Performance of current SD cards can vary a lot between brands and types, as we have seen in earlier tests. We challenged several manufacturers again and tested 44 cards in 32, 64, 128 and even some 256GB formats.

Secure Digital has grown to become the standard for digital camera storage. Only the very expensive high end cameras feature Compact Flash support and Sony still has quite a few models that use the Sony Memory Stick. SD cards are the standard for most other models however and even some Sony cameras feature SD card support.

When you make the odd picture on your bridge or DSLR camera the speed of the SD card is not of much importance, but what size you can get for the cheapest possible price is. When you are using RAW format for your pictures however the speed of the card becomes more of an issue and you do need high read and write speeds. read speeds are mainly important for transferring the pictures from your camera to your PC, as 50MB/sec compared to 10MB/sec makes quite a bit of difference. The write speeds are important for photographers that want to take a lot of shots quickly in succession, for instance in sports and action scenarios. The buffer of even the most expensive cameras will be full after around 10 shots, and quick transfer to the memory card is essential to keep being able to take pictures. The faster the card in this case the better it is.