• Blog
  • Calculators
    • DoF Calculator | Lens Equivalent
    • Camera Bitrate Converter | Record Time Calculator
    • Diffraction Calculator
  • Memory Cards
    • Memory Cards (all cameras)
    • Memory Cards For Canon
    • Memory Cards For GoPro
  • Accessories
    • Canon
      • Canon R5
      • 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 / Z7
      • Nikon Z50
    • Fujifilm
      • Fujifilm X-T4
      • Fujifilm X-S10
      • Fujifilm X-T3
      • Fujifilm X-Pro3
      • Fujifilm X-H1
      • Fujifilm X-T200
      • Fujifilm X100V Accessories
      • Fujifilm X100F Accessories
      • Fujifilm XT30 & XT20
      • Fujifilm X-E3 | X-E2 | X-E2s
    • Panasonic
      • Panasonic GH5 / GH5s
      • Panasonic LX100 II
    • Ricoh
      • Ricoh GR III
    • Sigma
      • Sigma fp
    • Sony
      • Sony A7sIII
      • Sony A7rIV / A9II
      • Sony A9
      • Sony A7 III, A7r III
      • Sony A6600 Accessories
      • Sony A6000 Accessories
      • Sony A6100 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 XF Lens List
    • Fujifilm G Lens List
    • Leica M Lens List
    • Micro Four Thirds Lens List
    • Nikon Z Lens List
    • Sony FF E Lens List
    • Sony APS-C E Lens List
  • Store
Follow Me
Instagram
Twitter
YouTube
Alik Griffin
Alik Griffin
  • Blog
  • Calculators
    • DoF Calculator | Lens Equivalent
    • Camera Bitrate Converter | Record Time Calculator
    • Diffraction Calculator
  • Memory Cards
    • Memory Cards (all cameras)
    • Memory Cards For Canon
    • Memory Cards For GoPro
  • Accessories
    • Canon
      • Canon R5
      • 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 / Z7
      • Nikon Z50
    • Fujifilm
      • Fujifilm X-T4
      • Fujifilm X-S10
      • Fujifilm X-T3
      • Fujifilm X-Pro3
      • Fujifilm X-H1
      • Fujifilm X-T200
      • Fujifilm X100V Accessories
      • Fujifilm X100F Accessories
      • Fujifilm XT30 & XT20
      • Fujifilm X-E3 | X-E2 | X-E2s
    • Panasonic
      • Panasonic GH5 / GH5s
      • Panasonic LX100 II
    • Ricoh
      • Ricoh GR III
    • Sigma
      • Sigma fp
    • Sony
      • Sony A7sIII
      • Sony A7rIV / A9II
      • Sony A9
      • Sony A7 III, A7r III
      • Sony A6600 Accessories
      • Sony A6000 Accessories
      • Sony A6100 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 XF Lens List
    • Fujifilm G Lens List
    • Leica M Lens List
    • Micro Four Thirds Lens List
    • Nikon Z Lens List
    • Sony FF E Lens List
    • Sony APS-C E Lens List
  • Store
  • Memory Cards

Best Memory Cards Olympus E-M1X

  • April 30, 2019
  • Alik

An in-camera speed test comparing all the most popular UHS-I and UHS-II memory cards in the Olympus OM-D E-M1X.

Use this guide to find the best memory cards for your Olympus EM1X.

 

Camera Specs

Sensor: 20.4MP Live MOS Micro Four Thirds Sensor
Processor: Dual TruePic VIII Image Processors
Continuous Shooting: (15fps AF-S, 10fps AF-C) Mechanical Shutter 
(60fps AF-S, 18fps AF-C) Electronic Shutter
Memory Card Slots: Slot 1 – UHS-II / Slot 2 – UHS-II
Buffer Size: 1GB
Shots to Fill Buffer: 106 RAW ( AngelBird V90 )
Approx. Time To Clear Buffer: 10.5 sec

Olympus EM1X – Amazon / Adorama / BHphoto

 

 

Best Memory Cards Olympus EM1X

 

 

Memory Card Speed Test

UHS-II memory cards perform very well in the Olympus EM1X with a top speed of about 150-155MB/s with the Angel Bird V90 being the fastest in this particular set of tests.

UHS-I memory card speeds on the other hand abysmally slow for a camera of this class, with speeds averaging 30-40MB/s, almost half of what a UHS-I camera like the Fujifilm X-T30 will output.

This means, you’ll really want to avoid UHS-I cards on the Olympus EM1X and maybe consider a v60 UHS-II card if you’re looking for just decent speeds at a cheaper price.

There were no serious hiccups with any of the cards in terms of reliability or compatibility, except the Sony M card would force the camera to stop bursting once the buffer was filled. That was the only card that gave me issues. The Sony G Tough and Sony G performed fine.

Memory CardSpeed ClassUSB ReadUSB WriteOlympus E-M1XOrder
Sandisk Extreme Pro 170MB/s U3UHS-I99.288.338.51Amazon
Sandisk Extreme Plus U3UHS-I99.388.238.66Amazon
Sandisk Extreme U3UHS-I99.356.838.96Amazon
Sandisk Ultra U1UHS-I99.534.325.51--
Kingston CanvasReact A1 U3UHS-I99.682.537.76Amazon
Kingston CanvasGo! U3UHS-I99.674.037.77Amazon
Lexar 633x U1UHS-I95.054.637.18--
Sony Professional U3UHS-I98.560.238.79Amazon
Sony U3 94MB/sUHS-I96.757.538.43Amazon
Sony U3 95MB/sUHS-I96.685.438.72Amazon
Transcend U3 U3UHS-I96.787.838.61Amazon
PNY Elite Performance U3UHS-I96.766.938.94Amazon
Delkin Advantage U3UHS-I99.678.837.83Amazon
Toshiba Exceria Pro U3UHS-I97.874.739.69Amazon
Toshiba Exceria U3UHS-I97.229.928.65Amazon
Verbatim Pro+ U3UHS-I98.583.739.33Amazon
Verbatim Pro U3UHS-I96.668.037.15Amazon
Amplim 667x A1 V30UHS-I99.652.236.33Amazon
Sandisk Extreme Pro 300MB/sUHS-II258.5190.5142.46Amazon
Lexar 2000xUHS-II258.9201.5146.71Amazon
Lexar 1000xUHS-II153.483.0987.74Amazon
Toshiba Exceria ProUHS-II263.6223.8150.33Amazon
Transcend v90UHS-II258.2164.9142.84Amazon
Sony G ToughUHS-II256.8201.0154.01Amazon
Sony GUHS-II258.0206.7150.27Amazon
Sony MUHS-II253.691.6070.40Amazon
Delkin PowerUHS-II257.6191.0145.90Amazon
Delkin PrimeUHS-II252.889.184.57Amazon
Fujifilm Elite IIUHS-II259.3168.4133.05Amazon
Adata V90UHS-II259.4187.4152.07Amazon
Hoodman Steel 2000xUHS-II268.7183.9133.35Amazon
Hoodman Steel 1500xUHS-II258.1169.280.06BHphoto
ProGrade V90UHS-II258.2212.8153.89Amazon
ProGrade V60UHS-II166.9105.969.00Amazon
Amplim 1900x V60UHS-II249.8104.579.81Amazon
Angel Bird V90UHS-II256.6211.1154.80Amazon
Angel Bird V60UHS-II166.980.2484.01Amazon
FreeTail Evoke Pro V60UHS-II238.5102.879.01Amazon

I did not do an extensive video test with this camera, I have posted some information about the video specs and performance below.

 

Top 5 Recommended Memory Cards Olympus EM1X

 

Sony Tough UHS-II

Sony G Tough Best Memory SD Memory Cards Cards Olympus E-M1X

Available at: Amazon / Adorama / BHphoto

The Sony G Tough card has been consistently at the top of the charts since its release and the tougher build solves a lot of reliability issues that plague SD cards. They are one of the most expensive cards but they won’t fall apart like standard cards with the plastic shell.

 

Sony G UHS-II

Sony G Good Memory Card Olympus E-M1XAvailable at: Amazon / Adorama / BHphoto

The Sony G is also a fantastic card. Very close to the Sony Tough card in terms of performance, it just lacks the enhanced build quality making this a great backup card for Slot 2 if you decide to go with Sony. Do stay away from the Sony M cards though, they gave me some issues in this camera.

 

Sandisk Extreme Pro UHS-II

Sandisk Extreme Pro Best Memory Card Olympus E-M1XAvailable at: Amazon / Adorama / BHphoto

The Sandisk Extreme Pro is top-tier. They didn’t perform the best in the Olympus E-M1X, but the difference of a few MB/s will not be noticable in real world shooting conditions. Sandisk is a very reliable brand and their memory cards are very good and use very high quality flash. It’s rare to get cards with slow spots or bad sectors. 

 

ProGrade V90 UHS-II

Prograde V90 Recommended Memory Card Olympus E-M1XAvailable at: Amazon / BHphoto

ProGrade is a new brand that came from the purge of Lexar from Micron. While this company is new, they have years of experience because the founders worked with Lexar and their brand already has a great reputation.

 

AngelBird V90 UHS-II

AngelBird v90 Fastest Memory Card Olympus E-M1XAvailable at: Amazon / BHphoto

AngelBird is a new brand of card. I don’t know too much about this company but their cards have been consistently performing very well, usually at the top of the charts. I’m going start recommending their cards until I see any negative feedback other than negative performance in the Panasonic GH5. That camera has absolutely horrible memory card firmware (worst I’ve tested), so it’s not really AngelBirds fault that Panasonic doesn’t build hardware and software that is compatible with many of the standard types of flash on the market.

 

Buying Memory Cards For Video

 

There are some nice video features in the Olympus EM1X, 1080p at 120fps and 4k at 237mbps which is pretty good compared to a lot of the competition. Fujifilm and Panasonic are doing 400mbps with their cropped sensors, but 237mbps is a little bit easier to work with since it’s a much lighter encoding and doesn’t take up as much memory. It also doesn’t require extremely fast cards so you’ll likely not run into any buffer issues if you’re using v60 UHS-II cards.

A bitrate of 237mbps translates to a speed of about 30MB/s. This is right at the U3 speed class and any U3 memory card should be able to handle this speed unless there are some defects or other issues.

The Olympus EM1X also has a about 1GB buffer so as long as you have a fast UHS-II card, you will never see hiccups with video recording.

While I don’t recommend UHS-I cards in the Olympus EM1X, you could use some of the higher end cards like the Sandisk Extreme Pro for video.

Note: I did not do any detailed video tests with the Olympus so I cannot comment on specific cards or any issues they may have. I skipped this test partly because of time restraints and Olympus cameras have never had memory card issues for me in the past and the camera only records video at 30MB/s so there wasn’t any cause for concern when it came to video recording.

Let me know if you run into any video issues with any cards and I’ll do an update.

 

Best Memory Cards Olympus E-M1X Conclusions

 

When it comes to buying memory cards for the Olympus E-M1X your options are really limited to UHS-II only. If you buy UHS-I cards for this camera you will be dramatically limiting the cameras capabilities to clear the buffer quickly which could get you in trouble if you’re doing a lot of continuous shooting, which is the whole point of buying this camera.

The Olympus EM1X also features two UHS-II memory card slots, so if budget is your concern, you could still use the v60 UHS-II cards, like a Delkin Prime or an AngelBird v60 and still get some really decent performance at a much better price and these cards will be more than capable at handling any of the video formats the Olympus is capable of recording with.

For bursting, I would recommend only buying V90 cards, for casual shooting and video, v60 cards will work great.

**This website contains affiliate links and I will be compensated if you click them to make a purchase.
Related Topics
  • Memory Card Speed Tests
  • Olympus E-M1X
Alik

Professional editor, blogger and photographer from Los Angeles California.

You May Also Like
View Post
  • Memory Cards

Best Memory Cards Fujifilm X-E4

  • Alik
  • April 19, 2021
View Post
  • Memory Cards

Best Memory Cards Fujifilm X-S10

  • Alik
  • February 6, 2021
View Post
  • Memory Cards

Best Memory Cards Nikon Z6 II / Z7 II

  • Alik
  • November 8, 2020
View Post
  • Memory Cards

Best Memory Cards Sony A7c

  • Alik
  • October 20, 2020
Youtube
  • How To Create A Better Film-Like Grain In Lightroom
  • The Secret To A Better Film Look
  • Advanced Lightroom Color Editing
    Hack Lightroom Presets For Better Color Editing
  • Master Curves In Lightroom
    How To Get Better Contrast With The Curves Tools | Lightroom Tutorial
Popular Articles
  • 1
    TTArtisan 50mm f1.2 Review – The Best Casual 50mm
  • SLR Magic 50mm f1.1 Sample Photo 2
    Modern Lens Design Is Crazier Than You Think
  • 3
    Pergear 12mm f2 HDR Samples | Fukuoka Japan
  • 4
    Cheap vs Expensive Lenses – What’s the Real Difference?
  • 5
    Japan Landscape Shooting – Rokinon 12mm f2
Join The Fun! | Sign Up For The Newsletter


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 udpdates. 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
    Kamlan 50mm f1.1 II Review & Sample Photos
  • 4
    Meike 35mm f1.7 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 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.

This website and its third-party tools use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience possible. Do Not Sell My Personal Information. Exercise your consumer rights by contacting us.Learn More

If you scroll or click 'Ok' we will assume that you are happy with it.
OkNo