Panasonic Camera Memory Card Compatibility

Panasonic Micro Four Thirds and L-mount full frame cameras have different compatibility requirements.

SD cards with capacities larger than 32GB are not compatible with older cameras.

Newer cameras can require faster SDXC cards with UHS-II or CFexpress cards. With them, you will not be able to record the highest quality video.

Camera are grouped by memory card compatibility.

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SDHC Compatible Cameras

The maximum capacity of memory cards that these cameras can use is 32GB.

Errors will occur if a 64GB or larger card is used. Images or video could be corrupted.

• G1
• G2
• G3
• G10
• GF1
• GF2
• GX1
• GH1
• GH2

I would recommend getting a 32GB card with UHS-I compatibility. These cards have the fastest write speeds. They will be good enough to use in newer cameras and devices if you ever decide to upgrade.

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SDXC UHS-I Compatible Cameras

The maximum capacity of memory cards that these cameras can use is 2TB.

The Ultra High Speed (UHS) bus is a transfer protocol developed for faster speeds. It’s a feature you want because it means the card will be compatible with more devices.

64GB is plenty of memory for photos, even if you shoot RAW.

The GH4 has the most demanding video specs. To shoot video with a bitrate above 100 Mbps, a UHS-I U3 card is required. That means the card can maintain at least a 30MB/s sustained write speed.

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• Panasonic GH4 Memory Card Requirements for Video

SDXC UHS-II Compatible Cameras

The faster write speeds of UHS-II cards are needed for recording high bitrate video. They will also clear the camera buffer faster during continuous shooting.

Dual card slots can be used to:

• Record 2 copies of video or photos.
• Used once the first card is full.
• One RAW one JPEG.

The S5 has one SDXC UHS-I slot and one SDXC UHS-II slot. Don’t waste money by using UHS-II cards in both slots. There is no write speed speed benefit.

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• Panasonic DC-GH6 Memory Card Requirements for Video

CFexpress Compatible Models

These cameras have one CFexpress type B slot and one SDXC UHS-II slot.

• GH7
• S1
• S1R

A V90 UHS-II memory card will allow you to record up to 600Mbps video.

A CFexpress card or external SSD is needed to record video above 600Mbps.

Cards use the PCI Express interface and NVM Express protocol. There is little difference between cards and NVMe drives used in computers.

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• Panasonic DC-GH7 Memory Card Requirements for Video
• CompactFlash Association Industry Standards for Cards
• Wikipedia - CFexpress

SD Card Compatibility

The latest firmware will have the best card compatibility.

Cards are backwards compatible. A camera that can use an SDXC card can also use SDHC and SD cards.

A camera that is compatible with SDHC cards can not use an SDXC card. The camera have an error message, will not be able to format the card, or image will be corrupted.

There are four versions of Secure Digital (SD) memory cards. They can be identified by storage capacity.

• Secure Digital (SD) - 128MB to 2GB.
• Secure Digital High Capacity (SDHC) - 4GB to 32GB.
• Secure Digital eXtended Capacity (SDXC) - 64GB to 2TB.
• Secure Digital Ultra Capacity (SDUC) - 4TB to 128TB.

SD Card Speed

Speed ratings of an SD card is determined by the sequential write and read speeds. SD memory card write speed is essential for continuous shooting and video.

A slow memory card can cause a drop in the number of continuous images a camera can take. This is because the buffer in the camera is not able to write data to the card fast enough.

Card read speed is nice to have for transferring files to a computer or laptop. If you have cards that are full, a SD card with a fast read speed will decrease the transfer time.

Ultra High Speed (UHS)

The Ultra High Speed (UHS) bus is available in SDUC, SDXC, and SDHC cards. UHS cards to have increased read and write speeds.

Three different specs exist. They are UHS-I, UHS-II, and UHS-III.

Look at the front of the memory card to figure out the rating of a card. If the card has UHS, a Roman numeral I, II, or III will be on the front of the memory card.

• UHS-I - Maximum transfer rate of 104 MB/s

• UHS-II - Maximum transfer rate of 312 MB/s

• UHS-III - Maximum transfer rate of 624 MB/s

• SD Card Association Card Speed Overview

Storage Capacity

Below is an approximation of how many JPEG images can be stored on a memory card with the given capacity.

• 16GB - 4,640 images
• 32GB - 9,280 images
• 64GB - 18,560 images
• 128GB - 37,120 images
• 256GB - 74,240 images