Can you use "generic" SD cards?

[jweaver]

The official list of supported cards are generally Samsung/Sandisk...

Does the Mini 2 support other cards or is it best to stick to the supported list?

I can get "generic" cards a lot cheaper, but is this asking for trouble?

On the same subject, am I right in thinking that you need "A2 UHS-1 U3" cards over "A1 UHS-1 U3"?

 

[Deleted member 103366]

MM, M2P & Phantom 3 here.
For what it is worth I personally don't see why you can not use a generic card of the appropriate speed.
I suppose there may be a slightly greater chance that it may be a fake but I always check a new cards, for size at least, irrespective of where I buy it and the brand. I don't think I have the equipment to test speed, other than perhaps the drone itself.
BUT since memory cards are relatively cheap I have stuck with buying brand named cards from a reputable seller, Samsung & Amazon in my case. However they STILL get size tested.

That said, if you can get generics A LOT cheaper then you have, I think, little to lose other than the test video itself by testing one to see if it can be used but DO test it before you shoot irreplaceable footage etc.

 

[Meta4]

I can get "generic" cards a lot cheaper, but is this asking for trouble?

That depends on whether the cards are good enough or not.
It will need enough write speed but the brand doesn't matter.
Try one and see how it goes.

On the same subject, am I right in thinking that you need "A2 UHS-1 U3" cards over "A1 UHS-1 U3"?

What's A1/A2?
I've not seen it on cards before.

 

[Kilrah]

What's A1/A2?
I've not seen it on cards before.

Been there for years, it's about "being good at running android apps from".

A1 vs A2 SanDisk MicroSD Card: What’s The Difference? - MyMemory Blog

Want to know what the difference is between an A1 and A2 microSD card? If so, take a look at our comparison of performance differences between the two.

www.mymemory.co.uk

 

[lannes]

Any SDXC card that is UHS-I Speed Class 3 or above should work, get the fastest write speed you can afford and go for 64gb cards.

But I guess the quality of them will be difficult to gauge, so you might or might not have some failures.

 

[msinger]

I can get "generic" cards a lot cheaper, but is this asking for trouble?

Many generic memory cards will likely work just fine. If you have a specific card in mind, link it here and someone might be able to confirm it works.

BTW, not sure how cheap you're looking to go, but you can get name brand memory cards for around $12 (like this one).

On the same subject, am I right in thinking that you need "A2 UHS-1 U3" cards over "A1 UHS-1 U3"?

See this:
Best memory card for your DJI drone

 

[jweaver]

Thanks for that.. I get my memory from "MyMemory".. .And they do their own brand cards.

They are listed as A1 UHS-1 U3 (100MB/s) and you can get a 3 pack for the price of a Sandisk.. The only problem is they are rated at 100Mb/s where as the big names are 150-180MB/s..

And now I am a bit confised....

100Mb/s is around 10MB (bytes) per second.. Or 600MB per mInute and in another post I was told that the Mini2 created 1.4GB (1400MB files per miniute) so this is nowhere near fast enough..

But even at 200Mbs thats only 1200 (1.2GB) per minute, so the numbers are way off here..

So I am not sure what I need now...

 

[Meta4]

Been there for years,

The article is two years old and said that manufacturers are beginning to make A2 cards
I looked through the cards I use (4 different types) and none had any A markings.
One recently bought one still in packaging does.

it's about "being good at running android apps from"

And according to the article, not relevant for cameras.

 

[lannes]

Thanks for that.. I get my memory from "MyMemory".. .And they do their own brand cards.

They are listed as A1 UHS-1 U3 (100MB/s) and you can get a 3 pack for the price of a Sandisk.. The only problem is they are rated at 100Mb/s where as the big names are 150-180MB/s..

And now I am a bit confised....

100Mb/s is around 10MB (bytes) per second.. Or 600MB per mInute and in another post I was told that the Mini2 created 1.4GB (1400MB files per miniute) so this is nowhere near fast enough..

But even at 200Mbs thats only 1200 (1.2GB) per minute, so the numbers are way off here..

So I am not sure what I need now...

I think you would need to go for this Mymemory card with a 60mbs write speed as a minimum for 4k.

Micro SDXC Memory Cards 64GB, 256GB, 400GB & 512GB | MyMemory

High performance micro SDXC cards from manufacturers such as Kingston, Lexar and Sandisk up to 512GB. Shop online now!

www.mymemory.co.uk

 

[msinger]

100Mb/s is around 10MB (bytes) per second

The max bitrate is 100 Mbps or 12.5 MB/s.

It looks like you're overthinking things. Head over here and set yourself straight

 

[Kilrah]

The article is two years old and said that manufacturers are beginning to make A2 cards

Yes, and A1 is there since 2017.

The A1 symbol on Micro-SD cards tell you if it is fast enough for apps

The SD Association recently introduced new application performance classes that will specify Micro-SD cards that are fast enough to be used for starting apps and programs. So far only one class, named A1 has been announced

www.notebookcheck.net

Indeed irrelevant for a camera.

 

[jweaver]

The max bitrate is 100 Mbps or 12.5 MB/s.

It looks like you're overthinking things. Head over here and set yourself straight

Not overthinking it.. I am a telecoms engineers, and "bandwidth" is my thing. I know that 100Mb is 12.5MB, but I just used 10bit to byte to make the maths easier... But lets get into it, and for the purpose of this reply.. b=bits B=Bytes

Different SD manufactuers list different speeds for their V30/U3 cards. Some are as low as 100Mbs (12.5MBs).. But some are 150-180Mb (18.75 - 22.5MBs)

My colleague has a 4K GoPro and that creates approx 375MB files for every minute of footage... So thats around 50Mbs per second... So even the 100Mbs card would easily workf or this.

Which is why I asked.. Is it worth spending almost 2x the price on a card which claims to be 180Mbs if the Mini only writes sub-100Mbs?

Jon

 

[Deleted member 103366]

Head over here and set yourself straigh

many thanks for that

 

[Deleted member 103366]

Why not simply buy one and test it?

 

[rehkram]

Which is why I asked.. Is it worth spending almost 2x the price on a card which claims to be 180Mbs if the Mini only writes sub-100Mbs?

Always good to have plenty of headroom available for any speed- or capacity parameter. Since we don't know the exact details of how the machines interact with the card, 'faster' is always gonna be better than 'fast enough'. Future-proofing is another reason; firmware updates might make a card unusable if it's closer to its limits. And that would be a real pain to debug.

We're talking about computer systems, after all, where "over-spec" is always a good thing.

 

[THE CYBORG]

That depends on whether the cards are good enough or not.
It will need enough write speed but the brand doesn't matter.
Try one and see how it goes.

What's A1/A2?
I've not seen it on cards before.

This should help understand the specifications.
Brand doesn't matter as long as it is what it says it is.

 

[Howard70]

Hello JWeaver:

Lots of great information provided by others. I don’t have much to add except suggesting that if you decide to try a less-known card not on the recommended list that you test all functions and settings before using the card in an important flight.

A couple of years ago I decided to try time-lapse video with an older camera (Nikon D5000) that I used forever with a card that was double the capacity that Nikon recommended. The camera had worked with that card for thousands of single images and a lesser amount of short video clips without a hitch. The camera failed at time-lapse video (wouldn’t allow that option to be chosen) repeatedly. Initial web searching suggested problems with other settings so for months I tried different combinations all failing completely. Gave up and used a different camera for a year. Spent another weekend searching for solutions and found a forum post by someone saying they’d solved that problem by changing cards to a smaller size. Dug through my old stuff and found a smaller card just at the maximum size recommended by Nikon and it worked perfectly.

Turns out the problem may have been related to time-lapse video writing larger frames than regular video. Thus all other recording functions worked OK with the out-of-spec card but not time-lapse video. Long way to suggest going out of spec can work fine until it doesn’t!

Howard

 

[MavicAir2Marc]

This should help understand the specifications.
Brand doesn't matter as long as it is what it says it is.
View attachment 124484

I was going to mention this...as I've known you've posted this before. It's an excellent explanation.

 

[excalibur1814]

Is saving £x or £y on a card worth the thought of losing your media? Nope. 64Gb Sandisk all day long.

 

[jweaver]

Thanks all for your help.. Nothing that I will do with my mini will be of any value, so loosing video won't be important.. I am all for using quality cards in my SLR.. But not in the quad.

But in truth, the difference in price between 'generic' and 'quality' cards is fairly insignificant, so I am going to go with Sandisk

I think for me, the problem has been that every time i have tried to buy a branded card recently, I have ended up with a fake.. Where as when I buy the 'own brand' stuff, there isn't a fake market for it, so you are guaranteed an original.

So even if the supplier is reputable, I am still paranoid about buying fake cards...

But its been a while since i bougth any SDs and I know some good dealer, so will go with Sandisk.

Cheers all.