An in-camera speed comparison between memory cards in the Canon 6D II. This guide will show which memory cards perform best and are the fastest in the Canon 6D Mark II.
Canon 6D Mark II Stats
Sensor – 26.2MP Full-Frame CMOS Sensor with DIGIC 7 Processor
45-Point All-Cross Type AF System
Video: 1080p60 – Digital IS
Screen: 3″ 1.04m-Dot Vari-Angle Touchscreen
Continuous Shooting: 6.5 fps
Estimated Buffer Size: 500MB
RAW Shots Until Buffer Fills: 24
Time To Clear Buffer: 5:41 seconds
Canon 6D Mark II – Amazon / Adorama / BHphoto
Canon 6D MarkII Review & Sample Photos
Best Memory Cards Canon 6D II | The Speed Test
I test each memory card inside the Canon 6D II to see how it actually performs – real world performance. The numbers and speeds on the cards mean nothing, so this is why I do this.
To get these tests I shoot a series of burst shots and record the time it takes to clear the cache vs how much data is written to get an average speed.
USB3.0 speeds are done with Crystal Disk in windows 10.
| Memory Cards | USB 3.0 Read | USB 3.0 Write | Canon 6D II |
| UHS-II | |||
| Sony G | 269.3 MB/s | 234.5 MB/s | 76.95 MB/s |
| Toshiba Exceria Pro | 258.8 MB/s | 226.5 MB/s | 76.18 MB/s |
| Lexar 2000x | 272.7 MB/s | 244.5 MB/s | 75.73 MB/s |
| Delkin V90 | 271.4 MB/s | 231.3 MB/s | 74.48 MB/s |
| Adata V90 | 256.5 MB/s | 231.7 MB/s | 74.19 MB/s |
| Transcend | 290.2 MB/s | 182.1 MB/s | 74.14 MB/s |
| Hoodman Steel 2000x | 268.7 MB/s | 183.9 MB/s | 73.83 MB/s |
| Fujifilm Elite II | 294.0 MB/s | 181.6 MB/s | 73.56 MB/s |
| Sony M | 253.2 MB/s | 91.62 MB/s | 72.90 MB/s |
| Sandisk Extreme Pro 300 | 273.9 MB/s | 238.9 MB/s | 71.47 MB/s |
| Delkin 1900X | 273.3 MB/s | 97.3 MB/s | 64.31 MB/s |
| Lexar 1000x | 153.4 MB/s | 84.30 MB/s | 64.30 MB/s |
| Sandisk Extreme Pro 280 | 260.5 MB/s | 214.8 MB/s | 40.23 MB/s |
| UHS-I | |||
| Sandisk Extreme Pro U3 | 98.6 MB/s | 90.8 MB/s | 75.57 MB/s |
| Kingston U3 | 98.1 MB/s | 90.4 MB/s | 74.34 MB/s |
| Delkin 633x U3 | 98.3 MB/s | 88.7 MB/s | 72.24 MB/s |
| Samsung Pro+ U3 | 97.5 MB/s | 87.3 MB/s | 72.22 MB/s |
| Sony U3 – Old Model | 96.5 MB/s | 84.5 MB/s | 69.90 MB/s |
| Transcend U3 | 96.7 MB/s | 84.9 MB/s | 69.64 MB/s |
| Samsung Pro U3 | 97.7 MB/s | 78.6 MB/s | 69.44 MB/s |
| Samsung Pro U1 | 96.3 MB/s | 82.2 MB/s | 69.25 MB/s |
| PNY Elite Performance U1 | 96.5 MB/s | 66.5 MB/s | 60.76 MB/s |
| Lexar 633x U3 | 93.3 MB/s | 67.3 MB/s | 57.82 MB/s |
| Sandisk Extreme Plus U3 | 99.0 MB/s | 64.4 MB/s | 57.61 MB/s |
| PNY Elite Performance U3 | 96.5 MB/s | 66.1 MB/s | 57.58 MB/s |
| Sony U3 – New Model | 96.7 MB/s | 56.2 MB/s | 55.52 MB/s |
| Lexar 600x U1 | 95.4 MB/s | 64.8 MB/s | 53.97 MB/s |
| Sandisk Extreme U3 | 72.43 MB/s | 54.1 MB/s | 47.99 MB/s |
| Samsung U1 EVO | 47.7 MB/s | 27.3 MB/s | 27.85 MB/s |
| Sandisk Ultra U1 | 99.3 MB/s | 36.1 MB/s | 25.21 MB/s |
Fastest Memory Cards For The Canon 6D II
The fastest memory card for the Canon 6D II is actually UHS-II card. The Sony G card. But it’s only marginally faster than the UHS-I Sandisk Extreme Pro which is a better deal. You won’t notice any difference in speed in real world shooting. However, those Sony UHS-II cards are nice and transfer speeds from the card to the computer will be very fast with the right UHS-II memory card reader.
The Toshiba and Lexar UHS-II cards are also fast, but you can’t find those Toshiba cards really anymore.
Top 5 Fastest Cards For The Canon 6D mkII | Including Both UHS-II and UHS-I
I’m not including the Toshiba card because it’s unreasonable to buy that card.
Sony G UHS-II
This is the best card you can buy for the Canon 6D II. It’s also one of the newest cards on the List. Sony just released the G series UHS-II cards early 2017. Sony cards in general have proven to be very reliable and the Sony cards have worked great in every Canon cameras I’ve tested so far. – Amazon / Adorama / BHphoto
Lexar 2000x UHS-II
Lexar is almost a household name for memory cards at this point. They have been known for making some of the fastest memory cards. The 2000x has been around for a few years now and has proven to be a reliable card. What’s nice about Lexar UHS-II cards, is they usually come with a UHS-II memory card reader. – Amazon / Adorama / BHphoto
Sandisk Extreme Pro UHS-I
The Sandisk Extreme Pro is the bread and butter for most cameras. It almost always performs #1 in terms of speed and reliability with my memory card speed tests. This would be my first choice if I were to buy a card for the Canon 6D II. I highly recommend this card for a UHS-I card. –Amazon / Adorama / BHphoto
Delkin 250 UHS-II
Delkin has been around for a long time but still isn’t as popular as Sandisk or Lexar in terms of memory cards for cameras. They are a great hoice and I’ve yet to have any issues with these cards. – Amazon / Adorama / BHphoto
Kingston UHS-I
Kingston doesn’t make too many memory cards, but this card always is on the top of the list. It almost always seems to perform second to the Sandisk Extreme Pro card. If you see this card on sale, or you have something personal against Sandisk, this will be your best card. Highly recommended. – Amazon / Adorama / BHphoto
Frequently Asked Questions
A list of some topics that hopefully will answer any questions you have.
Should I use USH-I or UHS-II and what’s the difference?
The Canon 6D II does not actually take advantage of the second set of pins on UHS-II cards to run at their maximum speed. So you don’t get really any speed benefit that comes with UHS-II when using the card in camera. However, if you have a fast hard drive and a fast UHS-II memory card reader, you can cut down transfer times significantly.
This of course depends on your needs. If you’re a professional in a studio that needs fast transfer speeds then this might be something to consider. If you’re just an average joe, I recommend going with UHS-I memory cards.
What do all the numbers and letters on the memory cards mean?
All the numbers and letters on memory cards have to do with speeds, like UHS-II or UHS-I, but also minimum speeds.
If you see U1 or U3, this means the card is capable of running at a minimum speed of 10MB/s with U1, or 30MB/s with U3. They’re now starting to use V30, V60 and V90 as a new format for listing these speeds.
What size memory card do I need?
I’ve always been fine with 64GB. Even when I’m shooting video 64GB has been enough for me, and I usually carry around multiple cards. I’ve never filled a 64GB card in a day of shooting with photography but I have with 32GB cards. So as long as you transfer the photos of your card every night, you should be fine with a 64GB card.
If you shoot a lot of video, you might want to go with the 128GB cards.
Memory card isn’t working, what should I do?
Most memory cards have a 3 year to lifetime warranty. You can always send them in for replacement. However, you can also send your card back to Amazon or BHphoto if it falls within the 30 day purchase period.
I recommend you do not buy card from Ebay as counterfeit cards are a real problem over there. Hens the nickname, “Scambay.”
Best Memory Cards For The Canon 6D Mark II | Bottom Line
While the fastest cards are the UHS-II cards, the difference is marginal and you won’t notice it in real world shooting. Because of this, I recommend you buy the Sandisk Extreme Pro cards or the Kingston.
There are also a lot of other great cards by Sandisk, Samsung, Lexar and other brands. If you’re not doing a lot of burst high-speed photography, then you really don’t need the fastest card, a transfer speed of around 50MB/s is going to be fine for most people, but I would stay away from anything slower than that. So you could save yourself some money by buying one of the other brands, or a lower class card.
Considering video in the Canon 6D II, you won’t need the fastest card either, because the 6D II doesn’t have a very high bitrate like the Canon 5D IV does. In fact, I tested all these cards for video performance in the CAnon 6D II and didn’t run into any issues.
