We tested 39 SD memory cards in the Sony A6100 to find the best and fastest cards.
Here are the top cards we recommend for the Sony A6100 as well as a benchmark chart and some cool specs that you won’t find anywhere else.
Best Memory Cards Sony A6100
It looks like Sony is keeping the A6100 a little bit more consumer-focused with the way memory cards are performing. It’s not using UHS-II cards yet and UHS-I speeds are still fairly slow compared to what some of Sony’s more expensive cameras are doing.
When buying cards stick with a minimum speed class of U3 if you need to shoot 4k video. The camera will reject U1 cards when trying to shoot video.
Sony A6100 Memory Card Recommendations
The Sony A6100 uses a single UHS-I memory card slot with a top write speed of about 38.5MB/s.
Sony 4k video has a compression of 400Mbps, which translates to 12MB/s. Any UHS-I memory card will work for 4k video as long as it’s of the U3, or V30 speed class. Do not use U1 cards.
You can use UHS-II memory cards like the Sony E card. You won’t gain any speed in-camera, but you can get fast transfer speeds from your card to your computer if you use a UHS-II memory card reader. This is useful if you’re using your camera for a lot of video recording.
| Memory Card Recommendations | In-Camera Write | USB Write | USB Read | Order |
| Sandisk Extreme Pro U3 | 38.51MB/s | 88.3 | 99.2 | Amazon |
| Sony E UHS-II* | — | 103.8 | 282.3 | Amazon |
| Delkin Black U3 Tough | 37.10MB | 78.8 | 99.6 | B&H |
| Delkin Advantage U3 | 37.10MB/s | 78.8 | 99.6 | Amazon |
| Kingston CanvasReact A1 U3 | 36.66MB/s | 82.5 | 99.6 | Amazon |
*The Sony E card is a new UHS-II card optimized for UHS-I write speeds, but with UHS-II read speeds which is great for video shooters that need to transfer footage to their computer quickly.
Also, see my list of the Essential A6100 Accessories.
Memory Card Speed Test | In-Camera Test Results
This is a list showing how each card performed in the Sony A6100.
To test the cards in the camera we run each one through a series of continuous bursts at the highest speed possible. The time for the buffer to clear is then calculated against how much data was written. We do this a few times for each card to look for any flaws then take the best results.
Although UHS-II cards are showing slightly faster results, you’ll still want to stick with UHS-I cards for the A6100. The A6100 does not have the second row of pins to utilize UHS-II cards and it’s a waste of money to buy them.
| Memory Card | Speed Class | In-Camera Write | USB Read | USB Write |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sandisk Extreme Pro 170MB/s | UHS-I | 38.51MB/s | 99.2 | 88.3 |
| Sandisk Extreme Plus | UHS-I | 38.55MB/s | 99.3 | 88.2 |
| Sandisk Extreme U3 | UHS-I | 38.23MB/s | 99.3 | 56.8 |
| Sandisk Ultra U1 | UHS-I | 26.01MB/s | 99.5 | 34.3 |
| Kingston Canvas React A1 U3* | UHS-I | 36.66MB/s | 99.6 | 82.5 |
| Kingston Canvas Go! U3* | UHS-I | 36.61MB/s | 99.6 | 74.0 |
| Lexar 633x U1 | UHS-I | 36.63MB/s | 95.0 | 54.6 |
| Sony Professional U3* | UHS-I | 38.83MB/s | 98.5 | 60.2 |
| Sony U3 94MB/s | UHS-I | 37.40MB/s | 96.7 | 57.5 |
| Sony U3 95MB/s | UHS-I | 37.84MB/s | 96.6 | 85.4 |
| Transcend U3 | UHS-I | 38.12MB/s | 96.7 | 87.8 |
| PNY Elite Performance U3 | UHS-I | 38.28MB/s | 96.7 | 66.9 |
| Delkin Advantage U3* | UHS-I | 37.10MB/s | 99.6 | 78.8 |
| Toshiba Exceria Pro U3* | UHS-I | 38.59MB/s | 97.8 | 74.7 |
| Toshiba Exceria U3* | UHS-I | 28.41MB/s | 97.2 | 29.9 |
| Verbatim Pro+ U3* | UHS-I | 37.13MB/s | 98.5 | 83.7 |
| Verbatim Pro U3* | UHS-I | 36.30MB/s | 96.6 | 68.0 |
| Amplim 667x A1 V30* | UHS-I | 35.58MB/s | 99.6 | 52.2 |
| Sandisk Extreme Pro 300MB/s | UHS-II | 39.01MB/s | 258.5 | 190.5 |
| Lexar 2000x | UHS-II | 38.31MB/s | 258.9 | 201.5 |
| Lexar 1667x* | UHS-II | 38.55MB/s | -- | -- |
| Lexar 1000x | UHS-II | 38.45MB/s | 153.4 | 83.09 |
| Toshiba Exceria Pro | UHS-II | 38.81MB/s | 263.6 | 223.8 |
| Transcend v90 | UHS-II | 38.78MB/s | 258.2 | 164.9 |
| Sony G Tough* | UHS-II | 39.28MB/s | 256.8 | 201.0 |
| Sony G | UHS-II | 39.29MB/s | 258.0 | 206.7 |
| Sony M | UHS-II | 39.03MB/s | 253.6 | 91.6 |
| Delkin Power v90 | UHS-II | 39.05MB/s | 257.6 | 191.0 |
| Delkin Prime v60 | UHS-II | 39.00MB/s | 252.8 | 89.1 |
| Fujifilm Elite II | UHS-II | 38.89MB/s | 259.3 | 168.4 |
| Adata v90 | UHS-II | 38.64MB/s | 259.4 | 187.4 |
| Hoodman Steel 2000x | UHS-II | 38.63MB/s | 268.7 | 183.9 |
| Hoodman Steel 1500x* | UHS-II | 38.87MB/s | 258.1 | 169.2 |
| ProGrade V90* | UHS-II | 39.01MB/s | 258.2 | 212.8 |
| ProGrade V60* | UHS-II | 38.53MB/s | 166.9 | 105.9 |
| Amplim 1900x V60* | UHS-II | 38.76MB/s | 249.8 | 104.5 |
| Angel Bird V90* | UHS-II | 38.74MB/s | 256.6 | 211.1 |
| Angel Bird V60* | UHS-II | 38.50MB/s | 166.9 | 80.2 |
| FreeTail Evoke Pro V60* | UHS-II | 38.71MB/s | 238.5 | 102.8 |
Sony A6100 Camera Specs and Buffer Questions
| Sensor: 24.2MP APS-C Processor: BIONZ X Continuous Burst: 11 fps How Many SD Card Slots? Single Slot, UHS-I Video Modes: 4k24p / 4k25p / 4k30p 100Mbps What Is The Buffer Size? 800MB Estimate How Many Shots To Fill Buffer? 33 RAW How Long To Clear Buffer? 17:49 |
A6100 Bottlenecks
There is a little bit of a bottleneck happing with memory card write speeds in the A6100. It’s likely Sony is only using slightly older hardware like UDMA 4 for interfacing with the memory card. This will bottleneck the speed which is why most of the cards are running at about 38MB/s.
The good news is this makes choosing the fastest sd card a little easier since they all run close to the same speed.
Sony A6100 Video Record Times
Most of the Sony cameras are all shooting with the same video specs even the A6100.
You can shoot 4k at 30fps with 100Mbps, or 1080p up to 120fps.
Here a list of video record times for the different sizes of cards for the different record settings.
| Resolution | Format | Bitrate | 32GB | 64GB | 128GB | 256GB |
| 4k30p, 24p | XAVC S 4K | 100Mbps | 43min | 85min | 171min | 341min |
| 4k30p, 24p | XAVC S 4K | 60Mbps | 71min | 142min | 284min | 569min |
| 1080 120p, 100p | XAVC S HD | 100Mbps | 43min | 85min | 171min | 341min |
| 1080 120p, 100p | XAVC S HD | 60Mbps | 71min | 142min | 284min | 569min |
| 1080 24p, 25p, 30p, 50p, 60p | XAVC S HD | 50Mbps | 85min | 171min | 341min | 683min |
| 1080 25p, 30p | XAVC S HD | 16Mbps | 267min | 533min | 1067min | 2133min |
| 1080 60i | AVCHD | 24Mbps | 178min | 356min | 711min | 1422min |
| 1080 60i | AVCHD | 17Mbps | 251min | 502min | 1004min | 2008min |
Avoiding Counterfeit Cards
Since the Sony A6100 only has a single card slot, you will want to make sure that you get your memory cards from a trusted source to avoid anything counterfeit.
When buying memory cards, avoid auction sites if possible and even be a little careful about buying cards on big sites like Amazon or Jet if you suspect they are sharing inventory with other stores. You can check this by seeing if there are multiple sellers of a card under a particular listing.
Checking Counterfeit Cards
Counterfeit cards usually work by hacking the memory controller to tell your camera the card has more flash than it really does.
This will allow your camera to run fine as long as you’re below that threshold. The second you try to write more data than there is flash, the card will completely die, wiping out all your data.
To check to see if you have a counterfeit card, just max out the capacity of the card when you first get it. You can do this by recording video to it or even drag and dropping footage to it from your computer.
Best SD Card Sony A6100 Conclusions
The Sony A6100 is a great update to the A6000 with new focus tech a new scree a new build and even a subtle improvement to memory card performance.
Stick with a good U3 UHS-I card and your camera should be good to go for a few years before you need to worry about memory cards again.
