Does Data Transfer Speed Matter?

Defining Data Transfer Read and Write Speeds for Photography and
Motion Capture

The Value of Data Transfer Speed in Today’s Photo and Cinema/Video Applications

From the earliest days of marketing memory cards for use in digital cameras,
manufacturers have used performance (data transfer speed) as a measure of product
“value positioning.” One underlying reason for this is that some applications can truly
benefit from a faster transfer speed, and so the measure of performance has had real
value to certain buyers.

A second reason is that the underlying cost of producing a faster card is generally
higher, and therefore creates a need to charge more.

Lastly, there is simply a need for product differentiation by the card manufacturer–
faster performance must be better. The consumer will therefore assume greater value in
a higher speed and be willing to pay more for it– whether he needs it or not.

The question of whether transfer speed matters or not is best determined by looking at
how a memory card is being used. And to truly understand the value of speed, it must
be first noted that the industry measures data transfer performance in two ways: “to
the card” (writing data), as well as “from the card” (reading data):

Writing data

In a typical digital camera, a high-speed buffer is used to ensure that, for most normal
capture, the speed of data being written to the card is never an issue for rapidly saving
a nominal quantity of photos. As photos or video are captured, these data files are
immediately stored (temporarily) in a buffer–typically built with DRAM (Dynamic
Random-Access Memory). DRAM is considered “volatile memory,” meaning that if
power is lost, the data (pictures) will also be lost; it is, therefore, important to empty the
camera buffer as quickly as possible by writing buffer data to a non-volatile memory
card. Where write speed of the memory card becomes important is when a camera’s
buffer becomes full and the user wants to continue capturing photos or video without
delay. As the buffer fills, it must begin to transfer (write) data out to the memory card
and therefore, if a slow memory card is used, it will noticeably slow the ability to
continue capturing beyond the buffer size. A fast memory card can typically allow the
user to never notice a slowing of capture rate since its speed is much more closely
matched to the speed of the camera’s buffer memory. Examples of cameras currently
on the market that require a fast “speed-rated” card for High Definition video or burst-
mode capture include the Sony A7R family (SD-UHS U3 speed class or higher
required), the Canon EOS C200 (VPG 130 or higher performance guarantee required),
plus ARRI and Black Magic.

Reading Data

After photos or video files have been written to a memory card, a user will typically
want to move these to a computer for editing, archiving or uploading to the cloud for
sharing; this is where read speed becomes important. In fact, when designating card’s
transfer performance, many times the read speed will be the most prominent measure
of performance stated on the packaging and the card itself. This is because, in most
cases, the camera buffer as described above has minimized the need for buying the
absolute highest write performance card. More so, the read transfer performance has
become the most important speed measure to most users since the real-world value of
moving data (photos and video) for editing, archiving and sharing is the most
important aspect of a post-capture workflow. To ensure that the quickest download of
photos and video to a computer is achieved, a fast memory card reader paired with a
fast memory card is recommended.

Card Readers

Until recently, most memory card readers offered a connection to a computer via a USB
3.0 (SuperSpeed) port, which has a theoretical maximum transfer rate of 5Mbits/second
(625Mbytes/second). While USB 3.0 provides an adequate level of performance for
most consumer applications, some computers, like the Apple MacBook Pro, have
recently started to ship with ThunderBolt 3 ports which boast a theoretical maximum
40Mbits/second (5GBytes/second) transfer speed capability. The beauty of
Thunderbolt 3 is that it utilizes a Type C USB connector, which is compatible with the
newest version of USB (SuperSpeed+); the SuperSpeed+, aka USB 3.1 Gen 2, the port
provides 10Mbits/second (1.25Mbytes/second) transfer capability.

Ensuring performance improvements from pairing a SuperSpeed+ reader and capable

computer are two-fold: a) cards that can transfer data in excess of 550Mbytes/second
will not be limited by the USB bus speed, and b) data from multiple cards may be
transferred simultaneously per bus speed limits. For example, a dual-slot reader can
concurrently transfer data from both a CFast 2.0 card and an SD UHS-II card at speeds
of up to ~675Mbytes/second (or should we list’ at speeds of up to’) on each card. The
benefit equates to an approximate 35% faster transfer rate than previously possible. In
the future, as faster memory cards are released, the benefit of a USB SuperSpeed+
reader will become even greater.

In summary, transfer speed does matter. To professional users, both write and read
speed matter. To consumers, read speed is generally the most important measure of
performance. For all users, a fast memory card reader is essential to ensure that the
least amount of time is required during the post-capture workflow. Newer computer
interface technologies such as USB SuperSpeed+ and Thunderbolt 3 provide greatly
improved performance for reading data transfers from a card to a computer. As
memory card performance continues to improve, the importance of fast memory card
readers will continue to grow.