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Memory Cards
Buying a new memory card for your camera? Watch this video first
Ben Andrews
15 September 2025
Confused by the mess of memory card speed and capacity standards? This video cuts through the confusion – it’s the clearest guide I’ve seen
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(Image credit: Lexar)
Memory cards, particularly SD cards, are possibly the most confusing sector of camera tech on the market. Sure, they’re everywhere, so getting hold of one is easy. But buying the right memory card for your camera and your shooting needs? That’s quite a minefield. Capacity, capacity class, numerous speed classes and measurement systems, price per gigabyte, manufacturer reputability: with so much to consider, you’d be entirely forgiven for just selecting the largest capacity you can afford, sorting by price=lowest, then blindly buying whatever comes out top.
1. Brand2. Position in range 3. Capacity4. Type 5. Speed 6. Speed Class7. UHS Class 8. UHS Bus IF product family 9. Video Speed Class
But help is at hand. For staters, we have our own handy guide explaining the myriad of confusing numbers and symbols found on an SD card. But, though it pains me to say it, YouTuber Wolf Amri has done an even better job of making sense of the SD card headache in this comprehensive yet totally accessible video guide.
Are you using the wrong SD-card for your camera? Watch before you buy! – YouTube
The take-home really comes down to buying a card that will let your camera run at its best – whether that be exceeding its maximum video capture bit rate, or the data rate when burst shooting stills – but not going over the top and splashing out on a card that’s so fast your camera won’t ever make use of the excess speed.
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A UHS-II card (right) will likely be faster than a UHS-I card (left), but only if your camera supports UHS-II cards
Of course, there’s always an argument for just buying the fastest, largest card you can afford, so you stay futureproofed for when you get a camera that can make use of the card’s full performance. While there’s nothing inherently wrong with this approach, by the time you upgrade camera in a few years, you’d likely be able to buy a card of equivalent or even better performance for significantly less money.
The excess/unused performance issue becomes particularly prevalent when we look at CFexpress cards.
(Image credit: Pergear)
While SD cards vary hugely in performance, with the cheapest, slowest cards able to noticeably bottleneck the performance of high-end cameras, CFexpress cards are very different. Whether Type A or B, you’ll be very hard pressed to find one which isn’t fast enough to exceed the maximum possible image or video recording requirements of your camera. The latest CFexpress 4.0 speed standard for Type A and B cards is so fast that, in the case of Type B cards, not only will your current camera not even come close to exploiting its full speed, chances are even cameras released in the next 2-3 years won’t either. CFexpress 4.0 Type B cards really are that quick!
With write speeds of up to 3300MB/s, this Lexar CFexpress Type B card far exceeds the maximum speed requirement of any current consumer camera (Image credit: Lexar)
So with Black Friday fast approaching, by all means make the most of those lowest-ever prices, but don’t get too carried away: there’s no point in spending extra on a memory card that’s simply too fast for your camera.
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Ben Andrews
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Ben is the Imaging Labs manager, responsible for all the testing on Digital Camera World and across the entire photography portfolio at Future. Whether he’s in the lab testing the sharpness of new lenses, the resolution of the latest image sensors, the zoom range of monster bridge cameras or even the latest camera phones, Ben is our go-to guy for technical insight. He’s also the team’s man-at-arms when it comes to camera bags, filters, memory cards, and all manner of camera accessories – his lab is a bit like the Batcave of photography! With years of experience trialling and testing kit, he’s a human encyclopedia of benchmarks when it comes to recommending the best buys.
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The best CFexpress cards: ultra-fast Type B and Type A cards compared
CFexpress Type A cards are incredible value: here’s proof
Just 29c per gigabyte! This memory card is just what I need to supercharge my Sony camera this Prime Day!
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CFexpress cards are expensive. But this speedy 1TB Lexar card is half off, today only
The best memory card readers: copy images and video to your computer
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