SanDisk's latest Outdoors SDXC cards are the toughest SD cards we've even seen

(Image credit: Western Digital)

SanDisk has released a new line of rugged SD cards: SanDisk Outdoors. Designed for all-weather photography and any scenario where you might encounter extreme conditions, Outdoors cards boast the most rugged toughness credentials we've ever seen from an SD card.

Plenty of SD cards claim to be 'tough', and some are advertised as water resistant, but SanDisk Outdoors cards go well beyond this. They're built to be waterproof to a depth of 1 metre for 72 hours (that's in both fresh and salt water), and they have a huge operating temperature range of -25°C (-13°F) to 85°C (185°F). SanDisk also states Outdoors cards can withstand up to 500G of shock, a drop from up to 16.4 feet, up to 95% relative humidity, magnetic fields, and X-rays. Lastly, to make them more easily visible in low light, all Outdoors cards are housed in an easy-to-find 'Hunter Blaze Orange' enclosure.

SanDisk Outdoors cards come in three speed variants: HD, FHD and 4K. The base-spec HD card is designed for use in trail cams, spotting scope cameras, bow- or gun-mounted POV cameras, marine plotters and GPS mapping devices. No read/write speeds are given, only that the card is designed to be fast enough to record HD (1280 x 720) video. We can therefore assume this won't be particularly quick, but it should at least be tough. 32GB is the only capacity option available and, strangely, HD cards cannot be purchased individually, rather only in a pack of two or four cards, costing $24.99 and $43.99, respectively.

The mid-range Outdoors card is the FHD variant. This time SanDisk does advertise the cards' read speed, although write speed is still unknown. The maximum read speed also varies significantly depending on which card capacity you choose. For the 32GB and 64GB cards its 100MB/s. Step up to the 128GB capacity and max read speed increases to 150MB/s, while the 256GB and 512GB cards are capable of up to 160MB/s. FHD cards can be purchased individually, on in a two- or four-pack bundle. A single 32GB card is priced at $12.99, while a mid-range 128GB capacity single card costs $29.99. The top 512GB capacity comes in at $74.99.

SanDisk's Outdoors 4K cards are the fastest in the Outdoors line-up. Again, read/write speeds are dependent on the capacity you opt for, but even the lowest capacity (64GB) Outdoors 4K card is quicker than any FHD card, boasting 170MB/s read and 80MB/s write speeds. The 128GB 4K card will give you 190MB/s read and 90MB/s write rates, while the 256GB and 512GB cards offer the fastest 190MB/s / 130MB/s performance - impressive stuff from what is still just a UHS-I SDXC card.

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Ben is the Imaging Labs manager, responsible for all the testing on Digital Camera World and across the entire photography portfolio at Future. Whether he's in the lab testing the sharpness of new lenses, the resolution of the latest image sensors, the zoom range of monster bridge cameras or even the latest camera phones, Ben is our go-to guy for technical insight. He's also the team's man-at-arms when it comes to camera bags, filters, memory cards, and all manner of camera accessories – his lab is a bit like the Batcave of photography! With years of experience trialling and testing kit, he's a human encyclopedia of benchmarks when it comes to recommending the best buys.

SanDisk's latest Outdoors SDXC cards are the toughest SD cards we've even seen

Outdoors HD

Outdoors FHD

Outdoors 4K

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