SD Card for a Zoom Q8?

[gmel555]

Hi Folks: I've had a Zoom Q8 sitting on the shelf for 6 months and have decided to do something "productive" while we "shelter in place". I hope to make a few videos of individual songs, just me on guitar and singing. I'll experiment a bit on how to get the best audio (I've got a few different audio "signal paths" in mind), but I have no idea what I need in an SD card for the Q8, capacity and speed wise. I'd hope to be able to get two or three, 3-4 minute songs on one card before downloading to laptop and erasing the card. Again content will be video/audio of live performances of one player (me) with acoustic guitar and singing. I'm hoping to use the highest audio/video quality settings I can on the Q8.

Suggestions please on SD Card specs I should look for? Stay well everyone.

[keith.rogers]

Old link but should give some manufacturer names to work with.

https://www.zoom.co.jp/sites/default...ed_cards_E.pdf
(I've used Sandisk Extreme and Extreme Pro both for HD video and they are fine.)

I'd record full HD (1080p) and 48kHz/24-bit WAV for best quality. 32GB should be plenty, and you could probably get by with 16GB if you really plan to empty each time. Cards are cheap - get 2.

But, I know I can have several fits and starts and toss away the first couple takes after getting 1/2, 2/3, 3/4 of the way done. It's nice to have the capacity to not have to monkey with the camera menu to delete takes when you've got everything set up and aimed, i.e., with a big enough card, you just keep recording.

[gmel555]

Thanks. Good advice on having a large enough card to allow for a few takes without resetting everything.👍

[Rudy4]

Originally Posted by gmel555

Hi Folks: I've had a Zoom Q8 sitting on the shelf for 6 months and have decided to do something "productive" while we "shelter in place". I hope to make a few videos of individual songs, just me on guitar and singing. I'll experiment a bit on how to get the best audio (I've got a few different audio "signal paths" in mind), but I have no idea what I need in an SD card for the Q8, capacity and speed wise. I'd hope to be able to get two or three, 3-4 minute songs on one card before downloading to laptop and erasing the card. Again content will be video/audio of live performances of one player (me) with acoustic guitar and singing. I'm hoping to use the highest audio/video quality settings I can on the Q8.

Suggestions please on SD Card specs I should look for? Stay well everyone.

I have a Zoom R24 and have recorded several projects for bands where they did 15 to 20 songs using 8 to 12 tracks and a 32 gig card has been adequate. I've stuck to "name brand" cards and never had a compatibility problem.

If you need more info to help you decide on a final format there's tons of websites that explain things in an easy to digest manner. Here's an example:

https://www.headphonesty.com/2019/07...epth-bit-rate/

You can also use one of the file size calculators to find what size you need:

https://www.sounddevices.com/audio-r...ng-calculator/

Memory is cheap and you'll find you won't go through all that much for a simple project such as you're proposing.

Edit: I posted relating to audio projects (before re-reading your post to see you're actually inquiring about video), so there should be similar information for video projects out there. I'm interested in pursuing something along those lines so I'll watch to see what "video knowledgeable" folks reply.

[gmel555]

Thanks for the links Rudy. Yep, I need to catch up on previous posts. I'll search "Video Projects". I've been doing "audio only" for years but never video. Stay well

[phcorrigan]

One comment on SD and MicroSD cards in general. Be careful where you buy them.

In my experience, the brand is not that important (the major vendors buy from and sell to others), but the source can be.

Why? Because counterfeit cards are all too common. A counterfeit card has a controller that will report a greater capacity than the card actually stores. You think you're saving 32GB of audio, video, photos, etc., but the card is actually storing only, say, 4GB or 8GB.

They can be sold under any brand name, so sticking with a major brand may not matter if you don't buy from a reputable source. Counterfeit cards have been sold through eBay, Amazon, and others. Buy from a vendor you trust. B&H, Office Depot, Costco, etc.

BTW there are programs for Windows and MacOS to check cards for this.

Be careful out there!

[keith.rogers]

Originally Posted by phcorrigan

One comment on SD and MicroSD cards in general. Be careful where you buy them.

In my experience, the brand is not that important (the major vendors buy from and sell to others), but the source can be.

Why? Because counterfeit cards are all too common. ...

Good advice. I tend to use B&H, though have just gone to Best Buy or Target in a pinch.

Also, I would not recommend microSD cards in an adapter. They are supposed to work, but it just adds another set of connectors, and I had problems the one time I tried one, so never did it again. I have heard of others reporting issues, though if you've got one already and it works, that's probably the normal experience.

From a size perspective, I don't look at the size on the SD card because it gets imported into my video program, but a rendered 1080 video file is probably a 100MB/min, plus or minus (vague guess). I render to 720 a lot, but that's often because of cropping of the original 1080 recording. Non-lossy audio will probably be about 8MB/min - again, vague memory because I'm too lazy to walk upstairs. Short story, you'd get a lot of takes even on 16GB. I use 64GB in my camcorders and record hours at a clip with those.

But, shop around, because as memory demands have gone up, the sweet spot in pricing tends to move with the most volume, at least in $/GB terms. (Of course, with the main manufacturing being done in Asia, I have no idea what that's doing to supplies right now.)

[ManyMartinMan]

Zoom specs state this for the Q8 -128GB SDXC

[phcorrigan]

Originally Posted by keith.rogers

Good advice. I tend to use B&H, though have just gone to Best Buy or Target in a pinch.

Best Buy and Target buy directly from the manufacturers, I'm sure, so they should be good sources. Walmart stores should be fine, but online Walmart is trying to be like Amazon, so multiple small vendors sell through their online store. That could be the same issue as buying through eBay or Amazon.

[gmel555]

Thanks for all replies. BTW, I really did look thru Manual for this answer and only saw a reference to SD card speeds, not the capacity. There was a note to look further online at https://www.zoom.co.jp/ . Eventually I found this table, which I found somewhat confusing and not necessarily from "real-life" experience.

[phcorrigan]

Originally Posted by gmel555

Thanks for all replies. BTW, I really did look thru Manual for this answer and only saw a reference to SD card speeds, not the capacity. Eventually I found this table, which I found somewhat confusing and not necessarily from "real-life" experience.

Basically, it's telling you that you should use cards rated UHS-1 Class 10 or better. Class 10 gives you a write speed of at least 10MB/sec., which is the critical factor. As far as I know, the largest video you can record is 4GB, since this is a file system limitation.

32GB, 64GB, and 128GB SD cards are reasonably inexpensive ($7-10 for 32GB, $15-20 for 64GB, $30-40 for 128GB, major brands), so the minimum I would use would be 32GB UHS-1 Class 10.

[gmel555]

Yep Patrick, thanks. I learned about card speed with my still photography stuff when shooting bursts of big files in RAW. Now I'm onto playing around with the audio signal paths and then post recording processing (which I expect to be at a minimum). I'm 65, trying to keep my mind active and flexible learning new things. Again to all, thank you for you replies and everyone stay safe and healthy. Now that I've started on these recording endeavors perhaps I'll be a bit more active in this area of the AGF.