The Canon EOS Rebel T6 doesn’t, by default, come with a memory card. Some retailers offer bundles that do include a memory card. If you’ve picked up one of those, great–you’re all set to go shooting. But if you don’t have a card, here are some recommendations for SD cards for the Rebel T6.
The good news is that as impressive as the T6 is, it’s not especially demanding on the memory card. That means you don’t need to fork out the big bucks for the latest and greatest and fastest memory cards out there. But you still need to get a good one. Some are more reliable than others, and there’s a surprising number of counterfeits around.
Quick Recommendations
For those who just want to cut to the chase, here are some quick recommendations.
SD Cards for the Canon Rebel T6
The Rebel T6’s manual isn’t especially helpful in recommending which memory card to get. If you take a look at page 5, under Compatible Cards, it says you can use SD, SDHC, and SDXC cards. It says to get a card that’s Class 6 or higher. And it also says:
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.
What does that all mean, anyway?
So what I’m trying to do here is cut through the jargon and provide some practical recommendations for what memory card to get so you can get out taking photos and shooting video with your new T6. My priorities here are cards that not only work well in the T6 but are a combination of being reliable, readily available, have a good selection of memory sizes, and are good value. There’s no point buying a high-end, super-fast, and expensive memory card because the T6 can’t take advantage of those–so I’m not including them here. I’m also not including every single card that will work in the camera.
Memory card manufacturers release new models of memory cards all the time. And because of the way the market works, sometimes these newer and faster cards can be cheaper and more readily available than the older, slower versions. That’s why some of the ones I’ve included here are technically faster than you need (many are the UHS-I type the manual mentions, for example)–but they’re likely also a good combination of value and availability. I’ll do my best to keep this list updated.
A natural question is what size to get. Many of these come in memory sizes from 8GB up to 128GB. They’ll all work in the T6, and choosing between them basically comes down to the convenience of not running out of space to take new photos or shoot new video. Personally, I’d be inclined toward the 64GB size. Or, even better, a couple of them–some of these cards come in 2-packs that are good value, and I always like to have a spare on hand if possible. The 128GB and 32GB sizes are also good, but the 8GB and 16GB are much less convenient because they fill up that much more quickly.
So here are some recommendations for SD cards for the Canon Rebel T6.
These aren't necessarily the fastest SD cards on the market, but they're fast enough for this camera. It's also not designed to be a comprehensive list of every SD card that will work.
My emphasis here is on cards that meet these criteria: fast enough for all the features of this camera; from a reputable and reliable brand; readily available at retailers; and good value for money. If you want to use a faster, fancier card you can, but you won't see any extra benefit in doing so while you're operating the camera (but you might see some faster speeds when downloading the photos to a computer, depending on your computer and memory card reader combination).
SanDisk Extreme U3 UHS-I
The SanDisk Extreme line is a good option when the emphasis is on video recording. They have faster write speeds than SanDisk's Ultra line but still make for good value without getting in the faster (and more expensive) Extreme Plus and Extreme Pro models.
SanDisk recycles its model names. This latest version of the Extreme card is rated for V30/U3 for video recording and uses a UHS-I interface. It's faster than this camera technically needs, but because the Extreme line is so popular, they're generally easy to find and competitively priced.
It comes in sizes ranging from 16GB through 256GB.
PNY Elite Performance U3 UHS-I
PNY as a brand isn't as well known as some others, but they've been around a long time and make very good memory cards that are usually very competitively priced and good value.
This particular model is available in sizes ranging from 32GB through 512GB.
Lexar 633x U1 UHS-I
The Lexar 633x range has been one of the mainstays of Lexar's SD cards for a while now. There are now faster cards available, but this one is again fast enough for this camera while also representing good value for money.
One distinctive thing about this range is that they're available from 16GB up through a whopping 512GB. You can also often find them in 2-packs.
Buy at: Amazon
Transcend U3 UHS-I
Transcend isn't as well known as SanDisk or Lexar, but they've been making solid, reliable memory cards for a long while now and their SD cards are often competitively priced.
This particular card is faster than this camera needs, but it is still a good option. It's available in sizes from 64GB up through 256GB.
Buy at: Amazon
Sony U3 UHS-I
Though not always as readily available as some other brands, Sony memory cards are very good, which won't come as much of a surprise.
This particular card is available in sizes from 16GB through 256GB.
Kingston U1 UHS-I
Kingston is another brand that isn't as well known as some of the others, but they've been making reliable memory cards for a long time. As a brand, they don't tend to focus on the cutting edge speeds but rather on reliable and good-value memory cards.
This particular card (model SD10VG2) isn't the fastest in Kingston's range, but it's fast enough to work well in this camera. It's available in sizes from 16GB through 128GB.
Delkin Elite 633x U3 UHS-I
Delkin Devices is another brand that isn't as well known as some of the others but have been making excellent memory cards for a long time. They made their name with industrial and rugged flash memory and storage, and they bring that expertise in making good, reliable memory cards for the consumer market. I regularly use some of their fast memory cards in various cameras and have always found them to work well.
This particular card (model DDSDELITE633) is available in sizes ranging from 8GB up through 512GB.
Other Brands
There are also a lot of smaller, mostly unknown brands. In general, I'd recommend sticking to a brand you know and trust or one of the brands I've mentioned on this page because they have well-established reputations for putting out high-quality cards. Some of the other lesser-known brands might work, but they also might not be all they claim to be. The ones above should give a good selection of ones you can find fairly easily at retailers near you.Faster Cards
If you're looking to use a faster card, take a look at the ones that I've subjected to my independent SD card speed tests.U3? V30? UHS-II? SD Card Jargon?
Memory cards have a bunch of codes and acronyms that are used to describe their capabilities. Here are the main ones relevant to memory cards for the Rebel T6. (I have more details on these ratings and codes on my Fastest SD Cards page.
SD, SDHC, SDXC. While these technically distinguish, at least in part, the filesystem type that they’re formatted in, in practice it’s useful for determining what size card you need. SD refers to cards 4GB and smaller. SDHC refers to cards from 8 to 32GB. And SDXC refers to cards 64GB and larger. In short, you can use any of them in this camera, so you can safely ignore this rating and choose based on the size of card you want. If you want to put in a 32GB, go ahead. If you want to put in a 256GB card, knock yourself out.
Recommendation: Both SDHC and SDXC cards are compatible. There’s no functional difference in speed–just storage space.
UHS-I. This refers to something known as Ultra High-Speed Bus, which is the technology behind how the camera interfaces with the card. So far there’s UHS-I (sometimes written, incorrectly, as UHS-1) and UHS-II.
Recommendation: As the instruction manual says, there’s no harm in using a card that’s rated with UHS-I (or even UHS-II), but it won’t give you any extra benefit in this camera.
U3. This is the speed class rating. U3 is designed to support 4K video recording at a sustained video capture rate of 30MB/s. The other video ratings you’ll see on cards are C10 (Class 10) and U1.
Recommendation: Cards with a U3 rating are the safest bet, especially if you plan to record video, because they’re designed to handle a constant stream of data being written to the card. If you’re solely doing still photos, U1 will work fine too.
Avoiding Fakes
There are a lot of counterfeit memory cards out there, so it’s always a good idea to purchase from a reputable retailer. I buy most of mine from Amazon and B&H Photo. Best Buy, Target, and Adorama are also good options
Basic Precautions
It’s a good idea to format the card in the camera, not in your computer, and to format it regularly. 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.
And while memory cards are remarkably resilient, just like any electronic product they can and do fail. So regular backups are very much recommended–here are some ideas.
What If I Accidentally Delete the Photos on a Memory Card?
It doesn’t necessarily mean you can’t recover them. There are apps available to help you try to recover deleted photos from a memory card. I’ve put together some recommendations here.
Images and product information from Amazon Product Advertising API were last updated on 2019-10-14 at 07:58.
Arjun Bhargava says
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
David says
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.
Rbud says
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..
David says
Glad it was useful. Enjoy shooting with your new T6!
Doug Vickery says
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.
David says
Glad it’s helpful!
NoviceNerd says
This was educational and helpful. I appreciate the value angle of the memory card should match the capabilities of the camera. Thanks!
Jim Lloyd says
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.
David says
Thanks for the tip.
J Bell says
Thanks for the tip!