One high-speed card costs over 4,000 yuan, and storage card prices have doubled! Some consumers lament, "Stock trading and gold are not as good as stocking up on cards."

“Why bother trading stocks or gold? I should have just stockpiled some memory cards…” On February 25, Hongxing Capital Bureau learned from multiple digital product consumers that the prices of camera memory cards, once considered photography consumables, have surged. Most SD cards, TF cards, and CFexpress Type-B cards (hereafter referred to as “CFB cards”) have doubled in price.

Consumer Guo Chen (pseudonym) recently planned to buy a 1TB CFB high-speed card to match his new camera but found the price had already exceeded 4,000 yuan, more than double the previous price. In the end, he chose to purchase an SD card instead.

Other camera memory cards have also seen varying increases. A consumer who bought a TF card a week before the Spring Festival reported a price increase of over 46% in just ten days; another consumer noted that their SD card price rose from over 600 yuan to more than 1,000 yuan.

Several camera equipment shop owners also sensed this change. One shop owner said that overall, camera memory card prices have doubled, with some even rising three or four times.

Analysts believe that the surge in camera memory card prices across multiple categories is driven by upstream cost transmission, structural shifts in production capacity, and resonance with end-user demand. This is not short-term speculation. It is recommended that users with urgent needs prioritize reputable brands and necessary capacities. Those without immediate needs can delay purchases and watch the market in the second half of the year.

[Image: Photo courtesy of TuChong Creative]

Camera Memory Card Prices Doubling

Some consumers joke, “Stockpiling cards is better than trading stocks”

“All I knew was that computer memory prices were rising. Recently, I bought a new camera and just realized the camera memory cards have also gone up,” Guo Chen said. He planned to buy a 1TB CFB high-speed card for his new camera but found the price had risen to over 4,000 yuan, up from around 2,000-3,000 yuan previously.

Guo Chen told Hongxing Capital Bureau that most cameras come with SD cards, TF cards are usually used in action cameras and small devices, while CFB cards are used in some high-end flagship cameras.

Because the price exceeded his expectations, he decided to buy a V60 SD card for temporary use. “I don’t shoot much video now, so the SD card is enough. But for video, I recommend CFB cards—they have fast read/write speeds and are less likely to lag.”

Other camera memory cards have also increased in price. Guo Chen recalled that a V30 SD card he previously used went from 118 yuan to 184 yuan.

Consumer Zhou Ming (pseudonym) also found memory cards “very expensive” after purchasing a DJI product. A week before the Spring Festival, he bought a SanDisk 256GB Gold TF card for 269 yuan, which had doubled in price compared to last year. After the festival, the price rose again, now costing 394 yuan.

“All I knew was that memory prices were rising. I recently bought an SD card and just realized how much it had gone up,” said consumer Zhu Xiao (pseudonym). He also found that Lexar’s official flagship store’s 128GB V60 memory card had risen above 1,000 yuan, from just over 600 yuan previously. “Why bother trading stocks or gold? I should have just stockpiled some memory cards earlier.”

Several camera equipment shop owners also noticed this trend. Shop owner Sun Jun (pseudonym) said that camera memory card prices have risen significantly, with overall doubling or even tripling in some cases. Liu Xu (pseudonym), another shop owner, said that the price increase is the highest among camera storage products, with some rising by as much as 60%.

Fu Yifu, a researcher at the Shanghai Commercial Bank, pointed out that the widespread doubling of camera memory card prices across categories is due to upstream cost transmission, structural shifts in capacity, and end-user demand resonance. This is not short-term speculation. On one hand, supply of storage chips is shrinking, with Samsung, Micron, and others reducing NAND and DRAM production significantly from 2025, causing inventories to drop to five-year lows and driving flash memory prices sharply higher. On the other hand, AI servers are capturing capacity, with manufacturers prioritizing advanced processes for higher-margin enterprise storage, squeezing consumer-grade memory card capacity. Additionally, combined with increased end-user demand during the Spring Festival travel season and content creation needs, channel stockpiling has intensified scarcity, amplifying price increases.

Volatile High-Level Prices and Gradual Rise

Storage card price increases may slow in the second half of the year

As essential consumables for cameras, storage cards have sparked market speculation about their role in driving camera price increases.

Hongxing Capital Bureau observed that in recent years, many popular camera models have also seen continuous price rises. Consumer Zhao Min (pseudonym) recently found that a popular camera she had been watching for two years increased from 2,000 yuan to 4,000-5,000 yuan. She placed an order but then canceled the purchase, citing excessive premium.

On social media, Ricoh cameras are highly sought after. The Ricoh GR series, once priced around 1,000 yuan, has risen to 10,000 yuan or more. One consumer said that their secondhand Ricoh GR3 (99% new) purchased on February 13 has yet to be shipped.

However, Liu Xu told Hongxing Capital Bureau that the price increase of storage cards has some impact on camera prices but is not significant. “Most of the current price hikes are for popular models with CCD sensors, driven by hype, not all cameras are holding their value.” He added that a popular model sold for over 8,000 yuan last October but now costs around 6,000 yuan.

Jiang Han, senior researcher at Pangu Think Tank, said that as an essential camera consumable, the doubling of storage card prices significantly increases overall user costs, potentially suppressing some potential buyers or forcing consumers to lower their configurations. However, it has limited impact on the overall camera retail price. Storage cards are standardized, universal accessories, not core components of the camera body. Manufacturers typically sell cameras as bare units, so memory card price increases do not directly raise factory prices.

Jiang Han explained that the capacity tightness stems from original manufacturers prioritizing limited wafer capacity for higher-margin enterprise and AI-related products, passively reducing supply for consumer storage.

According to the latest TrendForce report from February, in the first quarter of 2026, DRAM and NAND flash prices are expected to rise by 90%-95% and 55%-60%, respectively, with potential for further upward revisions.

Regarding future price trends for camera storage cards, Jiang Han predicts they will experience “high-level volatility and gradual upward movement.” As manufacturers ramp up utilization and release new capacity, the rapid price increases may slow in the second half of this year. However, due to overall inflation and high-end demand, prices are unlikely to fall back to previous lows. Consumers are advised to avoid blind stockpiling and choose appropriate capacities based on actual shooting needs.

Fu Yifu also believes that the surge in AI-related demand has led storage manufacturers to prioritize high-margin data center products, significantly constricting consumer-grade memory card capacity. Short-term prices are likely to remain high, with chip capacity adjustments and expansion cycles making sharp declines unlikely in the first half of the year. If capacity is gradually released and demand stabilizes in the second half, prices may slowly decline. However, returning to previous low levels in the short term will be difficult. Consumers with urgent needs should prioritize reputable brands and necessary capacities; non-urgent buyers can delay purchases and monitor the market in the coming months.

Hongxing News reporters: Yu Yao, Li Haiyan

Editor: Yu Dongmei

Reviewer: Guan Li