A speed test compares the most popular UHS-II and UHS-I memory cards in the Sony RX10 II.
Use this guide to find the best memory cards for 4k videos or your shooting style.
Camera Specs
Sensor: 1″ 20.2MP / Processor: BIONZ X
Video Resolution: 4k 30p 100M / Video Codec: XAVC S
SD Memory Card Type: UHS-I / Requirements: SDXC, U3
Best SD Memory Cards For The Sony RX10 II
Usually, all Sony cameras perform just about the same speed tests as the SD memory card. This is because Sony cameras have a bus-speed bottleneck of about 32 MB/s. No card performs faster than this. Since most SD memory cards these days can usually read and write at greater speeds than this, we see all the cards giving very similar performance results. But there is more to it than this.
Sony RX10 II memory card write speeds are determined by shooting in burst mode, filming it, and then averaging the time it took to clear the buffer and the data shot during a set time. Three tests were done on shooting RAW, and the results were averaged.
USB 3.0 read and write speeds are determined using CrystalDiskMark on Windows 10.
| SD Memory Cards | USB 3.0 Read | USB 3.0 Write | 4K Video | Sony RX10 II Write |
| UHS-II | ||||
| Lexar 64GB 2000x U3 | 280.9 MB/s | 181.4 MB/s | Yes | 32.19 MB/s |
| Transcend 64GB U3 | — | — | Yes | 31.95 MB/s |
| Toshiba 64GB U3 | 238.5 MB/s | 199.7 MB/s | Yes | 31.57 MB/s |
| Lexar 64GB 1000x U3 | 145.0 MB/s | 60.7 MB/s | Yes | 30.89 MB/s |
| Sandisk Extreme Pro U3 64GB | 257.3 MB/s | 109.9 MB/s | Yes | 30.40 MB/s |
| UHS-I | ||||
| SanDisk Extreme Pro 64GB U3 | 89.0 MB/s | 84.7 MB/s | Yes | 32.01 MB/s |
| Sandisk Extreme Plus 64GB U3 | 88.9 MB/s | 62.0 MB/s | Yes | 31.84 MB/s |
| SanDisk Extreme 64GB U3 | 71.3 MB/s | 52.1 MB/s | Yes | 31.81 MB/s |
| Kingston 64GB Class U3 | 88.1 MB/s | 74.3 MB/s | Yes | 31.49 MB/s |
| PNY 64GB U1 | 86.1 MB/s | 54.5 MB/s | No | 31.37 MB/s |
| Samsung Pro 64GB Class U1 | 86.8 MB/s | 77.2 MB/s | No | 31.21 MB/s |
| PNY 64GB U3 | 87.9 MB/s | 61.6 MB/s | Sometimes | 30.71 MB/s |
| Lexar 600x 64GB U1 | 85.6 MB/s | 60.1 MB/s | No | 30.54 MB/s |
| Lexar 633x 64GB U3 | 85.6 MB/s | 61.2 MB/s | Yes | 30.54 MB/s |
| Transcend 64GB U3 | 87.7 MB/s | 64.1 MB/s | Yes | 30.41 MB/s |
| Sony 64GB U3 | 87.2 MB/s | 71.9 MB/s | Yes | 30.07 MB/s |
| Samsung 64GB SDXC EVO U1 | 43.9 MB/s | 22.7 MB/s | No | 23.12 MB/s |
As you can see, most cards perform great. The only trouble I had was with the Transcend cards. Both my Transcend cards consistently crashed the camera, forcing me to remove the battery for a reboot. For now, I would avoid buying Transcend cards for this camera.
Best SD Memory Cards For 4K 100M Video
RX10 II 4K 100M requirements: SDXC, U3, UHS-I.
To shoot 4 K 100 Mbps video on the Sony RX10 II, you would need a U3 SDXC memory card. However, most of my U1 cards will also work. If you have a U1 card, try it out. If it works, great, but if you’re ordering new cards, grab one of the ones I’ve recommended.
I’ve tested many cards for many Sony cameras now and have a lot of experience with various users having issues with their memory cards. Sometimes, Sony cameras just don’t like certain cards. It seems the camera will run a check to determine whether the card is a U3 card. I feel this test is not forgiving enough, and this causes many memory cards to fail. You’ll get an error saying you need to insert a U3 memory card, even though you already have one.
Best Cards For 4K 100M
From my experience, no card is exempt from this glitch, but these cards will most likely give you good results.
Sandisk Extreme Pro 64GB U3 UHS-I – Amazon
Kingston 64GB U3 UHS-I – Amazon
Sony 64GB U3 UHS-I – Amazon
Lexar 633x 64GB U3 UHS-I – Amazon
Cards To Avoid For 4K 100M
Although many of these cards will work for most people, they seem to give many people problems when trying to record 4k 100M video on most Sony cameras, and I imagine it’s going to be the same for this camera.
Samsung Pro+ 64GB U3 UHS-I
Samsung Pro 64GB U3 UHS-I
PNY 64GB U3 UHS-I
Transcend 64GB U3 UHS-I
I would also avoid UHS-II cards for these cameras, since you gain no benefit and they often yield mixed results.
Best SD Memory Cards For The Sony RX10 II Conclusions
If you’re just looking to shoot photos, most memory cards will work fine, since the camera will bottleneck their speed before the card’s maximum performance is reached. For video, you’ll need a 64GB or larger SDXC card, and it should be U3.
In my experience, cards larger than the 64GB versions perform the same, or at least are very similar. So if you want to get the 128GB version of a certain card, go for it.
If your U3 memory card isn’t working, I’ve created a Sony 4 K 100M Memory Card Guide that explains many issues and how to troubleshoot them.
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