A speed test between all the most popular SD memory compared in the Ricoh GR III.
Use this guide to find the best memory cards for the Ricoh GR III.
Also see, the best accessories for the Ricoh GR III
Top 5 Recommend Memory Cards
The GR III uses UHS-I technology and that is all you need to buy. However, UHS-II cards do often run faster and they are showing to be about 12MB/s faster on this camera. But still, it’s not like you’re shooting professional basketball for this camera and need the ultimate fastest cards. So save some money, just buy UHS-I.
Here is a nice mix of good price to performance cards. If you’re just casually shooting, which is what this camera is designed for, you don’t really need the top-tier cards.
You can also get the camera bundled at B&H with a 32GB Sandisk Extreme Card that is totally fine except it would be easy to fill up in a weekend of shooting. I would personally go with a 64GB card.
| Card Names | In-Camera Speeds | Order |
| Toshiba Exceria Pro | 54.59MB/s | Amazon |
| Delkin Advantage | 51.99MB/s | Amazon |
| Kingston Canvas React | 52.72MB/s | Amazon |
| Sandisk Extreme Pro | 48.40MB/s | Amazon |
| Sandisk Extreme | 42.66MB/s | Amazon |
Ricoh III Memory Card Speed Chart
To get these in-camera speeds I shot a serious of continuous busts and timed how much data was captured against how long it took to clear the buffer.
UHS-II cards to record a little faster than UHS-I cards just by the nature of the better technology in the UHS-II cards, but since the GRIII does not have UHS-II tech, I would only buy UHS-II cards if you need fast speeds when transferring from your card to your computer. In that case, I recommend either the Sony M or the Sony E card.
| Memory Card | Speed Class | Ricoh GRIII Write | USB Read | USB Write |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sandisk Extreme Pro 170MB/s | UHS-I | 48.40MB/s | 99.2 | 88.3 |
| Sandisk Extreme Plus | UHS-I | 47.67MB/s | 99.3 | 88.2 |
| Sandisk Extreme U3 | UHS-I | 42.66MB/s | 99.3 | 56.8 |
| Sandisk Ultra U1 | UHS-I | 24.42MB/s | 99.5 | 34.3 |
| Kingston Canvas React A1 U3* | UHS-I | 52.72MB/s | 99.6 | 82.5 |
| Kingston Canvas Go! U3* | UHS-I | 51.41MB/s | 99.6 | 74.0 |
| Lexar 633x U1 | UHS-I | 37.21MB/s | 95.0 | 54.6 |
| Sony Professional U3* | UHS-I | 53.44MB/s | 98.5 | 60.2 |
| Sony U3 94MB/s | UHS-I | 40.69MB/s | 96.7 | 57.5 |
| Sony U3 95MB/s | UHS-I | 50.75MB/s | 96.6 | 85.4 |
| Transcend U3 | UHS-I | 50.62MB/s | 96.7 | 87.8 |
| PNY Elite Performance U3 | UHS-I | 45.50MB/s | 96.7 | 66.9 |
| Delkin Advantage U3* | UHS-I | 51.99MB/s | 99.6 | 78.8 |
| Toshiba Exceria Pro U3* | UHS-I | 54.59MB/s | 97.8 | 74.7 |
| Toshiba Exceria U3* | UHS-I | 24.03MB/s | 97.2 | 29.9 |
| Verbatim Pro+ U3* | UHS-I | 51.21MB/s | 98.5 | 83.7 |
| Verbatim Pro U3* | UHS-I | 38.39MB/s | 96.6 | 68.0 |
| Amplim 667x A1 V30* | UHS-I | 40.95MB/s | 99.6 | 52.2 |
| Sandisk Extreme Pro 300MB/s | UHS-II | 58.10MB/s | 258.5 | 190.5 |
| Lexar 2000x | UHS-II | 57.00MB/s | 258.9 | 201.5 |
| Lexar 1667x* | UHS-II | 52.20MB/s | -- | -- |
| Lexar 1000x | UHS-II | 52.45MB/s | 153.4 | 83.09 |
| Toshiba Exceria Pro | UHS-II | 57.85MB/s | 263.6 | 223.8 |
| Transcend v90 | UHS-II | 57.57MB/s | 258.2 | 164.9 |
| Sony G Tough* | UHS-II | 61.03MB/s | 256.8 | 201.0 |
| Sony G | UHS-II | 59.93MB/s | 258.0 | 206.7 |
| Sony M | UHS-II | 56.48MB/s | 253.6 | 91.6 |
| Delkin Power v90 | UHS-II | 62.30MB/s | 257.6 | 191.0 |
| Delkin Prime v60 | UHS-II | 53.18MB/s | 252.8 | 89.1 |
| Fujifilm Elite II | UHS-II | 51.55MB/s | 259.3 | 168.4 |
| Adata v90 | UHS-II | 57.34MB/s | 259.4 | 187.4 |
| Hoodman Steel 2000x | UHS-II | 57.62MB/s | 268.7 | 183.9 |
| Hoodman Steel 1500x* | UHS-II | 57.63MB/s | 258.1 | 169.2 |
| ProGrade V90* | UHS-II | 57.15MB/s | 258.2 | 212.8 |
| ProGrade V60* | UHS-II | 51.64MB/s | 166.9 | 105.9 |
| Amplim 1900x V60* | UHS-II | 56.89MB/s | 249.8 | 104.5 |
| Angel Bird V90* | UHS-II | 57.43MB/s | 256.6 | 211.1 |
| Angel Bird V60* | UHS-II | 40.41MB/s | 166.9 | 80.2 |
| FreeTail Evoke Pro V60* | UHS-II | 57.32MB/s | 238.5 | 102.8 |
Ricoh GRIII Camera Specs And Buffer Questions
| Sensor: 24.2MP APS-C CMOS Sensor Processor: GR Engine 6 SD Cards Slot: Single Slot UHS-I Continuous Burst: 4fps Video: HD 1920×1080 How Big Is The Buffer? About 400MB How Many Shots To Fill Buffer? 20 What Size Are The Raw Files: 30MB How Long To Clear Buffer? 5:04 5second 4 frames. |
Ricoh GR III – Amazon / Adorama / BHphoto
How To Avoid Counterfeit Cards
Counterfeit cards are a real problem. The simplest way to make sure you don’t have one is to fill the card and make sure it gets close to its rated size without dying.
Don’t buy cards from auction websites and stick with trusted sellers.
Best SD Memory Cards Ricoh GR III Bottom Line
The Ricoh GR III is not really designed for bleeding-edge performance. It only shoots 4fps (which is just about perfect for street photography), and it only has a 400MB/s buffer all you really need is a basic UHS-I memory card. Toshiba and the Sony Pro (very hard to find) were performing the best, but the Delkin, Kingston, and Sandisk cards are more than fast enough for a camera with these specs.
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In the “USB read speed” column of table 2, are those speeds when reading the card using a separate SD card reader, or speeds when reading off the camera and using it as the sd card reader?
Thanks for creating this page; very helpful.
The read speeds come from testing with a UHS-II memory card reader. Separate from the camera. I think for this chart it came from the Lexar readers. But I recently switched to a Sandisk Reader.