The Panasonic Lumix DMC-TS30 (also sometimes referred to as just the TS30 or, in some parts of the world, the FT30) doesn’t come with a memory card as standard. Some retailers put together special Lumix TS30 bundles with some accessories to make the purchase more attractive. If you’re buying one of those bundles and it includes a memory card, you’re all set. But chances are you’ll need to pick up an SD card separately before you get shooting.
And more than likely you want to spend your time shooting and adventuring rather than researching the ins and outs of which memory card to get. This is why I’ve put this post together — as some quick, practical recommendations on which memory cards will work well in the TS30 without buying something that’s unnecessarily fancy or expensive.
I’ve taken Panasonic’s official guidance and combined it with my own experience with testing SD cards and shooting with the TS30.
The short version is that you don’t need a fancy SD card for the DMC-TS30. A 32GB or 64GB SDHC or SDXC card with a Class 10 rating from a brand you know will cover everything this camera can ask of a card. It’s not demanding of memory card speed by today’s standard, so you don’t need the latest and greatest (or the most expensive).
Quick recommendations on SD cards for the Lumix DMC-TS30
If you just want the quick version, here are a few good options. I’ve found these to work well, to be readily available at major retailers, and to be cost-effective.
- 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
Detailed recommendations for SD cards for the Panasonic Lumix DMC-TS30
First, the basics. The TS30 takes SD-sized cards. It has a single memory card slot, so it takes one card at a time (although having a spare card on hand is always a good idea in case something goes wrong with a card).
That means full-size SD cards, not microSD. If the card you already have is a microSD, the little passive adapter that comes with most of them works fine here. The adapter is just a shell that routes the card’s contacts out to the full-size shape — it has no electronics in it, so the card behaves exactly as it would in a phone, no faster and no slower.
Making sense of SD Card Specifications
You’ll find a range of different acronyms and codes on SD cards. Here’s a quick overview of which to look for.
The TS30 will work with both SDHC and SDXC cards (and, for that matter, just plain SD cards, but they’re harder to find these days). The 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 from 4GB to 32GB will be labeled SDHC and cards 64GB and larger will be labeled SDXC.
When it comes to what size to get, the instruction manual says that cards from 2G up to 64GB will work. I’ve also used 128GB cards in it without any problems. Which to get, then, pretty much comes down to convenience so you don’t keep running out of space (although the TS30 has an internal memory that can hold another 34 or so photos if you fill the card up). The sweet spot in the combination of how many photos (or video) you can fit and the price of the card is probably in the 32GB to 64GB range for this camera, but if you want to use a smaller card like 8GB or 16GB, you can.
One thing not to do with a bigger card: don’t reformat it to FAT32 on a computer to try to make it more like an SDHC card. SDXC cards are meant to be exFAT, and reformatting them to FAT32 is a common cause of write errors and “card cannot be used” messages later on. With a 64GB or 128GB card, format it in the TS30 and leave the file system alone.
Some cameras need a fast SD card, and I’ve written more generally about what memory card speed your camera actually needs. The TS30 doesn’t, so you have plenty of options when it comes to speed. The function where card speed matters most on the TS30 is when shooting video. But the video mode on this camera uses quite low bitrates (i.e. the amount of data that needs to be written per second), so you can get away with slower cards than in some other cameras. If you’re shooting video, you’ll want something that’s rated for at least Class 4. In practice, you really can’t find anything readily available these days less than Class 10, so it’s actually quite rare to come across a card that isn’t fast enough. Don’t go hunting specifically for a Class 4 card — even if you find them, there’s a good chance they’ll be more expensive than a Class 10 card anyway. There are also plenty of cards available now that have faster ratings than Class 10 — such as U1 or U3. You can use those cards if you like — they’re backward compatible — but you won’t see any extra performance boost in the camera.1
It also helps to know what the big number on the front of a card means, because it isn’t the one that matters here. That headline figure — 100MB/s, 200MB/s, whatever it says — is a best-case read speed, not the write speed and not a guaranteed minimum. The guaranteed floor is the small class marking: the 10 inside a C, or the U and V numbers. And if you happen to put a UHS-II card in the TS30, the extra row of contacts on the back of the card is simply ignored, so it runs at the same speed as any other card in this camera.
Practical recommendations
With that said, here are some more detailed practical recommendations. They’re based on a combination of Panasonic official guidance in the instruction manual and my own testing of SD cards. This is by no means designed to be a comprehensive list of every SD card that will work in the TS30 — there are plenty of other SD cards that will also work well — but these are ones that are a combination of reliable, readily available at major retailers, cost-effective, and work well in the TS30 camera without going overboard with fancier-than-necessary specs.
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
What the Lumix DMC-TS30’s instruction manual says
If you go hunting in the instruction manual, you’ll find this on page 22:
How many photos from the TS30 will fit on an SD card?
These are based on the figures Panasonic provides in the manual:
| Size | Built-in Memory | 2GB | 4GB | 16GB | 32GB | 64GB | 128GB |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 16MP | 34 | 300 | 1228 | 2455 | 4910 | 9889 | 19778 |
| 5MP | 76 | 660 | 2655 | 5310 | 10620 | 21490 | 42980 |
| 0.3MP | 1170 | 10240 | 40740 | 81480 | 162960 | 247160 | 494320 |
How much TS30 video footage will fit on a memory card?
These are again based on Panasonic’s figures. The duration is in the format HH:MM:SS.
| Size | Built-in Memory | 2GB | 4GB | 16GB | 32GB | 64GB | 128GB |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| HD | — | 0:23:45 | 0:47:30 | 3:14:08 | 6:28:15 | 13:05:20 | 26:10:40 |
| VGA | 0:05:52 | 0:52:17 | 1:44:34 | 7:07:14 | 14:14:28 | 28:48:24 | 57:36:48 |
What brands to get
All of the ones I’ve listed here on this page are from big, well-respected memory card brands. There are other smaller brands — some might be just fine, but others might not be. I generally try to stick to brands I know and have had good experiences with. And there are some cards from big brands, like Panasonic themselves, that just aren’t easy to find at many retailers.
Where to buy them
Believe it or not, counterfeit SD cards are a thing. So it’s best to buy them from a respected retailer. I buy a lot of memory cards, and I buy most of them from B&H Photo and Amazon.
If you do end up with a card from somewhere less established, it’s worth testing it before you trust photos to it. Fake cards are typically reprogrammed to report a capacity much larger than the flash actually inside them, so they write normally until the real space runs out and then quietly lose whatever comes next. A full write-and-read-back test with a free tool — H2testw on Windows, F3 on Mac or Linux — catches that in one pass.
How to recover photos if you’ve accidentally deleted them
If you format the card before you’ve backed up the photos from it, it might still be possible to recover them. To do that you’ll need to fire up the computer — it’s not something that you can do in the camera. I’ve put together an overview on how to recover deleted photos from an SD card.
How to format an SD card in the Panasonic Lumix TS30
You can find the formatting function through the camera’s main menu, under Setup > Format.
You can find more details on page 50 of the manual [PDF].
How to format SD cards with a computer
It’s always best practice to format memory cards in the camera you’re going to use them in, but if that’s not possible or not what you want to do, you can also format cards using a computer. But there are some things to know when formatting SD cards to minimize the risks of your camera having problems with them. 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.
