD video, and smartphones came into the picture and the speed class system seemed to be somewhat outdated since it is now very difficult to find a card that is less than a “ten”.  It seems like they have been extinct, except those sold at the Dollar Store.  Therefore another type of classification was introduced onto the flash cards; the UHS-I Speed class, which stands for “Ultra High Speed”.

Now that pretty much all the SD cards are rated a “ten” and “HD” has gone mainstream,  the question comes up… how much speed do you need from an SD card for your device?

Currently there is a UHS-I Speed 1, which is perfect for full HD videos and 3D video, and UHS-I Speed 3, which is for 4K, full 1080p HD video and burst-mode action photography.

With so many different brands and product lines, it has always been confusing to know which card to choose and to know how fast an SD card you really need.   Now with their “Canvas” line that was just introduced in March, Kingston Technology has made it so much easier for the average consumer to buy SD cards in the marketplace.

The Canvas series comes in SD or Micro SD formats with the “React”, “Go!”, and “Select” on display at Pepcom’s “Digital Experience” in San Francisco.   Photo by Marcus Siu.

The new “Canvas” line (from top to bottom) is “Canvas React” (in gold lettering), “Canvas Go” (in silver lettering), and “Canvas Select” (in black lettering).

In other words, “great”, “even greater” and “absolute best”.

As a photographer and videographer, it is absolutely crucial to choose the right SD card for your camera equipment.  As I’m shooting in HD video and bursting photo shots at a moving subject with my camera, I need to find an appropriate card that writes as fast as my camera shoots, so I would be ensured of getting all the footage that I intended without any unpleasant surprises.

If your SD card doesn’t have a high enough speed, it will stop recording video since the camera will pause and the video clip will abruptly end due to the slower speed of the SD card and the faster speed of the camera.  This has happened to me on many occasions and I was blaming the camera for it at the time.  Now I know better about the technical limitations of SD cards.

For people like me, who use high end DSLR’s, mirrorless cameras and 4K video, then Patriot’s “Canvas React” is optimum, with it’s amazing 100 mb read speed, and even more impressive 80 mb write speed.   It’s amazing that it almost writes as fast as it reads.

However, if I am shopping for an SD card just for my mom, who just takes pictures from her Kodak point and shoot camera, so there is no need to get the absolute best for her $59 economy camera.  In her case, the “Canvas Select” would be the appropriate choice.

For specifications click on the link below:

https://www.kingston.com/us/flash/sd_cards