Which 2026 camera is cheapest to feed in storage terms?

The OM System PEN at 237 Mbps (about 107 GB per hour) and the Canon EOS R8 Mark II at 250 Mbps (about 113 GB per hour). Both are single SD UHS-II bodies with no internal RAW, so neither ever demands CFexpress-class media or capacity.

Do any 2026 cameras still require CFexpress Type B?

Yes. The Nikon ZR, Canon EOS R6 V and Canon EOS R6 Mark III all use CFexpress Type B for their RAW modes. The Sony a7R VI and FX5 use CFexpress Type A. The Nikon Z5IIC, Sony RX10 V, Canon EOS R8 Mark II and OM System PEN are SD-only.

How are these bitrates verified?

Every figure is transcribed from the manufacturer's own published specification table or reference manual — not estimated, not measured, not carried over from a related body. Where a manufacturer has not published a rate for a mode, that mode is omitted rather than filled in with a guess. Modes sourced from a sibling camera's table are labelled as such on the individual camera page.

2026 Camera Bitrates — Every New Body

Q: Which 2026 camera has the highest bitrate?

The Nikon ZR, at 3730 Mbps for 12-bit N-RAW High Quality at FX 6048x3402 60p — about 1.68 TB per hour. The Canon EOS R6 V and R6 Mark III follow at 2600 Mbps for 17:9 Cinema RAW Light Standard, roughly 1.17 TB per hour. The Sony FX5 reaches 1796 Mbps in X-OCN LT.

Every camera body added to this calculator during 2026, ranked by peak data rate. The spread is wider than any year before it: the heaviest body here writes roughly sixteen times as much per hour as the lightest, and both are mirrorless cameras you can buy off a shelf.

Each figure below is the camera's single highest published bitrate — the worst case for card planning. Every one is transcribed from the manufacturer's own specification table or reference manual. Click any camera to open the full bitrate matrix.

2026 Bodies by Peak Data Rate

Camera	Peak rate	Mode	Storage	Media
Nikon ZR	3730 Mbps	N-RAW 12-bit HQ — FX 6048×3402 60p	1.68 TB/hr	CFexpress Type B + microSD
Canon EOS R6 V	2600 Mbps	Cinema RAW Light Standard 17:9 30p	1.17 TB/hr	CFexpress Type B + SD UHS-II
Canon EOS R6 Mark III	2600 Mbps	Cinema RAW Light Standard 17:9 30p	1.17 TB/hr	CFexpress Type B + SD UHS-II
Sony FX5	1796 Mbps	X-OCN LT — 4992×3328 60p	808 GB/hr	CFexpress Type A + SD UHS-II
Sony a7R VI	600 Mbps	XAVC S-I 4K — 3840×2160 60p	270 GB/hr	CFexpress Type A + SD UHS-II
Sony RX10 V	600 Mbps	XAVC S-I 4K — 3840×2160 60p	270 GB/hr	SD UHS-II
Nikon Z5IIC	420 Mbps	N-RAW 12-bit — FX 4032×2268 30p	189 GB/hr	SD UHS-II (single slot)
Canon EOS R8 Mark II	250 Mbps	XF-AVC S 4:2:2 10-bit — 4K 60p	113 GB/hr	SD UHS-II (single slot)
OM System PEN	237 Mbps	H.264 IPB — DCI 4K 24p	107 GB/hr	SD (UHS-I speeds only)

Per-hour figures use decimal GB and TB, matching how card and drive capacities are labelled.

What 2026 Changed

Internal RAW arrived at the bottom of the range. The Nikon Z5IIC records 12-bit N-RAW to a single SD card at $1,399.95. Five years ago that required a cinema body and CFexpress. The practical consequence is that a lot of people are about to discover what 189 GB per hour does to a laptop SSD.

The top end kept climbing. The Nikon ZR's 3730 Mbps N-RAW mode fills a 1 TB CFexpress Type B card in about 36 minutes. Planning a ZR day is a storage-logistics exercise, not a card purchase.

Single-slot bodies became normal again. The Z5IIC, R8 Mark II, RX10 V and PEN all record to one card. That is a capacity question you can solve by buying more cards, and a risk question you cannot.

SD is still enough for most of it. Four of the nine bodies here never need anything beyond a V90 UHS-II SD card. The CFexpress requirement remains confined to RAW-capable bodies from Nikon, Canon and Sony.

Planning Around the Heavy Modes

A useful rule for any of these: multiply the Mbps figure by 0.45 to get GB per hour. 2600 Mbps × 0.45 = 1170 GB, or 1.17 TB. It is accurate enough for card-buying decisions and you can do it in your head.

The second rule is that peak rate is rarely what you actually shoot. Most of these bodies have a mode one or two tiers down that costs a third as much and looks near-identical on a delivery timeline. The calculator exists to make that trade explicit — pick the codec you will really use, not the one on the box.

Open the calculator →

Cameras We Are Still Waiting On

Announced or rumoured for 2026 but not yet added, because the manufacturer has not published usable per-mode data rates:

Fujifilm X-T6 — the 4 September announcement was pulled on a component shortage. Now expected in November alongside the XF50-140mm MKII. Nothing official exists to transcribe yet.
DJI Osmo 360 II — re-checked October 2026: still only headline figures (220 Mbps, 600 Mbps for 16K timelapse). The v1.0 user manual carries no bitrate table at all, and two firmware releases since launch changed nothing. Still not sold in the US.

Both will be added the day real numbers appear. Nothing on this site is estimated to fill a gap.

Frequently Asked Questions

Which 2026 camera has the highest bitrate?

The Nikon ZR at 3730 Mbps (N-RAW HQ, FX 6048×3402 60p) — about 1.68 TB per hour. The Canon R6 V and R6 Mark III follow at 2600 Mbps.

Which is cheapest to feed?

The OM System PEN at 237 Mbps and the Canon EOS R8 Mark II at 250 Mbps — roughly 107 and 113 GB per hour. Both are SD-only with no internal RAW.

Do any still need CFexpress Type B?

The Nikon ZR and both Canon R6 bodies. The Sony a7R VI and FX5 use Type A. The remaining four are SD-only.

How are these verified?

Every figure comes from the manufacturer's own published table. Where a rate has not been published, the mode is omitted rather than estimated, and any figure borrowed from a sibling body is labelled on that camera's page.