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A memory card speed comparison between all the most popular cards in-camera to find the best memory cards for the Nikon D7200.
Nikon D7200 Speed Tests
For the D7200 write speeds; three tests buffer are performed and the average is calculated. Here is a chart that illustrates how each card performs in-camera.
Best Memory Cards Nikon D7200
The top-performing UHS-I memory cards that are still around today are the Kingston and Sandisk Cards. You won’t need UHS-II memory cards for this camera, so stick with these UHS-I memory cards.
Here are the two cards I recommend for the Nikon D7200.
SanDisk Extreme Pro UHS-I 128GB SD Card
The Sandisk Extreme Pro UHS-I SDXC Memory Card at 128GB is rated with a 90MB/s write speed. The 256GB and larger cards are rated at 140MB/s.
Rated Write Speed: 90MB/s
Rated Read Speed: 200MB/s
Rated Sustain: 30MB/s
Kingston Canvas Go! Plus UHS-I 128GB SD Card
Kingston CanvasGo! Plus SDXC UHS-I SD cards 128GB or higher have a rated write speed of 90MB/s and a rated read speed of 170MB/s.
Rated Write Speed: 90MB/s
Rated Read Speed: 170MB/s
Rated Sustain: 30MB/s
Camera Specs
Sensor: 24.2 MP / No OLP
Processor: EXPEED 4 Image Processor
Continuous: 6fps
Video: 1080p60
The Difference Between SDHC and SDXC
When you see SDHC or SDXC on a memory card, this has to do with how the card uses memory.
SDHC are 32-bit cards while SDXC are 64-bit cards. Typically any card 64GB or higher is going to be SDXC and 32GB cards and lower will be SDHC.
These formats only matter if you’re shooting with Sony cameras and want to take advantage of certain video codecs. Although, recently Sony has been adding support to allow for these codecs to work even in SDHC.
The Difference Between U1 and U3
The U1 and U3 specs on a card have to do with the minimum write speed. It doesn’t mean U3 is faster than U1, it just means that U1 cards are guaranteed to perform at a minimum speed of 10MB/s, and U3 cards are guaranteed to perform at a minimum speed of 30MB/s.
While it looks as though the Nikon D7200 doesn’t perform according to U3 minimum specs, it does get very close when it writes to the card. What we are seeing are other delays involved when processing each shot before transferring. The Nikon D7200 also has an internal bus speed max similar to USB 2.0 speeds which has a cap at around 30MB/s.
Best SD Memory Card Nikon D7200
While not a great performer in terms of memory card write speeds, it’s still a great camera, especially for the average Joe who doesn’t do a lot of burst shooting. Stick with the Sandisk or Kingston cards to maximize that buffer performance and you should have well performing and fun camera.
