Best Memory Cards For Panasonic GH7 – Real Benchmarks

The Panasonic GH7 has a dual memory card slot that accepts both a CFexpress Type-B card and an SD UHS-II card.

You will need CFexpress cards for this camera to use all the best video features.

Recommended CFExpress Memory Cards Panasonic GH7

The Panasonic GH7 can shoot ProRes RAW at 5728×3024 50fps at up to 4.2Gb/s, or around 650MB/s. This will require high-end cards with very good sustain speeds.

After testing the cards with the camera, here are a few recommendations.

When I tested the CFexpress Type-B card the camera essentially had a bottomless buffer when it came to bursting photos, so I wasn’t really able to get a benchmark with CFexpress Type-B card.

Recommended SD Cards Panasonic GH7

For shooting at lower bitrates you can save a lot of money by using V60 SD memory cards. V90 cards are no longer as good of a value as CFexpress cards, so I recommend v60 for these lower bitrates since they will let you shoot at bitrates up to 480Mbps. This is great for H.264 or H.265 video formats.

However, you can also write to both cards simultaneously, so if you are shooting at higher bit rate, you would need a v90 card to handle that.

Here are some recommendations.

Learn more about CFexpress Type-B memory cards in this guide, including information about the latest CF4.0 cards, which won’t be necessary for this camera.

Panasonic GH7 Memory Card Speed Test

Benchmarks with the CFexpress Type-B memory cards just show a bottomless buffer, but these benchmarks can be useful when looking at SD memory cards. However, SD memory cards are more prone to damage or may not always run at the appropriate speeds. Something as simple as dirty pins can throw results off. I try to clean my cards and keep them in good shape, but every so often I get a bad connection from either a bad card or poor connection.

Here are the results.

You can find more SD memory card benchmarks in this guide. The GH7 uses the Micro Four Thirds mount — if you need lenses, see our Micro Four Thirds lens list.

Dual Slot Configuration — What Goes Where

The GH7’s two slots have different jobs. Slot 1 (CFexpress Type-B) handles the heaviest recording modes — ProRes RAW at up to 650 MB/s, or any codec requiring sustained high throughput. Slot 2 (SD UHS-II) supports H.264 and H.265 recording up to 480 Mbps with a V60 card, or higher with V90.

The useful configurations: relay recording (fill slot 1, automatically continue to slot 2), simultaneous backup recording (both slots recording the same stream — for this you need matching speed capability in both slots), or proxy workflow (high-quality to CFexpress in slot 1, compressed proxy to SD in slot 2 for editing while the main files stay offline). For casual shooters who don’t need ProRes RAW, a V60 SD card in slot 2 alone can cover standard H.264/H.265 workflows and avoids the CFexpress cost entirely.

Which Card for Which Codec

ProRes RAW at 650 MB/s: CFexpress Type-B in slot 1, required. No SD card can sustain this. The benchmark results show a “bottomless buffer” in burst mode with CFexpress — in practice this means the slot isn’t the bottleneck under any normal shooting condition.

H.264/H.265 up to 480 Mbps (60 MB/s): V60 UHS-II SD in slot 2 covers this with the standard V60 minimum guarantee of 60 MB/s. The benchmark data for the GH7’s SD slot shows V60 cards performing comfortably above that floor in real use.

H.264/H.265 above 480 Mbps: V90 UHS-II SD required, or route to CFexpress slot 1.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I use the GH7 with just an SD card and no CFexpress?

Yes, for standard H.264 and H.265 recording. A V60 UHS-II SD card in slot 2 handles everything up to 480 Mbps without needing a CFexpress card at all. CFexpress becomes necessary for ProRes RAW and the highest bitrate modes. If your workflow stays in standard compressed video codecs, you can run the GH7 as a single-slot SD camera and skip the CFexpress cost.

Can I put a CFexpress card in slot 2?

No. Slot 2 is an SD UHS-II slot — it accepts standard SD cards only, not CFexpress Type-B. CFexpress Type-B cards physically won’t fit in the SD slot. Only slot 1 accepts CFexpress.

Does the GH7 support relay recording between CFexpress and SD?

Yes. The GH7 supports relay recording, so when your CFexpress card in slot 1 fills, recording continues automatically to the SD card in slot 2. For ProRes RAW workflows, note that the SD card in slot 2 would need to match the bitrate of whatever you’re recording — for ProRes RAW at 650 MB/s, no SD card can keep up, so relay effectively isn’t useful at that bitrate. For H.264/H.265 relay between slots, it works fine with appropriately rated cards.

What CFexpress cards work best in the GH7?

Any CFexpress Type-B card with a strong sustained write spec handles the GH7’s ProRes RAW demands. The benchmark table at the top of this page shows which specific cards were tested. Given the “bottomless buffer” result in stills burst mode with CFexpress, the main differentiation between cards at this level is sustained write speed under extended recording, heat management, and brand reliability — not raw speed, since all tested cards exceed the GH7’s requirements.