Best Memory Cards For Sony A7rII

In-camera speed comparison of the most popular UHS-I and UHS-II SD memory cards on the Sony A7rII.

What have I learned?  Speed doesn’t matter as much as the little letters and numbers written on the card.

The new Sony cameras are loaded with features, and many of them require specific types of cards to do what you need. This guide will cover the basics and list some recommended SD cards I’ve tested and found to work great.

 

Camera Stats

Sensor: 42.4MP Full-Frame Exmor R BSI CMOS Sensor Processor: BIONZ X Image Processor Memory Card Interface: UHS-I Video Resolution: 4K at 30fps 100M with S-Log Gamma Continuous Shoot: 5fps Buffer Size: 900MB Shots to fill buffer (Uncompressed RAW): 23Time taken to clear buffer: 23 seconds (Sandisk Extreme Pro)

 

Sony Lenses For The A7rII

Sony A7r II Memory Card Speed Tests

New firmware 3.20 now allows us to use SDHC memory cards with the XAVC S codec. I’ve tested and confirmed that this does work, although the camera still has issues with compatible cards registering as not being compatible, making buying memory cards for 4k 100M still a crapshoot – more on this later.

 

SD Memory Card Speed Test Chart

Shot with ISO 640, continuous high, 1/100sec f2.8.

SD Memory Cards	USB 3.0 Read	USB 3.0 Write	4K Video 100M	Sony A7r II Write
UHS-II  SDHC
Lexar 32GB 2000x UHS-II	280.9 MB/s	181.4 MB/s	No	35.27 MB/s
Delkin 32GB UHS-II	245.1 MB/s	164.6 MB/s	No	35.05 MB/s
Sandisk Extreme Pro 32GB UHS-II	257.3 MB/s	109.9 MB/s	Yes	34.28 MB/s
Lexar 32GB 1000x UHS-II	145.0 MB/s	60.7 MB/s	Yes	34.28 MB/s
UHS-I SDXC
Sandisk Extreme Pro 64GB U3	89.0 MB/s	84.7 MB/s	Yes	34.76 MB/s
Sandisk Extreme 64GB U3	71.3 MB/s	52.1 MB/s	Yes	34.47 MB/s
Sandisk Extreme Plus 64GB U3	88.9 MB/s	62.0 MB/s	Yes	34.46 MB/s
Kingston 64GB Class U3	88.1 MB/s	74.3 MB/s	Yes	33.76 MB/s
Samsung Pro 64GB Class U1	86.8 MB/s	77.2 MB/s	No	33.72 MB/s
PNY 64GB U1	86.1 MB/s	54.5 MB/s	No	33.61 MB/s
PNY 64GB U3	87.9 MB/s	61.6 MB/s	Sometimes	33.59 MB/s
Lexar 600x 64GB U1	85.6 MB/s	60.1 MB/s	No	33.30 MB/s
Sony 64GB U3	87.2 MB/s	71.9 MB/s	Yes	32.84 MB/s
Transcend 64GB U3	87.7 MB/s	64.1 MB/s	Yes	31.95 MB/s
Samsung 64GB EVO U1	43.9 MB/s	22.7 MB/s	No	21.87 MB/s

 

Speed Chart Overview

Some UHS-II cards do perform quicker in the camera, but only marginally. But this is because the camera does not have a UHS-II bus.

I’m really disappointed at how slow Sony still is at memory card write speeds. Other mirrorless cameras like the Fujifilm XT1 are almost three times faster, and the Canon 5Ds R is significantly faster than that with its CF cards. Sony is WAY behind the competition on this one.

 

Why So Slow?

I’ve been trying to figure this out for over a year now. Like always, some guys in the comments came forward with some interesting ideas that I’ve tested and can confirm are valid.

All these Sony cameras to date only use the UDMA 4 interface. When I test SD cards in a USB 2.0 slot on a Mac, I get read and write speeds that cap out at around 30 MB/s.

Comment from AlphaDog –

“This is an absolute minefield of conflicting/overlapping terminology mixed with unpublished specs and hard to directly measure values. My understanding is that ‘U3’ is a guaranteed minimum write speed of 30MB/s. This can be supported on both UHS-i and UHS-ii cards. in fact UHS-I cards support several different interface protocols (SRS50/DDR50, which both support up to 50MB/sec; and SDR104 at 104MB/sec). U3 the uses some specific API calls over this transport to tell the card that it really really needs this minimum 30MB speed (eg for 4K vid). So the Sony could (and almost certainly does) use the UHS-I interface (not UHs-ii), and probably only uses one of the 50MB/sec max protocols (not the 104MB one).”

So while Sony is kicking ass innovating so many new features and technologies. They’ve left out one of the most basic features in their camera, one that really hurts write speed performance. USB3.0.

 

Recommended SD Memory Cards For The Sony A7rII

Based on the tests, the Sandisk Extreme Pro is the way to go for UHS-I cards. But if you’re concerned about price, the PNY and Sony cards are fantastic.

It might be best to order from Amazon just because they have the easiest-to-use return system.

UHS-I

Sandisk Extreme Pro 64GB SDXC U3 UHS-I – Amazon

Lexar 633x 64GB SDXC U3 UHS-I – Amazon. I haven’t done the speed test in this camera yet, but this card has been working great in other Sony cameras.

Sony 64GB SDXC U3 UHS-I – Amazon

I had to remove the PNY 64GB U3 card because I keep getting emails from people having problems with it. I can no longer recommend it.

 

UHS-II is it worth it to you?

It might be; if USB 3.0 transfer speeds are important to you, then try UHS-II, since in the camera they perform about the same. Unfortunately, I only have SDHC UHS-II cards, so I’m not entirely sure how the camera clocks them down. If they clock down to U1, how will it change the video?

 

SD Memory Cards Not To Buy

If you’re looking at the list and thinking you want to buy your favorite brand hoping it will work fine. You’re taking a risk. Here is a list of cards I’ve had people personally email/comment about not working with 4k 100M. Now the crazy thing is, all these cards work perfectly fine for my camera at 4k 100M. Except for the Samsung, I have them on order. I’m now wondering if it’s an issue with the camera or the cards.

PNY 64GB U3

PNY 64GB U1

Samsung 64GB U3 Pro

Samsung 64GB U3 Pro+

Lexar 64GB UHS-II 2000x U3

 

SD Memory Cards For Video On The Sony A7r II

You need to use SDXC (update: firmware 3.20 supports SDHC) U3 memory cards to shoot the best video on the Sony A7r II.

A U1 card should let you shoot XAVC S HD, or even XAVC S 4K 60M but not 100M.

Video is a bit more bandwidth-intensive than photography, since buffers fill up very quickly.

There are a few different codecs you can shoot on the Sony A7r II, and I recommend sticking with XAVC S 4k or XAVC HD.

 

Here is list of codecs you can shoot in and the type of SD card that is recommended for each.

XAVC S 4k 100M – UHS-I SDXC or SDHC  U3

XAVC S 4K 60M – UHS-I SDXC or SDHC U1

XAVC S HD – UHS-I SDXC  or SDHC U1 or U3

AVCHD – UHS-I SDHC U1 or better

MP4 – UHS-I SDHC U1 or better

 

Since I own just about every SD memory card, I’ve already been playing around with a few and have discovered some interesting things.

In XAVC S 4K, I was using a Samsung 64GB SDXC EVO U1 card, but the camera said I needed a U3 card and wouldn’t let me record. Now I know this card should be fast enough to support 100 MB/s recording (12 MB/s), but the camera won’t support it.

I then switched to a PNY 64GB SDXC U3 card, and everything was fine – 100 MB/s recording with XAVC S 4 K. Then I switched back to my Samsung U1 card, and it now let me record video on that card even though it was only a U1 card. Once I reformatted that card, it would no longer let me shoot video, and I would get the same notice again that I need to use a U3 card. I know most of my U1 cards are fast enough, and this is kind of annoying, but whatever, U3 cards it is.

Also, it seems to show different error messages when using U1 cards, and sometimes they work fine. A reader also just emailed me to say they purchased a U3 PNY card, but the camera wouldn’t let them use it for video.

It seems the Sony A7rII already needs a firmware update.

 

Best SD Memory Card For The Sony A7rII Conclusions

The best-performing card is the Lexar 2000x, but by a fraction. I would say UHS-II cards aren’t a bad idea for transferring data from cards to your computer, but you won’t see a real benefit in the camera.

I hope this was helpful to you; I learned a lot from doing this, and I hope it saves you some trouble. Buying anything after clicking through those Amazon links (even baby diapers) earns me a few bucks from the sale. This allows me to rent or buy cameras like this to test out. So if you want to help me help you, click through any of those Amazon links for your next purchase.

I’ve also built a memory card guide for the Sony A7sII.