Best Memory Cards Sony A1 – Real Benchmarks

The A1 is Sony’s original flagship stacked-sensor body — 50MP at 30fps electronic shutter, with a 7GB buffer that holds 155 frames before it fills. That’s about 5 seconds of flat-out shooting at full speed. CFxA cards clear that buffer roughly twice as fast as V90 UHS-II SD, and they’re now priced comparably. The dual slots accept both CFexpress Type A and UHS-II SD in the same housing. For anyone shooting serious bursts, CFxA is the straightforward buy.

Sony A1 – Amazon / B&H

Recommended Memory Cards Sony A1

V90 UHS-II covers everything the A1 can do — all video modes including 8K, all burst modes. The case for CFxA is straightforward: at current pricing it costs about the same as V90 and clears the buffer about twice as fast. For new card purchases, CFxA is the better buy whether you’re shooting sports or portraits.

The Lexar Silver CFxA is the best value option right now — faster than any UHS-II SD card and priced comparably to the top V90 options.

The best CFExpress Type-A memory cards for the Sony A1

There are new CF4.0 Type-A cards that are significantly faster than the previous generation; however, the Sony A1 does not have the hardware to take advantage of them. CF4.0 isn’t needed for the Sony A1, but it is a good option if you want something a little future-proof or faster transfer speeds to your computer with the appropriate reader and SSD setup.

This chart visually illustrates how much faster CFexpress Type-A cards are than UHS-II memory cards at continuous burst speeds.

The Best SD UHS-II memory cards for the Sony A1

The Sony Tough G SD V90 UHS-II cards are among the best UHS-II memory cards and are my top recommendation for high-performance cameras like the Sony A1.

However, it’s essential to consider the price. Nowadays, CFexpress cards offer significantly higher speeds and are often priced similarly to, or even lower than, v90 cards.

Memory Card Benchmarks

These benchmarks are measured by shooting a series of bursts in Uncompressed RAW until the buffer fills, then measuring the amount of data written per second. Learn more information about CFexpress Type-A Memory Cards in this guide or this one. Best SD Memory Cards

Do You Need CFexpress Cards?

CFexpress Type A will clear the buffer twice as fast as UHS-II memory cards.

After benchmarking the camera, the difference between CFexpress and UHS-II cards was significant. With the Sony CFx Type A card, I got write speeds of around 600 MB/s in-camera. With the fastest UHS-II card, I could only write at around 250 MB/s; this will make a big difference when shooting long bursts.

UHS-II cards will work for all types of video recording, including 600Mbps H.264 and S&Q slow-motion modes, as long as they are rated at the v90 speed class.

Camera Specs Related To Memory Card Performance

Sensor: 50MP Full-Frame, Exmor RS BSI CMOS Processor: BIONZ XR Image Processor Memory Card Slots: 2 UHS-II / 2 CFe A Continuous Shoot Electronic: 30fps Continuous Shoot Mechanical: 10fps Est. Buffer Size: 7GB RAW Shots To Fill Buffer: 155 Frames @ 30fps Max Memory Card Capacity: Unlimited 4k Datarate: H.265 280Mbps / H.264 600Mbps 8k Datarate: H.265 520Mbps / No 8k With H.264

Best Memory Cards For 8k Video

The maximum bitrate for 8K on the Sony A1 is 520 Mbps (65 MB/s) with the XAVC HS 8K codec. If you want to shoot at this max data stream of 65MB/s, you must use a v90 UHS-II memory card at a minimum to guarantee performance.

Also, the XAVC S-I H.264 All-I codec can record up to 600 Mbps, which translates to 75 MB/s. Again, V90 UHS-II SD memory cards will be required at a minimum to guarantee performance.

8k & 4k Record Times Based On Memory Card Sizes

What memory card size is best for the Sony A1?

Remember that 8k maxes out at 520Mbps with XAVC HS H.265 encoding, and 4k with XAVC S-I H.264 encoding runs at 600Mbps.

This chart shows the maximum record times achievable at each bitrate, based on memory card size. The information is taken from the record time bitrate calculator.

Editing With H.264 vs H.265

You cannot record 8k at H.264 or 8k at 4:2:2.

When a camera records in H.265 and H.264, it uses hardware that Sony buys and installs in its cameras. Usually, it’s a custom part of the ARM Architecture licensed from third parties, so these specs are often locked in and can’t be changed with firmware.

You must be careful when using hardware accelerators for exporting and editing 4:2:2 10-bit content. Many computers and graphics cards, including Nvidia and AMD, still don’t support 4k 4:2:2 10-bit; often, it’s only 4:2:0 10-bit, and they don’t give you any warning that you’re out of spec. They will just export an inferior image to what you recorded.

Test this, and consider exporting your video with Software encoding only. If you’re in Premiere, this also means switching your sequence settings to software only before encoding.

If you’re on a new Intel (2021 Alder Lake, I think even Tiger Lake) or M1 Mac, you may not need to worry about this as long as you’re using the native encoders. Avoid anything that uses Nvidia and AMD accelerators for now, as of early 2022.

Also, M1 and new Intel processors will be able to handle H.265 much more easily than older computers, as they now have improved H.265 encoders and decoders. But again, be careful when using hardware encoders for your final output or testing to ensure your hardware supports 4:2:2 at 10-bit, not just 4:2:0 at 10-bit.

Bitrates	80GB	120GB	160GB	256GB
200Mbps	53min	80min	107min	171min
280Mbps	38min	57min	76min	122min
520Mbps	21min	31min	42min	67min
600Mbps (4k h.264)	18min	27min	36min	57min

Using a Second Card For Backup

For photographers, using a slower second card for backup, like UHS-II or UHS-I, will slow down the whole system to that speed, so ensure you get identical cards if you want redundancy without losing performance.

In other words, do not buy CFeA cards and use UHS-II or UHS-I cards in the second slot as a backup. Use cards with equal ratings in both slots so the slower card does not bottleneck the camera’s speed.

If you shoot RAW+JPG, can you use a slower card in slot two? The JPGs are smaller, but still not that much smaller, and can still slow the system down. Plus, the camera slows down a bit when writing the JPGs with the processor. So expect a minor performance hit when writing RAW+JPG. It would be best to use RAW+RAW with cards of equal rating.

Sony A1 Memory Cards — FAQ

Do CFexpress 4.0 cards work in the Sony A1?

Yes — CFexpress 4.0 Type A cards are fully backward compatible with the A1’s CFexpress 2.0 interface. You won’t see faster in-camera write speeds (the camera interface is the bottleneck), but you will get faster offload speeds if you use a CFexpress 4.0 card reader. Worth it if you’re dumping large volumes of footage regularly; otherwise the standard 2.0 cards (Lexar Gold, Delkin Black, Sony G Tough) are the better value.

Does each slot support both CFxA and UHS-II SD?

Yes. Unlike some cameras where the slot types differ, both slots on the A1 accept either CFexpress Type A or UHS-II SD cards interchangeably. You can run two CFxA cards, two V90 SD cards, or one of each — though mixing types in backup mode throttles the system to the slower card’s speed.

Can I use CFxA in one slot and UHS-II in the other for backup?

You can, but in simultaneous backup mode the faster card gets throttled to match the slower one. Put a CFxA card in Slot 1 and a V90 UHS-II in Slot 2, and Slot 1 will write at V90 speeds — negating the CFxA advantage. For backup recording, use identical cards in both slots. The only exception is if you’re using the slots independently (e.g., RAW to Slot 1, JPEG to Slot 2) rather than true backup mode.

Does V90 UHS-II cover 8K recording on the Sony A1?

Yes. The A1’s 8K XAVC HS codec runs at a maximum of 520Mbps (65MB/s), which V90 UHS-II cards cover comfortably — V90 guarantees a minimum of 90MB/s. The 4K H.264 All-I mode at 600Mbps (75MB/s) is also within V90 spec. Where CFxA wins is not recording compatibility but buffer clearing speed during burst shooting — a meaningful advantage if you shoot the A1’s 30fps stacked sensor hard.