Using SD Cards

cdhodgdon · Oct 8, 2020

I was looking at some information and I ran across something interesting. My dad gave me his Mavic Pro, he only used it once to image some property he was going to sell and then it just start there doing nothing. I've seen many places say that a 64 gig sd card was the largest that could be used, but I found directly on the DJI webpage for the Original Mavic that it should be able to support a 128 gig sd card.

Has anyone tried using such a large card and had success with it. I believe I have one laying around my office (just have to find it) and wanted to see if its useable.

lannes · Oct 8, 2020

I guess the risk with using a large card is that you can loose a lot of valued data if you don't download it and you loose the drone or have the card malfunction.
Having a smaller card forces you to download files more often, which is probably safer if you want to keep the recordings.

Harry0363 · Oct 8, 2020

cdhodgdon said:
I was looking at some information and I ran across something interesting. My dad gave me his Mavic Pro, he only used it once to image some property he was going to sell and then it just start there doing nothing. I've seen many places say that a 64 gig sd card was the largest that could be used, but I found directly on the DJI webpage for the Original Mavic that it should be able to support a 128 gig sd card.

Has anyone tried using such a large card and had success with it. I believe I have one laying around my office (just have to find it) and wanted to see if its useable.

I used 128 gb lexar, it’s ok no problem

Gagey52 · Oct 8, 2020

My MPP and Phantoms all have 128 cards with no issues.

Tomcat16 · Oct 8, 2020

cdhodgdon said:
I was looking at some information and I ran across something interesting. My dad gave me his Mavic Pro, he only used it once to image some property he was going to sell and then it just start there doing nothing. I've seen many places say that a 64 gig sd card was the largest that could be used, but I found directly on the DJI webpage for the Original Mavic that it should be able to support a 128 gig sd card.

Has anyone tried using such a large card and had success with it. I believe I have one laying around my office (just have to find it) and wanted to see if its useable.

Yes, I use the 128 gig cards all the time but you need to use the ones rated for videos "V30" at least. It is recommended that you format the SD card while in the drone with the "Go Fly" app, it takes just a couple of seconds.
I down load mine on to my hard drive when I come back from flying, never had a problem.
Good luck!

Thomas B · Oct 9, 2020

cdhodgdon said:
I was looking at some information and I ran across something interesting. My dad gave me his Mavic Pro, he only used it once to image some property he was going to sell and then it just start there doing nothing. I've seen many places say that a 64 gig sd card was the largest that could be used, but I found directly on the DJI webpage for the Original Mavic that it should be able to support a 128 gig sd card.

Has anyone tried using such a large card and had success with it. I believe I have one laying around my office (just have to find it) and wanted to see if its useable.

The 64GB card will hold about 3 1/2 to 4 full flight videos....
I use this size and change every time I change the drone’s battery...

old man mavic · Oct 9, 2020

a lot of deciding what size card you use, depends on what you like to record in 4k 2.7k or 1080p ,with a 64GB card i can get over 3 hours of video at 1080p 30fps the higher the resolution the more space is used on the card, as stated in other posts, i think it is better to have smaller cards,so there is less chance of loosing lots of recordings if there is an issue

SmilingOgre · Oct 9, 2020

I'm going with 64gb. I have three batteries for the drone and that will cover total record time in 2160p from those batteries. I don't carry anything to do field transfers of files. I also don't do field charging of batteries. Maybe I'll rethink that if I ever plan a project that will require those field activities.

cdhodgdon · Oct 9, 2020

lannes said:
I guess the risk with using a large card is that you can loose a lot of valued data if you don't download it and you loose the drone or have the card malfunction.
Having a smaller card forces you to download files more often, which is probably safer if you want to keep the recordings.

I fully understand the issue of losing large amounts of data. I run a computer support business and that is one of the things I talk about with my customers, in that the larger the hard drive you use, the more you put at risk of losing. I'm not sure I would every use an sd that large, but if I did, I know all the risk of using one, but thank you for bringing that up, as others may not understand it.