14 DAY TRIAL // The UHS-I Class 3 specification defines memory cards that can maintain a constant write speed of at least 30 MB/s, but Transcend wants its products to go well beyond that, otherwise it would have had trouble competing with, say, the PRO Extreme SDHC/SDXC from Kingmax.
Indeed, Transcend has just formally launched its own collection of UHS-I Class 3 secure digital high-capacity and secure digital extended capacity NAND Flash memory cards.
Called Transcend SDXC/SDHC UHS-I U3, they actually come in two varieties, the SDXC/SDHC UHS-I U3 and SDXC/SDHC UHS-I U3X “Extreme.”
Both lines reach a reading speed of 95 MB/s, ensuring that even the highest-quality videos (like 4K2K) play smoothly straight off it.
The writing speed differs though. For the SDXC/SDHC UHS-I U3 cards, it is of at most 60 MB/s, while the SDXC/SDHC UHS-I U3X “Extreme” reach 85 MB/s.
Considering the standard of 30 MB/s that we have already mentioned above, even the U3 series goes beyond the call of duty, so to speak.
Thus, they can easily be used with any of today's camcorders, like Canon EOS C500 Cinema Camera, Sony 4K Handycam FDR-AX100, and Panasonic Lumix DMC-GH4, all of which can record and play 4K video.
Capacity-wise, the lowest is of 32 GB, while the highest point is of 128 GB. Not really on par with the Green House one of 256 GB, but every company gets its turn to stand out once in a while.
To get an idea of how the 128 GB capacity translates into real-world usage, you should be able to record 8 hours of 4K UHD footage (4096x2160 35 Mb/s H.264 AVC compression) or 20,000 JPEG images (12 megapixel camera, 6MB file size).
Moreover, if you like RAW images, you'll be able to take over 8,500 of them (based on 14 MB file size). In layman terms, the camera battery will probably fail before your storage unit is full.
Finally, in case you weren't certain, Transcend's SDXC/SDHC UHS-I U3 and SDXC/SDHC UHS-I U3X “Extreme” memory cards can store files in exFAT format, meaning that the 4 GB file size limit inherent in FAT32 does not apply.
Transcend ships its new creations with the RecoveRX software. Well, technically it's a free download you have to do yourself, from the website. The program can recover accidentally deleted or lost files.
The R95 MB/s, W60 MB/s Transcend SDXC UHS-I U3 cards have prices of $49 / €49 (64 GB) and $109 / €109 (128 GB). The SDXC/SDHC UHS-I U3X are the ones with a 32 GB version ($59 / €59), and 64 GB ($119 / €119), but no 128 GB model apparently.