What’s is UHS-II?
Although UHS-II memory cards have been around for a while, they are just starting to grow in popularity as photographers begin to see the benefits of their speed, reliability, and quality. UHS stands for “universal high speed” and refers to the type of “bus interface” which determines the “bus speed.”
It’s a lot of technical jargon, but basically, the little row of metal strips or “pins” you see on the back of a card is the interface. UHS-I uses one row of pins (9 pins) whereas UHS-II upgrades to two rows of pins (17 pins) to increase the bus speed.
The Benefits of UHS-II Cards
The biggest advantage of UHS-II cards is their speed. For example, using a SanDisk UHS-II Extreme Pro card offers you three times the write speed of their UHS-I cards, upgrading your write speed from 90MB/s to 260MB/s. This offers a huge advantage to photographers or videographers when shooting in burst mode or taking rapid shots.
When in post-production a SanDisk UHS-II card will double your transfer rate/read speed from 170MB/s to 300MB/s. For large amounts of high-quality footage, this speed is critical in maximizing your production time. Other memory card brands also offer UHS-II cards at various speeds, but in each case, UHS-II cards are always the faster option.
Another benefit of UHS-II memory cards is that they typically feature other upgrades such as video speed, UHS speed class, and more, although these are not linked to their UHS-II capabilities.
Can I use a UHS-I card in a UHS-II slot or a UHS-II card in a UHS-I slot?
You may still use UHS-I cards in UHS-II compatible cameras since the slots are backward compatible, but you won’t receive the benefits that a UHS-II card will offer. Likewise, you can use UHS-II cards in a UHS-I port but your camera will be limited to UHS-I specs.
List of UHS-II Compatible Cameras
You may be wondering: “Is my camera compatible with a UHS-II memory card?” Or, you may be in the market for a camera compatible with UHS-II memory cards and you want to know what all your options are. The following chart is a list of cameras with UHS-II slots. This UHS-II camera list will be updated when new cameras are released that are compatible. You can purchase SD UHS-II or Micro UHS-II cards right here at bulkmemorycards.com.
| Camera Brand/Model | Camera Type | Card(s) Accepted | Announced |
| Canon EOS R | Mirrorless | UHS-I, UHS-II (SD/SDHC/SDXC) | Sept. 2018 |
| Canon EOS RP | Mirrorless | UHS-I, UHS-II (SD/SDHC/SDXC) | February 2019 |
| Canon EOS M6 Mark II | Mirrorless | UHS-I, UHS-II (SD/SDHC/SDXC) | August 2019 |
| Canon EOS 90D | DSLR | UHS-I, UHS-II (SD/SDHC/SDXC) | August 2019 |
| Fujifilm GFX 50S | Mirrorless | UHS-I, UHS-II (SD/SDHC/SDXC) | Sept. 2016 |
| Fujifilm GFX 50R | Mirrorless | UHS-I, UHS-II (SD/SDHC/SDXC) | Sept. 2018 |
| Fujifilm GFX 100 | Mirrorless | UHS-I, UHS-II (SD/SDHC/SDXC) | May 2019 |
| Fujifilm X-T1 | Mirrorless | UHS-I, UHS-II (SD/SDHC/SDXC) | January 2014 |
| Fujifilm X-T1 IR | Mirrorless | UHS-I, UHS-II (SD/SDHC/SDXC) | August 2015 |
| Fujifilm X-Pro2 | Mirrorless | UHS-I, UHS-II (SD/SDHC/SDXC) | January 2016 |
| Fujifilm X-T2 | Mirrorless | UHS-I, UHS-II (SD/SDHC/SDXC) | August 2016 |
| Fujifilm X-H1 | Mirrorless | UHS-I, UHS-II (SD/SDHC/SDXC) | February 2018 |
| Fujifilm X-T3 | Mirrorless | UHS-I, UHS-II (SD/SDHC/SDXC) | Sept. 2018 |
| Fujifilm X-Pro3 | Mirrorless | UHS-I, UHS-II (SD/SDHC/SDXC) | October 2019 |
| Fujifilm X-T4 | Mirrorless | UHS-I, UHS-II (SD/SDHC/SDXC) | February 2020 |
| Leica SL (Typ 601) | Mirrorless | UHS-I, UHS-II (SD/SDHC/SDXC) | October 2015 |
| Leica TL2 | Mirrorless | UHS-I, UHS-II (SD/SDHC/SDXC) | July 2017 |
| Leica Q2 | Compact | UHS-I, UHS-II (SD/SDHC/SDXC) | March 2019 |
| Nikon D500 | DSLR | UHS-I, UHS-II (SD/SDHC/SDXC), XQD | January 2016 |
| Nikon D850 | DSLR | UHS-I, UHS-II (SD/SDHC/SDXC), XQD | July 2017 |
| Nikon D780 | DSLR | UHS-I, UHS-II (SD/SDHC/SDXC) | January 2020 |
| Olympus OM-D E-M5 II | Mirrorless | UHS-I, UHS-II (SD/SDHC/SDXC) | February 2015 |
| Olympus OM-D E-M10 II | Mirrorless | UHS-I, UHS-II (SD/SDHC/SDXC) | August 2015 |
| Olympus PEN-F | Mirrorless | UHS-I, UHS-II (SD/SDHC/SDXC) | January 2016 |
| Olympus OM-D E-M1 II | Mirrorless | UHS-I, UHS-II (SD/SDHC/SDXC) | Sept. 2016 |
| Olympus OM-D E-M10 III | Mirrorless | UHS-I, UHS-II (SD/SDHC/SDXC) | August 2017 |
| Olympus OM-D E-M1X | Mirrorless | UHS-I, UHS-II (SD/SDHC/SDXC) | January 2019 |
| Olympus OM-D E-M5 III | Mirrorless | UHS-I, UHS-II (SD/SDHC/SDXC) | October 2019 |
| Olympus OM-D E-M1 Mark III | Mirrorless | UHS-I, UHS-II (SD/SDHC/SDXC) | February 2020 |
| Panasonic Lumix DMC-G85 (G80 in some regions) | Mirrorless | UHS-I, UHS-II (SD/SDHC/SDXC) | Sept. 2016 |
| Panasonic Lumix DC-GH5 | Mirrorless | UHS-I, UHS-II (SD/SDHC/SDXC) | January 2017 |
| Panasonic Lumix DC-G9 | Mirrorless | UHS-I, UHS-II (SD/SDHC/SDXC) | November 2017 |
| Panasonic Lumix DC-GH5s | Mirrorless | UHS-I, UHS-II (SD/SDHC/SDXC) | January 2018 |
| Panasonic Lumix DC-S1 | Mirrorless | UHS-I, UHS-II (SD/SDHC/SDXC), XQD | February 2019 |
| Panasonic Lumix DC-S1R | Mirrorless | UHS-I, UHS-II (SD/SDHC/SDXC), XQD | February 2019 |
| Panasonic Lumix DC-G95 (G90/G91 in some regions) | Mirrorless | UHS-I, UHS-II (SD/SDHC/SDXC) | April 2019 |
| Panasonic Lumix DC-S1H | Mirrorless | UHS-I, UHS-II (SD/SDHC/SDXC) | May 2019 |
| Samsung NX1 | Mirrorless | UHS-I, UHS-II (SD/SDHC/SDXC) | Sept. 2014 |
| Sigma fp | Mirrorless | UHS-I, UHS-II (SD/SDHC/SDXC) | July 2019 |
| Sony a9 | Mirrorless | UHS-I, UHS-II (SD/SDHC/SDXC) | April 2017 |
| Sony a7R III | Mirrorless | UHS-I, UHS-II (SD/SDHC/SDXC) | October 2017 |
| Sony a7 III | Mirrorless | UHS-I, UHS-II (SD/SDHC/SDXC) | February 2018 |
| Sony a7R IV | Mirrorless | UHS-I, UHS-II (SD/SDHC/SDXC) | July 2019 |
| Sony a9 II | Mirrorless | UHS-I, UHS-II (SD/SDHC/SDXC) | October 2019 |
If we missed any UHS-II compatible cameras on our list, please let us know in the comments below!