Photography News 110 - Web

Buyers’ guide

Memory matters

We wouldn’t get far as digital photographers and content creators without memory cards and storage. Capacity, reliability and speed are major considerations, so join us for a tour of the latest kit at our disposal

pressure involved. Indeed, if you’re moving seriously large amounts of data around, such processes can be done overnight. Just make sure the screen saver is turned on to prevent screen burn-in. Regarding backing up: always envisage the worst-case scenario. This might seem unnecessarily pessimistic, but the fact is that hard drives can fail at any time and without warning. It’s definitely worth having at least two copies of your pictures on separate hard drives, perhaps even a third for off-site storage. Or use a cloud service. Memory and storage might not seem quite as glamorous a subject as cameras and lenses – but that changes now. Keep yourself safe with the help of these more-than-handy solutions.

camera will be pedestrian at best in the newer model, with limited frame capacity and buffering. Ideally, you’ll need to update SD cards or invest in far more expensive CFexpress Type B cards. Speed is generally less of a concern with hard drives, although it depends on what you are doing. SSDs (solid-state drives) have the considerable advantage of speed, are more reliable in the longer term and, GB for GB, are more expensive. But if you are shooting high-resolution stills or recording 4K video (or higher) for a living, spending as much as you can afford on the fastest drives is well worth it. If you’re an enthusiast and most of your backing up and data storage is done at home, there’s less time

WORDS BY WILL CHEUNG

UP TO SPEED Lacie’s Rugged SSD is just one of many superlative products in our buyers’ guide

WHETHER IT’S THOSE little cards you slip into a camera or the anonymous boxes sitting next to your computer, memory is crucial to every digital creator – and not a subject to be taken for granted. If you’ve been a photographer for a while, you’re likely to have memory cards bordering on ‘vintage’. These may have been cutting edge when you bought them – and still reliably capable – but if you have upgraded cameras recently, odds are you’re not making the most of this new kit. As an example, let’s assume you’ve changed from a Canon EOS 5D Mark IV to an EOS R5 mirrorless. The DSLR was 30 megapixels and could shoot at 7fps, compared with the 45-megapixel EOS R5 that can rattle along at up to 20fps. The SD cards that might have given a good performance in the older

“MEMORY MAY NOT BE AS GLAMOROUS AS CAMERAS – BUT THAT CHANGES NOW”

Samsung › samsung.com/uk/memory-storage

Consumer electronic giant Samsung has been the market leader in flash memory since 2003. It currently offers microSD cards, NVMe drives, SATA drives and portable SSDs. Top of its microSD range is the Pro Plus, available in 128GB, 256GB and 512GB. The latter costs £74 including SD card adapter. This UHS-I, V30 card has a write speed of 130MB/s and is seriously tough, protected from water, extreme temperatures, X-rays, drops, magnets and wear, backed up with a ten-year limited warranty. For image makers on the move, Samsung’s Portable SSD T7 drives are a pocketable and reliable storage solution. Three are available: Touch, USB 3.2 and Shield. If ultimate ruggedness is important, the T7 Shield is the SSD to buy. Sold in three colours and in 1TB, 2TB and 4TB capacities from £97 to £286, the Shield has an IP65 water- and dust-resistance rating and is designed to survive a 3m drop.

Sony › sony.co.uk

Sony’s latest additions to its extensive memory card line-up include top-end CFexpress Type A cards in the CEA-M1920T (1920GB) and CEA-960T (960GB), priced at £1550 and £860 respectively. Both cards are moisture, bend and drop resistant, and offer long-term stability and reliable operation without any dropped frames or overheating. More affordable is the CEA-G CFexpress A series, available in 80GB, 160GB, 320GB and 640GB capacities with prices ranging from £220 to £1200. These cards feature Sony’s Tough design with IP57 dust and water protection. Sony has further applied the Tough design to its range of CFexpress Type B and SD cards. In fact, the SF-M Tough UHS-II SD 512GB claims to be the world’s toughest SD card, has read and write speeds of 277MB/s and 150MB/s, and costs £280.

Synology › synology.com/en-uk

Synology has an impressive array of all-in-one storage. The DS423+ is one of its newest NAS products. It’s a four-bay unit, available as an enclosure or pre-loaded with four SATA drives. The stand-alone unit is priced at £487, or comes fitted with four 4TB WD Red Plus drives at £1116. Go for maximum capacity and the DS423+ can be bought loaded with four 18TB HAT5300 drives at £4388. The DS423+ has a read/write speed of 226/224MB/s and comes equipped with two 1GbE Lan ports and two M.2 NVMe SSD slots. If you want your own private cloud at a reasonable price, the DS423+ is it. Files can be accessed via mobile apps, desktop or browser across various platforms so data can be accessed, synced or shared anywhere.

Issue 110 | Photography News 17

photographynews.co.uk