Best Memory Cards For The Sony RX10 III

A comparison testing the speed between all the most popular memory cards in the Sony RX10 III.

Use this guide to find the best memory cards for shooting 4k video or style.

Camera Specs

Sensor: 1″ 20.1MP  /  Processor: BIONZ X
Memory Card Type: SD UHS-I
Video: 3840 x 2160p: 30 fps, 24 fps
Est. Size Of Buffer: 500MB
Continues Shooting Speed: 14fps
Shots To Fill Buffer:  30 RAW
Time To Clear Buffer: 14.5 seconds

Sony RX10 III – Amazon / Adorama / BHphoto

Best Memory Cards For The Sony RX10 III

When it comes to memory card performance I didn’t run into any issues with this camera like I did with the RX10 II, where I would often get these weird blue corrupted frames using some brands of cards. Not a problem with the RX10 III. Although that problem could exist just on a camera to camera basis rather than on the model, since some Sony cameras will have problems with memory cards while others will not, even if it’s the same model.

When looking at the speed chart you can see the bottleneck of around 32MB/s. This is pretty normal with Sony cameras and this also means that you don’t really need to buy the fastest memory card you can buy, you’ll see no benefit. Instead buy the most Sony friendly memory card you can find, which is usually a Sony brand card, and I’ve also seen very little problems with Sandisk and Samsung cards. But honestly, I wouldn’t buy any other brand for my Sony cameras.

Sony RX10 III Memory Card Speed Chart

Based on the memory card speed test of the Sony RX10 III, the Sandisk Extreme Pro and the Samsung Pro+ U3 cards perform the best. However, 2MB/s won’t be noticeable at all in real world shooting and I still recommend Sony cards even though they don’t perform as well.

Fastest Memory Cards For the Sony RX10 III | The Results

Best UHS-II Memory Card

While the Sony RX10 III cannot take full advantage of the UHS-II memory cards, they still do work, but I find they seem more likely to give you issues with 4k video recording. 

If you decide to go with a UHS-II memory card, the Lexar 2000x and Transcend seem to perform slightly better than any of the others. If you decide to go with Sandisk, there is one available now that 300MB/s, the one I tested was only a 280MB/s. There is also a Sony UHS-II memory card, but it seems to lack the performance of other UHS-II cards. I’ve yet to find a Sony UHS-II card that’s rated at 300MB/s, although I’m sure they’ll come soon.

Lexar 2000x U3 64GB – Amazon / Adorama

Transcend U3 64GB – Amazon

Best UHS-I Memory Cards

Since all the UHS-I memory cards perform very close to the same, I recommend going with Sandisk cards, Sony or Samsung. With Sony being my first choice, with the Old Model out performing the new model.

Sony 64GB U3 (Old Model) – Amazon

Sandisk Extreme Pro U3 64GB – Amazon / Adorama

Samsung Pro+ 64GB U3 – Amazon / Adorama

Where To Buy Memory Cards

If you don’t buy a memory card from one of the links above, you’ll need to be careful you don’t get counterfeit cards. They are very common on Ebay, even sometimes on Amazon. Always make sure you buy your cards from a trusted source on Amazon, or a trusted camera store like Adorama, or B&HPhoto. I would avoid buying any memory cards on Ebay.

Best Memory Card For Video In The Sony RX10 III

To shoot 4k video on the Sony RX10 III, you’ll need to get U3 memory cards. Although now you’ll start seeing memory cards with V30, V60, and V90 written on them. Any of these work as well. I also recommend going with Sony brand cards. The last few years I was getting a lot of people complaining about PNY and other brand cards in their Sony cameras, so I no longer recommend these less expensive cards. Although they can and they do work, and they do work fine for me, they sometimes give other people issues.

Since I’ve started recommending Sony cards I no longer get complaints from people having issues with memory cards not working when trying to shoot 4k video.

Frequently Ask Questions

I’ve been doing these memory card speed tests for several years now and I get a lot of the same questions asked, so I’ll do my best to answer those here.

Do I need a UHS-II Memory Card? – You do not need a UHS-II memory card and they actually will give you no benefit over UHS-I memory card when used in camera. The only difference a UHS-II memory card will make in the Sony RX10 III is it will allow you to transfer your data to your computer quick, if you have a fast UHS-II memory card reader.

What’s the difference between U1 and U3 SD Memory cards? – The main difference has to do with minimum write speeds. U1 cards are guaranteed to write at a minimum speed of 10MB/s, and U3 SD memory card can write at a minimum speed of 30MB/s. Now of course there are many things that go on inside the camera that might not guarantee this, but it’s usually not the cards fault. You’ll also start seing V30, V60 and V90 written on cards. This has to do with the minimum write speeds V30 – 30MB/s, V60 – 60MB/s, V90 – 90MB/s.

What’s the difference between SDHC and SDXC with SD memory cards? – This has to do with the formatting of the card. SDHC cards are Fat32, and SDXC cards are exFat. Now pretty much SDHC means any card 32GB and smaller, and SDXC means 64GB and larger.

My memory card is creating corrupt shots what do I do? – Unfortunately in this situation you likely have a bad card. There isn’t a lot you can do about this other than to replace your card. 

My memory card doesn’t work what do I do? – It’s likely you could have a bad memory card, but also make sure you always format your card in camera. This tends to reduce issues with cards not working or not performing correctly.

My buffer keeps getting fill when recording video? – This usually means you’re memory card is not fast enough and you’ll need get a faster card. If you already have a card on the list above, you should try a different brand. Not all cameras work the same with each card, different production cycles between cameras and cards can produce various results and there is no guarantee the cards I rated will work perfectly with your camera. Lexar, Toshiba, Samsung and Sandisk are usually pretty safe bets.

Can I use Micro SD memory cards? – Yes you can, but there are a lot of crappy out there. I have just about every one made so just leave me a comment if you want to know if they work or not.

Best Memory Card For The Sony RX10 III | Conclusions

Although there are a lot of great memory card options out there for your Sony camera, I really only recommend either Sony brand or one of the top brands like Samsung and Sandisk. Honestly, even the UHS-I Lexar cards aren’t great. 

But anyway, hope this helps and I’ll continue to buy and test new Sony cards as they become available. In the meantime, have fun shooting and I hope this guide helped! Let me know if you have any questions.