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  • Memory Cards

Best SD Memory Cards For Cameras

  • March 17, 2022
  • Alik

A comparison and speed tests between all the most popular memory cards and how they perform in various cameras and devices.

Table Of Contents

  • Fastest SD Memory Cards
  • Memory Card Benchmarks By Camera Brand
    • Canon Memory Card
    • Sony Memory Cards
    • Fujifilm Memory Cards
    • Leica Memory Cards
    • Nikon Memory Cards
    • Panasonic Memory Cards
    • Olympus Memory Cards
    • Pentax Memory Cards
    • Ricoh Memory Cards
    • Memory Cards For Sigma
    • Memory Cards For Action Cameras
    • Micro SD Memory Cards For Drones
    • Memory Micro SD Memory Cards For SmartPhones
  • Memory Card Types And Performance
    • What Do All The Numbers And Letters On Memory Cards Mean?
  • Potential Memory Card Problems
    • Memory Card Not Working

 

Fastest SD Memory Cards

This chart shows how each memory card performs with Windows 10 with Crystal Disk and a UHS-II Sandisk USB-C memory card reader. 

You can sort by speed or class to find the fastest SD memory card or the slowest. Speeds will vary slightly depending on the different readers.

Memory CardSpeed ClassUSB Read MB/sUSB Write MB/s
Sandisk Extreme Pro 170MB/sUHS-I99.2 MB/s88.3 MB/s
Sandisk Extreme PlusUHS-I99.3 MB/s88.2 MB/s
Sandisk Extreme U3UHS-I99.3 MB/s56.8 MB/s
Sandisk Ultra U1 - oldUHS-I99.5 MB/s34.3 MB/s
Kingston CanvasGo! U3UHS-I99.6 MB/s82.5 MB/s
Kingston Select U3UHS-I99.6 MB/s74.0 MB/s
Lexar 633x U3UHS-I92.9 MB/s35.5 MB/s
Sony U3 94MB/sUHS-I96.7 MB/s57.5 MB/s
Sony U3 95MB/sUHS-I96.6 MB/s85.4 MB/s
Transcend U3UHS-I96.7 MB/s87.8 MB/s
PNY Pro EliteUHS-I----
PNY Elite-X U3UHS-I----
PNY Elite Performance U3UHS-I96.7 MB/s66.9 MB/s
Delkin Black U3UHS-I94.8 MB/s87.5 MB/s
Delkin Advantage U3UHS-I99.6 MB/s78.8 MB/s
Verbatim Pro+ U3UHS-I98.5 MB/s83.7 MB/s
Verbatim Pro U3UHS-I96.6 MB/s68.0 MB/s
Ritz Gear A1 U3 V30UHS-I----
Sandisk Extreme Pro 300MB/sUHS-II293.7 MB/s242.2 MB/s
Lexar 2000xUHS-II274.3 MB/s224.0 MB/s
Lexar 1667xUHS-II265.8 MB/s104.2 MB/s
Lexar 1000xUHS-II166.8 MB/s108.3 MB/s
Toshiba Exceria ProUHS-II259.6 MB/s218.1 MB/s
Transcend v90UHS-II282.2 MB/s192.8 MB/s
Sony G ToughUHS-II270.6 MB/s229.1 MB/s
Sony MUHS-II282.4 MB/s129.5 MB/s
Sony E v60 128GBUHS-II251.1 MB/s134.9 MB/s
Sony E v30 64GBUHS-II282.3 MB/s103.8 MB/s
Delkin Black v90UHS-II259.9 MB/s225.4 MB/s
Delkin Power v90UHS-II280.2 MB/s221.6 MB/s
Fujifilm Elite IIUHS-II290.3 MB/s173.2 MB/s
Adata v90UHS-II290.1 MB/s241.0 MB/s
Hoodman Steel 2000xUHS-II280.7 MB/s169.1 MB/s
Hoodman Steel 1500xUHS-II289.2 MB/s105.8 MB/s
ProGrade V90UHS-II290.5 MB/s218.4 MB/s
ProGrade V60UHS-II167.6 MB/s92.14 MB/s
Amplim 2000x v60UHS-II----
Amplim 1900x V60UHS-II289.3 MB/s104.2 MB/s
Angel Bird V90 IIUHS-II265.4 MB/s239.2 MB/s
Angel Bird V60 IIUHS-II251.0 MB/s136.4 MB/s
FreeTail Evoke Pro V60UHS-II275.2 MB/s95.4 MB/s
Kingston Canvas React Plus V90UHS-II271.7 MB/s241.4 MB/s

 

Memory Card Benchmarks By Camera Brand

A list of memory card speed tests on each camera. Over the last several years I’ve been testing the most popular memory cards in each camera to find which memory cards work the best in each camera. Use this guide to find the best memory cards for your camera.

I’ve broken the list down between camera brands.

 

Canon Memory Card

I’ve moved all the Canon tests to their own page. There are always new memory cards and it becomes difficult to test old cameras with new cards. Having a dedicated page allows me to give some general recommendations if you’re looking for new cards in an older Canon camera.

Best Memory Cards For Canon

 

Sony Memory Cards

Sony cameras until recently have been plagued by a bus speed bottleneck. Most of their cameras are only capable of write to memory cards at a speed of about 30MB/s. New cameras like the Sony A9II and the A7rIV have improved memory card performance with speeds that can even match CFexpress cards in the Nikon Z cameras.

When shooting video in Sony cameras you will not be able to use Samsung memory cards, they are not compatible.

Full Frame APS-C Fixed Lens
Sony A1 Sony A6600 SD Cards Sony ZV-E10
Sony A9 II Sony A6500 SD Cards Sony ZV-1
Sony A9 Sony A6400 SD Cards Sony RX1R II
Sony A7rIV Sony A6300 SD Cards Sony RX100 VII
Sony A7rIII Sony A6100 SD Cards Sony RX100 VI
Sony A7rII Sony A6000 SD Cards Sony RX100 V
Sony A7sIII   Sony RX10 III
Sony A7sII   Sony RX10 IV
Sony FX3   Sony RX100 IV
Sony A7IV   Sony RX100 III
Sony A7III    
Sony A7II    
Sony A7c    
Sony A7r, A7s, A7    

 

Fujifilm Memory Cards

To find the best memory card for Fuji cameras, check out this guide where each camera has been benchmarked with most of the big brands of cards.

Recommended Memory Cards For Fujifilm Cameras

 

Leica Memory Cards

Full Frame
Leica M11
Leica Q2

 

Nikon Memory Cards

A guide to finding the best memory cards for Nikon cameras.

Recommended Memory Cards For Nikon cameras

 

Panasonic Memory Cards

Like many of the Sony cameras, Panasonic typically has poor memory card performance when dealing with their micro four-thirds system. They have a similar 35MB/s bottleneck bus speed as Sony. The GH5 gets around this by using UHS-II memory cards that have dual lanes, so you get around 36Mb/s + 36Mb/s with a combined speed of around 70MB/s. However, the new full-frame system has incredible UHS-II and UHS-I memory card performance.

Full Frame  M43 Fixed Lens
Panasonic S1H Panasonic GH6 Panasonic G100
Panasonic S5 Panasonic GH5 II Panasonic FZ2500
  Panasonic G9 Panasonic LX100 II
  Panasonic GH5s Panasonic LX100
  Panasonic GH5  
  Panasonic GX9  
  Panasonic GX85  

 

Olympus Memory Cards

Some of Olympus’s older cameras have bus speed bottlenecks which restrict memory card write speeds. The new Pen-F, however, is much quicker. I still have a few more Olympus cameras to test out.

M42 Cameras
Olympus E-M1 Mark III
Olympus E-M1 Mark II
Olympus E-M1X
Olympus E-M10 Mark IV
Olympus E-M10 Mark III
Olympus E-M3 Mark III
Olympus E-M5 Mark III
Olympus E-M5 Mark II
Olympus Pen-F

 

Pentax Memory Cards

I haven’t tested too many Pentax cameras but the Pentax K-1 performs very similarly to the Sony A7r. It has a bus speed bottleneck so memory card write speeds are limited to about 30MB/s. 

Full Frame
Pentax K-3 III
Pentax K-1

 

Ricoh Memory Cards

APS-C
Ricoh GR III

 

Memory Cards For Sigma

Sigma has a few cameras geared for a few different things, but their new L mount fp camera is loaded with some interesting specs that will make having the right memory card crucial.

Full Frame
Sigma fpl
Sigma fp

 

Memory Cards For Action Cameras

The GoPro Hero 5 was notorious for having issues with memory cards. A lot of great memory cards like the Sandisk Extreme Pro just wouldn’t work properly. However, the Hero 6 and Hero 7 uses all new hardware and most of the memory card issues seen in older cameras have disappeared.

DJI Osmo Action and Osmo Pocket have had very good memory card performance even with the slightly her bitrate than what GoPro offers.

Check out this guide for the latest on the best SD cards for GoPro.

GoPro DJI  
GoPro Hero 9 SD Cards Osmo Pocket 2  
GoPro Hero 8 SD Cards Osmo Pocket  
GoPro Hero 7 SD Cards Osmo Action  
GoPro Hero 6 SD Cards    
GoPro Hero 5 & Session Memory Cards    

 

Micro SD Memory Cards For Drones

Every memory card I’ve tested in the DJI spark worked great. The camera on the Spark doesn’t really have great performance and it doesn’t require very fast memory card write speeds.

DJI Drones
DJI Mavic 3 / Cine
DJI  Air 2s
DJI Mavic 2 Pro / Zoom
DJI Spark

 

Memory Micro SD Memory Cards For SmartPhones

The Samsung Galaxy S8 and S8+ are one of the few popular smartphones to allow memory cards. I’ve tested most of the Micro SD memory cards in this smartphone to see which performs the best. The results are very surprising as performance between cards varies wildly.

Samsung no longer offers phones with micro SD memory cards.

Samsung
Samsung Galaxy S20 & S20+, S20 Ultra SD Cards
Samsung Galaxy S10 & S10+ SD Cards
Samsung Galaxy S8 & S8+ SD Cards

 

Memory Card Types And Performance

 

What Do All The Numbers And Letters On Memory Cards Mean?

  • SDHC – SDHC indicates that a card is going to use the 32-bit Fat32 file structure. This can have some performance limitations on cards. Some of the new Speed Classes like V30, V60 aren’t available on these fat32 cards. Also, you’ll see a file size limit of around 4GB.
  • SDXC – SDXC indicates that the card is going to be 64-bit using the exFat file structure. This means you get all the of what technology memory cards have to offer. The V30, v60 speed classes, and larger file sizes.
  • Class 10 – This is an older designation that they still put on memory cards. There used to be other classes written on memory cards, typically it would be a number inside a circle. Now every card is pretty much Class 10 and new Speed Classes have come around like U1 / U3 and V30 / V60 etc. So it’s all getting a little cluttered. Class 10 will give you a minimum guaranteed write speed of 10MB/s.
  • U1 / U3 – These are speed classes like Class 10 that indicate the minimum write speed a card is capable of. U1 is 10MB/s and U3 is 30MB/s. Typically if you’re shooting high bitrate video, you’ll want the U3 cards. Some cameras like Sony’s won’t even let you use their advanced video codecs without a U3 memory card.
  • V30 / V60 / V90 – This is the latest speed class. Just like Class 10 and U1 / U3, this speed class has to do with a guaranteed minimum write speeds. V30 = 30MB/s, V60 = 60MB/s and so forth.
  • UHS-I / UHS-II – UHS-I and UHS-II memory cards are built completely differently. UHS-II memory cards have a second set of pins that basically give the memory cards dual lanes to read and write data to and from. This makes these memory cards potentially twice as fasted when used in UHS-II devices.

 

Potential Memory Card Problems

 

Memory Card Not Working

There are several reasons a memory card may not work and I’ll list a few that I’ve seen or have personally dealt with.

1. Bad Memory Card – Every so often you can get a bad memory card, either they are DOA or they are just defective and die after a short time. Most memory card brands offer a 10-year to a lifetime warranty. Sony cards usually only offer a 1-year warranty. So you can always send your card back and try a new one. 

 

2. Brand Incompatibility – Some camera brands don’t like some memory cards. For example, Sony cards do not like Samsung memory cards and they will not work for video. Canon says their cameras don’t like Sony cards, although I’ve yet to have problems with Sony cards in Canon cameras, those are a few examples. If you’re having issues with a certain card in a camera, try a different brand. Sandisk cards work perfectly in most cameras.

 

3. Memory Card Is Slow – Again you could have a defective memory card, or, you could have a counterfeit memory card. If you bought your memory card off of eBay and you didn’t buy it from the manufacturer or trusted camera store, chances are, you could have a counterfeit memory card. Always make sure you buy your memory cards from a trusted source. BHphoto, Amazon, Adorama etc. 

**This website contains affiliate links and I will be compensated if you click them to make a purchase.
Alik

Professional editor, blogger and photographer from Los Angeles California.

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A professional freelance trailer editor. I've been blogging for a decade and this site focuses on benchmarking memory cards, camera accessories, and lens reviews. There will be a shift towards more education with color and editing so be sure to hit the bell in the bottom right to subscribe for updates. Read About to learn more.

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