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Sony a7R IV Memory Card Guide

You are here: Home / Sony Alpha Mirrorless Cameras / Sony A7R IV Guides & Resources / Sony a7R IV Memory Card Guide

Disclosure: As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases made through links on this site. I may also earn from links to other online retailers at no extra cost to you.

Last updated: November 30, 2022 by Timothy Mayo - 6 Comments

When it comes to memory cards there are quite a few choices available for the Sony a7R IV and a7R IVA but some are definitely more reliable and faster than others.

Note: Please find my Sony A7R V Memory Card Guide here.

Sony a7R IV Memory Cards

Since I own the a7R IV myself I wanted to know which memory cards would give me the best performance, especially as I shoot a lot of continuous bursts.

Contents

  1. Top 7 Memory Cards
  2. In Camera Write Speed & Buffer Test
  3. Which Memory Cards are Supported?
  4. Memory Card Slots
  5. Maximum Memory Card Capacity
  6. RAW File Size
  7. What Size Memory Card Do You Need?
  8. Maximum Still Images by Memory Card Size
  9. Video Record Times
  10. Best Memory Cards for 4k Video
  11. UHS-I vs UHS-II
  12. Memory Card Readers & Protective Cases

Sony a7R IV Forum & Facebook Group

If you are looking for further help and advice on the a7r IV or would simply like to share your photos, then please head over to our friendly Sony a7R Forum. If you prefer Facebook then I also run the Sony a7R IV Shooters Group.

Top 7 Sony a7R IV Memory Cards

Here are my top 7 recommended memory cards for the Sony a7R IV. I’ll be adding my in-camera buffer tests results here very soon.

1. Sony SF-G Tough UHS-II Memory Cards – 299MB/s

sony a7iii sf-g tough memory cards

The Sony SF-G Tough Series of UHS-II SD cards are rated V90 for video and have read speeds of up to 300MB/s and write speeds of up to 299MB/s. If you want the best possible memory cards for your a7R IV that take full advantage of the fast UHS-II slots, then these are the ones to choose.

These Tough memory cards are 18 times stronger than standard SD cards, bend proof to 180N, drop-proof to 5 meters, waterproof to a depth of 5 meters for up to 72 hours (IPX8 rating) and dustproof with an IP6X rating. The cards feature a one-piece ribless structure and don’t have the common lock switch, they are also X-ray proof, magnet proof, anti-static and temperature proof.

Price Check & Buyer Reviews for Sony SF-G Tough UHS-II

At: Amazon | B&H Photo

2. SanDisk Extreme Pro UHS-II Memory Cards – 260MB/s

SanDisk Extreme Pro SDHC UHS-II Memory Cards

If the Sony SF-G Touch cards are too expensive and you don’t require the additional protection that the Sony Tough Series offers then the SanDisk Extreme Pro UHS-II memory cards are normally around 10 percent cheaper.

The SanDisk Extreme Pro cards are U3 rated (30MB/s) and SanDisk has not given them a V rating, so I don’t recommend them for 4k video. Their write speed of 260MB/s is a little slower than the Sony SF-G cards but the read speed of 300MB/s is identical.

Price Check & Buyer Reviews for SanDisk Extreme Pro UHS-II

At: Amazon | B&H Photo

3. Sony SF-M Tough UHS-II Memory Cards – 150MB/s

Sony SF-M Tough UHS-II Memory Cards

Sony’s SF-M Tough Series are practically identical to the more expensive SF-G Series but their write time has been cut to 150MB/s and the read time to 277MB/s and they are rated V60 for video.

Price Check & Buyer Reviews for Sony SF-M Tough UHS-II

At: Amazon | B&H Photo

4. Sony SF-M UHS-II Memory Cards – 150MB/s

Sony SF-M UHS-II Memory Cards

Sony’s SF-M Series have the same write and read speeds as the Tough version above but cost a little less. They are also rated V60 for video.

Price Check & Buyer Reviews for Sony SF-M UHS-II

At: Amazon | B&H Photo

5. Lexar Professional 2000X UHS-II – 260MB/s

Lexar Professional 2000X UHS-II

The Lexar Professional 2000X cards have a claimed read speed of 300MB/s and a write speed of 260MB/s, they are rated V90 for video.

Price Check & Buyer Reviews for Lexar Professional 2000X

At: Amazon | B&H Photo

6. ProGrade V90 UHS-II (300/250)

ProGrade V90 UHS-II Memor Cards

The ProGrade V90 cards have a claimed read speed of 300MB/s and a write speed of 250MB/s, they are rated V90 for video.

Price Check & Buyer Reviews for ProGrade V90 UHS-II

At: Amazon | B&H Photo

7. SanDisk Extreme Pro UHS-I Memory Cards – 90MB/s

SanDisk Extreme Pro UHS-I SD Cards

The a7R IV also supports the use of the slower UHS-I SD Cards in both slots one and two, so if you don’t need the faster UHS-II speeds then you can save yourself some money and purchase UHS-I cards instead. These SanDisk Extreme Pro UHS-I memory cards are ideal if you don’t plan on shooting lots of continuous bursts and therefore don’t require the performance of the faster and more expensive UHS-II cards. They are rated V30 for video.

Price Check & Buyer Reviews for SanDisk Extreme Pro UHS-I

At: Amazon | B&H Photo

Although there are many more brands of memory card on the market, the cards listed above are the best performing cards that have also received the highest average reviews at stores like Amazon and Adorama.

In Camera Write Speed & Buffer Test

I’m working on a write speed and buffer test using a mix of different recording settings including RAW + JPEG, Compress vs Uncompressed and Sony vs SanDisk.

Which Memory Cards are Supported?

The Sony a7R IV supports SD/SDHC/SDXC (UHS-I and UHS-II) memory cards in both slot 1 and slot 2. You can also use microSD memory cards with this camera providing you use an appropriate adaptor.

Memory Card Slots

The Sony a7R IV now supports the faster UHS-II memory cards in both memory card slot 1 and 2, this is an improvement over the Sony a7R III which only supported UHS-II cards in slot 1. UHS-I cards are also still supported in both slots, so there’s no need to spend money on the faster UHS-II cards if you don’t need to.

RAW File Size

An uncompressed RAW file from the a7R IV is approximately 123MB in file size. A compressed RAW file is around 62MB.

Maximum Memory Card Capacity

The Sony a7R IV has no documented maximum memory card limit but I’ve used the SanDisk Extreme PRO 512 GB SDXC UHS-II cards myself and they appear to work just fine. I would however recommend not putting all of your eggs into one basket and using smaller cards like 64GB or 128GB if you shoot a lot of continuous bursts.

What Size Memory Card Do You Need?

If you are shooting stills then I would recommend a minimum memory card size of 64 GB.

For each memory card this will give you around 1350 images if you shoot JPEG (Extra Fine) only, 710 images when shooting RAW & JPEG (Compressed RAW), 980 RAW only images (Compressed RAW), 415 RAW & JPEG images (Uncompressed RAW) and 495 images shooting uncompressed RAW.

I will often shoot at 8fps or 10fps when shooting birds in flight and I find that the 64 GB cards do fill very quickly, so if you are shooting a lot of continuous bursts then I would recommend going for 128 GB minimum card size.

For shooting video the size of memory card will depend greatly on the format that you are recording in.

The following two tables should help you to decide which size memory card you will need depending on your record settings for both stills and video.

Maximum Number of Still Images Recorded by Memory Card Size

The table below shows the approximate number of images that can be recorded on a memory card formatted within the a7R IV. The values may vary depending on the shooting conditions and the type of memory card used, so please use these figures as a rough guide only.

JPEG Quality / File Format32 GB64 GB128 GB256 GB
Standard:19003850770015000
Fine:12502550510010000
Extra Fine:680135027005500
RAW & JPEG (Compressed RAW):35571014202850
RAW (Compressed RAW):49098019603950
RAW & JPEG (Uncompressed RAW):2054158301650
RAW (Uncompressed RAW):2454959901950

Video Record Times

The table below shows the approximate total recording times using a memory card formatted within the a7R IV camera. The values may vary depending on the shooting conditions and the type of memory card used.

 File Format32 GB64 GB128 GB256 GB
XAVC S 4K 30p 100M/25p 100M35min1h 15min2h 30min5h 5min
XAVC S 4K 30p 60M/25p 60M55min2h4h8h 5min
XAVC S 4K 24p 100M35min1h 15min2h 30min5h 5min
XAVC S 4K 24p 60M55min2h4h8h 5min
XAVC S HD 120p 100M/100p 100M35min1h 15min2h 30min5h 5min
XAVC S HD 120p 60M/100p 60M55min2h4h8h 5min
XAVC S HD 60p 50M/50p 50M1h 10min2h 25min5h10h
XAVC S HD 60p 25M/50p 25M2h 20min4h 45min9h 30min19h 25m
XAVC S HD 30p 50M/25p 50M1h 10min2h 25min5h10h
XAVC S HD 30p 16M/25p 16M3h 35min7h 20min14h 40m29h 55m
XAVC S HD 24p 50M1h 10min2h 25min5h10h
AVCHD 60i 24M(FX)/50i 24M(FX)2h 55min6h12h24h 15m
AVCHD 60i 17M(FH)/50i 17M(FH)4h 5min8h 15m16h 30m33h 15m

The duration of time available for movie recording varies depending on the file format/recording settings for movies, memory card, ambient temperature, Wi-Fi network environment, condition of the camera before you start recording, and condition of the charging of the battery.

The maximum continuous recording time for a single movie shooting session is approximately 13 hours (a product specification limit).

Best Memory Cards for 4k Video

The Sony a7R IV supports a maximum of 100Mbps 4k video which is around 12.5 MB/s. Therefore you don’t need the fastest memory cards on the planet for 4k video recording.

Any memory cards that are rated v30, v60, v90 card will work perfectly for shooting 4k video.

Cards that are 32GB and smaller are labelled as SDHC memory cards. These are formatted to 32-bit and video files will be broken-up into 4GB chunks. This means extra work in post to put all of these files together.

Cards that are 64GB and larger in capacity are labelled as SDXC cards, these are formatted with a 64-bit file system and your files will not be broken up into smaller chunks.

For video I’d recommend 64GB or larger SDXC cards. I’d recommend a card like the SanDisk Extreme PRO 128GB SDXC Memory Card.

For video only I’d recommend a card like the SanDisk Extreme PRO 128GB SDXC Memory Card.

UHS-I vs UHS-II

The Sony a7R IV makes use of dual UHS-II card slots which also support the slower UHS-I cards as well.

UHS-I SD cards have write speeds up to around 100MB/s and read speeds of around 170MB/s. UHS-II compatible cards increase this speed by adding a second row of contacts to the card, these cards are now capable of writing and reading up to around 300MB/s.

But this extra speed comes at a cost as UHS-II cards are more expensive then UHS-I cards and I’d only recommend buying them for your a7R IV if you do a lot of shooting in continuous bursts and you want the buffer to clear as fast as possible. Otherwise if you only shoot single shots then you can save a small fortune by purchasing UHS-I cards instead.

Memory Card Readers & Protective Cases

Sony MRW-S1 High Speed UHS-II USB Memory Card Reader/Writer

sony mrw-s1 uhs-ii reader for a7iii

Sony’s MRW-S1 UHS-II USB SD Card Reader/Writer enables the fast transfer of data via a USB 3.1 interface. It can read/write to UHS-II SD Cards and is backward compatible with UHS-I SD cards. It’s been designed with the Sony UHS-II SF-G series SD cards in mind which have speeds up to 300MB/s read and 299MB/s write. The MRW-S1 together with Sony SF-G cards can transfer files to and from your computer at around 2.6x faster than UHS-I cards.

Price Check & Buyer Reviews for Sony MRW-S1

At: Amazon | B&H Photo

Beeway Water & Shock Resistant Memory Card Case

beeway water shock resistant sdcard holder case

I don’t go anywhere without my Beeway SD Card holder. It holds 12 SD/SDHC/SDXC cards and 12 MicroSD cards perfectly in place. The case is water resistant and very strong. It also includes a small bag and a carabiner.

Price Check & Buyer Reviews for Beeway Memory Card Case

At: Amazon

Check Price & Buyer Reviews for Sony a7R IV

At: Amazon | B&H Photo

Sony a7R IV Resources

Sony a7R IV Memory Cards

Sony a7R IV Memory Card Guide

Best Sony a7R IV Lenses Guide

Best Sony a7R IV Lenses

Sony a7R IV Accessories

Ultimate Sony A7R IV Accessories Guide

Sony A7R IV Samples Images

Sony A7R IV Sample Images (SOOC JPGs + RAW)

Sony a7R IV Back Button Focus Setup Guide

Sony a7R IV Back Button Focus Setup Guide

Sony a7R IV Battery and Charger Guide

Sony a7R IV Battery and Charger Guide

Sony a7R IV Firmware Update

Sony a7R IV & a7R IVA Firmware Updates

Sony a7R IV Manual

Sony a7R IV Manual (PDF) + Online Help Guide

Sony Alpha Forum

About Timothy Mayo

I love shooting wildlife the most but will happily point my camera at pretty much anything. I started Alpha Shooters in 2017 to share my own photographic journey and experiences shooting with Sony Alpha. The site has since evolved into a popular community and resource. You can find out more about my story here or follow me on Instagram if you wish. I also have a YouTube Channel but haven’t published much content over the past year due to spending more time changing smelly nappies and also launching our community forums. However, I do hope to get back to creating content again there soon!

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Sam Stevenson

    June 6, 2021 at 8:15 am

    Thank you Tim! EXCELLENT overview of the essentials! This review of the basics is spot-on for newbies in the digital photography world, and it is exactly what I was looking for. Quick background: I am recently retired and decades ago used to do a lot of B&W 4×5 work, so I got used to very high resolution and hands-on control of the photographs in my darkroom. Fast-forward 35 years: Film is all but gone, and digital is here to stay. I just purchased an a7Riv because of improved digital resolution and was bewildered by the many intricacies of high-end digital cameras and the various things to consider. This overview answers so many questions and gives me a place to start in rebuilding my photography platform. I will follow Alpha Shooters closely from now on. Thank you again Tim, brilliant!

    Reply
    • Timothy Mayo

      June 14, 2021 at 10:09 am

      Glad to hear that you have found it helpful Sam. Mark Galer has some excellent videos on his YouTube Channel if you haven’t already discovered him. They’ll teach you pretty much everything you need to know about Sony’s mirrorless cameras including the a7R IV. Thank you for following along!

      Reply
      • Shen

        July 10, 2021 at 5:49 am

        Hi guys I have a A7RIII and wanted to know which write speed is acceptable. Alot of confusion out there to buy the faster cards that costs silly money. Any help would be appreciated.

      • Timothy Mayo

        July 27, 2021 at 8:24 am

        Hi Shen. You definitely don’t need the most expensive card, especially for the a7R III. A card like the Sony SF-M UHS-II will be perfectly fine and fast enough, and they are normally around half the price of the most expensive cards. I will be doing some in-camera speed tests for the a7R III soon.

  2. John

    January 26, 2020 at 11:37 am

    Excellent article, comprehensive and well written, concise, precise and conveyed the information I was researching. Looking at Sony a7r iv for a โ€œkey milestoneโ€ birthday from my wife. And searching for suitable memory size for such a camera.
    Many thanks

    Reply
    • Timothy Mayo

      February 7, 2020 at 8:23 am

      Thank you very much John. It sounds like a very generous birthday present. Does your wife know yet? ๐Ÿ™‚ Tim

      Reply

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