A Quick Note on Naming: Canon released this exact same camera under several different regional names. It is known as the EOS Rebel T6 in the Americas, the EOS 1300D in Europe and Asia, and the Kiss X80 in Japan. They are the exact same 18-megapixel DSLR, and they share the exact same memory card requirements.
Like most cameras, the Canon Rebel T6 doesn’t come with a memory card in the box. If you bought it as part of a retailer bundle, the included card is likely a generic, low-capacity model that will fill up after just a few hours of shooting.
If you head to a camera store to buy an upgrade, a salesperson will almost certainly try to sell you a fast, modern SD card. But before you open your wallet, you should know that the hardware inside the T6 physically cannot utilize those modern speeds.
I’ve been testing SD cards for years, and here is a practical look at exactly what this camera requires, and how to avoid wasting money on specs you cannot use.
Quick recommendations
Any name-brand SDHC or SDXC card rated Class 10 or faster will do everything this camera is capable of. If you just want to grab a reliable card and start shooting, any of the cards below are perfect for the T6 and 1300D.
These are more than enough to handle this camera’s video and photo output without forcing you to pay a premium for unnecessary top-end performance.
- Video Speed Class: V10
- UHS Bus Interface Type: UHS-I
- Maximum Read Speed: 195 MB/s
- Storage Capacities: 32GB, 64GB, 128GB, 256GB, 512GB
Check current price and availability at:
- Video Speed Class: V30
- UHS Bus Interface Type: UHS-I
- Maximum Read Speed: 150 MB/s
- Storage Capacities: 64GB, 128GB, 256GB
Check current price and availability at:
- Video Speed Class: V10 (64–256GB) · V30 (512GB–1TB)
- UHS Bus Interface Type: UHS-I
- Maximum Read Speed: 150 MB/s
- Storage Capacities: 64GB, 128GB, 256GB, 512GB, 1TB
Check current price and availability at:
Recommendations checked: August 2026
SD card type, compatibility & technical requirements
The Rebel T6 has a single memory card slot.
It’s fully compatible with standard SD, SDHC, and SDXC cards. But its internal interface is severely limited compared to modern cameras.
According to Canon’s own documentation, the T6 is now so old that it does not even support the standard UHS-I bus interface. If you put a modern UHS-I card into the camera, the hardware will bottleneck the card:
The camera can use UHS-I cards, but since it is not compatible with the UHS-I standard, reading/writing speeds will be equivalent to SD Speed Class 10 at most.
Class 10 translates to roughly 10 Megabytes per second. Fortunately, the camera’s highest output is 1080p video at 30 frames per second, which generates a maximum video bitrate of roughly 46 Mbps. Because 46 Megabits equals just under 6 Megabytes per second, a basic Class 10 card provides more than enough bandwidth to record the heaviest files this camera can produce without dropping frames.
Capacity isn’t a constraint either. Canon lists the T6 as compatible with SD, SDHC and SDXC cards, and SDXC covers everything from over 32GB up to 2TB, so a 64GB or 128GB card is comfortably within what the camera handles.
What a bigger card won’t buy you is a longer take. Canon stops a single movie clip at 4GB or 29 min. 59 sec., whichever comes first, and you press the movie button again to start a new file. That happens on any card, at any capacity — including a big exFAT SDXC card, where you might expect the 4GB file limit to disappear.
Saving money: The V30 baseline vs. premium cards
While your camera only strictly requires a Class 10 card, plain Class 10 / U1 cards like SanDisk’s Ultra line are still sold everywhere. So are V30 cards (30 MB/s), and they often cost about the same. Buying a standard V30 card is perfectly fine and usually your most cost-effective option — the camera will simply utilize it at the Class 10 speeds it needs.
The real waste of money happens when you are upsold to premium UHS-II cards (like V60 or V90) capable of 150 to 300 MB/s transfer speeds.
Because the T6’s hardware is hard-capped at 10 MB/s, the camera will simply throttle the expensive V90 card all the way down to baseline speeds. It will offer absolutely no in-camera performance benefit. It will not improve your 3-frames-per-second burst rate, and it will not make your 1080p video look any better. The only advantage a faster card provides is saving you a few minutes when you plug the card into your computer to download your files.
Hardware Warning: Avoid emerging memory formats like SD Express or SDUC entirely. The T6 does not have the hardware pins to interface with them, meaning an expensive SD Express card will operate at the exact same speed as a budget $15 card inside your camera.
These are by no means the fastest SD cards on the market, but the reality is that many cameras don't need and can't fully take advantage of the fastest SD cards available. But these cards are fast enough for this camera. And they also offer good value, since they're not pushing the limits with cutting-edge technology.
My emphasis here is on cards that meet these criteria:
- They're fast enough for all the features of this camera.
- They're from a reputable and reliable brand, so you can count on them working well.
- They're readily available at major retailers.
- They're good value for money — you're not paying for speed the camera can't use.
If you want to use a faster, fancier card, you can, but you won't see any extra benefit while operating the camera (though you might see faster speeds when downloading photos to a computer, depending on your card reader). And, as always, I recommend buying from a major retailer to minimize the chances of getting stung with a counterfeit memory card.
SanDisk Ultra V10 UHS-I
- Video Speed Class: V10
- UHS Bus Interface Type: UHS-I
- Maximum Read Speed: 195 MB/s
- Storage Capacities: 32GB, 64GB, 128GB, 256GB, 512GB
Check current price and availability at:
The SanDisk Ultra line is their cost-effective mid-range option. The latest versions of the Ultra cards are much faster than older versions, and it's a good basic option for cameras that don't demand too much of their SD card. The next level up — the Extreme cards — are also good options, but the Ultra cards are often priced slightly lower. They're usually widely available in stores, as well, which is a virtue.
Something to note is that SanDisk recycles its model names, and you can still find older, slower versions with the Ultra name. This latest version of the Ultra card is rated for V10 for video recording, uses a UHS-I interface, and is rated for 195 MB/s sequential read speed (write is much slower but is fast enough to qualify for the V10 rating).
It comes in sizes ranging from 32GB up to 512GB.
Lexar High-Performance 800x PRO BLUE Series V30 UHS-I
- Video Speed Class: V30
- UHS Bus Interface Type: UHS-I
- Maximum Read Speed: 150 MB/s
- Storage Capacities: 64GB, 128GB, 256GB
Check current price and availability at:
The Lexar 800x Pro range is a relatively new model that replaces the old 633x cards that were mainstays of Lexar's SD cards for a long time. There are now faster cards available, but this one is again fast enough for this camera while also representing very good value for money. As a V30 card, it's technically rated faster than strictly necessary for this camera, but it's still a good combination of speed, reliability, and value.
Kingston Canvas Select Plus (SDS3) UHS-I
- Video Speed Class: V10 (64–256GB) · V30 (512GB–1TB)
- UHS Bus Interface Type: UHS-I
- Maximum Read Speed: 150 MB/s
- Storage Capacities: 64GB, 128GB, 256GB, 512GB, 1TB
Check current price and availability at:
Kingston is a brand that probably isn't as widely known as some of the others here, but they've been making reliable memory cards for a very long time. As a brand, they don't tend to focus on cutting-edge speeds but rather on reliable, good-value memory cards. And this card fits squarely in those categories.
This particular card (model SDS3 Canvas Select Plus) is certainly not the fastest in Kingston's range, but it's fast enough to work well in this camera. It's available in sizes from 64GB through 1TB.
NB: The 64GB, 128GB, and 256GB versions of this card are rated V10. The 512GB and 1TB cards are rated for the faster V30 spec. All of them will work in this camera (the V30 cards will operate at the camera's lower speeds, but they're compatible).
Recommendations checked: August 2026
Formatting & card prep
It is best practice to format your SD card inside the camera before taking it out for a shoot. This ensures the file system is set up exactly how Canon’s processor expects it, vastly reducing the risk of file corruption.
You can find the standard format tool in the yellow settings menu:
Wrench Icon 1 > Format Card > OKIf you accidentally format the wrong memory card in the field, immediately stop shooting and pull the card out. As long as you have not overwritten the flash memory sectors with new photos, you can usually recover your deleted photos using a desktop recovery application when you get home.
The T6 also includes an option for a “Low-Level Format.” If your card begins throwing errors or acting sluggish, checking this box will force the camera to wipe all recordable sectors on the flash memory. If the camera still struggles to write data smoothly after that, you should connect the card to your computer and learn how to execute a full format instead of a quick format using a dedicated SD formatter utility to completely restore the drive’s performance.
I am having a hard time trying to figure out what type of SD card to purchase for my needs. I have the Canon T6 EOS and take a lot of pics of my kids sports (cheer and softball) along with special events like homecoming and prom. I would love to be able afford a nice lens for those action shots but that isn’t in the budget right now. Do you have any suggestions on what SD card would work well for what I am looking for?
Any of the ones listed above will work well. Given how close the prices are at the moment, my first pick would be the SanDisk Extreme. 128GB would give you lots of room for photos and video; 64GB would also work well.
You say , If you want to get a faster card, but I can’t find in your article or many more of this type, the maximum write speed of the 1300D. Using a faster card than the camera can write to it is spending money you don’t need to for no gain whatsoever!
It’s not always true that UHS-II cards are faster or more expensive, and many people already have cards on hand and want to know whether they can use those.
I wanted to know, if my card shows it needs to be formatted before use can I still recover my data or its all gone!! Please let me know.
Thanks in advance !! Cheers
Hard to say without looking at it. That error typically means that the card hasn’t been initialized and may not even have a filesystem on it (or is the wrong type). If that’s the case, there’s unlikely to be data there to recover. If there’ some other reason that it’s throwing that error, then it might be possible. The only way to confirm would be to run one of the data recovery scanners to see if it can find anything there. Several of the apps have a free trial version that lets you run the scan. If it finds what you’re looking for, you can then buy a license to do the actual recovery. I have a rundown of various data recovery apps here.
I have waited so long to get a feel camera and finally got one. I am really excited to start shooting but need to be educated on all the requirements for the t6. This article was such a gift for me! Written in layman terms so I completely understood all the valuable points. Looking forward to receiving the newsletters..
Glad it was useful. Enjoy shooting with your new T6!
This whole article was extremely helpful, I’m new to these type of cameras. I have to say you have more info that anserwered my questions than all of the 50 or so sites that I looked at for answers . Thank You, Very Much.
Glad it’s helpful!
This was educational and helpful. I appreciate the value angle of the memory card should match the capabilities of the camera. Thanks!
I just installed a PNY “P-SDX256U395-GE” (Class 10, UHS-I/U3) SDXC card into my niece’s Rebel T6 (2017 Christmas gift). They are running about $120, right now. It formatted to 241GB, which is correct for a 256GB drive. her pictures are about 6MB and save in less than a second. That works out to some 40,000 photos… I’ll have to get her into backing up!
I have not come across a site mentioning the maximum memory size, and Canon does not mention memory above 128GB. I hope this helps others in choosing a card.
Thanks for the tip.
Thanks for the tip!