Best Memory Cards, In-Camera Speed Test Panasonic G9

We’ve tested all the most popular UHS-II and UHS-I memory cards in the Panasonic G9 to find the fastest and more reliable cards. Use this guide to find the best memory cards for the Panasonic G9. 

Panasonic Lumix G9 – Amazon / Adorama / BHphoto

Best Memory Cards Panasonic G9

First things first, the Panasonic has dual UHS-II memory card slots and will take cards with a capacity up to 128GB. UHS-I card performance is very slow in this camera so you should go with UHS-II cards.

Top 5 Recommended Memory Cards

Here are the top 5 best performing cards for the Panasonic G9. These will give you the best performance when bursting and they are more than fast enough to handle the highest video bitrate the camera offers.

Recommended Cards For Casual Photography & Video

If you’re just shooting casually or need a great card for video, here are a few nice cards that will save you money. This is what you want if you’re shooting video as well since the V90 cards can be overkill. Using the v60 cards will allow you to buy much larger cards.

There have been a ton of new cards that have come out since I tested but I’ll list what has been working well in most cameras.

Note, I personally like Delkin cards, I use them in many of my cameras, but like Lexar sometimes they have problems with Panasonic cameras. I didn’t see any problems with my test with this camera but I did get problems with Lexar.

Panasonic G9 | The Speed Test

We tested each card using the G9 shooting in RAW mode at ISO 100. All extra settings were turned off.

Like with the Panasonic GH5 and GH5s, UHS-I memory cards ran at disappointing speeds. You really need to buy UHS-II cards to unlock the full potential of the G9. But it’s not that simple as we found Lexar UHS-II cards failed to provide UHS-II rated memory card speeds so you will need to choose your brand carefully depending on what you want to use the camera for.

Use the chart below to see which cards are best for your needs.

Panasonic G9 Best Memory Cards

Like with previous generation Sony cameras, Panasonic cards have always been finicky with memory cards. Some cards like Lexar UHS-II cards just don’t work well while regular UHS-I memory cards have very slow buffers that bottleneck at around 30MB/s. The good news is the next generation of Panasonic cameras will likely upgrade the buffer speeds to stay competitive with the competition. In the meantime, UHS-II is the way to go with buffer speeds capping out at around 100MB/s. That’s really not too bad and totally fine for 4k video.

Other Cards To Consider / Cards To Avoid

There are a few new brands out there that are making UHS-II memory cards like Hoodman Steel, Adata and even Fujifilm and they are all are great options if you can find them at a less expensive price. But the one card brand to avoid for this camera is Lexar. They just don’t perform well and I do not recommend them. 

Finding The Best SD Memory Cards Panasonic G9

The best place to buy memory cards is from a trusted retailer. If you buy from Amazon, make sure you buy from the manufacturer when you can. Adorama and BHphoto are also great. Never buy the memory cards off eBay.

Best Memory Card 4k Video Panasonic G9

4k Video is limited to 150mbps and you’ll find that any of the top-performing memory cards will work fine. Even UHS-I memory cards will work for video, but you should be used U3 cards to make sure you always get consistent minimum write speeds.

UHS-II vs. UHS-I Memory Cards In The Panasonic G9

Can you use UHS-I memory cards if you’re just using it as a backup?

Since the Panasonic G9 takes UHS-II memory cards in both slots, We recommend using dual UHS-II memory cards. However, if you’re just shooting JPEG backups to card slot 2, then you will be able to get away with a UHS-I card.

Remember that when shooting with a dual memory card configuration, your buffer speeds will be limited to the slowest card, unless you’re writing smaller files such as JPEG to that card.

Best Memory Cards Panasonic G9 | Bottom Line

Because of the slow performance of the UHS-I memory cards, we recommend you stick with UHS-II cards for the Panasonic G9. Because of the super-fast burst speed and the high megapixel shoot modes, you’ll want the best performance out of your memory cards as possible to get the most out of your camera. 

Sony G UHS-II cards are going to be the easiest to find and all around is one of the best cards you can buy for this camera. However, Delkin V90 and Toshiba cards can sometimes be found at a better price and are also very fast. Fujifilm, Adata and Transcend also performed very well in-camera and are also recommended.