Sony a7R V Memory Cards: CFexpress Type A vs SD Explained

The Sony a7RV sits at the high-resolution end of the a7 range and has been around since late 2022 (and in typical Sony style, it also goes by other names: ILCE-7RM5, α7RV, a7R5, and Alpha 7R V — they’re all referring to the same camera).

As you’d expect based on the earlier cameras in the R line, it has some very high-end features.

And with a camera focused on high quality and fast performance, all while shooting 61MP images (at up to 10 fps) and 8K video, it’s important that you get memory cards that are up to the task.

The basics of memory cards for the a7RV

Which memory cards the a7R V takes

The Sony a7RV has two memory card slots:

• CFexpress Type A
• SDXC UHS-II

The slots look the same size, and that’s because they are. One of the unique benefits of the CFexpress Type A form factor is that it shares the same physical footprint and contacts layout as an SD card.

So you can use either CFexpress A or SD cards in both slots.

But they are not the same in performance. When choosing which format to use, the general rule of thumb is:

• Choose CFexpress A cards for better (i.e., faster) performance and buffer clearing.
• Use SD cards for convenience, cost, and larger storage capacities.

Even though the Sony a7R V has some very high-bitrate video recording modes that record at up to 600 Mbps, a fast V90 UHS-II SDXC card will successfully handle most of them.

However, there is a specific combination of settings for slow-motion recording that will only work with a CFexpress Type A card¹.

Choosing whether to use one or two memory cards

You do not need to have both slots filled for the camera to work.

There are, however, advantages to filling both slots. Chiefly, it will make available several options for you to control how those slots are used. You can have images saved to one card and video to another, or a duplicate saved simultaneously to the second card to create an instant backup, or combine them in sequence for maximum storage space, with the camera switching over to the second slot automatically when the first card fills.

If you’re only going to fill one slot, I’m inclined to use a CFexpress Type A card because they are much faster than even the fastest SD card. But in practice, a high-quality V90 UHS-II SDXC card can handle nearly all of the features of the camera, and there’s a good chance that you’ll find them at lower prices.

Additionally, you don’t have to have them both filled with the same type of card. For example, you can have a CFexpress A card for your primary shooting card for video and have a 1TB SDXC card in the second slot for backup or for overflow photos.

CFexpress Type a & the 4.0 opportunity

CFexpress Type A is one of the three current CFexpress form factors (alongside Type B and Type C). While all have “CFexpress” in the name, they are absolutely not interchangeable. A CFexpress Type B card simply will not fit in the a7R V.

Just like the larger Type B cards, the CFexpress Type A market is currently transitioning from the older 2.0 spec to the newer, twice-as-fast 4.0 spec. Because the cards look identical, navigating this shift is an excellent opportunity to save money if you know what to look for.

The Sony a7R V is a CFexpress 2.0 camera. It physically lacks the PCIe Gen 4 hardware required to hit the newer 4.0 speeds. However, because the standard is backward compatible, you can put a bleeding-edge 4.0 card into the a7R V, and it will work flawlessly (throttled to 2.0 speeds by the camera).

Because manufacturers are aggressively changing their production lines, newer 4.0 cards are sometimes actually cheaper and more readily available than the legacy 2.0 cards they replaced. In a market distortion due to algorithmic pricing based on limited legacy stock, older 2.0 cards frequently show up at massively inflated prices.

The rule of thumb is to look at the sustained write speeds and go with whatever is cheaper, regardless of whether the label says 2.0 or 4.0. If you spot a 4.0 card for the same price or cheaper than its 2.0 equivalent, grab the newer version. You keep extra money in your pocket today, and you unlock drastically faster desktop offload speeds when you get back to your desk (provided you pair it with a USB 4.0 memory card reader).

To avoid dropped frames in the highest-bitrate slow-motion modes, you’ll want to ensure your CFexpress Type A card is certified for at least VPG200 (which guarantees a minimum sustained write speed of 200 MB/s). Many modern premium cards are now certified for an even faster VPG400. Here are the most reliable CFexpress Type A options for the a7R V:

SD cards for the a7R V

SD cards are widely available, cost-effective, and you can get some very large storage capacities; the current range goes up to at least 1TB.

But there are some downsides to SD when you have the option of using CFexpress Type A. The crucial one is that even the fastest SD cards aren’t as fast as CFexpress A (nor, crucially, are the interfaces for the cards in the camera). For example, the current range of CFexpress A cards are rated for 800 MB/s plus. By contrast, the fastest SD cards are rated around the 300 MB/s mark.

It’s worth knowing what those numbers on the label actually are. They’re read speeds, measured in short bursts, and the write speeds are lower. What matters when you’re clearing a buffer after a long burst is the speed the card can sustain over time, not the peak figure printed on the front.

You can also use SD cards in the a7RV. The most practical version will be SDXC, because that label is applied to cards that are 64GB and above, and with the large images and high-bitrate video of the a7RV, you’ll appreciate having plenty of storage space.²

Tip: Don’t get an SD Express or SDUC card. Both are emerging standards, and this camera isn’t compatible with those types of cards.³

For SDXC cards, the safest bet in the a7RV is to stick with cards that are rated for V90. That will mean a UHS-II card.

Those will allow you to use all (or nearly all) of the camera’s features. You can technically get away with slower cards for many features, but that limits the features that are available to you, and that doesn’t make a lot of sense to me. If you’ve got a high-end camera like the a7RV, you want to be able to use all of its features and not be hobbled by being stingy on memory cards.

I have much more detail on the fastest SD cards here, but here are some excellent choices for this camera:

CFexpress A memory card readers

If you choose to use CFexpress A (and there are very good reasons you might want to), you’ll probably also need to pick up a new memory card reader.

While the physical size is the same, if this is your first time using CFexpress A, you cannot just assume that your existing SD memory card reader will read CFexpress A. The internal hardware needs to be explicitly designed for it. But there are some excellent cross-compatible memory card readers available that will read both formats natively.

Sony makes a single-slot CFexpress A/SDXC UHS-II reader; you can find it here.

Prograde Digital makes a dual-slot CFexpress A/SDXC UHS-II card reader; you can find it here.

Notes & References:

1. When shooting slow-motion. Specifically: “When [Rec Frame Rate] is set to [30p]/[25p]/[24p] and [Frame Rate] is set to [60fps]/[50fps] for slow-motion recording.” Sony a7RV Help Guide. [↩︎]
2. Technically, the SDXC/SDHC distinction refers to the type of filesystem that the cards are formatted with. SDXC cards are formatted with exFAT. SDHC cards are formatted with FAT32. But the SD Association spec designates cards from 4GB to 32GB to be SDHC and cards 64GB and larger to be SDXC. [↩︎]
3. As a technical matter, SD Express cards are designed to be backward compatible and will function in this camera, but the camera won’t be able to use any extra speed benefit, and it may in fact perform slower than a non-SD Express card. SDUC cards require a different interface and will not function in this camera. [↩︎]