SD Cards for FPV Equipment | DJI, GoPro, Goggles DVR, Radio, Blackbox

Many FPV devices require an SD card to work. In this guide I will recommend what micro SD cards to buy for GoPro cameras, Fatshark DVR, Taranis radio, as well as DJI drones. I will also explain the speed class letters on SD card labels.

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Check out our buyer’s guide on HD cameras for FPV drones.

Recommendations

GoPro, DJI and Other HD Cameras (4K Videos)

Micro SD cards listed here meet the requirements for the latest GoPro Hero 11 , DJI Action 3, O3 Air Unit and most DJI camera drones. If in doubt always check the manual and see what the manufacturer recommends and requires.

For cameras that record 2.7K and 4K videos, the requirement for writing speed is much higher, look for U3 (or V30) speed rating. Also you should get one with larger capacity as higher resolution video files takes more space, 32GB, 64GB, 128GB, 256GB are all good sizes, so just get the size that you think gives you the best value.

• Kingston CANVAS Go! Plus U3 A2 V30: https://amzn.to/3iApmXo
• Samsung EVO Plus U3 A2 V30: https://amzn.to/3VZSNnf
• Lexar Professional 1066x U3 A2 V30: https://amzn.to/3U2iIYY
• SanDisk Extreme Pro U3 V30 A1: https://amzn.to/3XZ3mp2

It’s a good idea to get a card that can handle 4K recording, since that is becoming the standard for FPV HD cameras. Even if you don’t shoot in 2.7K or 4K but only 1080p, it still makes sense because it’s future-proof and doesn’t actually cost much more.  If you just want the cheapest card for 1080p videos (Class 10 or U1 speed should be adequate), Lexar 1000X might be a good option: https://amzn.to/2VnzJg9

As far as capacity goes, it depends on how much footage you plan to record in one go. I will show you how to estimate the amount of footage you can store in an SD later in this article. 32GB and 64GB are the popular options for FPV. The next level up is 128GB but check if your camera supports that.

FPV Goggles DVR

It depends on the resolution of your DVR. DJI Goggles 2 records 1080p so you will need a relatively faster card such as U3. The rest of the FPV goggles mostly records 720p videos, so Class 10 cards should be fine for the most part. But if price is similar you should just get the fastest card that your DVR supports it will be more future proof.

DJI Goggles 2/3

Samsung Evo Plus U3 64GB: https://amzn.to/3j8lg9A

All Other Goggles

This is the best value 16GB card I can find for any analog goggles and DVR’s. These cards should work for HDZero too (in fact they recommend to use 8-32GB SD Card, so this is ideal).

SanDisk Ultra 16GB: https://amzn.to/2VlNyf9

8GB and 32GB should work well too.

SanDisk Ultra 32GB: https://amzn.to/3NQDN3m

Typically DVR prefers FAT32 as the file system format, including FatShark. In a nutshell, FAT32 supports a maximum capacity of 32GB. Therefore I would advise against using an SD card that is bigger than 32GB in DVR and Fatshark goggles, as it’s just a waste of capacity (for example even if you have a 64GB card it will show as 32GB in FAT32).

A 16GB SD card should be more than sufficient for a day of flying (for example, on my HDO it gives me just a little over 5 hours of footage). If you’re going for a weekend then use a 32GB card, or just take a few of them with you.

Flight Controller Blackbox

• For 2KHz, 4KHz and 8KHz logging (kind of pointless to get slower cards than these as the price is very competitive): https://amzn.to/3VQAUnt
• For 16KHz logging: https://amzn.to/3F4o7qR

You will need an SD card with decent write speed for Blackbox logging. Betaflight firmware requires the type of the microSD card to be either Standard (SDSC) or High Capacity (SDHC), extended capacity cards (SDXC) are not supported (Many high-speed U3 cards are SDXC). Also, the card MUST be formatted in FAT32 filesystems, we suggest you use this 3rd party formatting tool and choose ‘Overwrite format’ then format your card. So basically, you could use any SD card smaller than 32GB, but Betaflight can only recognize 4GB maximum, any additional storage would be wasted.

OpenTX/EdgeTX Radio

OpenTX and EdgeTX compatible Radios like the TX16S, T-Lite and Zorro come with a really low quality micro SD card (what I really mean is slow). For any reason you want to get a new card for it, this one should do just fine:

• Banggood Mixza 16GB: http://bit.ly/2NEB6Eo (not tested)
• SanDisk Ultra 16GB: https://amzn.to/2VlNyf9

An SD card is not required to run OpenTX and EdgeTX, but it gives you many powerful features, such as LUA scripts, sound packs and model images.

The speed of the card might affect how fast these resources can be loaded, but generally speaking the requirement is quite low since these files are relatively small. Here are the requirements:

• Card must be 32GB or smaller
• Must be able to write and read from the card
• Must use FAT format (NOT FAT32)

3D Printer

• 32GB Class 10 card for only $8: https://amzn.to/2XpyS0m
• 8GB Class 10 Micro with Adapter for only $5: http://bit.ly/2TeYuhV (not tested)

Most 3D printers are still using standard sized SD card, or you can just use a cheap micro SD card with an adapter.

Cards basic specs should do just fine. It doesn’t have to be huge in capacity either since STL files are generally not very big. 8GB, 16GB or 32GB would be more than enough. I have been using a 2GB card since 2015, not seen the need to upgrade yet.

Now let’s talk about the technical aspects of SD cards.

SD Card Sizes

SD cards come in various physical sizes, the two most popular sizes are “Standard SD Cards” (or normally just “SD cards“), and “Micro SD Cards“. Here are the dimensions:

• SD cards: 32.0 × 24.0 × 2.1 mm
• Micro SD cards: 15.0 × 11.0 × 1.0 mm

“Micro SD cards” are used for most things in FPV, which almost never actually use the bigger “SD cards”.

SD cards and Micro SD cards are basically the same thing, except Micro SD cards are much smaller. Micro SD cards usually come with an adapter for converting to the form factor of a normal SD card. That’s because many SD Card Readers still only support standard SD card form factor.

Memory Capacity

The capacity of an SD card is normally measured in GB (gigabytes).

Pro Tip: 1024 MB = 1GB, 1024 GB = 1 TB

Note that some older devices and card readers don’t support SD cards larger than 32GB. This is due to the type of file formatting which are either SDHC (microSDHC, HC), or SDXC (microSDXC, XC). These formats are also indication of their potential maximum capacity.

• SDHC goes up to 32GB
• SDXC goes from 32GB up to 2TB

That means if an SD card is 32GB or smaller, it’s probably SDHC, while if a card is 64GB or larger, it’s probably SDXC.

Another limitation of SDHC, is that it uses FAT32 file system. With FAT32, you can’t write files larger than 4GB. Files exceeding 4GB would have to be split up and put in separate files. Therefore SDHC is not ideal for high definition videos, but fine for photos.

What are all the numbers and letters on SD card?

The speed class rating and figures are normally printed on the SD card. But the rating systems can be confusing for new comers. This is partly due to the rapidly growing technology and requirements in our cameras. Older rating classes are quickly reaching their limits and new ratings are introduced to meet the new requirements.

I will touch on each of these speed classes to give you a basic understanding.

Read and Write Speeds

The speed of an SD card is the data transfer rate, this is usually printed on the label or stated in the product page to give you a rough idea of the performance to be expected. There are read speed (R) and write speed (W).

The “MB/s” figure you could find on the label is normally the “maximum achievable read speed”. That’s because it’s usually the biggest number and it looks good for marketing.

Pro Tip: 1 Byte = 8 bits. Byte with a big “B” and bit with a small “b”. When people are talking about 80Mb/s, it’s really just 10MB/s. So don’t get confused!

Depending on the application, write speed can be just as important as read speed, in fact, more important in some cases. For example, for a camera, if the SD card has a slow write speed and fails to keep up, you will find dropped frames and stuttering in the video.

Speed Class

This is the oldest speed class you can find on modern SD cards. The number indicates the minimum sustained write speed:

• Class 2: 2MB/s or above
• Class 4: 4MB/s or above
• Class 6: 6MB/s or above
• Class 10: 10MB/s or above

In my opinion, this is an outdated (useless) speed class, because it’s very rare nowadays to find cards that are slower than Class 10. Even if you can find slower cards, there is no reason to buy them as the price difference is nearly non-existent.

Later on newer and faster speed classes were introduced.

UHS BUS Interface

UHS (ultra high speed) BUS is a new generation interface for faster data transfer rate. UHS interface compatible cards have a roman number I or II showing on the label.

• Non-UHS cards max out at 25MB/s
• UHS-I cards max out at 104MB/s
• UHS-II cards max out at 312MB/s

Notice that UHS-II cards have a second row of pins that allows for even faster maximum achievable speed. But your device or card reader has to be compatible with UHS-II for it to work, otherwise it will be treated as an UHS-I card.

UHS Speed Class

UHS BUS compatible SD cards are rated by their minimum sustained write speed.

• U1: 10MB/s or higher
• U3: 30MB/s or higher

Basically U1 is equivalent to Class 10, but the card is using UHS-I Bus or UHS-II Bus.

Video Speed Class

When you get into the realm of shooting 4K and 8K videos, you will have to know about “Video Speed Class”.

Video Speed Class is designed for cameras to identify which cards are capable of recording ultra high definition videos like 4K or 8K, or intensive data transfer required by 360 and 3D videos. The number in video speed class indicates the minimum sustained write speed.

• V30: 30MB/s or above
• V60: 60MB/s or above
• V90: 90MB/s or above

For 4K videos you should be looking for at least U3, or better, V30. For 8K videos, V60.

Application Performance Class

The Application Performance class is designed more for mobile and gaming consoles that kind of things, where random write and read speeds are more important.

SD cards with this rating offer more consistent performance while running apps off devices. They have a minimum sustained sequential write speed of 10MB/s, and guarantee “random read and write speeds” that are measured in IOPS (Input/Output Operations Per Second).

• A1: minimum random read speed 1500 IOPS, random write speed 500 IOPS
• A2: minimum random read speed 4000 IOPS, random write speed 2000 IOPS

Calculate Capacity and Speed Requirement

You can estimate roughly how much footage your SD card can store, simply by dividing the total capacity by the bitrate of your camera recording.

Finding Out Bitrate

Bitrate changes when you change camera settings (resolution, frame rate etc), so I am making the assumption that you don’t change settings.

You can find out the bitrate by recording a short sample video, move on to your computer, right click on the file and check properties. Total bitrate is what you want.

In our case, it’s 60163kbps we want.

You want to convert it from kbps (kilo bits per second) to Gbps (giga bits per second) first. You can do this easily with the help from Google, just type “60163 kbps to Gbps” in Google. I am getting 0.060163 Gbps.

Pro Tip: 1 Mbps = 1000 kbps, 1000Mbps = 1Gbps

And don’t forget to divide it by 8 in order to convert it from bits to bytes: 0.060163/8 = 0.00752 GB/s. This is how much date the camera is writing to the SD card every second.

Estimating the Length of Footage

A 32GB SD card can store 32/0.00752 = 4255 seconds, which is 70.9 minutes.

Meeting Speed Requirement

Your SD card has to be fast enough to avoid dropped frames and stuttering.

The speed requirement is the bit rate of the video we discovered earlier. Since SD card speed is measured in MB/s, we have to convert bit rate to the same unit first. Simply type bit rate in google “60163 kbps to Mbps”, then divide the answer by 8.

60163kbps = 60.163Mbps, and 60.163/8 = 7.52 MB/s.

This means that in every second our camera records 7.52 MB of footage, and your SD card should have a minimum sustained write speed of 7.52 MB/s.

To meet this requirement, Class 10, or U1 class should do fine.

SD Card Tips for FPV Pilots

Avoid Unknown Vendor

To avoid getting fake SD cards, don’t buy from unknown vendors. If you are getting it from Amazon or eBay, avoid vendors with few reviews.

Leave Contact Info In SD Card

Create a text file in the SD card, name it “read if found.txt”, and put your contact information in there. If your quadcopter have a “fly-away” and someone finds it, at least there is a possibility that they can contact you and return it.

Formatting

I always format new SD cards inside the camera or DVR I am going to use it with! This ensure the formatting will be compatible.

Getting 64GB Cards or Larger

If you plan to use large capacity cards (64GB or more), make sure your device is SDXC compatible.

Credit

All quoted speed numbers are from wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SD_card

Edit History

• Mar 2019 – Article created
• Mar 2020 – Added recommendations for DJI FPV system
• Dec 2022 – Updated product links