Picking up a cheap SD card deal during the Prime Day sales can save you a stack of money on those essential camera accessories. At this time of year you get more GB for your money.
These are the full-sized SDXC cards, supported by most drones, DSLR cameras and mirrorless cameras, and they're perfect for capturing large quantities of raw images, and 4K and HD video footage. Simply, if you have a camera or drone, you'll need an SD card or two to actually capture images.
While SD card deals are quite common, you save much more money during sales like Prime Day, as they tend to be much cheaper during this type of event. Top manufacturers like Sandisk, Lexar, and PNY all take part, and you can save around 50% on some cards.
You can't always choose the cheapest one, though, if you need it for more high-performance use. Getting more GB per dollar is a big advantage of picking up a cheaper deal on the best SD cards, but getting a quicker card for less is often a more pressing need.
Before you get into the SD deals below, consider this: each card will have a speed rating for burst shooting (write speed) and file transfer rate. Transfer rate is, well, the time it takes for files to copy from SD card to laptop. The shooting rate or write speed refers to the capacity of the card to support longer burst shoots on your camera. If you plan to take extended bursts with raw files on enthusiast and pro-level cameras, look for 90MB/s write speeds or higher, to make sure your SD card can keep up.
Not in the US? Scroll down for the best deals in your region.
Performance and capacity are the most important things to look for in SD cards, along with price. If you're wondering about capacity, here's an example. If you're shooting with a 128GB card in your camera, and you've got a 22MP resolution camera capturing in the raw format (so, about 6-7MB per image) then you'll get about 19,000 images on a single card. For beginners and enthusiasts, that's more than enough – your battery will need charging several times before you need to replace the card or remove images from it.
If you're shooting HD quality video on that same 128GB card, you'll get about 650 minutes on a single SDXC, shot at 24Mbps. So, if 4K video is your game, you should definitely be looking to get something at 256GB or above to avoid having to constantly edit the contents of your card.
In terms of dollars per GB, that depends entirely on the quality of card you're looking to buy. Budget cards will get you 256GB for $40-50, so that's about 5GB per dollar. If you want something with a better write speed, you'll get 256GB for around $100, which is only 2.5GB per dollar. There are even more expensive cards than that, which can bump it down to 2GB or less per dollar.
More SD card deals
Looking for more SD card deals? You'll find all the lowest prices from around the web right here, with offers available in your region.
TechRadar is rounding up all the top deals over the Prime Day sales period, and we’ve put all the best Prime Day deals in an easy-to-navigate article to help you find the bargains you’re looking for.
- See the best Amazon Prime Day laptop deals
- See the best Amazon Prime Day iPad deals