• Blog
  • Calculators
    • Camera Bitrate Converter | Record Time Calculator
    • Diffraction Calculator
    • DoF Calculator | Lens Equivalent
    • Shutter Speed to Shutter Angle Calculator
  • Memory Cards
    • SD Memory Cards Guide
    • CFExpress Type-B Memory Card Benchmarks
    • CFexpress Type-A Memory Card Benchmarks
    • Memory Cards For Canon Cameras
    • Memory Cards For Fujifilm Cameras
    • Memory Cards For Nikon Cameras
    • SD Cards For GoPro
  • Accessories
    • Canon
      • Canon R5 Accessories
      • Canon R6 Accessories
      • Canon EOS R
      • Canon RP
      • Canon M50 Accessories
      • Canon T7i / T6 / T6i / T6s
      • Canon SL3 / 250D
      • Canon M6 II
      • Canon M5
      • Canon G1X III
      • Canon G7X III
    • Nikon
      • Nikon Z6 II / Z7 II
      • Nikon Z6 / Z7
      • Nikon Z50
    • Fujifilm
      • Fujifilm X-T4
      • Fujifilm X-S10
      • Fujifilm X-Pro3
      • Fujifilm X-T3
      • Fujifilm X-H1
      • Fujifilm X-T200
      • Fujifilm X100V Accessories
      • Fujifilm X100F Accessories
      • Fujifilm X-E4
      • Fujifilm XT30 & XT20
    • Leica
      • Leica Q2 Accessories
    • Panasonic
      • Panasonic GH5 / GH5s
      • Panasonic LX100 II
    • Ricoh
      • Ricoh GR III
    • Sigma
      • Sigma fp
    • Sony
      • Sony A1 Accessories
      • Sony A7IV Accessories
      • Sony A7c Accessories
      • Sony A7sIII
      • Sony A7rIV / A9II
      • Sony A9
      • Sony A7 III, A7r III Accessories
      • Sony A6600 Accessories
      • Sony A6100 Accessories
      • Sony A6000 Accessories
      • Sony RX1R II
      • Sony RX10 IV / RX10 III
      • Sony RX100 IV / RX100 V
    • Drones
      • Mavic 2 Pro
    • Camera Cleaning Gear
  • Lenses
    • Canon RF Lens List
    • Fujifilm G Lens List
    • Fujifilm XF Lens List
    • Leica / Panasonic / Sigma L Lens List
    • Leica M Lens List
    • Micro Four Thirds Lens List
    • Nikon Z Lens List
    • PL Mount Cine Lens List
    • Sony FF E Lens List
    • Sony APS-C E Lens List
  • Store
Alik Griffin
Alik Griffin
  • Blog
  • Calculators
    • Camera Bitrate Converter | Record Time Calculator
    • Diffraction Calculator
    • DoF Calculator | Lens Equivalent
    • Shutter Speed to Shutter Angle Calculator
  • Memory Cards
    • SD Memory Cards Guide
    • CFExpress Type-B Memory Card Benchmarks
    • CFexpress Type-A Memory Card Benchmarks
    • Memory Cards For Canon Cameras
    • Memory Cards For Fujifilm Cameras
    • Memory Cards For Nikon Cameras
    • SD Cards For GoPro
  • Accessories
    • Canon
      • Canon R5 Accessories
      • Canon R6 Accessories
      • Canon EOS R
      • Canon RP
      • Canon M50 Accessories
      • Canon T7i / T6 / T6i / T6s
      • Canon SL3 / 250D
      • Canon M6 II
      • Canon M5
      • Canon G1X III
      • Canon G7X III
    • Nikon
      • Nikon Z6 II / Z7 II
      • Nikon Z6 / Z7
      • Nikon Z50
    • Fujifilm
      • Fujifilm X-T4
      • Fujifilm X-S10
      • Fujifilm X-Pro3
      • Fujifilm X-T3
      • Fujifilm X-H1
      • Fujifilm X-T200
      • Fujifilm X100V Accessories
      • Fujifilm X100F Accessories
      • Fujifilm X-E4
      • Fujifilm XT30 & XT20
    • Leica
      • Leica Q2 Accessories
    • Panasonic
      • Panasonic GH5 / GH5s
      • Panasonic LX100 II
    • Ricoh
      • Ricoh GR III
    • Sigma
      • Sigma fp
    • Sony
      • Sony A1 Accessories
      • Sony A7IV Accessories
      • Sony A7c Accessories
      • Sony A7sIII
      • Sony A7rIV / A9II
      • Sony A9
      • Sony A7 III, A7r III Accessories
      • Sony A6600 Accessories
      • Sony A6100 Accessories
      • Sony A6000 Accessories
      • Sony RX1R II
      • Sony RX10 IV / RX10 III
      • Sony RX100 IV / RX100 V
    • Drones
      • Mavic 2 Pro
    • Camera Cleaning Gear
  • Lenses
    • Canon RF Lens List
    • Fujifilm G Lens List
    • Fujifilm XF Lens List
    • Leica / Panasonic / Sigma L Lens List
    • Leica M Lens List
    • Micro Four Thirds Lens List
    • Nikon Z Lens List
    • PL Mount Cine Lens List
    • Sony FF E Lens List
    • Sony APS-C E Lens List
  • Store
  • Memory Cards

Best Memory Cards Nikon Z6 II / Z7 II – Real Benchmarks

  • September 1, 2022
  • AGriffin

The Nikon Z 6II and Z 7II have the ability to take both CFexpress / XQD and UHS-I or UHS-II memory cards.

There are a lot of different speed classes and ways to configure your camera to run with these UHS-II cards with CFexpress cards, use this guide to help you get started on what you need for how you shoot so that you don’t buy more than you need.

Table Of Contents

  • Best Memory Cards Nikon Z6 II / Z7 II
    • Recommended Memory Cards – What’s Working Well Right Now
    • Best CFexpress Reader
    • Memory Card Benchmarks
    • Using XQD Memory Cards In the Nikon Z6 II / Z7 II
  • Best Memory Cards For Video
  • What Size Memory Card Do You Need?

Also, see the 5 Must-Have Accessories for the Nikon Z6 II and Z7 II.

And I keep an updated list of all the Nikon Z Lenses.

 

Best Memory Cards Nikon Z6 II / Z7 II

The Nikon Z 6II and Z 7II can take two memory cards for redundancy. 

Slot 1 supports CFexpress or XQD memory cards while slot 2 can take UHS-II or UHS-I memory cards. How fast of a card you need for slot 2 depends on how you are going to use it as it will bottleneck your performance when writing RAW files to both cards. If you just write RAW to the CFexpress cards, and JPG to the UHS-II slot, then slower cards won’t have as much of an impact on performance.

You cannot write video to both cards at the same time, but any UHS-I card that is U3 rated can handle the 4k 150Mbps bitrate that these cameras output.

 

Recommended Memory Cards – What’s Working Well Right Now

Fastest Memory Card Nikon Z6 II / Z7 II

I ran all the different memory cards through a benchmark using the Nikon Z6 II and got some very interesting results with performance scores all over the place, part of this is the CFexpress technology has gone through an evolution these last few years, and it’s going to be important that you try to get one of the newer generations of cards.

If you are buying new cards today, there were some top performers there are working well in Nikon cameras. Angel Bird XT or SX, Lexar Professional and Diamond, Prograde Cobalt, Wise Pro, Delkin Black or Prime, and the Nikon 660GB.

With a lot of these cards, also pay attention to the size since often specs change with different sizes.

CFexpress In-Camera  USB Write USB Read Check Price
Fastest CFx B Cards        
Lexar Diamond 332.36 MB/s 983 MB/s 1000 MB/s B&H
Delkin Black 150 300.82 MB/s 974 MB/s 998 MB/s B&H
Nikon 660GB — 961 MB/s 998 MB/s Amazon / B&H
ProGrade Cobalt 232.82 MB/s 973 MB/s 998 MB/s Amazon / B&H
Angel Bird XT — 970 MB/s 996 MB/s Amazon / B&H
Angel Bird SX 334.01 MB/s 946 MB/s 997 MB/s Amazon / B&H
Best Value        
Angel Bird AV Pro MKII — 889 MB/s 701 MB/s Amazon / B&H
Angel Bird SE 285.11 MB/s 794 MB/s 710 MB/s Amazon / B&H
UHS-II v90        
Kodak Ultra Pro V90 203.04 MB/s 260 MB/s 272 MB/s Amazon
Kingston Canvas React V90 200.90 MB/s 256 MB/s 274 MB/s Amazon / B&H
Delkin Black v90 199.93 MB/s 253 MB/s 278 MB/s Amazon / B&H
Sandisk Extreme Pro 182.55 MB/s 252 MB/s 279 MB/s Amazon / B&H
UHS-II V60        
Lexar 1800x 148.15 MB/s 176 MB/s 242 MB/s Amazon / B&H
Sony M v60 122.78 MB/s 155 MB/s 268 MB/s Amazon / B&H
Sony E v60 114.81 MB/s 142 MB/s 252 MB/s Amazon / B&H

The cards not tested here I did test in the Nikon Z9 which runs CFexpress cards significantly faster than the Z7 II or Z6 II.

As a caution, some of the Angelbird cards are a little bit of a tight fit in the Nikon Z6 and Z7 cameras.

 

Best CFexpress Reader

I’ve been benchmarking these cards with the ProGrade CFexpress + UHS-II reader since that’s what I think most people will use with a camera like this. However, the Lexar reader is slightly faster if you just need a reader for CFexpress cards.

Prograde CFexpress + UHS-II Reader – Amazon / B&H – This will not read XQD cards.

If you buy an Angelbird card, buy an Angelbird reader so you can upgrade any firmware of the cards.

 

Memory Card Benchmarks

To benchmark each memory card in the Nikon Z6 II and Z7 II, a series of continuous burst images were taken until the buffer was filled, then the time it took to clear the buffer was calculated against how much data was written. This gave me a rough speed of how each card is performing in-camera. I ran several series with each card to rule out issues with thermal throttling or other hiccups that sometimes occur with freshly formatted cards.

There was a lot of wild variation in the Nikon Z6 II. It seems like a lot of V90 UHS-II cards were not engaging that second set of pins and were running at UHS-I speeds. This could be a problem with the camera body I had at the time and further testing in the future with a different body will be required to see why cards like the Sony G or Prograde V90 did not engage with UHS-II performance. It could also be some sort of firmware bug as CFexpress cards also had very unstable performance across brands of cards that shared similar specs.

I stopped testing XQD since they are not something you would want to buy new with this camera since the format is pretty much extinct. However, I did test one Nikon XQD to get a general idea of what XQD cards would do in this camera and it ran at 228.55MB/s. Slightly better than a UHS-II card but not as good as a new CFexpress card. If you have a bunch of XQD cards that are fairly modern, you should be pretty happy with the results.

CFexpress Memory Cards

Memory Cards Nikon Z6II/Z7II CFX
Card NameUSB WriteUSB ReadNikon Z6IINikon Z7IICheck Price
Sandisk Extreme 128GB489 MB/s989 MB/s239.55237.38

B&H

Sony Tough 128GB965 MB/s997 MB/s241.03291.71

B&H

Lexar 128 Pro Diamond983 MB/s1000 MB/s--332.36

B&H

Lexar 512GB908 MB/s994 MB/s----

B&H

Lexar 128GB923 MB/s995 MB/s289.88285.89

B&H

Prograde 128GB679 MB/s685 MB/s112.42178.94

B&H

Prograde Cobalt 325GB973 MB/s998 MB/s227.68232.82

B&H

Delkin Black 150GB974 MB/s998 MB/s--300.82

B&H

Delkin Black 128GB973 MB/s997 MB/s102.72213.54

B&H

Delkin Black 75GB951 MB/s998 MB/s--293.88

B&H

Delkin Power 128GB977 MB/s997 MB/s208.48214.69

B&H

Delkin Prime 64GB948 MB/s998 MB/s209.64213.41discon.
Nikon 660GB961 MB/s998 MB/s----

B&H

Hoodman Steel 128GB558 MB/s991 MB/s179.59187.53

B&H

Wise Pro 160GB941 MB/s999 MB/s268.18270.3

B&H

Wise 128GB577 MB/s997 MB/s152.04210.73

B&H

Angelbird AV Pro MkII 1TB889 MB/s701 MB/s----

B&H

Angelbird AV Pro XT MK2 330GB 970 MB/s996 MB/s----

B&H

Angelbird AV Pro 256GB MK1948 MB/s981 MB/s332.1340.68

B&H

Angelbird AV Pro SE 512GB 794 MB/s710 MB/s--285.11

B&H

Angelbird AV Pro SX 160GB946 MB/s997 MB/s325.37334.01

B&H

RitzGear 128GB251 MB/s991 MB/s142.43139.69

Amazon

Pergear Lite 128GB311 MB/s950 MB/s172.96180.64

Amazon

Silicon Power Cinema EX 256GB453 MB/s996 MB/s--223.22

B&H

SD Memory Cards

Memory Cards Nikon Z6II/Z7II UHS-II
Memory CardsSpeed ClassUSB WriteUSB ReadNikon Z6 IINikon Z7 IICheck Price
Sandisk Extreme Pro V90UHS-II252279182.55141.1#REF!
Lexar 2000x V90UHS-II219256179.54184#REF!
#REF!#REF!#REF!#REF!148.15#REF!
#REF!#REF!#REF!#REF!83.2590.57#REF!
Toshiba Exceria Pro V90UHS-II213244106.9107.63#REF!
Transcend v90UHS-II175263151.04148.99#REF!
Sony G Tough v90UHS-II23927583.18192.5#REF!
#REF!#REF!#REF!#REF!122.8122.78#REF!
#REF!#REF!#REF!#REF!116.22114.81#REF!
#REF!#REF!#REF!#REF!#REF!
Delkin Black v90UHS-II253278199.93198.2#REF!
Delkin Power v90UHS-II240275185.07186.91#REF!
#REF!#REF!#REF!#REF!77.2986.95#REF!
Fujifilm Elite II V90UHS-II158277136.84135.72#REF!
Adata v90UHS-II229268178.66179.13#REF!
#REF!#REF!#REF!#REF!135.75134.61#REF!
Hoodman Steel 1500x V60UHS-II9927386.18100.99#REF!
#REF!#REF!#REF!#REF!78.89180.27#REF!
ProGrade V60UHS-II9815576.6977.39#REF!
Amplim 2000x v60UHS-II136253110.8111.46#REF!
Amplim 1900x V60UHS-II9727585.6987.16#REF!
#REF!#REF!#REF!#REF!119.22#REF!
Angel Bird V60 IIUHS-II144243117.35#REF!
FreeTail Evoke Pro V60UHS-II9627285.2886.7#REF!
#REF!#REF!#REF!#REF!200.9202.6#REF!
#REF!#REF!#REF!#REF!203.04200.39#REF!
#REF!#REF!#REF!#REF!200.61199.36#REF!
#REF!#REF!#REF!#REF!202.39#REF!
Sandisk Extreme Pro U3UHS-I14417270.62#REF!
Sandisk Extreme Plus U3UHS-I6114370.48#REF!
Sandisk Extreme U3UHS-I519347.87#REF!
Sandisk Ultra U1 OldUHS-I279325.35#REF!
Kingston CanvasGo! Plus U3UHS-I12416176.87#REF!
#REF!#REF!#REF!#REF!76.77#REF!
Lexar 633x U3UHS-I3593#REF!
#REF!#REF!#REF!#REF!76.99#REF!
Sony Professional U3UHS-I8491#REF!
Sony U3 94UHS-I6091#REF!
Sony U3 95UHS-I8190#REF!
Transcend U3UHS-I799176.99#REF!
PNY Pro Elite U3 256GBUHS-I879382.2#REF!
PNY Elite-X U3 128 GBUHS-I569255.52#REF!
PNY Elite Performance U3UHS-I639158.96#REF!
Delkin Black U3UHS-I869377.49#REF!
Delkin Advantage U3UHS-I779370.59#REF!
Toshiba Exceria Pro U3UHS-I749165.74#REF!
Toshiba Exceria U3UHS-I299129.13#REF!
Verbatim Pro+ U3UHS-I779168.2#REF!
Verbatim Pro U3UHS-I469055.54#REF!
Amplim 667x A1 V30UHS-I509346.44#REF!
RitzGear Extreme Performance A1 V30UHS-I629356.27#REF!

 

Using XQD Memory Cards In the Nikon Z6 II / Z7 II

You can still use your old XQD memory cards in these new cameras, but they will not run as fast as a good CFexpress card. This isn’t because the new cameras are now fully functional, rather, there are two processors, which means two data lanes.

XQD cards still do function fine and they are slightly faster than UHS-II memory cards. When testing the Nikon XQD memory card it ran at 228.55MB/s.  Not as fast as the Angel Bird 256GB card that hit speeds of 332.10 MB/s but faster than the Kodak Ultra Pro v90 which ran at 203.04MB/s

 

Best Memory Cards For Video

The Nikon Z6 II and Z7 II have a bitrate of about 150Mbps which translates to about 19MB/s. This means any U3 card whether that’s UHS-I or UHS-II will work fine for video.

Since the Nikon Z6 II and Z7 II only shoot video to one card slot at a time, it might make sense to buy a larger UHS-I or UHS-II v60 card that’s designated for video, since these cards can be found at a better price than CFexpress cards.

 

What Size Memory Card Do You Need?

Choosing memory card sizes depends on how much shooting you need or whether you clear of your cards often, or need a card to last you days or weeks.

I’ve moved over to 128GB cards because I like to be able to go a few days before clearing off my cards. Or sometimes I leave shots on my cards even after I’ve copied them to my computer simply for short-term backup while I wait for them to transfer over to my Synology backup server. This also keeps me from using the same part of the flash memory over and over which can wear it out quicker.

Video shooters will likely want to start with 128GB cards.

See the bitrate calculator to get an idea of how big of a card you need for how much time you want to record.

The Nikon Z 6II and Z 7II record a bitrate of about 150Mbps.

 

Best Memory Cards Nikon Z 6II / Z 7II Bottom Line

For now, Angel Bird seems to be the card of choice. If new firmware rolls out I can do a test, I was also considering testing the Z7 II independent from the Z6 II to see if that makes a difference.

**This website contains affiliate links and I will be compensated if you click them to make a purchase.
AGriffin

Professional editor, blogger and photographer from Los Angeles California.

Related Topics
  • Memory Card Speed Tests
  • Nikon Z6 II
  • Nikon Z7 II
You May Also Like
Leica M11 With Voigtlander 35mm f2
View Post
  • Memory Cards

Best Memory Cards Leica M11 – Real Benchmarks

  • AGriffin
  • January 19, 2023
Lexar New CFexpress A 320GB
View Post
  • Blog
  • Memory Cards

Lexar 320GB CFxA Memory Card – The Best Card Yet?

  • AGriffin
  • December 21, 2022
Lexar CFexpress Type A Review
View Post
  • Accessory Reviews
  • Blog
  • Memory Cards
  • Reviews

Lexar CFexpress Type-A Memory Card Review

  • AGriffin
  • December 26, 2022
Lexar Diamond CFexpress Review
View Post
  • Blog
  • Hardware Reviews
  • Memory Cards
  • Reviews

Lexar Diamond CFexpress Type B Review

  • AGriffin
  • August 23, 2022

IG Landscapes @alikgriffin

IG Streets @griffinalik

Twitter Feed
I just bought the Topaz Photo AI - Denoise, Gigapixel, and Sharpening. Totally Amazing. Does a great job of cleanin… https://t.co/KlCzPHJs2F
5 days ago
  • Reply
  • Retweet
  • Favorite
Follow
Popular Articles
  • BB2 Blower Review 1
    NiteCore BB2 Electronic Blower Review
  • 2
    Voigtlander Ultron 35mm f2 Review
  • Lexar New CFexpress A 320GB 3
    Lexar 320GB CFxA Memory Card – The Best Card Yet?
  • Leica M11 With Voigtlander 35mm f2 4
    Leica M11 Review | An Icon With Some Glaring Problems
  • Kalina Posing 5
    I Still Love This Lens – Here is why
Join The Fun! Sign Up To The Newsletter!


*You will need to confirm your email. Check your spam folder after hitting subscribe.

About Me

A professional freelance trailer editor. I've been blogging for a decade and this site focuses on benchmarking memory cards, camera accessories, and lens reviews. There will be a shift towards more education with color and editing so be sure to hit the bell in the bottom right to subscribe for updates. Read About to learn more.

Popular Lens Reviews
  • 1
    A Complete List Of Fujifilm Lenses | X-Mount
  • Nikon Z 50mm f1.8 S Lens Review 2
    Nikon Z 50mm f1.8 S Lens Review & Sample Photos
  • 3
    Meike 35mm f1.7 Review & Sample Photos
  • 4
    Kamlan 50mm f1.1 II Review & Sample Photos
  • 5
    Meike 35mm f1.4 Review & Sample Photos
Memory Card Guides | Benchmarks

Memory Cards For Canon R5

Memory Cards For Canon R6

Memory Cards For Nikon Z6II / Z7II

Memory Cards For Nikon Z5

Memory Cards For Fujifilm X-T4

Memory Cards For GoPro Hero 9

Memory Cards For GoPro Hero 8

Privacy Policy | Ethics Statement | Licensing

Copyright © Alik Griffin Inc. 2021

Input your search keywords and press Enter.

Manage Cookie Consent

We use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behavior or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.

Functional Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes. The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
Manage options Manage services Manage vendors Read more about these purposes
View preferences
{title} {title} {title}