Like most cameras, the Nikon D7500 doesn’t come with a memory card included in the box. Unless you happen to pick up a specific retailer starter bundle, an SD card is going to be the very first accessory you need to buy.
2026 Update: The Nikon D7500 is a fantastic, highly capable legacy DSLR, but it utilizes older memory card technology. Because it relies on a UHS-I card slot, you can easily overpay for ultra-fast modern cards that the camera physically cannot take advantage of. Here is what you need to know.
There are hundreds of memory cards on the market, but not all of them will allow you to use your camera to its full potential. Here is a clear-eyed rundown of what to look for in an SD card for the Nikon D7500, along with some practical recommendations.
Nikon D7500 SD Card Quick Recommendations
If you just want to cut to the chase, here are my top recommendations for the best memory cards for the Nikon D7500.
- Type: SDXC / SDHC
- Video Speed Class: V30
- UHS Bus Interface Type: UHS-I
- Maximum Read Speed: 230 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:
- Type: SDXC
- Video Speed Class: V30
- UHS Bus Interface Type: UHS-I
- Maximum Read Speed: Up to 180 MB/s
- Storage Capacities: 128GB, 256GB, 512GB, 1TB
Check current price and availability at:
Recommendations checked: August 2026
Any of these make for a great choice. They’re fast enough to handle the camera’s top video modes, highly reliable, widely available, and cost-effective.
You can see some of the photos I’ve taken with the D7500 in these posts:
– Nikon D7500 Sample Images (a general collection)
– Nikon D7500 High ISO Sample Images (focusing on high ISOs in low light)
Nikon D7500 memory card compatibility & requirements
Before buying a card, it helps to understand the specific hardware limits of the camera. Here is what the D7500 requires:
- Full-Size SD Cards: It takes standard SD cards, not the smaller microSD format.
- Single Card Slot: It has one memory card slot, so you cannot record dual backups simultaneously. Buying a reliable brand is essential.
- UHS-I Interface: The slot utilizes the older UHS-I bus interface. While newer, ultra-fast UHS-II cards will physically fit and work, the camera will simply treat them like UHS-I cards. There is no in-camera speed benefit to buying an expensive UHS-II card.
- SDHC and SDXC Compatible: The camera is compatible with both. As a practical matter, cards 32GB and smaller will be labeled SDHC, while cards 64GB and larger will be labeled SDXC.
That doesn’t mean a UHS-II card is useless if you already own one. It will run in the D7500 at UHS-I speeds, and it can still read faster when you offload it, but only if you’re also using a UHS-II card reader. If you’re buying a card specifically for this camera, put the money into capacity or a known-good UHS-I card instead.
The D7500 shooting mode that’s most demanding on the memory card is 4K video recording.
When shooting photos, the camera utilizes its own internal buffer memory. The 100-frame figure you’ll see quoted is for JPEGs; shooting 14-bit lossless compressed RAW, Nikon rates the buffer at about 50 frames, and independent testing lands in the high 40s. But video works differently. With bitrates of up to 144 Mbps in the high-end 4K video modes, the camera creates a massive stream of data that needs to be written to the card in real-time.
The upshot is that the D7500 requires a card with a fast sequential write speed (ideally rated at V30 or U3) to prevent your video recordings from randomly stopping.
Nikon’s official recommendations
Camera instruction manuals are rarely helpful when it comes to suggesting specific memory cards. For the D7500, this is the official guidance from page 356 of the manual:
The camera supports SD, SDHC, and SDXC memory cards, including SDHC and SDXC cards compliant with UHS-I. Cards rated UHS Speed Class 3 or better are recommended for movie recording; using slower cards may result in the recording being interrupted.
While that tells us the technical baseline, I think we can do better when it comes to practical buying advice.
Nikon D7500 memory recommendations in detail
I am basing the recommendations at the top of this page on a combination of Nikon’s technical requirements, my own real-world SD card speed tests, and actually shooting with the D7500.
My emphasis is on cards that meet the V30/U3 requirements to use all of the camera’s video features without overpaying for speeds the camera can’t use. These are by no means the only SD cards that will work, but they represent the best balance of reliability and value.
These cards are all rated V30 and work well in a very wide variety of cameras, with good versatility for shooting photos and 4K video.
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, so you should be able to find them without much trouble.
- They're good value for money, so you're not paying too much for a card that is more than your camera can take full advantage of.
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). And, as always, I recommend buying from a major retailer to minimize the chances of getting burned with a counterfeit memory card.
SanDisk Extreme V30 UHS-I
- Type: SDXC / SDHC
- Video Speed Class: V30
- UHS Bus Interface Type: UHS-I
- Maximum Read Speed: 230 MB/s
- Storage Capacities: 32GB, 64GB, 128GB, 256GB, 512GB
Check current price and availability at:
SanDisk's Extreme range are good bets for many cameras, and that's true here too. SanDisk has faster ranges, like the Extreme Pro line, but this Extreme line is both quick enough for most cameras and usually less expensive than those faster cards.
One thing to note with SanDisk cards is that they recycle their model names. So you can find Extreme cards that are older and slower. You'll probably find those older versions work just fine — it really depends how far back you go. I've used many SanDisk Extreme cards over the years in many different cameras and have found them to be very reliable. They're also often good value, and you can sometimes find them sold in 2-packs (it's always good to have a spare on hand!).
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. This newer V30 card is still a good combination of speed, reliability, and value, and you can often find them in multipacks to have spares on hand.
Delkin Devices ADVANTAGE V30 UHS-I SDXC (180 MB/s)
- Type: SDXC
- Video Speed Class: V30
- UHS Bus Interface Type: UHS-I
- Maximum Read Speed: Up to 180 MB/s
- Storage Capacities: 128GB, 256GB, 512GB, 1TB
Check current price and availability at:
Delkin Devices have recently come out with a range of new SD cards of varying speeds and specs. This is one of their mid-range cards that is rated for V30 video recording speeds. This newer version is rated for read speeds of up to 180 MB/s (the older version of the Advantage maxxed out at 90 MB/s).
Nextorage Classic V30 UHS-I SDXC Card
- Type: SDXC
- Video Speed Class: V30
- UHS Bus Interface Type: UHS-I
- Maximum Read Speed: Up to 200 MB/s
- Storage Capacities: 128GB, 256GB, 512GB
Check current price and availability at:
Japanese brand Nextorage makes excellent memory cards, although they're not always easy to find in stores in the US. But if you can find them, in my experience they're a very good bet. This is their basic (or "Classic") model, rated for V30.
Recommendations checked: August 2026
Things worth knowing
What size memory card works best in the Nikon D7500?
The D7500 will work with memory cards from 16GB up to large SDXC cards in the 2TB range. Unless you’re shooting heavy amounts of 4K video, I consider the sweet spot to be around 128GB to 256GB. That offers plenty of space for a long trip, and cards in that capacity range are highly affordable.
The size of the photo and video files created by the D7500 depends entirely on your settings. If you’re shooting JPEG Normal photos, the files will be tiny compared to 14-bit uncompressed RAW files.
Here are some estimates based on Nikon’s figures for the standard DX crop mode (files shot using the 1.3x crop mode will be significantly smaller):
| Quality Setting | Size Setting | File Size MB (approx) | 16GB | 32GB | 64GB | 128GB | 256GB |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| NEF (RAW), Lossless compressed, 12-bit | 20.5 | 436 | 872 | 1,744 | 3,488 | 6,976 | |
| NEF (RAW), Lossless compressed, 14-bit | 25.5 | 339 | 678 | 1,356 | 2,712 | 5,424 | |
| NEF (RAW), Compressed, 12-bit | 17.5 | 587 | 1,174 | 2,348 | 4,696 | 9,392 | |
| NEF (RAW), Compressed, 14-bit | 21.5 | 492 | 984 | 1,968 | 3,936 | 7,872 | |
| JPEG Fine | Large | 10.4 | 1,000 | 2,000 | 4,000 | 8,000 | 16,000 |
| Medium | 6.3 | 1,700 | 3,400 | 6,800 | 13,600 | 27,200 | |
| Small | 3.4 | 3,300 | 6,600 | 13,200 | 26,400 | 52,800 | |
| JPEG Normal | Large | 5.3 | 2,000 | 4,000 | 8,000 | 16,000 | 32,000 |
| Medium | 3.3 | 3,300 | 6,600 | 13,200 | 26,400 | 52,800 | |
| Small | 1.8 | 6,300 | 12,600 | 25,200 | 50,400 | 100,800 | |
| JPEG Basic | Large | 2.8 | 4,000 | 8,000 | 16,000 | 32,000 | 64,000 |
| Medium | 1.8 | 6,300 | 12,600 | 25,200 | 50,400 | 100,800 | |
| Small | 1.0 | 11,300 | 22,600 | 45,200 | 90,400 | 180,800 |
For video, if you’re using the top 4K30 (2160p30) mode on the high-quality setting, you’ll be able to fit roughly 34 minutes of footage on a 32GB card, or 68 minutes on a 64GB card before it fills up.
Card capacity isn’t the only thing that ends a clip, though. The D7500 stops recording at 29 minutes 59 seconds no matter which resolution you’re using, so a bigger card gets you more clips, not longer ones. Each movie is also split across as many as eight files of up to 4GB each, which the camera handles automatically.
Always treat these numbers as estimates. Because of the way image compression works, file sizes will vary based on the detail and tones in the specific scene you are shooting.
How to format the SD card in a Nikon D7500
The very first thing you should do when you put a new SD card in the camera is to format it. That wipes it clean and sets up the specific file and folder hierarchy the camera expects to see.
While it’s possible to format SD cards using a computer, it is always best practice to format them directly in the camera to reduce the risk of file corruption down the road.
The standard way to format an SD card in the D7500 is through the menu system. (There is also a shortcut method using physical buttons, which I’ve detailed separately here).
- Press the Menu button on the back of the camera.
- From the left panel of icons, scroll down to the Wrench (Setup) icon. (If it’s grayed out, check that you’ve actually inserted the memory card).
- Select Format Memory Card at the top of the list and hit the OK button.
- Choose Yes from the popup menu (it will default to No as a safety precaution).
- Press the OK button.
I am new to the camera world. I have a Nikon D 7500. When I download the memory card it always give me 2 images. One is the actual photo and one id generic. So I have to go through the photos and delete the generic. What am I doing wrong? Thanks, Joe Mathis
I’m a bit confused by what you mean by a generic image. Do you mean a JPG version? It’s possible you have enabled the option for NEF (RAW) + JPEG that saves two copies of each image simultaneously, one a RAW file and the other a JPG. You can change this setting in the camera’s menu under Shooting Menu (the camera icon) > Image Quality. The options at the top of the list are all for saving both versions at once, with choices for the quality of the JPG compression. If you scroll down further in the list, you’ll see options for just RAW or just JPG.
“bitrates of up to 125 Mbps”, but the UHS-I seems to be only 95 Mbps.
Video bitrates are typically measured in megabits per second (Mbps or Mb/s) while memory card speed ratings are typically measured in megabytes per second (MBps or MB/s), with eight megabits in one megabyte. But unfortunately even then it’s not as simple as converting from one to the other, because there are a bunch of other factors to influence the real-world writing speeds you can get from device and card combinations.
Thank you, now it is clear.