Welcome to my Sony A7 V Memory Card Guide.
This guide should help you to find the best memory cards for your needs, and also help you to avoid spending more money than you really need to.
Which Memory Cards are Supported?
The Sony A7 V has two memory card slots, here are the cards that each slot supports:
- Slot 1: CFexpress Type A (2.0 & 4.0) and UHS-I and UHS-II (SDHC/SDXC) SD cards
- Slot 2: Only UHS-I and UHS-II (SD/SDHC/SDXC) cards
CFexpress Type A 4.0 cards will work in the A7 V because they are backwards compatible with the 2.0 standard, but you will not be able to take advantage of 4.0 speeds in-camera.
Best CFexpress Type-A Memory Cards
With the A7 V only just being announced, I’ve not yet had the opportunity to test all of my CFexpress Type A cards in-camera.
Therefore, I’ve included the buffer clearing times from my Sony A7R V in-camera tests just to give you an idea of the performance for now.
CFexpress 4.0 cards will work just fine in the A7 V because the standard is backwards compatible with 2.0, but they will only work at 2.0 speeds in-camera.
| CFexpress Type A Memory Card | CFexpress Standard | Buffer Clearing Time (A7RV) * | Price Check |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nextorage NX-A1PRO | 2.0 | 6.48s | Amazon | Memory Wolf UK |
| Novachips Express 4.0 | 4.0 | 6.52s | Amazon | Memory Wolf UK |
| Delkin Devices BLACK 4.0 | 4.0 | 6.66s | Amazon | B&H | Memory Wolf UK |
| Angelbird AV PRO 2.0 SE | 2.0 | 6.66s | Amazon | B&H | Memory Wolf UK |
| Lexar Professional Gold Series | 2.0 | 6.64s | Amazon | B&H |
| ProGrade Digital 4.0 Iridium | 4.0 | 6.51s | Amazon | B&H |
| OWC Atlas Pro 4.0 | 4.0 | 6.66s | Amazon | B&H |
| Pergear Standard | 2.0 | 6.90s | Amazon |
| Angelbird AV PRO 4.0 | 4.0 | 7.10s | Amazon | B&H | Memory Wolf UK |
| Sony CEA-G Tough | 2.0 | 7.28s | Amazon | B&H |
| Lexar Professional Silver Series | 2.0 | 7.11s | Amazon | B&H |
| Delkin Devices BLACK 2.0 | 2.0 | 7.56s | Memory Wolf UK |
| Delkin Devices POWER 2.0 | 2.0 | 7.56s | Amazon | B&H | Memory Wolf UK |
| ProGrade Digital Cobalt | 2.0 | 7.76s | Obsolete |
| Sony CEA-M Tough | 2.0 | 8.30s | Amazon | B&H |
| ProGrade Digital 2.0 Gold | 2.0 | 10.56s | Amazon | B&H |
| Exascend Essential | 2.0 | 11.53s | Amazon |
| Pergear Prime | 2.0 | 11.20s | Amazon |
| Pergear Master 4.0 | 4.0 | 11.80s | Amazon |
| Nextorage NX-A1SE | 2.0 | 12.10s | Amazon | Memory Wolf UK |
| Nextorage NX-A2SE | 4.0 | 12.00s | Amazon |
| Lexar Professional GOLD 4.0 | 4.0 | TBT | Amazon | B&H |
| Novachips Extreme 4.0 | 4.0 | TBT | Amazon |
| Wise Advanced 4.0 | 4.0 | TBT | B&H |
Best UHS-II SD Memory Cards
Like with the CFexpress Type A cards, I’ve not yet been able to test any UHS-II SD cards in the A7 V. Therefore, I’ve included the buffer clearing times from my Sony A7R V in-camera tests just to give you an idea of the performance.
| Memory Card | Buffer Clearing Time * (A7R V) | Price Check |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Sony SF-G Tough | 19.81s | B&H Photo | Amazon |
| 2. ProGrade V90 | 20.75s | B&H Photo | Amazon |
| 3. Hoodman Steel 2000X | 20.96s | B&H Photo | Amazon |
| 4. Ritzgear Video Pro | 20.96s | B&H Photo | Amazon |
| 5. Delkin Devices POWER | 21.24s | B&H Photo | Amazon |
| 6. SanDisk Extreme Pro | 21.71s | B&H Photo | Amazon |
| 7. Kingston Canvas React Plus | 24.78s | B&H Photo | Amazon |
| 8. Sony SF-M Tough | 33.83s | B&H Photo | Amazon |
| 9. Sony SF-M | 33.83s | B&H Photo | Amazon |
| 10. Angelbird AV Pro Mk 2 V90 | 33.15s | B&H Photo | Amazon |
| 11. Lexar Professional 2000X | 42.58s | B&H Photo | Amazon |
| 12. PNY X-PRO 90 | 37.75s | B&H Photo | Amazon |
| 13. Transcend SD 700S | 47.97s | B&H Photo | Amazon |
Sony A7 V Price Check at: B&H Photo
What Size Memory Card?
If you will be shooting a lot of continuous bursts then you will probably want to use at least a 160GB CFexpress card.
If you are not shooting long continuous bursts then you’ll probably be fine with 32GB or 64GB cards and you certainly won’t need the faster CFexpress Type A cards.
For shooting video the size of memory card will depend largely on the format that you are recording in. Or you may be using an external recorder anyway so this won’t be so important.
I’d recommend only using SDXC cards and not SDHC. 32GB cards and smaller are SDHC and use the FAT32 file system. If you shoot video with a SDHC card your files will be split into 4GB chunks which creates extra work in post production.
Simultaneous Recording Slot 1 + Slot 2
If you want to record simultaneously to both slots 1 and 2 at the same time then there is no benefit to using a CFexpress Type-A memory card in slot 1.
With this setup the write speed is restricted to the maximum write speed of the UHS-II card in slot 2. So if you shoot like this often you can save money by using UHS-II cards in slot 1 instead of CFexpress Type-A.
The only benefit to using a CFexpress Type-A card when shooting simultaneously is to enjoy the faster read times when copying the files to your computer.
Providing you are using identical UHS-II cards in both slots then the number of shots that you can take and the buffer clearing time will be the same as writing to a single slot. If one of the UHS-II cards is slower then you will be limited to the speed of that card.
Sort RAW / JPEG
You can also setup your A7 V to record RAW files to slot 1 and JPEG files to slot 2. With this setup there is still a speed benefit to using a CFexpress card in slot 1.
FAQs
The Sony A7 V supports CFexpress Type A memory cards in slot 1 only. UHS-I and UHS-II SD cards are also supported in both slot 1 and slot 2.
No.
Pre-order: Sony A7 V
At: B&H Photo | Amazon
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