What size/speed SDHC card for my new GoPro Hero2?

[imported_Cota]

Hello friends,

I picked up a GoPro Hero2 yesterday, swung by Costco to pick up an SDHC card (they are on sale at the moment). I got a 16GB Class 10 45MB/s card, largest they had. The bloke at Costco said the 45MB/s speed was a good one to use with the GoPRo. The Hero2 will take a 32GB card according to the manual. I stopped by Best Buy and looked at their 32GB 45MB/s speed cards, holy cow, $90+. I picked up 32GB 30MB/s speed instead, but I haven't opened it and am able to return it.

So my questions are, if anyone has experience with this, do I really want 32GB of storage per card and do I really want the 45MB/s write speed for shooting in HD? I'm not sure the battery would last enough on a single shoot to fill up a 32GB card? I haven't tried the 1080p mode yet though, so maybe it fills up fast.

I'm tempted to just go back to costco and get a couple more 16GB 45MB/s speed while they are on sale instead.

Thanks,

-Cota

Haha. I should have looked first. The Sandisk 32GB 45MB/s cards that were $90 something at Best Buy are $33 at Amazon. I'll probably just get one of those. Still curious about my questions though.

 

[OctaneZ]

Haha. I should have looked first. The Sandisk 32GB 45MB/s cards that were $90 something at Best Buy are $33 at Amazon. I'll probably just get one of those. Still curious about my questions though.

Be careful of third party sellers at amazon, "Amazon Marketplace". There are a lot of counterfeit cards, especially high speed Sandisk knock-offs that won't hit advertised speed or capacity. Buying direct from Amazon is safe, just make sure you know who the seller is.

 

[AkumaX]

Hello friends,

I picked up a GoPro Hero2 yesterday, swung by Costco to pick up an SDHC card (they are on sale at the moment). I got a 16GB Class 10 45MB/s card, largest they had. The bloke at Costco said the 45MB/s speed was a good one to use with the GoPRo. The Hero2 will take a 32GB card according to the manual. I stopped by Best Buy and looked at their 32GB 45MB/s speed cards, holy cow, $90+. I picked up 32GB 30MB/s speed instead, but I haven't opened it and am able to return it.

So my questions are, if anyone has experience with this, do I really want 32GB of storage per card and do I really want the 45MB/s write speed for shooting in HD? I'm not sure the battery would last enough on a single shoot to fill up a 32GB card? I haven't tried the 1080p mode yet though, so maybe it fills up fast.

I'm tempted to just go back to costco and get a couple more 16GB 45MB/s speed while they are on sale instead.

Thanks,

-Cota

Haha. I should have looked first. The Sandisk 32GB 45MB/s cards that were $90 something at Best Buy are $33 at Amazon. I'll probably just get one of those. Still curious about my questions though.

Note that you probably picked up a SanDisk Ultra 30MB/s, which is a completely different tier than the SanDisk Extreme series.

The current SanDisk Extreme (45MB/s) really/actually does 45MB/s read and 43MB/s write (if you have the capable hardware)

The current SanDisk Ultra 30MB/s does around 40MB/s read and 14MB/s write.

Here's a short breakdown:

Ultra 30MB/s vs Extreme 45MB/s

USB 2.0 Card Reader/Port
Ultra ---- Read - 20MB/s Write - 14MB/s
Extreme - Read - 20MB/s Write - 20MB/s

USB 3.0 Card Reader/Port
Ultra ---- Read - 40MB/s Write - 14MB/s
Extreme - Read - 45MB/s Write - 43MB/s

I'm not sure what the GoPro Hero2 needs. But they always recommend Extreme. The 32GB card on Amazon (the seller) is around ~$33 now - I'd say its worth the price premium over the Ultra in this case.