Micro SD cards - class 4 or 6 or 10 ?
Discussion
The class quoted on the card is the MINIMUM write speed. It may be higher than that, but you wouldn't know until you got it and tested it.
It is possible a reviewer has tried a class 6 card in a device which is designed to use a class 10 card and found it to work. That doesn't mean you will necessarily have the same experience.
A while ago, I bought a batch of class 4 SD cards and they quite happily worked in the HD video recorders I was using. So when I ran out, I bought some more. Exactly the same manufacturer and C4, just like the first batch except these newer ones didn't work.
When I tested one of the older cards cards against the new ones, I found that the old C4 cards were actually working above C6 spec. whereas the new C4 cards were only just above C4 spec.
I confirmed with the manufacturer that both batches of cards were genuine and from their factories but they couldn't (or wouldn't) tell me why I found such a big difference between two batches.
It may have been they couldn't get the right components for C4 cards when they had orders for them, so just re-labelled C6 cards instead. They would still be making a good markup.
So what I'm saying is that you can't be 100% sure a C4/6 card will work in a particular recorder unless you test the specific recorder/card combination yourself.
It is possible a reviewer has tried a class 6 card in a device which is designed to use a class 10 card and found it to work. That doesn't mean you will necessarily have the same experience.
A while ago, I bought a batch of class 4 SD cards and they quite happily worked in the HD video recorders I was using. So when I ran out, I bought some more. Exactly the same manufacturer and C4, just like the first batch except these newer ones didn't work.
When I tested one of the older cards cards against the new ones, I found that the old C4 cards were actually working above C6 spec. whereas the new C4 cards were only just above C4 spec.
I confirmed with the manufacturer that both batches of cards were genuine and from their factories but they couldn't (or wouldn't) tell me why I found such a big difference between two batches.
It may have been they couldn't get the right components for C4 cards when they had orders for them, so just re-labelled C6 cards instead. They would still be making a good markup.
So what I'm saying is that you can't be 100% sure a C4/6 card will work in a particular recorder unless you test the specific recorder/card combination yourself.
In theory, UHS > class 10 > class 6 > class 4 because as previously mentioned, that's the minimum write speed in MB/s.
Brand is also important though, some devices are notoriously fickle for which brands of SD card they accept so check your manual. To be honest any class of card will probably be fine for a dash cam unless you're recording in 1080p+ 60fps or something (which would be unnecessary for a dash cam).
Brand is also important though, some devices are notoriously fickle for which brands of SD card they accept so check your manual. To be honest any class of card will probably be fine for a dash cam unless you're recording in 1080p+ 60fps or something (which would be unnecessary for a dash cam).
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