SD card 5.0 protocol supports up to 8K video recording but risks confusion

This is all hot air for nothing.

If you are making 4k or 8k video professionally or as an enthusiast, then um.... surely you need to be tech savvy enough to know something about the stuff you are using to make it, no?

The "other" category (general consumers) are usually just too plain lazy to bother reading whatever about anything anyway so no matter what you mark on your card or your device, human stupidity and tech-ignorance will prevail and confuse the poor little blighters anyway.

If you can't be arsed to rtfm (and this really is a small m to read up about) then you deserve to be confused. And that confusion is usually because of your own ignorance.

1. It's more complicated than that (sorry); when you consider the right one for your camera; while that may be fine enough (old camera) then there's transfer or read speeds to your computer (for those of us that skip wireless and simply put the card into their computer). Many do not know the card reader quality is a major speed metric. You want a fast card reader too.

2. Size may not be as important to you; because you might prefer two 32GB cards instead of one 64GB; for example. Slow speed is little bits of your life gone forever. Do those backups (of culled Raw).

3. You have to know Sony. Who is currently trying to make less bad combos. Just at bad prices. Search "Sony rootkit". Plus, did you forget Sony's non-standard cards? How are all these new "SD..." card requirements a standard? They are not.

Time to phase out the C-speed classes. They're a throw-back to 10 years ago. Similarly, why do SDHC cards still exist? Ditch them too.

Then we just have SDXC and V-speed ratings.

UHS-I or UHS-2, the bus speed, can be implicit in the V-speed rating, i.e. a future V120 would have to be UHS-2 (no point being 120MB/s write speed over a 100MB/s bus speed, right?). Sure you could have a V60 card using UHS-2, but who cares? Not worth disclosing in anything but the small print.

Now, you could say we still need SDHC and C-speed ratings for people buying cards for older devices?

Meh, I say. Meh!

People rarely go out and buy another card after 10 years. They are an edge case. Sure, sell them the card, but we dont have to design a new naming convention that makes their life easier - Design for the 90% not the 10%.

They'll need to make the cards bigger now, to fit all the specs on... or the manufacturers could just leave off the best-case read performance numbers they love... nah, not going to happen...

Apple figured out the solution to such "problems" long ago...

nothing confusing here, you state a protocol, the media and device need to support that to work full function, isn't that apparent and straight forward. Want a mess, take a look at DIY PC building and what they have

I love this preparation for 8k. It means they're taking things seriously over SD shop, not wanting to be overthrown by some other card format. Means we get to stay small with SD cards, and not need anything else. Very good news to consumers since many manufacturers produce SD.

I'm not confused. Why is the writer of this article acting so negative? Sun not come out much in your parts?

Better idea. When you buy a device, you get at least card that assured to handle the highest "load" that camera can perform/sustain.

"And, no doubt, card makers will complicate matters still further by quoting maximum read and write speeds, which do nothing to tell you whether a card will be fit for purpose (or any faster in real-world use)."
Well said DPR. I think its time to have somebody who is competent and powerful to step right in to condemn and regulate this kind of malpractice and stop cheating us the consumers.

I don't think that any 16GB or 32GB card can really support 8K :). I mean, 30sec on 16GB, 60sec on 32GB ... ? Pointless.
Maybe they should start producing 2TB cards first and then worry about speed.

It's not that confusing. The card will probably have for instance both the U1 and V3 markings. If your camera knows the "V technology", you get 30 MBps. If not, you only get the standard U1 10 MBps.

The dilemma here is that the standard is so wide, that a card have different speeds with different usages AND that there are no simple relation between these. So a simple number wont do it.

It is a classic dilemma of mapping a multidimensional space into something simple. Just the same way we can not get a simple number that describes how 'good' a lens or a camera is.

What they COULD have done, were to require all cards with UHS I or higher were of "Class 10", and similar they COULD have required that a V setting implied a Class AND a UHS class - but a little late now, as it is likely that there exist a "UHS I" card of "class 6" or other odd combinations

What is confusing here? Card speed is rated for specific bus and camera has to support this bus for full speed. Camera makers state what bus is supported.

Same thing with Compact Flash. In addition to ###x speed rating there is UDMA mode that is needed for given speed.

Actually, the same thing happens with all storage. SSDs have speed specs too. But, you need SATA III port in order to achieve speed > 270MB/s. Speed will be slower with SATA II.
DVD recordables have speed rating, but you have to have burner supporting required speed.

Nothing new here.

Why not just extrapolate the UHS system to U6 and U9? I can't wait until I can buy a card that's Class 10/U3/V30...

Now if Sony will just support write speeds faster than 30MB/s...

UHS is where they really screwed up, beside the "bus" rating, there's also speed class. Just ask anyone what the difference is between UHS-II and UHS Speed Class 3.

At least the new V rating reflect the minimum speed in MB/s now. I hope they stick to the V rating system for a while.

Your right speed ratings are a joke. And then camera makers don't help any by NOT suggesting specific cards that will work with their cameras. When you buy a PC motherboard--usually the maker of the board will list VERY SPECIFIC memory and graphic cards that works with their motherboard. But does the camera industry do anything of that sort? No!