Nikon D7200 Memory Card Recommendations

The Nikon D7200 doesn’t come with a memory card as standard. So unless you get one of the bundles that retailers put together that includes some accessories thrown in, chances are you’ll have to pick up an SD card separately.

Quick recommendations

If you’d just like to cut to the chase, here are my quick recommendations for SD cards that work well in the Nikon D7200. These are generally readily available at major retailers, come from reliable manufacturers, and are cost-effective.

Memory card requirements for the D7200

First, the basics. The Nikon D7200 takes SD cards. It has two memory card slots, and you can choose how those slots are used. For example, you can just use them in sequence, so when the card in slot 1 fills up it will automatically roll over to using slot 2. That’s the “overflow” option. You can create backup duplicate copies, one to each card, as you’re shooting (the “backup” option). Or you can designate a JPEG version of the image to save to one card while a RAW version is saved to the other (the “RAW slot 1 – JPEG slot 2” option). You can also designate which slot is used for recording video.

The D7200 is compatible with both SDHC and SDXC memory cards. The technical difference between those two specifications is in the filesystem they’re formatted with — the SDHC specification uses FAT32 formatting, while the SDXC specification uses exFAT — but when it comes to buying memory cards, the practical difference is that cards 32GB and smaller will be labeled SDHC and cards 64GB and larger will be labeled SDXC.¹

The D7200’s most demanding activity in terms of memory card speed is when it’s recording video. When shooting photos, the camera will take advantage of its own internal buffer memory. This is a temporary memory space where photos can be stored while they’re waiting in the queue to be written to the memory card. The number of images that the buffer can hold will vary according to the settings you’re using — at the highest resolution using the lossless compressed 14-bit NEF mode you can expect to get up to around 18 images in the buffer at any given time, whereas in the JPEG modes you can get up to 100.²

Once the buffer is full, you’ll notice a slowdown as the camera has to wait for images to be written to the memory card (writing to the memory card is much slower than writing to the internal buffer).

Video works a bit differently. If the internal buffer were to fill up, there’s no way to slow down the shutter speed to wait for the card to catch up. And with bitrates of around 42 Mbps (megabits per second) in the D7200’s top video modes, that creates a large stream of data that needs to be written to the memory card very quickly. And that requires a card with a fast sequential write speed.

Put another way, when shooting still photos, having an SD card that’s fast enough is mostly about convenience. But when it comes to shooting videos, it’s essential.

The good news, though, is that since the D7200 was released, memory card manufacturers have been regularly coming out with newer and faster memory cards. So it’s not hard to find a card these days that’s fast enough, and you don’t need to break the bank to do it. And 42 Mbps is not particularly fast in comparison with newer cameras that often shoot at at least 100 Mbps and often at 400 Mbps or even higher.

The upshot is that there’s no need to get the latest and greatest (and most expensive card) for the D7200. By all means, use one if you want or if you already have one on hand — there’s no harm in doing so — but you won’t see much meaningful benefit from it in the camera.³

Nikon’s official recommendations

Nikon’s instruction manuals (or those from many camera manufacturers, for that matter) are not especially helpful in suggesting which memory cards work best in the camera. It’s not really their fault — they can’t keep the manual updated constantly as new memory cards come out, and they quickly become out of date.

For the D7200, this is their guidance for Approved Memory Cards (from p.379 of the manual):

What that boils down to is that they recommend an SD card that’s class 6 or faster. That’s pretty easy; most cards that you can find in stores these days are at least class 10. In fact, because cards have gotten faster since the D7200 was released, you’re more likely to have trouble finding a class 6 card than a class 10 one.

Some practical recommendations

With Nikon’s guidance in mind, combined with the findings from my own real-world speed tests of SD cards, here are some specific, practical recommendations for memory cards to use in the Nikon D7200. I’ve updated this to account for current models of memory cards that you should be able to find pretty easily.

My emphasis here is on cards that meet the requirements to use all of the camera’s features, are readily available at major retailers, and are cost-effective. But these are by no means the only SD cards that will work in the D7200. My objective here, after all, is to help choose a good card that works so you can get on with the fun stuff, not to document every possible card that works in this camera. I have, however, tried to include a few different brands in case you have your own preferences for brands or some are easier to find in some locations than others.

What size to get?

You can use cards from 4GB up in the D7200, including some of the larger SDXC cards available these days in the 256GB+ range. Which size you choose to use comes down to convenience, your budget, and your own preferences. The larger the card, obviously, the more you can shoot before filling it up. That is one area where the dual slots of the D7200 come in handy, especially if you’re using the overflow setting. You can quite often find that two smaller cards are less expensive than one larger one.

The size of the photo and video files created by the D7200 depends on what settings you’re using. For instance, if you’re shooting photos in the JPEG Normal setting, the files will be much, much smaller than if you’re shooting in the 14-bit NEF mode.

The same goes for video. The top-end 1080p video modes are recorded at higher bitrates than lower-resolution modes, so those files will be much larger for a corresponding duration of footage.

Here are some estimates. These are based on Nikon’s own figures, but bear in mind that they’re only estimates. Any compressed formats will vary slightly from file to file — that’s the nature of how these types of image compression work. So it’s possible you might get a few more or a few less, and it’s always a good idea to leave yourself some wiggle room. These figures refer to using the DX crop mode, the larger of the two crop modes available on the D7200; the files when using the 1.3x crop mode are significantly smaller.

Quality Setting	Size Setting	File Size MB (approx)	16GB	32GB	64GB	128GB	256GB	Buffer Capacity
NEF (RAW), Lossless compressed, 12-bit		22.2	379	758	1516	3032	6064	27
NEF (RAW), Lossless compressed, 14-bit		28	294	588	1176	2352	4704	18
NEF (RAW), Compressed, 12-bit		20.6	511	1022	2044	4088	8176	35
NEF (RAW), Compressed, 14-bit		25.4	428	856	1712	3424	6848	26
JPEG Fine	Large	12.7	929	1858	3716	7432	14864	100
	Medium	7.7	1500	3000	6000	12000	24000	100
	Small	3.9	2900	5800	11600	23200	46400	100
JPEG Normal	Large	6.5	1800	3600	7200	14400	28800	100
	Medium	3.9	3000	6000	12000	24000	48000	100
	Small	2.1	5600	11200	22400	44800	89600	100
JPEG Basic	Large	2.7	3500	7000	14000	28000	56000	100
	Medium	1.9	5700	11400	22800	45600	91200	100
	Small	1.1	10300	20600	41200	82400	164800	100

Estimates are calculated from Nikon’s estimates (p.380 in D7200 product manual). Refers to DX crop mode; files when using 1.3x crop mode are smaller.

Do you need to fill both memory card slots in the D7200?

This is a common question in higher-end cameras like this that have dual memory card slots.

And the answer is pretty straightforward: no, it’s not a requirement that you fill both memory card slots.

The camera will work well with only a single card in, although obviously some features that require two cards won’t work (such as the setting for saving JPEG to one and RAW to another, or the data overflow feature).

If you do fill both slots, do the memory cards have to be the same?

No, you can mix and match sizes and brands of the SD cards in each slot — they work independently.

How to format the SD card in a Nikon D7200

While it’s possible to format SD cards in a computer, it’s much better practice to format them in the camera. That way the camera can set the card up exactly how it wants it, and it greatly reduces the risk of something going wrong.

There are two ways to format the memory cards in the D7200. The basic way is to use the menu system (Setup / Camera Setup > Format Memory Card).

There’s also a two-button shortcut. I’ve outlined that method in detail for the D7500 here. The process is the same for the D7200, except that you can choose which slot to format on the D7200 because it has two slots compared to the D7500’s one.

Is it normal for the memory cards to get hot?

Yes, it’s quite normal for the SD cards to get hot after some intensive writing, such as when happens when shooting photos rapidly or recording video.

That’s not something distinctive to the D7200; it happens with most high-end cameras when shooting in high-bitrate modes that require a lot of data to be written to the memory card quickly, such as high-bitrate video modes and fast framerate burst shooting.

Notes & References:

1. It is technically possible, using a computer, to format a card that’s 32GB or smaller with exFAT or a card 64GB or larger with FAT32, but that goes against the specifications set by the SD Association. It can cause problems with some cameras, though, and you can end up with inconsistent results. And when you format the card in the camera, the camera reverts to the “correct” filesystem for the card. [↩︎]
2. These buffer capacity figures come from page 381 of Nikon’s instruction manual for the D7200. The one place you might see some benefit is in saving photos from the in-camera buffer to the memory card more quickly. [↩︎]
3. Depending on your setup, it is also possible that you might see faster download speeds from faster cards when you’re downloading from the memory card to your computer using a fast memory card reader. [↩︎]