Note: While this section’s information is no longer presented in the charts above, it is still relevant and thus we have kept it here for reference, as the information is still accurate. Like all Lexar Professional line memory cards, the Gold Series Professional CFexpress Type A Card comes with a limited lifetime warranty and expert technical support. It has also undergone rigorous testing in the Lexar Quality Labs to ensure performance, quality, compatibility, and reliability. Of note, PetaPixel did notice that a few cards took longer to recover than others. Namely, the ProGrade Digital Gold, Acer, Pro Master Pro Velocity Cine, and Pergear Ultra were slightly slower to fully clear the buffer than the other cards, meaning that a photographer in the field won’t be ready to fire another full burst quite as soon as they would be if they used any other tested card. Why it made the cut: This SanDisk 64GB CFexpress Type B card is the most affordable option that is still high-quality and trustworthy. To ensure that the card reader remains cool during extended use, it features multiple heat sinks. For easy system connectivity, the Delkin Devices CFexpress Type B and UHS-II SD Memory Card Reader comes with USB Type-C to Type-C and Type-C to Type-A cables. Note that XQD, CFast 2.0, and CompactFlash memory cards are not compatible with this memory card reader.

By comparison, with a 128GB Sony Tough CF-e card I get 200 (basically infinite) frames at 12-bit lossless compressed, and about 63 frames at 14-bit lossless compressed. The Angelbird AV PRO SX 160GB is a top-notch CFexpress Type B card for capturing remarkable 8K+ raw images without a hitch. It offers an incredible read speed of 1785 MB/s and write speed of 1600 MB/s, and a minimum sustained read/write speed of 1785/1480 MB/s respectively. Plus, with its Stable Stream technology, you can take uninterrupted video recordings and continuous image bursts with no drop in speed. This excellent card comes with 160GB storage capacity and a limited 3-year warranty – an awesome option! The SD Association, the organization that administers SD card standards, has come up with an alternative to CFexpress. It’s called SD Express, and uses the same PCIe 3.0 interface while offering similar max speeds of 4GB/s. Compared to SD cards, CFexpress cards are a much newer technology. Many more cameras use SD cards than CFexpress cards. Greater SD card production contributes to economies of scale. Prominent manufacturers of SD cards have also had twenty years to refine the efficiency of their production line and raw material acquisition. As more and more cameras use CFexpress cards, we will see prices decline. Although CFexpress prices seem expensive now, they were considerably more expensive when they first launched. Even in the last couple of years, CFexpress prices have dropped by around 25%.Canon: Canon EOS R3, R5, R5 C, Canon EOS-1D X Mark III, Canon Cinema EOS C500 Mark II, Canon Cinema EOS C300 Mark III

If you watch for sales. the CFeB cards are rapidly approaching 30 cents per Gb (e.g. Delkin POWER 2Tb @549.99 @ B&H Dec 31, 2021). Thanks, Rich! Yes the R5 is still so popular, and it doesn’t look like there is a replacement on the horizon yet. I’m not surprised it’s hard to find a deal. Hopefully, you find one in the spring! ReplyThe Sony MRW-G1 CFexpress Type B/XQD Memory Card Reader also comes with both USB Type-C to Type-C and USB Type-C to Type-A cables, making it compatible with a wide range of devices. This is particularly useful for those who work with a variety of different computers and devices and need a card reader that can work with all of them. If all of this sounds confusing, you are not alone, and it’s for this reason that most CFexpress card brands don’t even bother to mention the Cfexpress version on their products. All you need to know is that if you have a CFexpress Type A card, it must be CFexpress 2.0 because Type A did not exist under the CFexpress 1.0 specifications.

At 10fps, it takes 13 seconds to shoot 130 images which seems an incredibly long time when you’re standing on the touchline or kneeling as your dog lollops towards you. In practise, you’re likely to shoot in shorter bursts, but it’s great to know that the card can match the camera’s capability. When Sony released the a7S III, it also introduced a new card type—the CFexpress Type A. The later-released a1 also utilized this new memory card. Sony was the only company producing the CFexpress Type A for a bit, but ProGrade entered the market to provide an alternative. Though the Prograde version is still not cheap by any means, it is more affordable than Sony’s, saving you some money. A Masterpiece In Engineering And Design: Canon Announces The EOS-1D X Mark III Camera" (Press release). Canon U.S.A., Inc. 2020-01-06 . Retrieved 2020-01-29.

SD Express also arrived three years after CFexpress, giving the latter a significant head start. What kind of CFexpress cards are there?

Sony is the only camera maker that is currently utilizing Type A cards. They are smaller than Type B, so they are not cross-compatible. Storage capacity SanDisk’s card is compatible with raw 4K video, making it suitable for videographers and vloggers. Should something unfortunate happen, SanDisk offers a limited lifetime warranty. You’ll also have access to free RescuePRO Deluxe data recovery software in case you need to recover files that you accidentally delete.Updated 10/12/2023: With the onset of USB 4.0 and CFexpress 4.0, a lot has changed. The guide below includes both new 4.0 cards as well as the older 2.0 cards, but the new peak read and write sections have been re-tested using a USB 4.0 reader — the same one for all, the ProGrade Digital Type-B single Slot reader. The reason for this is twofold. One, it allows older cards to perform better when connected to a host computer than before simply because of more bandwidth. Two, there is only one CFexpress 4.0 card reader available on the market at the time of publication, and this is it. However, the premium isn't just because it's a CFexpress Type B card. You're also paying for the extensive compatibility and reliability testing performed by memory card manufacturers. Companies like SanDisk and ProGrade aren't just slapping storage into a case and calling it a day. They spend a lot of time ensuring reliable, sustained performance across a wide range of devices and applications. As mentioned, it seems as though that, outside of a few outliers, most CFexpress memory cards are coming up against the limitations of camera hardware. While ProGrade’s older CFexpress 2.0 cards and Acer’s card provided us with about a second less time with the shutter held down and SanDisk’s gave us just shy of a tenth of a second more, basically every other card hovered in the same region. Don't Miss OutJoin 17,000+ other photographers who get free photography tips and resources delivered directly to their inbox.