Sony Xperia Z5 which MicroSD card for 4K recording?

[Michael Trenton]

Hi,
I just bought a Sony Xperia Z5 Compact, but I also want to purchase an additional Micro SD card so that I won't run out of storage space as I tend to shoot a lot of video.

My question is what kind of Micro SD card will I need to utilize this phone's 4K recording capabilities? What minimum write speeds, classification etc will I need?

 

[ak47jar3d]

I would say get no less Class 10 SDHC UHS-I sd card.
SanDisk Ultra 64GB microSDXC UHS-I Card with Adapter, Grey/Red, Standard Packaging (SDSQUNC-064G-GN6MA) https://www.amazon.com/dp/B010Q588D4/ref=cm_sw_r_other_awd_mpSNwb9ZBM0TA

 

[Michael Trenton]

I would say get no less Class 10 SDHC UHS-I sd card.
SanDisk Ultra 64GB microSDXC UHS-I Card with Adapter, Grey/Red, Standard Packaging (SDSQUNC-064G-GN6MA) https://www.amazon.com/dp/B010Q588D4/ref=cm_sw_r_other_awd_mpSNwb9ZBM0TA

Thanks! I feared I would have to cash out on a class 10 card, but I guess it's better to be safe than sorry right?
I did manage to spot a Kingston 64GB MicroSD Class 10 UHS-I 45MB/s Read Card + SD Adapter that was quite cheaper than the card you suggested, so I guess I might go with that one. Apparently the write speed of the card is 10 MB/s which should be sufficient to handle the Xperia Z5's 7,5 MB/s bitrate right?

Gotta say on a general note that the memory card speed requirements for some cameras are a bit baffling to say the least. I purchased the Sony RX100M4 compact camera last year due to its 4K capabilites. The camera shoots 4K at a 100Mbps = 12,5 MB/s. Now I had a couple of Sandisk Extreme Pro SDHC Class 10 UHS-1 cards already from my previous camera. Now those cards are rated as having 95MB/s read and 90MB/s write speeds so they should be more than capable of handling recording video in a 12,5 MB/s bitrate right? No such luck. The option to record 4K was all greyed out and unavailable to me because the cards weren't rated as SDXC, only SDHC. And so I had to go out and buy brand new expensive SDXC rated cards just to record 4K with that camera. Weird.

Anyway, thanks.

 

[ak47jar3d]

Yeah, smartphone and point and shoot cameras have different standards on what is required. Smartphone camera leverage the processing power to not require sdxc.

 

[Michael Trenton]

Yeah, smartphone and point and shoot cameras have different standards on what is required. Smartphone camera leverage the processing power to not require sdxc.

Thanks. Even though it cost slightly more than the Kingston card I ended up ordering the Samsung EVO MicroSDXC Class10 UHS-I 64GB card as it is rated with an up to 20MB/s write speed just in case.