Manfrotto is best known as a manufacturer of tripods, but in recent years has started to offer other photographic accessories, including two SDXC cards. These cards are UHS-II compatible and available in either 64GB or 128GB capacity. Both have read speeds of up to 280MB/s and write speeds of up to 250MB/s and are V90 cards, which means they have minimum write and read speeds of 90MB/s and are suitable for recording 4K and 8K video.
Features
Maximum reading speed: 280 MB/s
Maximum write speed: 250 MB/s
Abilities available: 64 GB, 128 GB
Build and manipulate
Manfrotto claims its SDXC cards are sealed and protected, with a solid molded design for the most important area, making them 3 times stronger than regular SD cards. In fact, they’re able to withstand an impact of over 20kg, and the 128GB SDXD card I tested feels a little stiffer than other cards I’ve had.
Manfrotto also claims that the board is sealed against moisture and dust to such an extent that it can be submerged for up to 72 hours. Additionally, the board’s operating temperature range is listed as -25°C to 85°C.
Exceptionally, the Manfrotto Professional SDXC UHS-II card does not have a lockout switch. Manfrotto may have seen this as a weak point in the construction of the card, but it means you can’t prevent this card from being accidentally formatted or having extra images written to it.
While the Professional SDXC seems well built and slips easily in and out of cameras, the label on the front showed noticeable wear on my sample. This means the map looks quite scruffy and some characters are unreadable.
Performance
I’ve had the Manfrotto Professional SDXC 128GB for a few months and it’s given me good service in a wide variety of cameras, capturing stills at fast continuous shooting speeds and 4K video . It was also found to be able to record 8K video with some compression options, but the cameras need a CFexpress card. (opens in a new tab) for 8K raw video and high quality compression options.
When the 45.7Mp Nikon Z 7II (opens in a new tab) was set to shoot at its highest speed (10 fps), I was able to capture 35 uncompressed 14-bit raw files. Switching to Fine quality Jpegs* increased the burst depth to 57 frames while I was able to capture 84 Fine quality Jpegs in a single shot. These Jpeg burst depths are significantly lower than what I got when using 128GB Kingston Canvas React Plus, Lexar Professional 2000x SDXC UHS-II (opens in a new tab) or PNY X-Pro 90 SDXC UHS-II (opens in a new tab) cards.
These smaller burst depths are a bit of a surprise as the Manfrotto SDXC card performed well when I tested it with Blackmagic Design’s disk speed test. This yielded read speeds of approximately 240MB/s and write speeds of 199MB/s. Additionally, 9.7GB of images comprising 100 Jpeg Fine* files and 100 uncompressed 14-bit raw files Nikon Z 7II were transferred to my computer in just under 1 minute 38 seconds.
Verdict
The Manfrotto Professional SDXC UHS-II is an odd mix of cards. It feels tough and can survive a long soak, but its tag wears out quickly and it looks scruffy fast. It also performs well in software testing and is able to quickly transfer footage to a computer, but it doesn’t allow for burst depths as impressive as some of its competitors. If you’re not into sports or action photography, burst depth may not be an issue and durability may be appealing.
Read more
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Best CFexpress Card (opens in a new tab)s
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