While the higher capacity cards increase in price exponentially, the 633x appears in sizes as small as 16GB, making it suitable for a wide range of photographers and videographers alike who require all kinds of capacities for casual or professional use. We found its write speed to be a little slow compared to other UHS-I cards in this class range, but it’s good value for money and the V30/U3 class listing means it’s still suitable for up to 4K UHD video recording. Rated UHS Speed Class 3 (U3) and Video Speed Class 30 (V30) 2, the SanDisk Extreme PRO SD UHS-I card lets you capture sequential burst mode shots without missing a beat. If you’re shooting raw files you want a card that can handle sequential bursts of the highest quality imagery, as well as a capacity that allows for sufficient storage to avoid having to swap cards every five minutes. Full HD (1920x1080) and 4K UHD (3840 x 2160) video support may vary based upon host device, file attributes, and other factors. See: www.sandisk.com/HD

Our SanDisk Extreme SD UHS-I V3 tests saw write speeds live up to its claims, matching them almost exactly at 71.6MB/s. But as with most other cards on this list, the read speeds leave a bit to be desired, coming in at almost half the claimed speed, 71.6MB/s. All can be forgiven, though, bearing in mind the extremely low cost of these cards, especially while still offering such high capacity to users at up to 256GB sizes. Actual transfer speeds under our testing churned out a write speed of 33MB/s and read speed of 82MB/s; not too bad, but the write speed is close to the minimum V30 classification on the label, so that's worth bearing that in mind if write speeds are important to your work. The cards are different colors depending on the capacity - so red with a Nintendo Mushroom icon for 128GB, yellow with a Super Star for the 256GB, and teal green for the 512GB card. You don't need these customized cards, as any microSD card will work in your Switch – but you will earn kudos points for brand loyalty.But what's the use of a 1TB memory card if everything reads and writes slowly? Speed should be your next criterion for choosing a memory card. For photographers, write speeds are very important as they determine how fast you can shoot, especially in burst mode. The capacity is also questionable. The useable area amounts to 119GB which means around 9GB is lost. OK system files etc. usually take up a little of the space, but surely not 9GB? Sometimes speed is what you need. The SanDisk Extreme PRO SD UHS-I card delivers the performance to capture stunning, uninterrupted 4K UHD video 1.

While CFast cards look similar in size and shape to CompactFlash cards, they're not compatible (so don't try to jam one in your old DSLR!). This new-generation high-speed memory card format will be found in professional stills and video cameras. The Transcend did superbly in its speed tests, excelling the claimed write speed (180MB/s) with a whopping 224MB/s, but falling slightly short on the read speed with 224MB/s. Overall, that makes this card an impressive buy at a reasonable cost. This card is ideal for high resolution, rapid-fire stills photography and 8K video, with 4K and HD video being recorded comfortably, too. All three SD cards use the UHS-I bus type, which indicates the type of interface between the card and the device. This also has implications on the maximum read and write speeds that can be supported through the interface. The read and write speeds of all three cards are well below the maximum value. Most devices still use the UHS-I bus type primarily because UHS-II SD cards are still prohibitively expensive. RobustnessWith shot speeds up to 140MB/s 6 the card is perfect for capturing the action as it happens, without missing a beat. There are three main types of SD card: SD, SDHC (high capacity) or SDXC (extended capacity). SD cards typically offer 128MB to 2GB in storage capacity, too small for today’s modern cameras with higher resolutions. SDHC bumps this up from 4GB to 32GB, useful for most photographers and videographers. SDXC cards, meanwhile, range from 64GB to 2TB and are aimed at professional-level users who require more memory. Nikon was the first camera company to introduce XQD cards in digital cameras and a lot of people thought it would be short-lived, and since XQD has now evolved into CFexpress Type B, in some sense they were right. CFexpress cards are considerably faster than XQD cards (though that's not to say XQD is slow - far from it), and there are more manufacturers producing CFexpress cards than XQD, leading to more competitive pricing. We’ve already highlighted the differences in the specs of the SD cards, but how are they similar? You may notice that all of them are classified as type SDXC cards, which is just a roundabout way of expressing their range of capacities. The SDXC class spans 32 GB to 2 TB, which includes all the three SD cards being compared here. The difference in write speeds is also apparent in the speed rating of each SD card. The Ultra has a U1 (UHS Class 1) speed rating, pertaining to the 10 MB/s write speed. The Extreme and Extreme Pro both have U3 (UHS Class 3) and the additional V30 (UHS Video speed class 30) rating, which means that it can sustain a video capture rate of 30 MB/s. What do they have in common?

Just keep in mind that the pricing for SD cards isn’t linear with capacity. For instance, the 512 GB version of the Extreme Pro is about 4.3 times more expensive than the 128 GB version while the 1 TB version is almost 9 times more expensive. The fact that Extreme Pro SD cards can go up to 1 TB capacity is a nice bonus as well, as it means that you wouldn’t have to buy as many spare SD cards. This might even turn out cheaper if you’re buying in bulk. UHS Speed Class 3 designates a performance option designed to support 4K UHD video recording with enabled UHS host devices. UHS Video Speed Class 30 (V30), sustained video capture rate of 30MB/s, designates a performance option designed to support real-time video recording with UHS enabled host devices. See www.sdcard.org/consumers/speed.Just from this table alone, it’s easy to glean the difference between the three SD card types. Based on read and write speeds alone, the Extreme Pro is the most appropriate for highly demanding use. Photography and filmmaking are two of the most obvious examples of these, especially if you tend to capture 4K videos or use the burst photography feature of your camera.