FAQ What is the largest capacity microSD memory card that can be used in a Hikvision IP camera?

The capacity of microSD is something that is continually increasing at an astonishing rate, with cards as large as 2TB starting to become available. As almost all new Hikvision IP cameras have memory card slots for onboard storage, and you would have traditionally needed an NVR with hard drives to provide terabytes' worth of storage for your cameras, having this amount available for storage at the edge can be incredibly useful.

The datasheet for a Hikvision camera tends to show the maximum size of microSD card that they've tested and verified works in the camera, but this can be quite variable.

So, we decided to pick up a 1.5TB SanDisk Ultra microSD memory card, which we have been testing in one of Hikvision's new DS-2CD2087G2H-LIU 8MP Smart Hybrid Light Mini Bullet Cameras for a couple of weeks, and have been pleased to find that it works perfectly.

With the camera set to full resolution, 25fps, 'medium' video quality and using H.265 encoding, we've found that the 1.5TB card was enough to store 32 days' worth of footage from the 8MP camera.

Of course, if you use the H.265+, you'll be able to stretch this even further.

However, you will get fewer days from the card if you increase the frame rate, record audio, set the video quality to 'higher' or 'highest', or use the H.264 or H.264+ codecs.


Please note that we have only extensively tested this 1.5TB card in a hybrid light camera, and cannot yet guarantee they will fully work on earlier models.

However, we can confirm that the 2xx6G2 (C) and 2xx7G2 (C) correctly recognised and formatted the card.

The table below summarised what we have found so far with regards to compatibility - we'll update this as and when we confirm that they can record for extensive periods of time on the card without any issues, and also add any other cameras we're able to test:

	1.5TB microSD recognised correctly and formatted	Extensive recording period tested without issues
DS-2CD2xx7G2H Hybrid Light Models	✔	✔
DS-2CD2xx6G2 (C) Acusense IR Models (G5 Platform)	✔	TBC
DS-2CD2xx7G2 (C) ColurVu Models (G5 Platform)	✔	TBC
DS-2CD2xx6G2 Acusense IR Models (G3 Platform)	✔	TBC
DS-2CD2xx5G1 IR Models (G1 Platform)	✕	TBC

If you have any questions or findings you think may be helpful, please feel free to post them below!

 

[TomThumb]

A useful test.

I never know if the spec on a device (i.e. "up to 250Gb card") is because that's the limit of the device or that was commonly available at the time.

So I bailed out and only fitted a 250Gb as a trial to see what's what.
** I'd love to know if this age camera would copy with a larger capacity card **

My test results:-
DS-2CD2186G2-I(SU) and a Sandisk 250Gb.
Recognised and formatted fine, used with ANR (works fine).
Test camera is set to 8Mpx, highest video quality but just 10fps, with audio on (but not much audio to be recorded).
Getting c.12 days worth of recording on the card for these test conditions (many overwrites).

I do have one small security anomaly, but I need to raise that off-line

<edit to correct actual camera used>

 

[Kyle]

Thanks for the feedback @TomThumb
I've tested the 1.5TB microSD card in a non-C version of the DS-2CD2386G2-IU today and it worked, so we've verified that they work in both G3 and G5 platform cameras.
So, I think you should be safe to use a larger card in your camera.