Best Memory Cards for the Sony A7S III – 38 Cards Tested In-Camera

The Sony A7S III has two card slots, and each one takes either a CFexpress Type A card or a UHS-II SD card. In my in-camera tests, CFexpress Type A cards wrote about 240 MB/s, the fastest V90 SD cards 235–243 MB/s, V60 cards 82–138 MB/s, and UHS-I cards topped out at 80 MB/s. For video, buy CFexpress Type A or V90; for stills, a CFexpress Type A card means the buffer never fills at 10 fps, even in Uncompressed RAW.

How I Tested

I tested 38 cards in the A7S III (tested 2021) by shooting Uncompressed RAW bursts until the buffer filled, then dividing the data written by the time the camera took to clear it. I use the fastest run for each card. With CFexpress Type A cards the buffer never filled: the camera can’t produce Uncompressed RAW much faster than about 250 MB/s in a continuous burst, so the CFxA results show the camera’s limit, not the card’s.

Quick Picks for the Sony A7S III

	Best value: Lexar SILVER CF4.0 Type A. CFexpress Type A cards never filled the A7S III buffer in my tests, and the SILVER is rated for 200 MB/s minimum sustained writes, above the camera’s highest bitrate (1200 Mbps, or 150 MB/s). It costs about the same as a good V90 SD card.
	Pro CFxA: Delkin BLACK CF4.0 Type A. Same in-camera result as the SILVER, since the camera is the limit. Buy it if you want Delkin’s lifetime warranty.
	Best SD card: Angelbird AV PRO V90 MK2. 242 MB/s in the A7S III, within 1 MB/s of the fastest SD card I tested, and it wrote 6.5 GB of Uncompressed RAW per burst before the camera slowed.
	H.265 on a budget: Lexar ARMOR Gold V60. Wrote 194 MB/s in the Sony A7V, the fastest V60 card I’ve tested in-camera. V60 covers XAVC HS and XAVC S, but not XAVC S-I.

What about Sony cards? I like Sony’s own cards in a lot of Sony cameras because they perform so well. The Sony TOUGH G V90 was the fastest SD card I tested in the A7S III at 243 MB/s, and it wrote 14.4 GB of Uncompressed RAW per burst, the most of any SD card. But Sony has suspended orders for nearly all of its SD and CFexpress cards because of the global flash memory shortage, so they’re hard to find right now, and Sony has had bad cards and recalls in the past. The picks above are easier to buy and record everything the A7S III can do. If you find a TOUGH G at a fair price, it’s still the best SD card for stills bursts.

The A7S III as a Stills Camera

The A7S III gets bought as a video camera, but it’s built like Sony’s hybrid A7 bodies, with a 9.44 million-dot EVF, 10 fps bursts, and Compressed or Uncompressed RAW, so it works well for stills too, especially in low light. The 12MP files are small, which changes how cards behave:

• CFexpress Type A: the buffer never filled in my tests. The cards wrote about 240 MB/s, which is as fast as the camera produces Uncompressed RAW at 10 fps.
• Fast V90 SD cards: the best ones (235 MB/s and up) wrote 3–14 GB of Uncompressed RAW per burst before the camera slowed down.
• V60 SD cards: the buffer filled after about 1.4–2.1 GB, and the cards cleared it at 82–138 MB/s.
• UHS-I cards: the buffer filled after about 1.1–1.4 GB, and the fastest cards cleared it at 78–80 MB/s.

If you shoot action or events in bursts, use CFxA or one of the 235 MB/s V90 cards. Compressed RAW files are about half the size, so they double the number of frames per GB. For ordinary stills, any V60 card is fine.

How Many Photos Fit on a Card

File format	64GB SD	128GB SD	80GB CFxA	160GB CFxA
RAW (Uncompressed)	1,900	3,800	2,200	4,400
RAW (Compressed)	3,500	7,000	4,100	8,100
RAW & JPEG (Uncompressed RAW)	1,600	3,200	1,800	3,800
HEIF Fine	16,000	33,000	19,000	38,000
JPEG Fine	11,000	22,000	12,000	25,000

Sony’s estimates at 3:2 and 12M size, from the A7S III Help Guide. For a stills-heavy day in Uncompressed RAW, a 128GB card holds about 3,800 frames. To split files across cards, use Sort under Rec. Media Settings to send RAW to one card and JPEG or HEIF to the other.

How the A7S III’s Two Card Slots Work

Both slots take either card type, so you can mix and match. Set it under Rec. Media Settings:

• Backup (Simult. recording): records movies, stills, or both to both cards. The cards need the same file system: CFexpress Type A and SDXC use exFAT, but SDHC (32GB or smaller) uses FAT32 and won’t pair with them. SDHC cards also split long movies into 4GB files.
• Relay (Auto Switch Media): moves to the second card when the first fills.
• Sort: RAW to one card, JPEG or HEIF to the other.

A common setup is a CFxA card in the slot you record to and a V90 SD card in the other for backup or overflow.

CFexpress Type A or SD Cards for the Sony A7S III?

In the Sony A7S III, CFexpress Type A cards wrote about 240 MB/s without ever filling the buffer, while the fastest V90 SD cards wrote 235–243 MB/s. For video, Sony requires CFexpress Type A (VPG200 or higher) for XAVC S-I 4K slow motion and for XAVC S-I HD at 240fps or 200fps; everything else works on SD. The Lexar SILVER and other CFxA cards now cost about the same as V90 SD cards, so if you’re buying new cards, CFxA is the better buy. CFexpress 4.0 Type A cards work too, but the camera can’t use the extra speed; the benefit is faster transfers to your computer. See my CFexpress Type A benchmarks for reader speeds.

V90 vs V60 SD Cards in the Sony A7S III

In the Sony A7S III, the fastest V90 cards wrote 235–243 MB/s and V60 cards wrote 82–138 MB/s. Sony requires V90 for XAVC S-I on an SD card. V60 covers XAVC HS and XAVC S at up to 280 Mbps, including slow motion in those formats, though Sony says you may need V90 at 120fps or 100fps in 4K and at 240fps or 200fps in HD. Older V90 cards vary a lot: the Lexar 2000x, Transcend, and pre-Iridium ProGrade V90 cards wrote 128–133 MB/s, slower than the best V60 cards.

Current CFexpress Type A Cards I Recommend

I update this list as new cards come out. The speeds are from my card reader tests, so they show what each card can do, not what the A7S III writes.

Current UHS-II SD Cards I Recommend

I update this list as new cards come out. The speeds are from my card reader tests, so they show what each card can do, not what the A7S III writes.

Which Card Each A7S III Video Format Needs

These are Sony’s card requirements for the A7S III. Slow motion (S&Q) writes more data than the menu bitrate, which is why its maximum bitrates are higher. Sound isn’t recorded in S&Q. Sony notes that proxy recording may need a faster card.

Format	Normal recording	Slow motion (S&Q)
XAVC HS 4K	280 Mbps: CFxA (VPG200+) or V60	500 Mbps: CFxA (VPG200+) or V60; V90 may be needed at 120/100fps
XAVC S 4K	280 Mbps: CFxA (VPG200+) or V60	560 Mbps: CFxA (VPG200+) or V60; V90 may be needed at 120/100fps
XAVC S HD	100 Mbps: CFxA or U3	500 Mbps: CFxA (VPG200+) or V60; V90 may be needed at 240/200fps
XAVC S-I 4K	600 Mbps: CFxA (VPG200+) or V90	1200 Mbps: CFxA (VPG200+) only
XAVC S-I HD	222 Mbps: CFxA (VPG200+) or V90	890 Mbps: CFxA (VPG200+) or V90; CFxA required at 240/200fps

Source: Sony ILCE-7SM3 Help Guide. For record times, Sony rates a 128GB SD card at about 25 minutes of XAVC S-I 4K at 600 Mbps and 1 hr 10 min of XAVC HS 4K at 200 Mbps; the maximum single clip is about 13 hours. My Sony FX3 card guide has the full record-time table, since the FX3 uses the same codecs.

XAVC HS or XAVC S-I?

It depends on the job. XAVC HS (H.265) is more efficient, so it fits more footage on cheaper V60 cards, but it’s harder on your computer and usually means editing with proxies. XAVC S-I (All-Intra H.264) needs a V90 or CFxA card and fills cards much faster, but it plays back smoothly without proxies, which helps when you need to get into the edit quickly.

Sony A7S III In-Camera Test Results (Tested 2021)

CFexpress Type A Cards

Card	A7S III write (MB/s)	Note
Sony CFexpress Type A 80GB	242	Buffer never filled
ProGrade CFexpress Type A 160GB	240	Buffer never filled

UHS-II SD Cards

Card	Class	A7S III write (MB/s)	Data per burst (GB)
Sony TOUGH G	V90	243	14.4
Delkin BLACK V90	V90	242	6.6
Angelbird AV PRO V90 MK II	V90	242	6.5
Kodak Ultra Pro V90	V90	242	6.2
Ritz Gear VideoPro V90	V90	241	5.0
Kingston Canvas React V90	V90	239	3.3
Delkin POWER V90	V90	235	5.4
Toshiba Exceria Pro	V90	220	9.0
Fujifilm Elite II	V90	164	2.7
Hoodman Steel 2000x	V90	158	2.6
ADATA Premier ONE	V90	134	2.0
ProGrade V90 (pre-Iridium)	V90	133	2.0
Transcend V90	V90	132	2.0
Lexar 2000x	V90	128	1.9
Sony E V60	V60	138	2.1
Angelbird AV PRO V60 MK II	V60	136	2.0
Amplim 2000x	V60	131	1.9
Lexar 1667x	V60	100	1.5
Hoodman Steel 1500x	V60	98	1.5
Amplim 1900x	V60	96	1.5
Sony TOUGH M	V60	96	1.5
ProGrade V60	V60	96	1.5
FreeTail Evoke Pro	V60	95	1.5
Delkin PRIME V60	V60	82	1.4

UHS-I SD Cards

Card	Class	A7S III write (MB/s)	Data per burst (GB)
PNY Pro Elite	U3	80	1.4
Delkin BLACK UHS-I	V30	79	1.4
Kingston Canvas Select	V30	79	1.3
Kingston Canvas Go!	V30	78	1.4
Delkin Advantage	V30	72	1.3
Transcend U3	U3	69	1.3
SanDisk Extreme PRO (170MB/s)	V30	65	1.3
PNY Elite Performance	U3	60	1.2
PNY Elite-X	U3	51	1.2
SanDisk Extreme	U3	51	1.2
Lexar 633x	U3	34	1.1
SanDisk Ultra	U1	27	1.1

Fastest run per card. Data per burst includes the 2–4 shots I usually take after the buffer fills, so use it to compare cards, not as an exact buffer size. Older ProGrade V90 cards are pre-Iridium. I left out the older SanDisk Extreme PRO V90, which connected in UHS-I mode during this test (it still shows at the top of the chart); that version has since been replaced. If a card connects at UHS-I speed in your camera, try inserting it without the battery, then insert the battery, wait a few seconds, and turn the camera on.

Sony A7S III Specs

Spec	Sony A7S III
Sensor	12.1MP full-frame CMOS
Card slots	Two slots, each CFexpress Type A or SD (UHS-I/UHS-II)
Continuous shooting	Up to about 10 fps (Hi+)
RAW file types	Compressed or Uncompressed
Viewfinder	9.44 million dots
Highest bitrate	600 Mbps (XAVC S-I 4K), 1200 Mbps in S&Q
Max clip length	About 13 hours (Sony spec)
CFexpress Type B	Not supported

Sony A7S III Memory Card FAQ

Do I need CFexpress Type A for the A7S III?

Only for XAVC S-I 4K slow motion and XAVC S-I HD at 240fps or 200fps. A V90 SD card handles everything else. CFxA also means the stills buffer never fills, and it now costs about the same as V90, so it’s my pick if you’re buying new cards.

Do V60 UHS-II cards work in the A7S III?

Yes, for XAVC HS and XAVC S at up to 280 Mbps and for most slow motion in those formats. Sony lists V90 or CFxA for XAVC S-I, so use one of those for All-Intra.

What is the fastest SD card for the Sony A7S III?

The Sony TOUGH G V90 at 243 MB/s, with the Delkin BLACK V90, Angelbird V90 MK II, and Kodak V90 at 242 MB/s.

Is the A7S III good for burst photography?

With a CFexpress Type A card, the buffer never filled at 10 fps in Uncompressed RAW. With a fast V90 card you get 3–14 GB of RAW per burst before it slows; with V60 or UHS-I cards, the buffer fills much sooner.

Can I mix a CFxA card in one slot and an SD card in the other?

Yes. Each slot takes either type. For simultaneous backup recording, pair the CFxA card with an SDXC card (64GB or larger), since SDHC cards use a different file system.

What size card should I get for the A7S III?

For video, 128GB holds about 1 hr 10 min of XAVC HS 4K at 200 Mbps, but only about 25 minutes of XAVC S-I 4K, so get 256GB or larger for All-Intra. For stills, 128GB holds about 3,800 Uncompressed RAW frames.

Are A7S III cards interchangeable with the FX3?

Yes. The FX3 uses the same sensor, processor, and card slots, so cards work the same in both. See my Sony FX3 card guide.

More Sony Guides

• Best Memory Cards for the Sony FX3
• Best Memory Cards for the Sony A7 IV
• Best Memory Cards for the Sony A7V
• CFexpress Type A card benchmarks
• SD card benchmarks
• Sony A7S III accessories