Best Memory Cards Sony A6400 | Real Benchmarks

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A UHS-I and UHS-II SD memory card speed test measuring the speeds of all the most common memory cards in the Sony A6400. Use this guide to find the best and quickest memory cards for your Sony A6400.

Recommended Memory Cards Sony A6400

The Sony A6400 does not use UHS-II technology so it’s smarter to spend your money on UHS-I cards but to use 4k video, you will need U3 memory cards.

The Sony A6400 has no limits to the memory card capacity so it will accept cards from 4GB in size up to 1TB. However, you will need SDXC memory cards to take advantage of all the video features of this camera, meaning, you’ll need at minimum a 64GB card.

Like with the Sony A6300 and A6500, we’re noticing a small memory card buffer slowdown of around 38-39MB/s on the Sony A6400. This is either caused by the processor or by some other hardware part.

Because of this, you will not have to buy the quickest memory cards available, but any good memory card will work. Here are some great SD card recommendations for the Sony A6400. Consider starting with the Sony E-cards. Although they are technically UHS-II cards, they are priced and optimized for UHS-I write speeds, while still delivering UHS-II transfer speeds, which is great for this camera.

Must-Have Accessories Sony A6400

Sony A6400 In-Camera Memory Card Speed Test

This memory card list shows the in-camera speeds, which are measured by how long it takes to empty the buffer compared to how much data was written. Most of the cards have close performance in the Sony A6400, so it doesn’t matter much which card you pick, just get any reliable brand and as long as it is a U3 card, it will work well with Sony cameras.

The chart shows that all the cards have a close performance. We’ve mostly given up on testing U1 memory cards as they do not fit the requirements for 4k in most cameras and the U1 technology is now almost outdated for anyone who wants to use all the features a Sony camera has.

Also, check this guide to see the latest SD memory card speed tests. Or check this guide to Memory Cards for Sony Cameras, to see how other Sony cameras are performing.

Sony A6400 Best Memory Cards For 4k Video

The Sony A6400 has a light 4k video codec of 100mbps which translates to about 12.5MB/s. Any of the U3 cards will work for video in the Sony A6400 (except Samsung SD cards which have compatibility issues).

You must use a U3 memory card!

When deciding which size memory card is best for video, you should be sure to get an SDXC card which is any card 64GB or larger because these cards use a 64-bit file system that allows you to record clips longer than 4GB. If you go with a 32-bit card, known as SDHC, you will see what’s called chaptering. This is where long clips are broken into 4GB chunks. Sometimes this is good, sometimes this is bad. I actually prefer this on my GoPro Hero 7 where I often have very long clips because it allows me to delete huge chunks of what I don’t need.

Memory Card Codes – What They All Mean

Best Memory Cards Sony A6400 Conclusions

The Sony A6400 is not very picky about memory cards with a 38-39MB/s speed cap and a nice 1GB buffer, so buying memory cards is a lot simpler since most modern cards can match this rate. I wouldn’t get UHS-II cards unless you have another camera that can use that tech, otherwise, I would only get UHS-I cards since they are much cheaper.

Buy from a reliable seller and you won’t have any trouble with fake cards. All of the brands listed (except the two U1 cards I still test) now work well with no issues and Sony firmware keeps improving the stability and reliability of memory card performance.