Once you consider must-have gear as a photographer, SD playing cards aren’t precisely probably the most thrilling to speak about. In case you put up a SanDisk SD card, a Sony TOUGH SD card and a wide range of different manufacturers, most photographers will in all probability be alright with any of them, given they meet a sure pace and storage requirement.
I not too long ago had the prospect to check out OWC’s Atlas S Professional SDXC playing cards, and I’ve to say I used to be fairly impressed. I’ve lengthy been towards most of the builds that card producers have — particularly for UHS-II playing cards — as a result of they depend on flimsy plastic elements that may simply break off. That’s the primary motive why I normally depend on Sony TOUGH playing cards — there’s none of these elements to interrupt off.
Whereas, from the surface, OWC’s Atlas S Professional seemed like simply one other SD card, it was clear that they had constructed this to be robust, and to final common utilization and excessive circumstances.
Professionals
- Quick, and holds extra images than different 128GB playing cards
- V90 card is ideal for many video conditions
- Facet lock swap is agency and exhibits no potential of snapping off or breaking
Cons
- Again of card has some frequent failure factors with UHS-II playing cards, together with plastic notches
Technical specs — OWC Atlas S Professional UHS-II SDXC Reminiscence Card
The entire technical specs for the OWC Atlas S Professional UHS-II SDXC Reminiscence Card are from the product itemizing on the B&H web site:
- Card sort: SDXC
- Bus sort: UHS-II
- Pace class: 10
- UHS pace class: U3
- Video pace class: V90
- Learn pace: Most 290 MB/s
- Write pace: 90 MB/s to 277 MB/s
- Sturdiness: Shockproof, temperature extremes, UV gentle resistant, X-ray proof
- Write-Shield swap: Sure
First impressions — OWC Atlas S Professional UHS-II SDXC Reminiscence Card
As I discussed above, the outside of the SD card seems like each different UHS-II card you’ve used. However after placing it by just a few assessments, I noticed it was a bit greater than that.
First, some bodily assessments. I attempted to pry off the vertical plastic slots on the again of the cardboard. These have failed time and again for me up to now with SanDisk Excessive Professional playing cards, and it’s normally the primary bodily failure level of a card.
To my shock, these plastic slots appeared to be a bit extra robust. I attempted choosing at them and even forcing them with a pen cap. They weren’t going wherever.
I additionally slid the Write-Shield swap up and down a number of instances. I might inform this was constructed a bit higher than different playing cards on the market, too, because it required a bit extra power to push up and down.
And at last, in comparison with a few of my previous SanDisk UHS-II playing cards, the OWC felt simply barely heavier. This additional confirmed that high quality elements had been getting used.
OWC advertises the Atlas S Professional as being a reasonably robust card. Specifically, the Atlas S Professional makes use of pSLC expertise, that means it could possibly last as long as 10 instances greater than conventional SD playing cards. They’re bend, shock, UV gentle, X-ray and excessive temperature resistant. And as somebody who lives within the midwest the place are temperatures are continuously going up and down, that positively had me intrigued.
Placing it to the take a look at — OWC Atlas S Professional UHS-II SDXC Reminiscence Card
OWC Atlas S Professional
Sony TOUGH
When it got here to efficiency within the discipline, the Atlas S Professional didn’t skip a beat. I by no means bumped into buffering points or something like that, and the cardboard stored up splendidly with my Sony TOUGH card within the different card slot.
When it got here to operating a pace take a look at on my MacBook Professional laptop computer, the cardboard matched expectations impressed with its learn and write speeds. It beat out my Sony TOUGH playing cards by 13 MB/s in Write speeds to achieve 204.9 MB/s, and got here in a bit underneath with Learn speeds, at 238.3 MB/s, a distinction of 6 MB/s.
One factor that did catch me without warning, although, was the truth that the cardboard — regardless of being listed as a 128GB card — held about 100-150 extra photographs than my Sony TOUGH 128GB playing cards did.
Evidently, OWC impressed within the efficiency and storage sport with the Atlas S Professional.
