Sony A7R V Recommended Memory Cards for the A7R V

[Tim Mayo]

I've just updated my Sony A7R V Memory Card guide with a bunch of new cards. I've now tested 23 CFexpress Type A and 28 UHS-II SD cards in the A7R V to see how they actually perform in the camera.

Tested in Camera: The Best Sony A7R V Memory Cards - Alpha Shooters

20 CFexpress Type-A cards and 13 of the most popular UHS-II cards tested in the Sony A7RV to find out which memory cards perform best in camera.

www.alphashooters.com

Most of the CFexpress Type A cards perform on par with each other, there are just four cards that are a little slower due to slower write times, but if you are only shooting short bursts you are unlikely to even notice.

The newer CFexpress 4.0 cards work just fine because the standard is backwards compatible with 2.0 devices, but there is no in-camera speed benefit to using them over a 2.0 card.

There is more of a variation in performance when it comes to UHS-II SD cards, especially the V60 rated cards. The fastest V90 card tested cleared the buffer in 24 seconds and the slowest V60 in 59 seconds. The Transcend SD 700S (64 GB) underperforms quite badly for a V90 card, it definitely doesn't like the A7R V for some reason.

It would be good to hear what cards people here are using, and if you've experienced any issues with them.

 

[SPB-universal]

Currently I have 80GB Lexar CF Express A cards. No problems with short clips or longer ones or images. They seem to be fine. I also have some V60 rated SD cards and notice I can not use all the available video modes as they are usefully greyed out in the menu. I have currently one V90 card (Agfaphoto 128GB) and just bought but not yet tried out
OWC Atlas S Pro V90 32/64 GB, SDHC, U3, UHS-II cards. I bought these lower size cards because I never get anywhere near filling a 128GB card! If I did the Mac would complain about how long it would take to upload.

 

[Chris 3754]

Hi Tim, I have used Kingston SD cards in an a7iv and a1ii, and found that they worked well. Although I did not accurately measure their advertised speed, 300mb/s v90, I felt they cleared the buffer fast enough for shooting action sports. I would assume they work equally well in the a7v. They were well-priced and appeared to be good quality.

Question for you and the group: is it possible for a future Sony firmware update to take advantage of CFe 4.0 cards instead of only being backwards compatible to 2.0 cards or would this be a hardware issue that can't be addressed with firmware?

 

[SPB-universal]

Hi Tim, I have used Kingston SD cards in an a7iv and a1ii, and found that they worked well. Although I did not accurately measure their advertised speed, 300mb/s v90, I felt they cleared the buffer fast enough for shooting action sports. I would assume they work equally well in the a7v. They were well-priced and appeared to be good quality.

Question for you and the group: is it possible for a future Sony firmware update to take advantage of CFe 4.0 cards instead of only being backwards compatible to 2.0 cards or would this be a hardware issue that can't be addressed with firmware?

That's a good question I wonder what the answer will be. I would say possibly firmware but difficult for me to say anymore than that.

 

[Tim Mayo]

Hi Tim, I have used Kingston SD cards in an a7iv and a1ii, and found that they worked well. Although I did not accurately measure their advertised speed, 300mb/s v90, I felt they cleared the buffer fast enough for shooting action sports. I would assume they work equally well in the a7v. They were well-priced and appeared to be good quality.

Question for you and the group: is it possible for a future Sony firmware update to take advantage of CFe 4.0 cards instead of only being backwards compatible to 2.0 cards or would this be a hardware issue that can't be addressed with firmware?

Not unless the cameras have PCIe Gen 4 hardware built-in already but have been restricted to run at PCIe Gen 3 speeds, then a firmware update could enable the faster speeds. But I expect we won’t see a camera that maxes out the write speeds of either the 2.0 or 4.0 cards anytime soon due to the heat it would generate.

 

[Chris 3754]

Not unless the cameras have PCIe Gen 4 hardware built-in already but have been restricted to run at PCIe Gen 3 speeds, then a firmware update could enable the faster speeds. But I expect we won’t see a camera that maxes out the write speeds of either the 2.0 or 4.0 cards anytime soon due to the heat it would generate.

I didn’t consider the heat issue. For me the 2.0 are more than fast enough in camera and the download speed as well.

 

[SPB-universal]

Not unless the cameras have PCIe Gen 4 hardware built-in already but have been restricted to run at PCIe Gen 3 speeds, then a firmware update could enable the faster speeds. But I expect we won’t see a camera that maxes out the write speeds of either the 2.0 or 4.0 cards anytime soon due to the heat it would generate.

Ah yes heat....... My A7CR soon gets rather warm doing video. The A7RV I have only done short clips so far and not an issue with heat.

 

[Chris 3754]

I shoot a lot in a cold hockey rink, it is nice to hold onto a warm camera LOL.