Best Equipment

Best Memory Cards for Sony A99 II

Here’s a list of our 3 best memory cards for the Sony A99 II.

Specification wise, the new A99 II is an absolute beast. It’s got a 42 megapixel sensor that can shoot at 12 frames per second, as well as 4K video recording with built-in stabilization.

You’ll need a good memory card that is fast enough to write such big files without you having to wait to take the next picture. The Sony A99 II has 2 x SD memory card slots that support UHS-I interface. You can use UHS-II cards which are more expensive, but you’ll only get faster speeds when transferring your files to the computer. With a 42MP sensor, this is actually quite recommended.

Our favorite Sony A99 II memory card is the SanDisk Extreme PRO 64GB. It’s super fast (95MB/s) and affordable, plus SanDisk is the most reliable memory card company out there.

After looking through many memory cards available, these are the top 3 (best price/speed ratio).

Best Sony A99 II Memory Cards

What to Remember about Memory Cards

Here are a couple key things to remember when purchasing a SD memory card.

  • ALWAYS buy more than one SD card
    • Memory cards don’t last forever
    • If you run out of space in the middle of shooting you have another card to pop in
    • Have two to four cards so you can setup a rotation between what’s in your camera and what you’re loading to your computer.
  • Card size isn’t as important as buying more than one card
    • Card capacity is nice but having a backup card(s) is much more valuable for real life
  • If you must, skip a meal rather than buy a cheap SD card
    • A bad memory card is going to slow down the ability to use your camera to its fullest
    • The card failing unexpectedly can also have dire consequences

If you want to learn more our partner site, Best Photography Gear, provides a thorough review of the different memory card brands, terms, & expressions out there. They break it down so it’s easy to understand the differences so you can select the right one.

SanDisk Extreme Pro 64GB

sandisk-extreme-pro-64gb-sdxc

Our top pick: For the price, nothing beats the SanDisk Extreme Pro 64GB (95MB/s). It’s our most recommended card for almost all cameras, simply because it’s UHS-I U3 at 95MB/s and extremely reliable. For both 4K and 12fps burst shooting, it’s a great choice.

The writing speed of the A99 II can’t go higher than 60MB/s which is why all of our cards will easily surpass what the A99 II is capable of anyways.

You can buy it at Amazon or see more reviews here.

Lexar Professional 1000x UHS-II

lexar-professional-64gb-1000x-u3The Lexar Professional 1000x 64GB is a UHS-II U3 card so while you won’t see any improved writing speeds in the A99 II, you will be able to transfer your shots to your computer much quicker. Considering images taken with a 42MP sensor are quite big, it might be a good idea if you often transfer hundreds of images and don’t have much time.

As of writing this post, no Sony camera can take advantage of UHS-II, but if you want to be future-proof, buying a UHS-II card right means you’ll be able to fully use it in the future. For now, it’ll only make your transferring part easier.

You can buy it at Amazon or see more reviews here.

Lexar Professional 2000x UHS-II

Want something better than both cards above? Check out the Lexar Professional 2000x. Again, it’s UHS-II so there won’t be any in-camera improvement, but for future-proofing yourself for newer cameras and extremely fast file transferring (video and photos), this memory card will be blazing fast (up to 2x faster than the one above).

It even comes with a USB 3.0 reader, as well as Image Rescue software that can help recover your lost photos. Definitely a great deal for the money.

You can buy it at Amazon or see more reviews here.

Stick to Lexar, SanDisk, Transcend and Sony cards and you’ll be fine. Don’t ever buy a cheap, random card as you’ll probably lose your photographs soon.

Don’t buy memory cards from unknown brands or something that looks too good to be true. More often than not, those cards will fail right when you’ll need them the most.

A memory card is where all of your work is stored until you transfer that on the computer.

Make sure to get a card from any of the following brands: SanDisk, Lexar, Transcend and Kingston. There are a few good out there, but the 5 we mentioned are more than enough.

1 Comment

  • Love the Lexar Professional 2000x UHS-II (128GB) for my a99II so much that I bought two of them . . . one for each slot. Then I had to take out a second mortgage.

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