The humble SD card has found its way to most of the digital cameras on this planet. With its small size, high capacities and relatively low cost, it’s pretty easy to understand why. But, SD is not always the right tool for the job. Especially when the needs are for a much higher capacity and faster speeds. That’s where CFast comes in. An Early Prototype of CFast Card (via WikiMedia Commons) Evolving Needs for Data VPG 400 guarantees that a card will sustain at least 400 MB/s write speeds through its entire capacity without dropping a single frame. Many, if not all, CFexpress memory cards show peak performance that is significantly higher than 400 MB/s, but sustained speeds are generally much lower than the promised peak speeds and aren’t advertised on the side of the card. Many companies promise much higher sustained read and write speeds, but without VPG 400 certification, those numbers have not been verified by the CFA as an independent third party. Avoid these at all costs. No cameras support the format and mutliple experts that have spoken to PetaPixel don’t believe any ever will. Repeat: no camera on the market in any category supports the SD Express format. Without such support, you get worse performance while paying significantly more than SD UHS-II cards. SD Express looks identical to SD cards, but don’t perform the same. Avoid them. | Photo by Jaron Schneider for PetaPixel

AV PRO CF - CFast 2.0 Memory Card | Angelbird AV PRO CF - CFast 2.0 Memory Card | Angelbird

I put the card into the camera, format it to exFAT, shoot a few clips, and when I plug it into my computer, it isn't recognized by the computer and I cannot access or view any media. I've used multiple card readers, tried multiple computers both PC and Mac, tried formatting to OS X Extended and opening on mac, nothing works. And this is with both cards. First announced in 2010 by SanDisk, Sony, and Nikon, XQD is a flash memory card using the PCI Express interface. XQD Version 2.0, announced in 2012, moved to the PCI Express 3.0 interface. Do you need a fast, reliable and affordable UHS-II SD Card for your camera? Look no further than the Kingston Canvas React Plus UHS-II SD Card – it is by far the best deal around! Not only does it offer performance that rivals that of the Sony SF-G Tough cards, but it also comes at a much lower price, with capacities up to 256GB! Highly recommended! CFexpress cards are typically also more durable than SD cards. More importantly, they’re a great feature for those who shoot video; now that high-bitrate (even RAW in some cases) 4K and 8K video is becoming commonplace, the CFexpress standard is the best option to make the most of that data. CFexpress Type C If you’re in the market for an SD card with speedy read/write times, a reasonable cost, dependable construction, and a lifetime guarantee, look no further than the Kingston Canvas React Plus UHS-II SD card – we highly recommend it!https://www.sandisk.co.uk/about/media-center/press-releases/2012/sandisk-announces-development-of-cfast-memory-cards CFexpress Type B offers an excellent blend of value, capacity, quality, and — particularly — speed. While the insanely fast read and write speeds are of little value to photographers who don’t shoot sports or wildlife, they still aren’t too offputtingly expensive, especially if your second slot is UHS-II SD. The CFast cards can perform data transfers at a speed of about 600 MB/s, the same as a high-end SSD. This makes them ideal for 4K video and other bandwidth heavy applications. Especially when compared to SD cards, which max out at less than half of that speed. CompactFlash (or simply “CF”) is one of the oldest and most popularly used memory cards of all time. First manufactured in 1994 by SanDisk, CF cards offered an excellent price-to-capacity ratio as well as greater available capacities compared to other formats on the market. CF cards were widely adopted in the first DSLRs and continued to see use until about 2016 — Nikon’s D810 and D4 flagship cameras contained CF slots, as did Canon’s 1DX Mark II and 1D C.

CFast Cards - Swissbit CFast Cards - Swissbit

Our CFast cards are built for reliability. SanDisk Extreme PRO CFast cards come with a lifetime limited warranty 2, so you can trust your card to perform shot after shot. Professional videographers trust SanDisk CFast cards to keep up with the high demands of the cinema, broadcast and media industries. Get the most out of your professional camera with the high performance, capacity, and reliability of a SanDisk card. If you are using a camera with CFast card slot (like BMPCC 6K, BMPCC 4K, Canon EOS-1D X Mark II, EOS C300 Mark II, EOS C700 FF and Canon XC15), you will need a fast CFast card, and an additional reliable CFast card reader to ensure faster data transfer speeds. But not every CFast card reader will work well with CFast card. Like all memory cards, speed and performance are different between the different brands, and some CFast card readers can offer better performance than the others.The ProGrade Digital UHS-II SDXC Card (V90) is an outstanding option for capturing 6K, 5K, 4K, UHD 4K, and high bit rate MPEG-4 videos, plus raw photos and rapid-fire shots. Ranging from 64GB up to 512GB, this card is a must-have for any shooter seeking high-capacity, high-speed storage. Get yours today and experience the exceptional performance of ProGrade! This category is very important. There are two types of SDHC or SDXC cards — UHS-I and UHS-II. UHS-II has a second row of pins and uses Low Voltage Differential Signaling Technology, allowing for read speeds up to 312 MB/s. UHS-I tops out at 104 MB/s. There’s also UHS-III, but nothing on the market uses that specification yet (and it doesn’t seem likely that anyone ever will). This is the more modern version of the Speed Class, with virtually all existing SD cards fitting into one of two UHS Speed Classes — either U1 or U3. These are denoted by either the number 1 or the number 3 within the letter “U” — usually found somewhere near the Speed Class. Most cards are going to be U3, which indicates a minimum write speed of 30 MB/s. Video Speed Class All of the same specifications of SD cards apply to MicroSD cards, with the same nomenclature. Both UHS-I and UHS-II microSD cards are available, ranging from V30 to V90 — though only Delkin Devices and Kingston produce V90 cards, so the selection is significantly thinner than SD for high-speed options. For most photographers, we just recommend V60 cards — they’re a great balance between speed and affordability. If you shoot 4K (or higher) video, you may want to invest in V90 cards, depending on your camera. Basic 8-bit footage will write easily to V60 (or often even to V30) cards, and most 10-bit 4K will be fine with V60 cards, but higher-quality footage like ProRes RAW or regular RAW may need at least V90.