Canon PowerShot SX420 Memory Card Recommendations

A memory card is an essential accessory to make the camera work, but the Canon PowerShot SX420 doesn’t come with a memory card as standard. Some retailers put together a deal bundle that might include some accessories, including a memory card, but chances are you’ll have to pick up a memory card separately. Or maybe you want something bigger with larger storage capacity—the cards that are included in bundles are often on the small side and might fill up quickly, especially if you’re on a trip.

But what are the best SD cards to get for the SX420? That’s where this post comes in—hopefully, to help you get out shooting sooner and taking full advantage of all the features of your new camera rather than spending your time searching the web and trying to make sense of cryptic technical codes. I’ve been buying and testing numerous SD cards for several years and have put many of the most popular SD cards on the market through their paces.

Quick Recommendations on SD Cards for the Canon PowerShot SX420

If you just want some quick recommendations, here you go. Any of these will work well in the SX420. These SD cards meet the needs of the SX420’s feature, have a strong track record of reliability, are readily available, and are usually cost-effective.

Canon PowerShot SX420 SD Card Requirements

The Canon PowerShot SX420 is a compact point and shoot with an unusually long zoom (42x optical zoom). It has a 20-megapixel sensor and shoots 720p HD video. It has a single UHS-I SD card slot. It’s compatible with SDXC, SDHC, and SD cards.

The maximum of 720p video is quite low resolution compared with many other cameras these days that can shoot at least 4K. But the good news is that that makes it less demanding of the memory card. So you don’t need to get the fastest SD card that money can buy.

Because of the way that cameras interface with memory cards, once you have a card that meets the requirements of the camera, you don’t get any extra benefit by inserting a card with high specs and performance that exceeds the camera’s capabilities.¹ And, naturally, high-performance cards are more expensive. So why pay extra for high performance that your SX420 can’t use? By all means, if you already have a fast SD card on hand, you can use it in the SX420, but it won’t get you any extra performance in the camera (it might when downloading the photos and videos to a computer).

That said, in the recommendations below, I’m factoring in cost-effectiveness as well. And because memory card manufacturers are coming out with newer, faster models all the time, it’s quite possible that the most cost-effective cards are faster than your camera needs. But that’s a case where it makes sense to go with the cost-effective option even if its performance exceeds the requirements of the camera.

Detailed Version

So which SD card should you get for your Canon PowerShot SX420? Here’s the more detailed version.

So Why Get a Good Memory Card?

A better memory card isn’t going to help you take better photos or improve image quality. But it can let you take advantage of all of the camera’s features. A card that’s not fast enough to keep up with the camera can cause issues like locking up, dropped frames, and overheating.

There’s also the issue of reliability. There are plenty of junk memory cards on the market. Not only do they have flaky performance, but they’re also more likely to fail. And that means the risk of losing your photos and videos.

At the same time, you don’t want to pay extra for a high-performance SD card that’s overkill for the camera.

Practical Recommendations

If you go looking in the manual, you’ll find that it’s extremely vague about compatible memory cards. It says that “The following memory cards (commercially available) can be used, regardless of capacity: SD memory cards, SDHC memory cards, SDXC memory cards.” Fair enough, but that’s not especially helpful.

So what I’m aiming to do here is provide some practical recommendations on which SD cards to get for the Canon PowerShot SX420 so you can spend less time searching online and more time out shooting. I’m not trying to list every SD card that works in the SX420–there are others that will work just fine as well. I’m focusing here on ones that offer a good combination of meeting the requirements of all of the SX420’s features, are readily available at major retailers, are cost-effective, and come from major manufacturers with track records for good-quality cards. I’m also basing this on my own SD speed tests.

So here’s more detailed information on these cards, along with some others. Most of these cards are actually faster than the SX420 needs, but they’re all still cost-effective options for this camera because of the way that SD cards are constantly improving.

Decoding the SD Card Codes

SDHC vs SDXC

Most of the cards you’ll see available have either SDHC or SDXC printed on them.

As a practical matter, the Canon PowerShot SX420 is compatible with both SDXC and SDHC, so you don’t need to worry much about this.

These are categories assigned by the SD Association, which is the organization that oversees and develops the standards for SD and microSD cards.

Technically, SDHC and SDXC refer to the type of filesystem used on the SD cards. SDHC cards used FAT32. SDXC cards use exFAT.

In practice, though, it also helps distinguish cards by their storage capacity, at least broadly. The SD Association determined that cards up to 32GB would be SDHC, while cards 64GB and above are SDXC.

UHS-I vs UHS-II

SD cards also have UHS-I or UHS-II on them (or often just an I or II). This refers to the type of interface that’s used to connect to the cards. It stands for ultra-high-speed bus.

UHS-I is the older, simpler bus interface. UHS-II is newer and potentially faster. The catch is that you only get the extra benefit of UHS-II if the device is also UHS-II. But the spec is designed to be backward compatible, so you can use UHS-II cards in UHS-I devices, but you will only get the speed of UHS-I.

The Canon PowerShot SX420 has a UHS-I interface, so, as a practical matter, there’s no benefit to using UHS-II cards in it (but it’s perfectly fine to do so).

Video Speed Classes

The SD Association has come out with various rating systems over the years to help buyers choose a card that’s suitable for use in cameras. Because recording high-resolution video (or, more specifically, high-bitrate video) is often the most demanding operation in terms of a camera and its memory card, it’s known as a video speed class rating system.

Most cards available now have a mix of old and new speed class codes printed on them. And while it’s helpful, it’s still an imperfect system for judging the speed of an SD card.

As a practical matter in the Canon PowerShot SX420, cards that have any of these on them should be fast enough:

• V30
• U3
• U1

V60 and V90 are also fine, but they’re overkill for the SX420.

There’s a separate rating system that you might also see on some cards. They might have an A1 or A2 on them. You can ignore that when choosing an SD card for a camera. It’s designed for the kinds of operations that gaming devices and smartphones do.

What Size SD Card to Use in the Canon PowerShot SX420

The SX420 is compatible with SDHC and SDXC cards. That means you can use cards from 4GB all the way to the largest cards currently available, which are 256GB or even 512GB and 1TB cards.

The current sweet spot for a combination of convenience, being readily available, and being cost-effective is probably around the 128GB to 512GB cards. But you can use larger or smaller ones if you prefer–it’s mostly a matter of convenience of how much video footage or photo data you can store on the card before it fills up, and you have to download to a computer or some other device.

Canon has put together these estimates for how many photos will fit on a memory card (you can find them on page 143 of the manual. These are based on a 16GB card, so you can multiply them by the appropriate amount for larger cards (for instance, multiply by 8x for a 128GB card).

They’ve done the same for video:

How to Format SD Cards

When you buy a new SD card, you should format it before use (and then regularly after that). Here’s some information on how to do that.

How to Format Memory Cards in the Canon PowerShot SX420

It is best practice to always format memory cards in the camera that you’ll be using them in. That sets the card up with the filesystem, folder hierarchy, and, in some cameras, a database file, so that the card is just how the camera expects. That greatly reduces the risk of unexpected errors and unpleasant surprises.

On the Canon PowerShot SX420, you can find the format function under:

Settings (the tools icon) > Format

For day-to-day use, the standard formatting is what you want. But if you’re trying to troubleshoot a memory card error, the SX420 also includes a low-level formatting function. That’s a more thorough process that methodically goes through each part of the storage space (it’s also a more thorough way to delete files permanently). You can enable it with a checkbox on the format screen. I don’t recommend using it under normal circumstances, though, because of the extra time it takes.

How to Format SD Cards with a Computer

Having said that, it is still possible to format memory cards using a card reader and computer. You get a lot more flexibility that way, but also some extra risk if things aren’t set up just how the camera wants them. It’s also sometimes a good troubleshooting step if you’re having issues with a memory card.

There are some things to watch out for, particularly when it comes to choosing which filesystem to use. So I’ve put together guides on how to format SD cards on Mac and how to use the free SD Card Formatter app for Windows or Mac.

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