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The most useful thing to know about buying a card for the Canon EOS 70D is what it will refuse to use. The 70D has a UHS-I slot. A UHS-II card physically fits and works perfectly, but the second row of contacts that carries the extra bandwidth is simply not wired to anything in this camera, so a card advertising 300 MB/s will operate at UHS-I speeds — around 95 MB/s at best — and you will have paid roughly triple for nothing. This single fact eliminates most of the cards at the top of any current best-SD-card list. What is worth paying for instead is the sustained write speed and the minimum speed class. The 70D shoots 20.2 megapixel RAW at 7 frames per second, and 1080p video at up to 30 fps — a workload that a U3 / V30 card handles without ever making the camera wait, and that a Class 10 / U1 card handles for stills but can stumble on during long video takes. Capacity is the last decision, and 64 GB or 128 GB is the sweet spot: large enough for a full day of RAW, small enough that a card failure does not take an entire trip with it. Ten cards below, all UHS-I, all appropriate to the slot.
| # | Product | Price | Where to buy |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | SanDisk Extreme PRO SDXC UHS-I 128 GB | $25–$38 | Amazon · eBay |
| 2 | SanDisk Extreme SDXC UHS-I 128 GB | $18–$28 | Amazon · eBay |
| 3 | Lexar Professional SILVER PLUS UHS-I 128 GB | $20–$30 | Amazon · eBay |
| 4 | Samsung PRO Plus SDXC 128 GB | $20–$30 | Amazon · eBay |
| 5 | Kingston Canvas Go! Plus 128 GB | $18–$28 | Amazon · eBay |
| 6 | Samsung EVO Plus SDXC 128 GB | $15–$24 | Amazon · eBay |
| 7 | ProGrade Digital SDXC UHS-I V30 128 GB | $25–$38 | Amazon |
| 8 | Transcend 300S SDXC UHS-I 64 GB | $12–$20 | Amazon · eBay |
| 9 | PNY Elite-X SDXC 128 GB | $14–$22 | Amazon · eBay |
| 10 | Delkin Devices Advantage SDXC V30 128 GB | $25–$38 | Amazon · eBay |
The picks, in detail
SanDisk Extreme PRO SDXC UHS-I 128 GB
The default recommendation and the one most 70D owners should buy. Fast enough that the camera buffer is always the limiting factor, not the card.
- UHS-I, U3 and V30 rated
- High sustained write speed
- Lifetime limited warranty
- RescuePRO Deluxe recovery software included
- Clears the 70D burst buffer as fast as the camera can fill it
- Best reliability reputation of any card brand
- Recovery software included is genuinely useful after a card scare
- Costs more than functionally adequate rivals
- Counterfeits are common — buy from a reputable seller
SanDisk Extreme SDXC UHS-I 128 GB
The value sibling. Slightly slower sustained writes than the PRO, and for a 70D the difference is close to invisible.
- UHS-I, U3 and V30 rated
- Strong sustained write performance
- Lifetime limited warranty
- Widely stocked
- Almost all the PRO performance for meaningfully less
- V30 rating covers every 70D video mode comfortably
- Easy to find anywhere
- Sustained write drops below the PRO on very long bursts
- Same counterfeit risk as the PRO
Lexar Professional SILVER PLUS UHS-I 128 GB
Unusually fast for a UHS-I card — one of the few that gets close to the ceiling the bus allows.
- UHS-I with high tested write speed
- V30 rated
- Limited lifetime warranty
- Available in 128 GB and larger
- Among the fastest UHS-I write speeds available, which is exactly what this camera can use
- Priced below the SanDisk PRO
- Lexar reliability has recovered strongly
- Less widely stocked in physical shops
- Brand history makes some buyers cautious
Samsung PRO Plus SDXC 128 GB
The most durable card of the group on paper — rated against water, temperature, magnets and X-rays, which matters for travel.
- UHS-I, U3 and V30
- Six-proof durability rating
- 10-year limited warranty
- Strong read performance
- Best environmental durability ratings here
- Long warranty
- Excellent value at the 128 GB size
- Sustained write is a step behind the SanDisk Extreme PRO
- Samsung SD support is less established than its microSD line
Kingston Canvas Go! Plus 128 GB
The quiet value pick — V30 performance at a price that undercuts the name brands, from a manufacturer with a long memory pedigree.
- UHS-I, U3 and V30
- High read speed
- Lifetime warranty
- Available up to 512 GB
- Cheapest genuinely V30-rated card here
- Kingston warranty support is straightforward
- Good sustained write for the price
- Less independent speed testing than SanDisk or Lexar
- Packaging variants make it easy to buy the wrong tier
Samsung EVO Plus SDXC 128 GB
The budget card that is still fast enough. U3 rated, cheap, and entirely adequate for stills and 1080p.
- UHS-I, U3 rated
- High read speed for offloading
- Water, temperature and magnet resistant
- 10-year limited warranty
- Lowest price here for a card that still meets the 70D needs
- Fast reads make card offloading quick
- Good spare-card choice
- Sustained write is the weakest of the U3 cards listed
- Not the card for long continuous bursts
ProGrade Digital SDXC UHS-I V30 128 GB
The professional-market card without the professional-market interface. ProGrade sells to working shooters and tests every card before shipping.
- UHS-I, V30 rated
- Serialised for traceability
- Refresh Pro software available
- Three-year warranty
- Per-card testing before shipping is unusual and reassuring
- Serialisation makes warranty claims painless
- Consistent, predictable sustained write
- Priced above equivalent consumer cards
- Sold mainly through specialist retailers
Transcend 300S SDXC UHS-I 64 GB
The cheap second card. Not fast, but perfectly adequate as the spare that lives in the bag.
- UHS-I, Class 10 and U1
- 64 GB capacity
- RecoveRx recovery software
- Low cost
- Cheapest card here by a clear margin
- Fine for stills and casual video
- Ideal as a backup card
- U1 rather than U3 — long video takes can stutter
- Slow to offload compared with the premium cards
PNY Elite-X SDXC 128 GB
The supermarket-shelf option that is actually U3 rated — a reasonable emergency purchase rather than a compromise.
- UHS-I, U3 and V30
- 128 GB capacity
- Lifetime limited warranty
- Widely available in general retail
- Findable in ordinary shops when a card fails mid-trip
- Genuinely V30 rated, unlike most shelf cards
- Cheap
- Real-world write speeds trail the named brands
- Quality has been less consistent between production runs
Delkin Devices Advantage SDXC V30 128 GB
A specialist photo-market card with a strong warranty — the alternative to ProGrade if you want a card built for camera use specifically.
- UHS-I, V30 rated
- Lifetime warranty with 48-hour replacement
- Designed for camera workloads
- Available in multiple capacities
- 48-hour replacement policy is the best warranty term here
- Built and tested for photographic use
- Consistent sustained write performance
- Harder to find outside specialist photo retailers
- Priced at the top of the UHS-I range
Buying tips
- Do not buy a UHS-II card for this camera. The 70D slot has no second contact row, so the card falls back to UHS-I speeds. You will pay two to three times as much for a card that performs identically to a good UHS-I card in this body. Save it for your next camera, or save the money.
- V30 is the ceiling worth paying for. The 70D writes 20.2 MP RAW at 7 fps and 1080p video — a V30 card keeps ahead of both. Anything faster is limited by the bus, not the card.
- Two 64 GB cards beat one 128 GB card for travel. Cards do fail, and when one does, having half the trip on the other card in your bag is the difference between a bad day and a ruined trip. The 70D has only one slot, so this is the only redundancy available to you.
- Format in the camera, never on the computer. In-camera formatting writes the file structure the 70D expects and clears the card cleanly. Deleting files on a computer leaves fragmentation that shows up later as dropped frames in video.
- Buy from a seller you trust. Counterfeit SanDisk and Lexar cards are common, and they typically report the right capacity while failing under sustained write — which means the fake works fine for test photos and fails during the shoot that mattered.
As an Amazon Associate and eBay Partner, toptenpick.com earns from qualifying purchases. Prices and availability are subject to change.