I finally pulled the trigger on the Canon R6 Mark II and I am so stoked to use it for this birding workshop in Florida next month! Been looking at cards and I'm kinda overwhelmed. I saw the SanDisk Extreme Pro is the go-to but then I read some threads saying the ProGrade Cobalt V90 is way faster for clearing the buffer when you're hitting that 40fps electronic shutter.
My budget is around $200 for cards right now. Is it actually worth the massive price jump for V90 cards for wildlife or can I get away with V60? I dont want to miss a shot because my camera is still writing to the card... what are you guys actually using?
Congrats on the R6 Mark II! You are gonna absolutely love that 40fps burst for birds in flight. Honestly, it is a game changer for getting that perfect wing position! Since you are hitting those crazy high speeds, the card speed really does matter more than you think. If you go with a V60 card, you will definitely feel the camera chugging while it tries to empty that buffer after a long burst. Its super frustrating to see a cool behavior happening while your red access light is just blinking away... Basically, V90 cards guarantee a minimum sustained write speed of 90MB/s, which is vital when you are dumping 40 RAW files a second into the buffer. While the R6II has a decent internal buffer, it fills in just a couple seconds at max speed. A V60 card only guarantees 60MB/s, so that extra 30MB/s headroom with V90 actually makes a massive difference in how quickly you can start shooting again. If you want the best performance without spending your entire $200 on a single card, you should check out the Kingston Canvas React Plus 128GB UHS-II V90. It is fantastic because it gives you that V90 speed for way less than the ProGrade Digital SDXC UHS-II V90 Cobalt series. I have used the Kingstons for a while now and they are amazing for wildlife. If you really want to stick with the big names, the SanDisk Extreme Pro 128GB UHS-II V90 is solid too. Ngl, you wont regret having the fastest write speed possible once those birds start moving!