Welcome to our Lexar Silver Plus 256GB MicroSD card review.
We at Droneblog have used and reviewed many, if not most, DJI’s over the years recommended cards. From SanDisk to Samsung to Lexar, we thoroughly test key features such as read/write speed, total data capacity, durability and value for money.
When you’re out in the field, whether you’re shooting for fun or for paying clients, the last thing you want is to get home and find that the SD card in your drone won’t store your media, or the media does, but it’s corrupted and completely unrecoverable.
While data corruption can and does occur for a variety of reasons, including the current outdoor conditions when filming, the Lexar Silver Plus 256GB MicroSD card has proven to be addictive.
The Lexar Silver Plus 256GB microSD card is a quality card that minimizes the possibility of data corruption and performs consistently in the way and speed needed to capture the moments you envision.
Who is the Lexar Silver Plus MicroSD card for?
Like many other MicroSD card manufacturers, Lexar has SD cards for everyone and every budget.
The Lexar Silver Series sits between their entry-level Blue Series and the high-performance Lexar Gold Series.
The Lexar Silver range of SD cards is aimed at those who take their videography seriously and are interested in capturing the 4K Ultra HD footage produced by most high-end and professional drones.
For SanDisk fans and those on a tight budget, the Lexar Silver Plus is slightly cheaper than SanDisk Extreme Pro cards of similar capacities.
Cases for MicroSD card Lexar Silver Plus 256GB
This year, our company recently embarked on a project for a large Florida residential land development company.
The Lexar Silver Plus 256GB microSD card was the perfect card for one of the Mavic 3 Pros that was used for the construction project.
While the Lexar Silver Plus 256GB MicroSD card is a great choice for drones, it can be used in many other devices outside of drones.
These devices include:
- action cameras
- handheld game console
- mobile phones and tablets
- dash cameras and basically anything that can be recorded to an SD card
Similarly, in addition to just using the Lexar Silver Plus 256GB MicroSD card in the Mavic 3 Pro, we also used it in an emergency with one of our ground cameras. It worked flawlessly on both our drone and the Sony camera.
Personal opinions on the Lexar Silver Plus 256GB MicroSD card
There are two things I consider when looking for SD cards, the size of the card (storage capacity in GB) a read/write speeds.
When it comes to card size, I generally stay between 128GB and 256GB. That’s a safe margin in my case when buying and collecting cards for any of the current or future Autel and DJI drones we own or plan to own.
The Lexar Silver Plus 256GB MicroSD card is the perfect size for the type of drone work my company primarily focuses on; Real estate and construction.
Storage capacity
How much media does 256GB actually store, minus the tech?
Below is a comparison chart of the most used and popular SD card sizes. This can help in determining the correct card size for your drone.
This chart is based on the DJI Air 3 and DJI Mini 4 Pro’s maximum resolution of 48MP photos at 98MB/photo, rounded to equal 100MB, and the 12MP option at 25MB/photo.
Examples of saving photos
| Card size (GB) | 48MP 100MB photo | Photos 12MP 25MB |
|---|---|---|
| 32 | 320 | 1280 |
| 64 | 640 | 2048 |
| 128 | 1280 | 5120 |
| 256 | 2560 | 10240 |
| 512 | 5120 | 20480 |
Below is a comparison chart of how much storage space is used when shooting different lengths of 4k 60fps video.
Examples of video storage
| Video length | Size at 4K/60 FPS – 150 Mbps |
|---|---|
| 60 seconds | 1.09GB |
| 5 minutes | 5.45 GB |
| 10 minutes | 10.9GB |
| 30 minutes | 32.7 GB |
| 1 hour | 65.4GB |
| 5 hours | 327 GB |
| 8 hours | 523.2 GB |
Read/write speeds
I mentioned that another very important aspect of choosing the right card is read/write speed.
The front of the Lexar Silver Plus 256GB MicroSD card features an image of a U3 with a bucket badge. This is a UHS (Ultra High Speed) class of card. A V30 is also on the cards. This is the video speed class.
UHS Speed Class 3 has a minimum of 30MB/write speed. The Lexar Silver Plus 256GB MicroSD Card has a maximum Write speed 150 MB/s1. This number and speed is significant because U3 is the only speed class that can write at the speed required for 4K video.
Even if you don’t plan on shooting 4k+ video, the write speeds to the SD card were beneficial when I was doing 3-5 shots of AEB (auto exposure bracketing) for real estate work. Images were written to the card very quickly, without the lags I’ve experienced in the past with slower cards.
I would like to mention the read speeds of the Lexar Silver Plus 256GB MicroSD card, which are a maximum of 205 MB/s1.
Since I personally do a huge amount of photo and video editing, these speeds ensure that I can quickly transfer files from the Lexar Silver Plus 256GB MicroSD card to my Mac, speeding up my workflow.
More thoughts
What I really appreciate about the Lexar Silver Plus 256GB MicroSD card is that, like the Samsung Evo Select series, it is very durable.
Using drones requires outdoor work, work that can often be a bit demanding coarse, to put it mildly.
The Lexar Silver Plus 256GB MicroSD card is a tough little card in many areas:
- IPX7 waterproof
- wear resistant
- drop resistant
- temperature resistant
- resistant to X-rays
- impact resistant
- magnetically resistant
- vibration resistant
All this protection is packed into a very reasonable package that costs less than many of the popular SD cards currently on offer, ones I’ve bought regularly.
To say my company is addicted to the Lexar Silver Plus 256GB MicroSD card is an understatement. We rely entirely on the card for more durable shoots and plan to get more for our entire fleet over time.