Best Memory Cards for Canon Rebel T3i

The Canon Rebel T3i has 1 SD card slot and is compatible with both SDHC and SDXC type cards. While UHS-I type does work with the T3i, you won’t see a big improvement in speed as it can’t take the advantage of higher speeds.

In this guide, we’ve selected the 3 best SDHC/SDXC memory cards based on their speed, performance and price.

For Full HD video recording, it’s also very important to have a card whose minimum speed is fast enough for smooth recording (Class 10, or even better, U3). If you buy an UHS-II type card you won’t see any faster writing speeds, the only thing that will get faster is transferring the files to your computer.

What size is the best? This depends on how often you shoot, but if you photograph quite often and also plan on doing some bigger events, we suggest going with 16GB-32GB cards (or a couple of them).

In this guide, we’ve picked out the top 3 memory cards when it comes to speed, performance and the price you pay.

These are the best 3 SDHC/SDXC memory cards you can get:

• SanDisk Extreme Pro 95MB/s UHS-I U3
• Lexar Professional 95MB/s UHS-I U3
• Transcend R95/W60MB/s UHS-I U3

SanDisk Extreme Pro 95MB/s UHS-I U3

The SanDisk 64GB Extreme Pro 32GB U3 is our favorite card, seeing as it’s inexpensive and provides writing and reading speeds near 90MB/s. It comes in 64GB, 128GB and 256GB sizes.

The speed makes it perfect for whatever you’re doing; fast bursts with large megapixel cameras, 4K video, let alone Full HD. It comes in 16GB, 32GB, 64GB, 128GB and 256GB sizes.

You can buy it at Amazon or see more reviews here.

Lexar Professional 95MB/s UHS-I U3

The Lexar Professional 32GB U3 95MB/s is cheaper than the model above, and reaches the same reading speed yet falls a bit short in the writing department. While the minimum for U3 cards is always 30MB/s, this Lexar series reaches around 60MB/s, whereas the Sandisk hits ~80MB/s.

Since the T3i isn’t super fast in burst shooting and tops out at Full HD 30fps, the difference won’t be that noticeable, but if you always want to be on the safe side, the Sandisk above is better.

Lexar also gives you the code to download their Imaging Rescue software. It comes in 16GB, 32GB, 64GB and 128GB sizes.

You can buy it at Amazon or see more reviews here.

Transcend R95/W60MB/s UHS-I U3

The most affordable on our list, yet still UHS-I, is the Transcend 64GB UHS-I U3. In terms of reading speed it goes up to 95MB/s, while for writing the maximum is 60MB/s just like Lexar above.

Transcend, just like Lexar above, gives you the option of downloading their free image recovery program and they both work pretty good in most cases. It comes in 64GB, 128GB and 256GB sizes.

You can buy it at Amazon or see more reviews here.

Comparison of the 3 Memory Cards

What Brands are the Best?

Your photographs and videos are stored on a memory card, so you should definitely not try to save any money here by buying from unknown, cheap brands. While you save a few bucks, you probably won’t even get the advertised speeds, and are at a bigger risk of losing your shots.

We see too many beginners choosing the cheap route here, but until you transfer your shots to a computer/online, this is where they’re stored at. You want the memory card to be the most reliable piece of your equipment!

Stick to Sandisk, Lexar, Transcend, Kingston, Sony and Toshiba. There may be a few other good brands out there, but the ones we mentioned are already more than enough and offer great prices.

Last Updated on September 14, 2021 by Nick Voorhees