I’ve been a wedding photographer for more than 10 years now, and I’m going to be very honest with you here. You don’t need the best camera or the best lens to take good wedding photos.
But, you should always try to use a good SD card.
You need a fast and reliable SD card that won’t fail you while you are capturing someone’s special day, because imagine you return home after the wedding only to discover that the SD card is corrupt, or that it couldn’t save the photos you took in quick succession.
You only get one chance to capture someone’s wedding, so make sure that you are prepared and that you have the right equipment.
So, to help you out, I have listed 5 of the best SD cards that you can use for wedding photography.
Table of Contents
5 Best SD Cards For Wedding Photography
Before we start, please note that I’m only listing SD cards with a capacity of 32GB. You can obviously go for the 64GB or larger variants, but I recommend that you stick with 32GB SD cards and that you take at least 3 SD cards with you to the wedding.
Let’s get started.
1. Lexar Professional 2000x 32GB SDHC UHS-II SD Card
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My personal favorite SD card for wedding photography is the Lexar Professional 2000x. It is a class 10 SD card and it has an insanely fast write speed of 260MB/s and an even more impressive read speed of 300MB/s. As an added bonus, it is very capable of saving 4K videos, so you have the opportunity to take a few video clips during the day.
2. SanDisk 32GB Ultra SDHC UHS-I Memory Card – 120MB/s, C10, U1, Full HD, SD Card
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If you’re on a tight budget, but you still want a quality SD card, then the SanDisk Ultra SD card is an excellent choice. It’s a class 10 card with read and write speeds of 120MB/s, and as a bonus, it can capture 1080P videos as well.
3. SanDisk Extreme Pro 32GB SDHC UHS-I SD Card
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The SanDisk Extreme Pro is also an SD card that you will find in my camera bag. It has a write speed of 90MB/s and a read speed of 95MB/s. It is also very capable of saving 4K video which comes in very handy.
4. SanDisk 32GB Extreme SDHC UHS-I Memory Card – 90MB/s, C10, U3, V30, 4K UHD, SD Card
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Another budget-friendly SD card from SanDisk. The SanDisk Extreme has impressive read and write speeds, and it is also very capable of taking 4K videos. It is built and tested in harsh conditions, so it will last you a long time.
5. KODAK 32 GB Class 10 UHS-I U1 SDHC/XC Premium Performance SD Card
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If you’ve spent your hard-earned savings on a camera or a lens, and you don’t have a lot to spend on an SD card, then the Kodak 32GB Class 10 card will be a good choice for you. It is the slowest SD card on this list, with read speeds of up to 85MB/s and write speeds of only 25MB/s. It is capable of taking videos, but rather stay away from 4K videos.
How Many SD Cards Do You Need For A Wedding?
As mentioned, I recommend that you take at least three 32 GB SD cards with you when you’re shooting a wedding. During an 8-hour wedding, you might end up shooting up to 64 GB worth of photos, so two 32 GB SD cards should cover it. The third SD card will serve as a backup in case one of the other SD cards breaks or gets lost.
Why 32GB?
Well, imagine you shoot on a 64GB card and you return home only to find that it is corrupted. If you were using a 32GB card and it became corrupted, then you would not have lost as many photos as you would have with a 64GB card.
Make sense?
How Many Photos Will A 32 GB SD Card Hold?
A lot of variables come into play when determining how many photos a 32 GB SD card will hold. It depends on whether or not you’re shooting in RAW, and the picture quality or megapixels of the photos that you are taking.
If you are shooting RAW and these images have 22 megapixels then you can expect your 32 GB SD card to hold around 1000 photos. If you’re shooting JPEG, which you shouldn’t, then your 32 GB SD card can hold around 4000 photos.
Don’t shoot in JPEG though. You should always shoot in RAW because this allows for more post-processing opportunities when you are editing the photos.
What Type Of SD Card Is Needed For A Wedding?
I highly recommend that you get class 10 32 GB SD cards to shoot a wedding. Class 10 SD cards save photos much quicker which can be very beneficial during a wedding. 32 GB is an ideal size because it mitigates the risk of corrupted or lost photos if one of your SD cards is corrupted.
As you would have noticed by now, class 10 SD cards have a very high read and write speed, and this is crucial for wedding photography.
How Many Photos Does A Wedding Photographer Take?
The number o photos taken during a wedding will differ from each wedding photographer, but generally speaking, the average wedding photographer will take between 2000 and 4000 photos during 8 hours of wedding coverage. So, as you can see, you can easily fill up two 32 GB SD cards on the day.
Conclusion
Hopefully, now you have a pretty good idea of which SD card to get if you’re going to shoot a wedding.
As I mentioned earlier, always try to use a quality SD card. You will then have the peace of mind that all your beautiful photos are being saved properly, and that they will make it back home so that you can edit and prepare them for the bride and groom.
Good luck!
