The Canon R6 Mark II is a small refresh of the capable R6 Mark 1 which is only two years old. So with the new improvements and familiar specs which have carried over, which memory cards are required? This article will clearly guide you on what you need.
The best SD card for photography on the Canon R6 Mark II is the Sandisk Extreme Pro 128GB UHS-II V90 SD card, and the best SD card for video on the R6 is the ProGrade 256GB UHS-II V90 SD card.
Last update on 2023-06-01 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API
The Canon R6 Mark II continues its predecessor offering of two memory card slots supporting SD/SDHC/SDXC UHS-I and UHS-II memory cards.
SD card terminology is explained later in this article if you want to delve into the mechanics of SD cards.
I strongly recommend UHS-II cards for both photo and video, the difference in price means going to the UHS-II card will actually save you in the long run, future proofing you as these cards can last years and years.
Best Memory Cards for Recording Video
Canon have supplied the specific recommendations for all its videos modes:
Canon have also supplied the video recording bit rates which show that 4K UHD Time-lapse movie mode requiring the biggest bit rate at ALL-I ~470Mbps. With a handy Mbps converter this works out to ~58.75MB/s which is more than covered to write to V60 and V90 cards.
Personally I still prefer to go V90 just to future proof myself. I still use CFExpress cards which have lasted over a decade with heavy use, so bear this in mind. Memory card tech does not move as fast as camera tech.
How Much 4K Video Can You Write to the Canon R6 Mark II?
Again Canon have worked out all the data so we can evaluate our needs when choosing the best memory cards for the Canon R6 Mark II:
As you can see, 32GB cards for 4K 60p would fill up pretty quickly and even 64GB cards too. I believe the sweet spot is actually 128GB and 256GB cards.
Of course this is situation dependent, but if you intending to record long form content like podcasts or interviews bigger capacity cards are the way to go:
Last update on 2023-06-01 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API
The V90 cards are pretty expensive SD cards, but if your needs can be be met by V60 cards these are some alternatives to the ones above:
Last update on 2023-06-01 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API
SD Cards Explained
On the face of your SD card are a lot of numbers and symbols that help you understand if it will be able to record the photos or video at optimal speeds without errors.
SDHC or SDXC
The only difference between the two is the different filing systems which result in higher memory capacities. The SDHC can hold up to 32GB whereas the SDXC can hold up to 2TB, but there are only cards up to 512GB, as of the time of the publication of this article.
Maximum Read Speed
SD card manufacturers don’t usually advertise the write speed so the top left/right number is most often the maximum achievable read speed. The read speed is more relevant for photography than video.
What this means is the more frames you shoot per second is dependent on the read speed for how much buffering issues you run into.
For video the more important number is sustained speeds. Because if the sustained speed drops below the video bit rate you get that jittery look where your video is dropping frames.
Memory Capacity
This is probably the most understood number on the SD card, and obviously represents the amount of data the particular SD card can hold.
Speed Class Rating
The rest of the numbers in the top right side of the SD card represent the speed class of that particular card.
The letter C with the number enclosed inside 2, 4, 6, 10, represents a minimum write speed of 2MBps for a class 2, 4MBps for a class 4 etc. Be aware this is the minimum rate and not the actual rate.
Then you have U with a 1 or 3 inside of it, which represents a minimum sustained write speed, with U1 representing 10MBps and U3 writing never slower than 30MBps. A U3 SD card will cover all the video recording modes that are available to the SD card.
So U1 and Class 10 are essentially the same, with both representing the card certifying to never write data lower than 10MBps. The difference though is that the U is designed for SD cards that use a USH-I or USH-II bus.
Non USH cards max out at 25MBps. Whereas USH-I cards max out at 104MBps and USH-II max out at 312MBps. You will also see a second row of pins on the back of the USH-II card that allow it to achieve faster speeds.
You can use both USH-I and USH-II cards with the R5, but with the UHS-II you will be capable of more options.
The V speed is similar to the U number in that it represents the minimum sustained speed in MBps that an SD card achieves.
Final Thoughts
I hope all the information here has been of use and will save you money and headaches in the long run.
No one likes getting the wrong memory card or finding out later you should’ve bought a larger, or even, smaller card.
Also don’t forget a good SD card reader:
- Simultaneously read and write on two cards to save yourself the effort of constant unplugging and re-plugging.
- USB 3.0 enables data transfer rates of up to 5Gbps for faster Sync times, backward compatible with USB 2.0/ 1.1.
Last update on 2023-06-01 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API
Let me know in the comments if you are a Canon R6 owner and if you’ve found a cheaper or different brand of SD card that works for your workflow with photography or video.
Links
Check out some Canon R6 goodness on my Instagram and YouTube.
Artist / Photographer / Videographer