Best SD Memory Card For The Sony A7rII

An in-camera speed comparison between all the most popular UHS-I and UHS-II SD memory cards in the Sony A7rII.

What I’ve learned?  Speed doesn’t matter as much as the little letters and numbers written on the card.

The new Sony cameras are loaded with so many features and many of them require certain kinds of cards to get the camera to do what you need. This guide will show you the basics and list some recommended SD cards that I’ve tested and that work great. 

Camera Stats

Sensor: 42.4MP Full-Frame Exmor R BSI CMOS Sensor

Processor: BIONZ X Image Processor

Memory Card Interface: UHS-I       

Video Resolution : 4K at 30fps 100M with S-Log Gamma 

Continuous Shoot: 5fps

Buffer Size: 900MB

Shots to fill buffer (Uncompressed RAW): 23

Time taken to clear buffer: 23 seconds (Sandisk Extreme Pro)

Sony A7rII – Amazon / Adorama / BHphoto

Sony Lenses For The A7rII

Sony A7r II Memory Card Speed Tests

New firmware 3.20 now allows us to use SDHC memory cards with the XAVC S codec. I’ve tested and confirmed that this does work, although the camera still has issues with compatible cards registering as not being compatible, making buying memory cards for 4k 100M still a crapshoot – more on this later.

SD Memory Card Speed Test Chart

Shot with ISO 640, continuous high, 1/100sec f2.8.

Speed Chart Overview

Some UHS-II cards do perform quicker in camera, but only marginally. But this is because the camera does not have a UHS-II bus.

I’m really disappointed at how slow Sony still is at memory card write speeds. Other mirrorless cameras like the Fujifilm XT1 are almost three times faster and the Canon 5Ds r is significantly faster than that with its CF cards. Sony is WAY behind the competition on this one.

Why So Slow?

I’ve been trying to figure this out for over a year now. Like always, some guys in the comments came forward with some interesting ideas that I’ve tested and can confirm are valid.

All these Sony cameras to date only use the USB2.0 interface. When I test SD cards on a USB2.0 slot on a Mac, I get read and write speeds that cap out at around 30MB/s. 

Comment from AlphaDog –

“This is an absolute minefield of conflicting/overlapping terminology mixed with unpublished specs and hard to directly measure values. My understanding is that ‘U3’ is a guaranteed minimum write speed of 30MB/s. This can be supported on both UHS-i and UHS-ii cards. in fact UHS-I cards support several different interface protocols (SRS50/DDR50, which both support up to 50MB/sec; and SDR104 at 104MB/sec). U3 the uses some specific API calls over this transport to tell the card that it really really needs this minimum 30MB speed (eg for 4K vid). So the Sony could (and almost certainly does) use the UHS-I interface (not UHs-ii), and probably only uses one of the 50MB/sec max protocols (not the 104MB one).”

So while Sony is kicking ass innovating so many new features and technologies. They’ve left out one of the most basic, simplest features in their camera, one that really hurts the write speed performance. USB3.0.

Recommended SD Memory Cards For The Sony A7rII

Based on the tests the Sandisk Extreme Pro is the way to go for UHS-I cards. But if you’re concerned about price the PNY and Sony are fantastic cards.

It might be best to order from Amazon just because they have the easiest to use return system.

UHS-I

Sandisk Extreme Pro 64GB SDXC U3 UHS-I – Amazon

Lexar 633x 64GB SDXC U3 UHS-I – Amazon Haven’t done the speed test in this camera yet, but this card has been working great in other Sony cameras.

Sony 64GB SDXC U3 UHS-I – Amazon

I had to remove the PNY 64GB U3 card because I keep getting emails from people having problems with it. I can no longer recommend it.

UHS-II is it worth it to you? 

It might be, if USB 3.0 transfer speeds are important to you, then try UHS-II since in camera they perform about the same. Unfortunately I only have SDHC UHS-II cards, so I’m entirely sure how the camera clocks them down. If they clock down to U1 and how it will change video.

SD Memory Cards Not To Buy

If you’re looking at the list and thinking you want to buy your favorite brand hoping it will work fine. You’re taking a risk. Here is a list of cards I’ve had people personally email / comment about not working with 4k 100M. Now the crazy thing is, all these cards work perfectly fine for my camera at 4k 100M. Except the Samsung, I have them on order. I’m now wondering if it’s an issue with the camera, or an issue with the cards.

PNY 64GB U3

PNY 64GB U1

Samsung 64GB U3 Pro

Samsung 64GB U3 Pro+

Lexar 64GB UHS-II 2000x U3

SD Memory Cards For Video On The Sony A7r II

You need to use SDXC (update: firmware 3.20 supporst SDHC) U3 memory cards if you want to shoot the best video on the Sony A7r II.

A U1 card should let you shoot XAVC S HD, or even XAVC S 4K 60M but not 100M.

Video is a little bit more demanding of bandwidth than photography, since the buffers fills up very quickly.

There are a few different codecs you can shoot on the Sony A7r II and I recommend sticking with XAVC S 4k or XAVC HD.

Here is list of codecs you can shoot in and the type of SD card that is recommended for each.

XAVC S 4k 100M – UHS-I SDXC or SDHC  U3

XAVC S 4K 60M – UHS-I SDXC or SDHC U1

XAVC S HD – UHS-I SDXC  or SDHC U1 or U3

AVCHD – UHS-I SDHC U1 or better

MP4 – UHS-I SDHC U1 or better

Since I own just about every SD memory card, I’ve already been playing around with a few and have discovered some interesting things.

In XAVC S 4k, I was using an SDXC Samsung 64GB EVO U1 card and the camera told me to use a U3 card and would not let me record. Now I know this card should be fast enough to allow for 100mb/s recording (12 MB/s) but the camera wasn’t going to have it. 

I then switching to an SDXC PNY 64GB U3 card and everything was fine – 100mb/s recording with XAVC S 4k. Then I switched back to my Samsung U1 card and it now let me record video on that card even though it was only a U1 card. Once I reformatted that card, it would no longer let me shoot video and I would again get the notice that I need to use a U3 card. I know most of my U1 cards are fast enough and this is kind of annoying, but whatever, U3 cards it is.

Also, it seem to get different error messages when using U1 cards and sometimes my U1 cards work fine. A reader also just emailed me saying they purchases a U3 PNY card and the camera would not let them use it for video. 

It seems the Sony A7rII is already in need of a firmware update.

Continuous Shooting Hi vs Continuous Shooting Lo

In Continuous Lo the camera takes a lot longer to fill up the cache so it seems that the write speed is slower. The reason is, the camera will still use all the settings like autofocus, image stabilization, face detection, etc, between each shot. Continuous Hi should ignore most of those features for faster speeds.

I’ve also noticed that files sizes are the same between continuous hi, continuous low and single shot. This debunks the theory that shooting burst lowers your bitrate. 

Burst Hi: 42,991,616 bytes

Burst Lo: 42,991,616 bytes

Single Shot: 42,991,616 bytes

Sony A7R2 Firmware 3.20

Sony has improved memory card support with firmware 3.20. This now allows us to use SDHC memory cards when using the XAVC codec. Read more here.

This firmware still does not solve the issue with some compatible U3 memory cards not registering correctly with the camera. 

Best SD Memory Card For The Sony A7rII Conclusions

The best performing card is actually the Lexar 2000x, but by a fraction. I would say UHS-II cards aren’t a bad idea for transferring data from card to your computer, but you won’t see a real benefit in camera.

I really hope this was helpful to you, I learned a lot from doing this and I hope it saves you some trouble. Buying anything after clicking through those Amazon links, (even baby diapers) earns me a few bucks from the sale. This allows me to rent or buy cameras like this to test out. So if you want to help me help you, click-through any of those Amazon links for your next purchase.

Need Accessories For You Sony A7rII?

Check out the Sony A7rII accessories and gear page!

Shoot Better Video On The Sony A7rII

I’ve also started building a memory card guide for the Sony A7sII.