This is a pretty important thing to think about, considering video with a DSLR is captured at a higher bitrate. And on top of that, capacity of the card is equally as important (unless of course you’re ok with changing out the card every 8 to 12 minutes). So for those reasons, I’m making a few recommendations on cards that will work best in a production setting.

Now depending on what DSLR you are using, the card type may be different. Canon DSLRs use CF or CompactFlash cards. Panasonic and Nikon typically use SD cards. So the bit rate and price range will vary based on what you’re using. Call me bias if you’d like, but I’m a Canon guy, so I’ll mostly be talking CF cards. That just happens to be my experience level, so deal with it!

Now, my understanding about bitrates with DSLR video is that they average around 37 to 40 mb/s. That being said, a good way to go is getting your hands on a fast enough card to cover that bitrate. Having said that though, you can still use lower end CF cards, you just run the risk of possibly losing information in your image or even losing a few frames here or there. If you know the bitrate is going to be high (which it always will be with high end HD) then you might as well go with the faster cards.

The second thing to consider when looking for a good CF card is capacity. Cards out there run anywhere from 1GB to 64GB so you have a lot to work with. Canon’s 5D Mark II and 7D put a cap on the largest single clip that can be stored at roughly 4GB which is around 12 min of 1920×1080 video. If you’re making films, you more than likely won’t have a single, continuous 12 min shot. Unless of course you’re Martin Scorsese or Orsen Welles…

The best capacity size if you ask me is 32GB. That will put you in the ballpark of 90 minutes or so of Full HD video. Two of those guys will cover a day’s worth of shooting easy.

So here are a couple picks for some seriously great cards that will really deliver:

Lexar Professional Series UDMA 16 GB 300x CF Card
-Lexar cards in general are really well made and work great in the field. This one comes with a minimum write speed of 45mb/s, so it can actually write faster than that! Definitely worth the price.

SanDisk 32GB Extreme III CF Card
-So I know I said that you should get cards with a higher bitrate, but I’ve used this card many times before and performs fantastically! Goes to show that your bitrate doesn’t need to be exact, but it does need to be high enough to get good results.

Of course there are a ton of card options out there, but if you hunt for the one with a higher write rate, you can’t go wrong!


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