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What SD Micro card best suited for Mavic 2Pro camera?

lil Glock

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lots of cards, lots of prices. looking to use all features on camera. without over buying?

Thanks,
Bill
 
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Sandisk extreme is totally fine. I bought a couple of 16GB's that I swap after every 10-15 minute flight. Gives some extra redundancy. (lost a days shooting once because the data was corrupted, it happens sometimes with DJI, EDIT: this was with the original Lexar that was supplied by DJI). Since then I spread it over multiple cards, if I have a lot of shooting to do. And they come very cheap nowadays. I attached a signal orange piece of tape to each one so I can find it easily if it falls to the ground.
 
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Any genuine Class 10 or above card will work.
The key is *genuine*. There are a lot of fakes sold which dont meet the write speed criteria.
 
I got the Sandisk Extreme 128, but not sure if I inserted it correctly. First time flyer here. With the Mavic Pro 2 upside down, I inserted the card face up or label up. Would this be correct?
 
I got the Sandisk Extreme 128, but not sure if I inserted it correctly. First time flyer here. With the Mavic Pro 2 upside down, I inserted the card face up or label up. Would this be correct?
label faces bottom of drown and contacr points up toward top of drown.
 
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Ok, let's talk about memory cards.
(Jump to the end if you just want the final answer.)

Background
First, the names. SD means "Secure Digital" and is just the type of card. Most computers and card readers support the SD card. Smartphones needed something smaller so they created the "microSD" card. This is much smaller than the original SD, and the microSD is often sold with an adapter so that you can plug it into the bigger SD slot of your computer.

SD cards are limited to 2GB, so they developed SDHC (Secure Digital High Capacity) which can support up to 32GB. To support more than 32GB they developed SDXC (Secure Digital eXtended Capacity) which can support up to 2TB (which should handle most people's needs for quite a while).

When you are shooting in 4K on a Mavic you generate about 1GB of data for every two minutes of video, so a 64GB card will hold around 2 hours of 4K video and require a microSDXC card. 64GB is what I use as I don't shoot more than around 1 hour of video on any given day, after which I move the files onto my computer (which has nearly 30TB of storage) so that the card is ready for the next shoot. If I needed to shoot more than two hours of video, I could either buy another 64GB card, and/or buy a bigger card (128GB or 256GB).

You need to select a reliable card that has a sustained write speed that will support the M2's maximum video bitrate of 100 Mbps (Megabits per second). That means that the card must support a sustained write speed of 100/8 = 12.5 MB/s (Megabytes per second).(1 byte = 8 bits). Note that video rates are specified in Megabits per second and cards are rated in Megabytes per second. Many people do not realize that "b" signifies bits and "B" signifies bytes. A byte is just a chunk of 8 bits.

When you read the marketing specs for a card you will usually find a prominent statement of "supports up to xxx read and yyy write speeds." Totally useless information as this is how fast it can burst data for a short period of time. Recording video requires the ability to write data at a sustained rate. If it can't keep up you will get dropped frames.

UHS-I (capital "i") and UHS-II indicate the type of bus on the card and do not indicate a speed. UHS-II cards can support higher speeds (312 MB/s) than UHS-I, but few if any consumer devices support that bus. UHS-I cards can support speeds up to 104 MB/s (832 Mbps) which is fast enough for pretty much all current consumer needs so this is what you find for sale. But UHS-I and UHS-II do not tell you what the actual speed of the card is. For this the SD Association has defined speed ratings that indicate the minimum write speed that the card can continuously sustain, which is what you need to know for video applications.

There are a couple of different speed ratings that you should look for when you buy a card, which now often show both. One is the UHS-1 / UHS-3 speed grade rating. These are indicated on the card by a capital "U" with a small "1" or "3" inside the U. UHS-1 (Speed Grade 1) supports a minimum continuous write speed of 10 MB/s, which is not fast enough for the M2 which needs 12.5 MB/s (100 Mbps). UHS-3 (Speed Grade 3) supports a minimum continuous write speed of 30 MB/s (30 X 8 = 240 Mbps) which easily handles the M2's 100 Mbps video bitrate.

The other speed rating for sustained write speed is a capital "V" followed by the MB/s, for example V30 = 30 MB/s. You start to see this rating more often now, especially as the sustained write speeds become faster than the UHS-3 30 MB/s.

The answer to your question
So, with all that as explanation, here's the answer to your question for the "best" microSD card for your M2.

First, from page 38 of the M2 user manual:
"A UHS-I Speed Grade 3 rating microSD card is required due to the fast read and write speeds necessary for high-resolution video data."

My advice:
  • Buy a brand name microSDXC card that has a good reliability reputation (I tend to use SanDisk but there are other brands equally good)
  • Make sure it is Speed Grade 3 (a U with a 3 inside the U)
  • Buy a 64GB card (more than one or bigger if you have long video shoots)
  • Buy only what you need. You can spend more for faster cards, but your Mavic will never use the extra speed. For example, the SanDisk Extreme 64GB Speed Grade 3 V30 card is selling today on Amazon for $26.95. The SanDisk Extreme PRO is also Speed Grade 3 V30 but sells for $34.01. What does the PRO give your for the higher price? A faster burst write speed, which is not important for video. No need to buy the PRO, the Extreme is just fine for our M2 video requirements.
 
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I bought a SanDisk extreme plus 64gb U3 V30 from amazon but when I watch the footage on my macbook air its very glitchy as if its skipping frames Not watchable at all However if I put the card into my phone the footage plays smooth.
Is this card sufficient & my Mac Air a bit slower or do I need a different card?
 
I have a Sandisk Extreme 64GB. Works fine. Surprised that the M2 didn’t ship with a card at all, given that you got a 16GB With the MP. Came in handy to use in my mobile phone.

Never needed the capacity of 128GB as always transfer footage ASAP to my server.
 
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I have a Sandisk Extreme 64GB. Works fine. Surprised that the M2 didn’t ship with a card at all, given that you got a 16GB With the MP. Came in handy to use in my mobile phone.

Never needed the capacity of 128GB as always transfer footage ASAP to my server.
Is that the same card as the one I have?
 

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also what software are u playing it thru?

on my pc VLC player skips, but in windows media player its as smooth as a babies butt
 
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