Review: Kingston Canvas SD cards galore

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I’m a big fan of Kingston memory for my photography and other storage needs, so when I found out they were coming out with even faster SD cards in the Canvas range, I jumped at the chance to review them.

While I’ve had many SD cards die on me on particularly bandwidth-intensive tasks such as burst-shooting in 4K, Kingston has never done me dirty. Now that I’ve got a Fujifilm X-T3 with two SD card slots, I’ve taken to using two at all times, with both slots recording the same data. That should reduce the occurrence of full data loss, keeping me (and any clients) a happy camper.

The new cards come in three-speed tiers:

• Canvas Select Plus: This is the consumer tier, with speeds of 100MB/s Read 85MB/s Write, aimed at point and shoot camera users or other consumer devices
• Canvas Go! Plus: The enthusiast tier brings speeds of up to 170MB/s Read, 90MB/s Write, aimed at 4K video shooting and burst-mode photography
• Canvas React Plus: The professional tier turns it up a notch or two, with speeds of 300MB/s Read, 260MB/s Write, aimed at 4K or 8K video production, DSLR, Cinema and Mirrorless camera users. They also come with a free card reader, so you can transfer to your computer at the rated speeds

Image: Joe Rice-Jones / KnowTechie

Okay, but those are just theoretical max speeds, no? Well, you’d be surprised – Kingston sent over both the SDcard and microSD versions of each tier, so let’s see how they fare in CrystalDiskMark (all from the Seq Q32T1 section):

Canvas Select Plus:

• SDcard – 98.78 MB/s read, 90.60 MB/s write
• microSD – 96.69 MB/s read, 21.08 MB/s write

Canvas Go! Plus:

• SDcard – 186 MB/s read, 132.8 MB/s write
• microSD – 186 MB/s read, 132.9 MB/s write

Canvas React Plus:

• SDcard – 307.7 MB/s read, 272.2 MB/s write
• microSD – 292.4 MB/s read, 247./0 MB/s write

Some pretty impressive speeds, especially when you realize that some of those cards outperformed their marketing speeds. It’s not every day that you get more than you paid for, isn’t it?

So, should I buy it?

If you’re in the market for more SD card storage, definitely check out the latest from Kingston. You don’t need to get the Canvas React Plus unless, of course, you’re filming in 4K on more than an occasional basis, then it’s the one to get. All of the cards tested performed to expectations, with some slowdowns on the write speeds of the microSD versions that may be due to heat issues as the card reader was getting slightly toasty.

I’d just like to reiterate that I’ve never had a Kingston SD card die on me to date. That’s got to count for something in the race for ever-cheaper storage and diminishing returns on specifications and objective testing.

Have any thoughts on this? Do you have any experience with Kingston SD cards? Let us know down below in the comments or carry the discussion over to our Twitter or Facebook.

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Just a heads up, if you buy something through our links, we may get a small share of the sale. It’s one of the ways we keep the lights on here. Click here for more. A sample unit was provided for the purpose of this review.

Joe Rice-Jones

Maker, meme-r, and unabashed geek with nearly half a decade of blogging experience at KnowTechie, SlashGear and XDA Developers. If it runs on electricity (or even if it doesn't), Joe probably has one around his office somewhere, with particular focus in gadgetry and handheld gaming. Shoot him an email at joe@knowtechie.com.