Best Memory Cards Canon R5 – 40 Cards Tested

The Canon EOS R5 features two memory card slots. It can take one CFexpress Type B and one SD UHS-II card.

The Canon R5 has a buffer speed bottleneck of about 400MB/s, so there won’t be any noticeable difference between premium cards like the Lexar Diamond or Delkin Black and midrange cards like the Lexar Gold or Delkin Prime. However, some premium cards often have better warranties, tougher builds, or improved speeds when transferring cards to your computer.

For video, it’s generally a good idea to pick a card that can hit 400 MB and sustain speed to ensure optimal performance, and some CFxB cards now feature the VPG 400 rating, which guarantees 400MB/s sustain speeds.

Canon R5 – Amazon / B&H

Recommended Memory Cards For The Canon EOS R5

CFexpress Type-B Cards: Use these as your primary cards; they are the fastest cards you can get for the Canon R5.

UHS-II V60 or V90 Cards: V90 cards usually offer no extra cost savings compared to CFeB cards, but V60 will and are great for casual shooters or videographers recording at lower bitrates.

You must stick to CFexpress Type-B cards to record RAW 12-bit or even the high frame rate H.265 codec.

If you’re recording a lot of video under 480Mbps, grab a v60 card. This will give you some great cost savings.

Can you use UHS-I cards in the Canon R6? Yes.

Can you shoot 8k RAW video to UHS-II cards? No

Various specs for UHS-II memory cards run at different speeds, but these speeds are nowhere near as fast as CFexpress cards. If you record them in a backup configuration, UHS-II cards will bottleneck the performance of the CFexpress cards. Buying the fastest UHS-II memory cards will be important to keep the camera clearing the buffer as quickly as possible when running in a backup configuration.

If you just want to shoot casually as a photographer, you can use just the UHS-II memory card slots, and even the slower v60 cards will work fine for casual work.

In-Camera CFeB Memory Card Benchmarks

These camera memory card speeds are obtained by shooting a series of continuous bursts and then recording the time the buffer clears compared to the amount of data written.

To see more benchmarks and specs for each card check out the CFeB Memory Card Guide.

In-Camera UHS-II SD Memory Card Benchmarks

To see more specs and tests for each card check out the SD Memory Card Guide.

Also, check out the Must-Have Accessories For The Canon R5 guide.

Canon R5 Memory Card Setup

The Canon R5 has several settings for dual memory card configuration.

For Video

You can record video with redundancy to a second card. However, if you’re shooting RAW, only the highest bitrate version of the RAW file will go to the CFexpress card, and a lower bitrate will go to the second SD card.

If you are recording H.265 at a bitrate compatible with both CFexpress and SD cards, then the recording will go to both cards.

For Stills

You can record stills with the usual redundancy: RAW+RAW or RAW+JPG. The new HEIF option is also available.

Keep in mind that if you are bursting RAW+RAW, the system will slow down to the speed of the SD card. So, if you’re doing a lot of bursting, you will still need fast UHS-II cards for the second card slot. This isn’t as important when shooting RAW+JPG since JPG files are smaller.

Do XQD Memory Cards Work For The Canon R5?

No. XQD cards will not work in the Canon R5.

Best CFexpress Memory Card Readers

There are a lot of different CFExpress memory card readers on the market now, but not all of them will also take UHS-II cards.

Some support CFexpress + XQD, and some support UHS-II. There are also Thunderbolt, USB-C, and USB-A options.

Here is a list of all the best CFexpress memory card readers and the other formats and interfaces they accept.

You’ll likely want one of the readers to take both CFexpress and UHS-II cards, which Prograde currently only offers.

From all my tests, the Lexar Professional USB 3.2 Reader is the fastest memory card reader with my Intel MacPro. You can see it here on Amazon. I tested it on an Intel Macbook Pro.

Note: If you use an M1 Mac, either the Mac Mini or iMac, you will not get the maximum speed with these readers since those computers share the USB bus.

Canon EOS R5 Specs

List of Canon RF Lenses

Best Cards For 8k Video

To shoot the maximum quality 8k video in the Canon R5, you will need CFexpress cards.

You can record 8k or 4k60 to a UHS-II memory card, but you’ll have to use the lower IPB bitrate settings.

The slowest CFexpress card has a rated write speed of up to 600MB/s, and the Canon R5 will record 8k RAW at 325 MB/s, so you don’t need to worry about which card will work for 8k video.

Can you record 4k video to the UHS-II memory card slot?

We’re unsure which video formats Canon allows you to record in the UHS-II memory card slot. You will be limited since even the Canon 4k bitrates are very high.

Based on the specs, only some of the 4k 10-bit or 8-bit modes (likely the IPB settings) will work with UHS-II memory cards.

Canon EOS R5 Video Specs & Recording Modes

The Canon R5’s video quality is very impressive, with a maximum bitrate of 2600Mbps in 8k and 1880Mbps in 4k.

It also will have some of the best 1080p in-camera recordings with 230Mbps using H.265 at 10-bit 4:2:2.

Record Limit: 30 minutes.
Audio File Format: AAC, Linear PCM

What’s the difference between DCI and UHD? Frame size.

You’ll see 4k or 8k thrown around a lot, but there are two different standards. DCI and UHD are two different standards that have dramatically different frame sizes.

DCI true 8k, or true 4k, UHD is more of what you would see as a broadcasted spec.

8k DCI: 8192 x 4320
8K UHD: 7680 x 4320
4K DCI: 4096 x 2160
4K UHD: 3840 x 2160

Canon R5 Memory Card Capacity – Record Times

The size of cards that you can use with the Canon R5 is unlimited. This means you can use a 2TB memory card if necessary.

To help you decide which memory card size for the R5 is best, here are the record times for the various bitrates based on a few memory card sizes.

This table shows the memory card capacity with different record settings.

The camera won’t tell you which bitrate it is recording at. You’ll have to match the bitrate and the setting with the chart above to know which setting produces which bitrate.

Canon R5 Bitrates Written as MB/s

Cameras typically write their bitrates as Mbps, yet our memory card speeds are written as MB/s. There is a slight difference between the two that must be understood.

This chart shows the Canon R5 bitrates written as MB/s. Even the slowest CFexpress memory card can write at a rated data rate of 600MB/s, which means even the slowest CFexpress memory cards (from the trusted brands) will be fast enough to record 8k RAW internally.