Memory Cards 101: How to Choose the Right One (and Avoid Pain Later)

Power is usually within our control: either we make sure the battery is charged, equip ourselves with spare batteries, or—best of all—ensure we have the option of external power. Here are a few options:

• a fully charged battery,

• spare batteries,

• a charger with a built-in power bank,

• external power (as long as we don’t need to maintain the camera’s waterproofing during recording), e.g., a power bank or a selfie stick with a built-in power bank.

We can also extend battery life by optimizing which camera features are turned on or off. I’ll cover this in a separate blog post.

What about the card?

The memory card is often the most underrated part of your setup. Let me use an analogy from the automotive/motorsport world. The card in your camera is like the tire on a car. If you drive a city car and mostly around town, you don’t expect much from the tires. But if you’re in a high-performance car or on a sport bike, the tire is the key component that translates your machine’s potential into results on the track. So if you’re behind the wheel of a track-focused sports car or riding a sport motorcycle, you don’t buy economy tires—they’ll overheat, won’t provide the necessary grip, etc. It’s the same with a memory card in an action camera. Very much the same.

You can buy the cheapest card that (according to the manufacturer’s claims) meets the minimum requirements. But—just like with tires—you won’t get the best results. What does that mean? On the track: you’ll run wide or off the course; in your footage: you’ll lose part—or even all—of the recording.

Why does this happen?

These days, the memory card market is flooded with counterfeits—quite literally drowning in them. Working in this space, we have deep knowledge and experience with the issue. Even global retail chains haven’t been immune. That’s why, since 2021, we’ve worked exclusively and directly with the best memory-card suppliers, collecting stock only from Lexar’s and SanDisk’s central warehouses in Europe. We don’t use any intermediaries, not even official or authorized ones, which means you’re guaranteed to get a card straight from the manufacturer.

Why is the card so important?

For example, a modern camera like the Insta360 X4 generates about 1.5 GB of footage per minute. That’s roughly twice as much as the Insta360 X3 (about 750 MB/min). These figures give you a ballpark for the capacity you’ll need—just multiply by the amount of recording time you want before offloading to your phone, computer, or tablet.

Okay. You now know what capacity to choose. But think about this—what happens if your footage (your data) gets corrupted due to card errors? You’ll lose part—or even all—of what you shot. That’s the tire analogy again: you’ve nailed the racing line, braking point, apex, and exit speed… but the tires lose grip and you run off the track.

The same thing happens when your card fails. Maybe you’ll recover the data, maybe only some of it. All too often, nothing can be recovered—or the recovery cost is astronomical. And even recovered files may be partially damaged.

What if every lap on the track could be driven just as safely—every time?

And what if every recording from your camera were saved just as safely?

A car tire gives you grip on a surface about the size of a postcard. On a motorcycle, it’s much, much less. That’s why you choose tires that match your expectations—temperature range, resistance to aquaplaning, and so on. With a camera, the expectations for a memory card are just as strict: in many cases you won’t get a second take. So either the shot works the first (and only) time, or you lose it for good. In both cases—choosing tires and choosing a card—the decision is yours… and yours alone.

If your footage matters—especially if it matters a lot—choose a proven, reliable solution. The memory cards we offer aren’t the cheapest—you’ll find lower prices on popular auction sites. But with us you have the certainty that the card won’t let you down. Ask yourself whether the risk of losing your best, most valuable, one-of-a-kind shots—footage that can’t be recreated—is worth the savings of buying from an uncertain source. We’ve worked hard to make our pricing competitive, but we’ll never beat sellers who are not_entirely_honest, which is why our cards aren’t the cheapest on the market. They are, however, 100% dependable.

Decide for yourself whether you want to entrust your footage to safe or uncertain hands.

If you’d rather not overthink it, choose the following cards:

We recommend this order, based on years of hands-on experience with memory cards.