Sony RX0 SD Card Recommendations

As with many of today’s higher-end cameras, you can’t just put any old microSD card in the Sony RX0 and expect it to work perfectly.

If you happen to have lucked out with the right kind of card, great. But if you use the wrong kind, you can get some unexpected side effects like video recording stopping or the camera freezing up. That’s because some microSD cards aren’t fast enough to keep up with the camera. So if you want to make full use of the RX0’s impressive capabilities, you’ll want to make sure you’re using a suitable microSD card for it.

Top picks for SD cards for the Sony RX0

If you just want to get right to it, here are some quick recommendations for microSD cards that work well in the RX0.

You can find more details below.

Which SD card to choose for the Sony RX0 & why

While you do need a microSD card that’s relatively fast, the Sony RX0 isn’t the most demanding on memory cards of today’s cameras.

The RX0’s most powerful video capabilities involve off-camera recording, so the memory card speed isn’t a consideration specifically for 4K recording. The camera’s highest video modes that use the onboard recording (and, therefore, an internal memory card) are 1080p60. The critical measure, of course, is bitrate, and at the highest setting for on-camera recording (1080p60 in XAVC S HD format), it records with a variable bitrate of around 50 Mb/s. The other formats record at lower bitrates.

When it comes to microSD writing speed, a video bitrate of 50 Mb/s isn’t that high compared to many other cameras out there now. The latest action cameras from GoPro and DJI, for example, record at over 100 Mb/s. Even cameras like the Sony a6500 (which uses the larger SD cards) record at up to 100 Mb/s. Cameras like the Panasonic GH5 and Fujifilm X-T3 go way higher, up to 400 Mb/s. So 50 Mb/s is respectable and offers very good video quality (especially at 1080), but it’s by no means the bleeding edge of bitrates.

So while you need a fast memory card for the RX0, you don’t necessarily need the fastest, fanciest (and most expensive) memory card that money can buy. The problem is that if you look at Sony’s official recommendations, they’re not all that helpful, in part because they don’t add much clarity in terms of choosing from the memory cards that are actually available in the marketplace today.

What it boils down to is that if you’re not going to be shooting XAVC S video, you can get away with a slower card. But when I’m out shooting with a camera, I’d rather be able to use all of its features rather than hobble it by using a memory card that’s not fully compatible.

That’s especially true of a camera like the RX0. It’s not just some cheap point-and-shoot — it has high-end features and capabilities that are going to appeal to people who take their photography and videography seriously. So that’s what I’m focusing on here: cards that are fast enough to work with all of the RX0’s features, including the highest-quality XAVC S video codec mode.

Having been shooting with the RX0 for a while now (and here’s my review), and having been testing the speeds of microSD cards for some time, here are some practical recommendations on good memory cards to get for the RX0. The good news is that cards that are fast enough to use all of the camera’s features are easy to find now and relatively inexpensive.

This is by no means a comprehensive list of every microSD card that will work well in the RX0. What I’m aiming for is to put together some practical recommendations for cards that work well in the RX0 and are a good combination of performance, value, and availability. So that if you’re trying to find the answer to which SD card to get for the Sony RX0, hopefully this will help.

Recommended microSD cards for the Sony RX0: Details

Here are some more detailed recommendations for specific cards.

What size SD card to use in the Sony RX0

The most common sizes available for microSD cards these days is between 64GB and 256GB.

The Sony RX0 can work with any of those, and is compatible with both microSHDC and microSDXC cards (and, for that matter, basic microSD, but using one of those smaller, older cards doesn’t make much sense anymore). Right now, the sweet spot in terms of storage capacity, convenience, price, and availability is probably in the 128GB or 256GB cards.

How to format memory cards in the Sony RX0

It’s not complicated to format memory cards in the RX0, but the option is a little buried in the settings menus.

You want to move across to the tab with the toolbox icon. Then you need to scroll through to page 4 of 6. The Format function is on that page.

Once you start that, you get the obligatory warning that you’re about to wipe everything from the card.

When you confirm, it will do its thing and show you a progress bar. It does what’s sometimes known as a quick format, which basically deletes the references to the directories and files but doesn’t drill down to initialize the files at a granular level, so the process should only take a few seconds even for large-capacity microSD cards.

How to format microSD cards with a computer

It’s always best practice to format memory cards in the camera you’re planning to use them in, but if that’s not practical or not what you want to do, it is possible to format them with a computer. But there are some things to watch out for, particularly when it comes to choosing which filesystem to use. 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.