The GoPro Hero6 (GoPro Hero 6) is GoPro’s most powerful camera to date. It uses GoPro’s own chipset and they have upped the performance in 4k and 1080p settings. The big question for any new owner is which memory card for the GoPro Hero6 is best?

Which Memory Card For The GoPro Hero6?
Which Memory Card For The GoPro Hero6?

As cameras have become more capable the need for faster cards with greater capacity has become more important. Get it wrong and you could lose your footage.

The Speed Class Rating is the official unit of speed measurement for all SD cards, including both full and micro sized versions. Speed Class is a minimum speed based on a worst case scenario test and represents the minimum transfer rate of data that the card is capable of.

SD Speed Class

Class 2 – 2MB/s
Class 4 – 4MB/s
Class 6 – 6MB/s
Class 8 – 8MB/s

Class 10 – 10MB/s

This can be seen on cards as a number within a circle.

Which Memory Card For The GoPro Hero5?

Ultra High Speed (UHS) Class

Just to confuse things a little more there is also an Ultra High Speed (UHS) classification. Ultra High Speed 1 – U1 is the same as Class 10 (10MB/s). UHS sets a minimum transfer of data that the card is capable of in a similar way to the SD speed class.

U1 – 10MB/s (same as class 10)
U3 – 30MB/s

This can be seen on cards as a number within a bucket/U.

U3 is pretty new and is a response to ensure that consumers can easily identify those cards with the highest transfer rates suitable for 4K/2K filming. If your card is not U3 this doesn’t necessarily mean that it is not up to the job. It may simply not be labeled with the new U3 symbol. Check the transfer rates – this is the key.

Why should you care?

The Speed Class is important for video mode or camcorders, as when recording video the device is actually saving a steady stream of data. This is exactly what you are expecting a GoPro camera to do whilst filming video at high resolutions. GoPro recommend SDHC cards with a Class 4 rating or higher for the Hero 2. A Class 10 SD card is recommended when using Time-Lapse mode or photo every 0.5 seconds. For the GoPro Hero 3, 3+, 4, Session 4, 5, Session 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 or GoPro 10 a Class 10 SD card/U3 is the best choice regardless of what you are using it for. Always get the fastest card you can.

There is always a danger that if your SD card isn’t up to it that you could encounter error messages or loss of data. When ever my GoPro has crashed or frozen it has always been down to the card I have been using.

The difficulty comes when you start looking at Speed Class and card storage size. The higher the speed class the higher the price, the higher the card capacity the higher the prices. All are more than capable of coping with all the recording options available on the GoPro. All my cards are now 64GB or 128GB. I have purchased cards with greater capacity as I have incrementally upgraded my GoPro cameras.

SD Card Recommendations

All of the cards listed below are fast and you’ll need fast and reliable if you are shooting at high resolutions. We are currently running the Lexar, Sandisk Extreme that are shown below. Most are UHS-I but I do run a couple of UHS-II.

SanDisk Extreme UHS-I 64GB – SDSDQXL-064G-A46A

SanDisk Extreme A1 – SDSQXAF-032G-GN6MA 

SanDisk ExtremePro A1 – SDSQXCG-032G-GN6MA

SanDisk Extreme PLUS microSDHC UHS-I – SDSQXBG-032G-GN6MA

SanDisk Extreme PRO microSDXC UHS-II – SDSQXPJ-064G-ANCM3

Lexar 1000x microSDXC UHS-II U3 128GB – LSDMI128CBNL1000R

The safe bet is to get the fastest Class 10 U3 you can afford as it will work in all of the GoPro range and just about any other POV/Action camera that requires a Micro SD card.

There are a great deal of fake SD cards out in circulation and it is important that you buy yours from a reputable supplier.

GoPro sell the SanDisk Extreme UHS-I 64GB microSDXC for use in all of the currently available GoPro cameras –  SDSQXNE-064G-AN6MA 

Storage:

Once you get into taking video you’ll soon build up a collection of memory cards. These things are so easy to misplace or lose. After losing a few last year I use Peli SD Card storage case. It can handle both SD and Micro SD cards at the same time, and although not fully waterproof it is water resistant and keeps the dirt/grime out.

What else should you consider?

I have a fair bit of GoPro kit and to maximise its use I also have a range of must have accessories.

How does the Hero6 compare to the other GoPro cameras?

Check out our latest comparison here.