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Best Memory Cards Fujifilm X-H2s
  • Memory Cards

Best Memory Cards Fujifilm X-H2s

  • January 31, 2023
  • AGriffin

Fujifilm’s flagship action and video machine has some very high-end specs with very high-end video features. Now with the option of using CFexpress and UHS-II memory cards, setting up the camera to maximize performance isn’t so simple, and with the high-end video features, higher-end cards will be required.

This guide will help you find the best memory cards for the Fujifilm X-H2s. There is a lot to talk about here and a lot to think about and no perfect configuration for any one person’s setup.

Table Of Contents

    • Recommended Memory Cards Fujifilm X-H2s
    • Fujifilm X-H2s Memory Card Benchmarks
    • Further Compatibility Information
    • Fujifilm X-H2s Bitrates & Record Times
    • Fujifilm X-H2s Should You Use ProRes?
  • Best Memory Cards For Dual Card Redundancy

Fujifilm X-H2s – Amazon / Adorama / B&H

See my recommended Fujifilm X-H2s Accessories.

 

Recommended Memory Cards Fujifilm X-H2s

Fastest CFexpress Memory Card Fujifilm X-H2sThe Fujifilm X-H2s take two different types of memory cards. CFexpress Type-B and UHS-II cards. CFexpress cards are considerably faster than UHS-II cards and with the new 64-bit processing of the X-H2s, the camera will fully take advantage of those improved speeds.

Video shooters can use either CFexpress Type-B or UHS-II v90 cards if they only use H.265 or H.264 since the highest bitrate of H.265 is 720Mbps or 90MB/s.

For shooting ProRes you will have to move up to some good CFexpress Type-B cards since 6.2k with ProResHQ runs at a bitrate up to 2754Mbps or 344MB/s. You’ll also need very large cards.

Keep in mind, H.265 still probably looks nicer on a technical level than ProResHQ at these bitrates, so you may not even need ProResHQ if you have a system for working with H.265. This is assuming everything with the X-H2s hardware is perfectly optimized for H.265 and ProRes.

While you may be tempted to max out the bitrate performance of the camera, for some people it’s just not practical and many Youtubers and Videographers might like the lower bitrate options while still taking advantage of the low rolling shutter. For lower-bitrate shooters, you can save quite a lot by just using UHS-II V60 cards or slower CFexpress cards. V60 cards offer a minimum write speed of 60MB/s which allows a bitrate of 480Mbps, more than enough for Youtube when shooting H.265 in 10-bit – you could probably even get away with the lower bitrate of 360Mbps with H.265 10-bit and still have incredible quality.

For Photographers bursting with a dual memory card setup, you’ll want to buy the fastest UHS-II you can buy, but you won’t need the best CFexpress card, since the system will bottleneck to UHS-II speeds in a dual memory card configuration shooting with redundancy.

Recommended UHS-II Cards In-Camera Speed See Price
CFExpress Type-B (ProResHQ 6.2k)    
ProGrade Cobalt 325GB  893 MB/s B&H
Delkin Black 150GB 890 MB/s B&H
Nikon 660GB 876 MB/s B&H
Lexar Diamond 128GB VGP400* 804 MB/s B&H
UHS-II V90 (All H.265 Formats)    
Wise Advanced V90 190 MB/s B&H
Sony G Tough V90 187 MB/s Amazon
Lexar 2000x V90 183 MB/s Amazon
ProGrade V90 167 MB/s Amazon
UHS-II V60 (Lower Bitrates)    
Lexar 1800x 164 MB/s Amazon
Sony M Tough 131 MB/s Amazon
Sony E V60 127 MB/s Amazon

 

Fujifilm X-H2s Memory Card Benchmarks

Benchmarks are taken by running a continuous burst with each card in the camera, then comparing data written to the time it took to clear the buffer. This is done several times and the best time is taken.

*I kept having an issue with this camera where my UHS-II cards were not making firm contact with both rows of pins and they often ran at UHS-I speeds. I’ve seen this before with Fujifilm cameras and think that possibly there was a bent pin or something off inside the X-H2s copy that I had. It’s usually normal for a card to do this from time to time, but I had this happen with several cards in this camera which is very unusual.

 

Memory Cards Fujifilm X-H2s
Card NameSpeed ClassUSB ReadUSB WriteFujifilm X-H2s
Sandisk Extreme 128GBCFxB989 MB/s489 MB/s390 MB/s
Sony Tough 128GBCFxB997 MB/s965 MB/s401 MB/s
Lexar 128 Pro DiamondCFxB1000 MB/s983 MB/s804 MB/s
Lexar 512GBCFxB994 MB/s908 MB/s535 MB/s
Lexar 128GBCFxB995 MB/s923 MB/s478 MB/s
Prograde 128GBCFxB685 MB/s679 MB/s178 MB/s
Prograde Cobalt 325GBCFxB998 MB/s973 MB/s893 MB/s
Delkin Black 150GBCFxB998 MB/s974 MB/s890 MB/s
Delkin Black 128GBCFxB997 MB/s973 MB/s880 MB/s
Delkin Black 75GBCFxB998 MB/s951 MB/s818 MB/s
Delkin Power 128GBCFxB997 MB/s977 MB/s881 MB/s
Delkin Prime 64GBCFxB998 MB/s948 MB/s774 MB/s
Nikon 660GBCFxB998 MB/s961 MB/s876 MB/s
Hoodman Steel 128GBCFxB991 MB/s558 MB/s416 MB/s
Wise Pro 160GBCFxB999 MB/s941 MB/s602 MB/s
Wise 128GBCFxB997 MB/s577 MB/s377 MB/s
Angelbird AV Pro MkII 1TBCFxB701 MB/s889 MB/s587 MB/s
Angelbird AV Pro XT MK2 330GB CFxB996 MB/s970 MB/s807 MB/s
Angelbird AV Pro 256GB MK1CFxB981 MB/s948 MB/s771 MB/s
Angelbird AV Pro SE 512GB CFxB710 MB/s794 MB/s545 MB/s
Angelbird AV Pro SX 160GBCFxB997 MB/s946 MB/s824 MB/s
RitzGear 128GBCFxB991 MB/s251 MB/s189 MB/s
Pergear Lite 128GBCFxB950 MB/s311 MB/s240 MB/s
Silicon Power Cinema EX 256GBCFxB996 MB/s453 MB/s340 MB/s
Sandisk Extreme Pro 300MB/sUHS-II279 MB/s252 MB/s108 MB/s
Lexar 2000xUHS-II256 MB/s219 MB/s183 MB/s
Lexar 1800xUHS-II242 MB/s176 MB/s164 MB/s
Lexar 1667xUHS-II242 MB/s99 MB/s63 MB/s
Toshiba Exceria ProUHS-II244 MB/s213 MB/s171 MB/s
Transcend v90UHS-II263 MB/s175 MB/s129 MB/s
Sony G Tough v90UHS-II275 MB/s239 MB/s187 MB/s
Sony M Tough V60UHS-II268 MB/s155 MB/s131 MB/s
Sony E v60UHS-II252 MB/s142 MB/s127 MB/s
Delkin Black v90UHS-II278 MB/s253 MB/s102 MB/s*
Delkin Power v90UHS-II275 MB/s240 MB/s166 MB/s
Delkin Prime v60UHS-II275 MB/s98 MB/s37 MB/s
Fujifilm Elite IIUHS-II277 MB/s158 MB/s39 MB/s
Adata v90UHS-II268 MB/s229 MB/s164 MB/s
Hoodman Steel 2000xUHS-II249 MB/s155 MB/s138 MB/s
Hoodman Steel 1500xUHS-II273 MB/s99 MB/s86 MB/s
ProGrade V90UHS-II270 MB/s229 MB/s167 MB/s
ProGrade V60UHS-II155 MB/s98 MB/s75 MB/s
Amplim 2000x v60UHS-II253 MB/s136 MB/s123 MB/s
Amplim 1900x V60UHS-II275 MB/s97 MB/s88 MB/s
Angel Bird V90 IIUHS-II271 MB/s257 MB/s56 MB/s
Angel Bird V60 IIUHS-II243 MB/s144 MB/s127 MB/s
FreeTail Evoke Pro V60UHS-II272 MB/s96 MB/s82 MB/s
Kingston Canvas React V90UHS-II274 MB/s256 MB/s77 MB/s*
Kodak V90 64GBUHS-II272 MB/s260 MB/s91 MB/s*
Ritz Gear VideoPro V90UHS-II273 MB/s258 MB/s71 MB/s*
Wise Advanced V90UHS-II275 MB/s256 MB/s190 MB/s

 

Further Compatibility Information

Fujifilm has also officially tested and recommended memory cards. I share the same cards above. Official Fujifilm X-H2s Memory Card Compatibility Chart,

For Lexar cards stick with 2000x for V90 speeds or 1800x v60 speeds for the X-H2s.

VGP 400 Rating – Like the U3, V60, and V90, CFexpress cards are now offering a VGP 400 rating – Look for the little clapper board with the 400 logo.

VGP 400 certification guarantees that the card will no matter what give you 400MB/s as a minimum write speed which is fairly critical when shooting at the maximum bitrate of the X-H2s and don’t want to run into buffer issues.

CFexpress Type B cards throttle their speeds a lot to combat heat build-up, and other factors like fragmentation can also slow down write speeds. If you don’t have a VGP 400 card, just make sure you never delete clips to avoid fragmentation.

Currently, the Lexar Diamond is the only CFexpress B card to have the VGP 400 certificate, I’ve asked other brands about this but am still waiting for a response. 

 

Fujifilm X-H2s Specs

Sensor: APS-C 26.1MP X-Trans Stacked BSI
Processor: X-Processor 5
Continuous Shoot: 15fps Mechanical, 40fps Electronic
Est. Buffer Size: 5GB
RAW Shots To Fill Buffer: 1000 Frames (Raw) @ 15fps / 140 Frames RAW @ 40fps
Max Memory Card Capacity: Any size, no limit.
6.2k Datarate: 360 to 720 Mbps | 45MB/s to 90MB/s
4k Datarate: 360 to 720 Mbps| 45MB/s to 90MB/s

I’ll benchmark everything when the camera comes out to get a better read on what’s really working with the new hardware.

 

Fujifilm X-H2s Bitrates & Record Times

Keep in mind, that people are often testing and showing that H.265 with a good compression looks better than Prores.

ProRes Megabits Megabytes 128GB 256GB 512GB
6.2k ProRes 422 HQ 4:2:2 10-Bit 2754Mbps 344.25MB/s 6min 12min 25min
4k ProRes 422 HQ 4:2:2 10-Bit 1877Mbps 234.62MB/s 9min 18min 36min
2k ProRes 422 HQ 4:2:2 10-Bit 440Mbps 55MB/s 39min 78min 155min
6.2k ProRes 422 4:2:2 10-Bit 1840Mbps 230MB/s 9min 19min 37min
4k ProRes 422 4:2:2 10-Bit 1254Mbps 156.75MB/s 14min 27min 54min
2k ProRes 422 4:2:2 10-Bit 294Mbps 36.75MB/s 58min 116min 232min
6.2k ProRes 422LT 4:2:2 10-Bit 1277Mbps 159.62MB/s 13min 27min 53min
4k ProRes 422LT 4:2:2 10-Bit 870Mbps 108.75MB/s 20min 39min 78min
2k ProRes 422LT 4:2:2 10-Bit 204Mbps 25.5MB/s 84min 167min 335min
H.265          
6.2k H.265 4:2:2 10-Bit 360 – 720Mbps 45-90MB/s 47 – 24min 95 – 47min 190 – 95min
4k H.265 4:2:2 10-Bit — — — — —
2k H.265 4:2:2 10-Bit — — — — —
6.2k H.265 4:2:0 10-Bit — — — — —
4k H.265 4:2:0 10-Bit — — — — —
2k H.265 4:2:0 10-Bit — — — — —

 

Fujifilm X-H2s Should You Use ProRes?

Now that the Fujifilm X-H2s has the ability to record internal ProResHQ, Prores or ProresLT, the question is, do you really need it?

The general assumption online is that ProresHQ is one of the best formats. It’s an industry standard for editing and mastering and has been for a long time, it’s a very old codec. But again do you need it? Is Prores better than H.265?

This depends on how good the Fujifilm X-H2s hardware is at encoding H.265 – we don’t know yet, but in a controlled setting with something like Divinci Resolve, H.265 at a much lower bitrate typically outperforms ProresHQ. In other words, H.265 > ProresHQ.

If the X-H2s has good hardware encoders, you can shoot H.265 as your master, then you can save a lot of money on external memory cards by editing in a proxy and this will give you the best results.

The advantage of ProRes is that you can throw it straight into the edit bay and start working right away if you have the hardware to support this bandwidth.

Typically because of how the compression works, H.265 is just not a great format to work in even with hardware encoders like our graphics cards or processors since most are not yet doing 10-bit 4:2:2 decoding and encoding natively. In 2022, 10-bit 4:2:0 is still more commonly seen as a hardware encoder.

Another problem with the 6.2k ProresHQ workflow is you need incredibly fast drives that can stream 344.25MB/s or faster depending on if you’re speeding up footage or stacking footage or using transitions. This just might not be possible in something like an M1 mac or M1 iMac since these consumer machines share the USB-C bus and even on my M1 Mac with the fastest drives, struggle to get speeds faster than 400MB-500MB/s.

You’ll need to test your system and figure out if working in Prores HQ at 6.2k is right for you and this will help you get a clearer picture of the size and speed of the memory cards you will need.

As a final note: I’m a professional Trailer editor that’s been working for 15 years in the industry. I can tell you, we don’t use ProRes anymore to edit with. We use H.264 in our studio to edit as proxies from something like ProresHQ or Prores4444, or some sort of RAW Cinema footage. I’ve also seen other studios work in ProResLT.

If your computer has hardware encoders for H.265 4:2:2 10-bit (I don’t think any do yet, maybe M2 mac or the next Intel) then your computer will rip H.264 out of H.265 very fast. Premiere Pro is very good for this as it’s all automated.

 

Best Memory Cards For Dual Card Redundancy

Photographers – To run a dual memory card setup with backup, you will have to have both CFexpress and UHS-II cards. Having a slower UHS-II card in slot two will bottleneck the performance down to the speed of the UHS-II SD card.

Shooters that require backup may have to run JPG to the UHS-II cards to not impact performance as much since JPGs are smaller. However, JPGs are often harder on the processor and aren’t that much smaller than Fujifilm RAW files, so you’ll still take a hit in buffer clearing speeds when bursting, especially if you have effects like clarity turned on – so be careful here.

Shooting with a dual memory card configuration won’t require you to buy the fastest CFexpress cards but you should buy the fastest UHS-II sd cards. CFexpress and UHS-II cards are roughly a similar price, so it’s not a huge loss either way.

Videographers – If you want to shoot Prores with very high bitrates, you will not be able to shoot video with any sort of redundancy since the second card slot does not support those speeds. If you absolutely need redundancy with the X-H2s while shooting Prores, you might be able to record internally at the same time as recording externally to a Ninja recorder. This is something to look into, I have not seen the specs on if this will work yet. Some cameras allow you to do this but with limitations.

Or, it’s possible that they will let you record Prores to CFexpress and H.265 to UHS-II. Still waiting on the user manual here.

 

Best Memory Cards Fujifilm X-H2s Conclusions

There is still a lot to test on my end, but this guide should get you started or at least get you thinking about what you may or may not need for your particular situation.

In Summary, photographers looking to burst with a single card setup should grab the fastest CFexpress cards. Photographers looking to burst with redundancy should grab the fastest UHS-II cards and a CFexpress card that is as fast or faster.

Videographers that want Prores will need the fastest CFexpress Memory cards.

Videographers that shoot H.265 10-bit, will only need speeds of the fastest UHS-II V90 cards or a CFexpress card that matches.

AGriffin

Professional editor, blogger and photographer from Los Angeles California.

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