Designed to speed up your workflow, eliminate obstacles that may limit your creativity, and give you peace of mind. But things are about to get a little more complicated. They are effectively PCI Express SSDs but with a different connecter and an astronomically higher price while offering lower IOPs than many budget m.2 NVMe offerings. ProGrade announces new, more affordable CFexpress Type A card CFexpress Type A cards are speedy, high-performance storage solutions for high-end cameras, like the Sony A7S III and the. ProGrade says its new CFexpress Type A Cobalt cards deliver VPG 400 performance (sustained write speeds of at least 400MB/s) and offers maximum write speeds of 700MB/s, which should be more than enough to record up to 8K ProRes 422 HQ video for supported cameras. Most A1 owners I read keep using the SD cards and see no reason to switch to CFE-A. They are fast and besides the Sony tough the only cards I use I can't get to thermal throttling (I could if I want but I don't notice buffer clearing slow downs even after heavy continuous shooting use). There has been undersupply of the Type A cards so far. And also cheaper to implement than standalone cards. Using SSD over USB is bad idea because you have additional protocol overhead and may not be so realiable as attaching your memory directly over PCIe lane as is the case for CFE cards. Many excellent photographers who know what they are doing are using the SD cards and are not seeing their work compromised in doing so. Sony charges $200 for the 80GB card a whopping $400 for the 160GB version, but you can now pre-order the ProGrade 160GB version for a more reasonable $330. Pre-Order ProGrade CFexpress Type A Cobalt 160GB at B&H - $330 As a reminder, CFexpress Type A uses the same high-speed CFexpress technology as the type B cards, so the Cobalt card. You cant buy a Fujifilm X100V in 2023 and Tiktok is to blame, Google Magic Eraser cleans up your messy photo mistakes, and that's a bad thing. Comments for which I thanked them. Much better deal. @Thoughts R US - Fair enough. The Sony system is really smart with double duty card slots for SD cards and CF express cards in such compact format. Have to send camera back for repair? Its cards use PCIe 3.0, the same interface used by laptop and desktop SSDs and these are radically faster than the SD cards most of us use today. The SD Association, the organization that administers SD card standards, has come up with an alternative to CFexpress. Please keep your contributions constructive and civil. Somewhat different. Theres no getting away from the fact that many photographers will find CFexpress cards prohibitively expensive. ProGrade -- a company founded by executives of the now-defunct Lexar -- has announced its own 160GB CFexpress 2.0 Type A memory card and it costs $330, a full $70 less than Sony's card. What were really waiting for is something much simpler: lower prices. So I checked their site and they seem sincere, with the name an attempt to convey their intent, so I'll give them a point back. As a comparison, the Sony Sony 160GB CFexpress Type A TOUGH Memory Card retails for $398.00. The Sony cameras wont let you start recording a video until the buffer is cleared, and with SD that can take 8 or 9 seconds to clear instead of 1 or 2 seconds with the cfa. I still use a 32 b card, and to be honest, can live with a 16GB except for event photography. How is power consumtion for such SSD disks at idle and workload? I just am glad my Canon R5 uses the Type B cards, which are way faster. Why are not cameras using m.2 SSDs? Why these insanely expensive CFX cards come in such ridiculously low capacities? Yes, it may offer the lowest performance of the lot, but these cards can fit into a combi slot that will also take SD cards. ProGrade consumer gradeProGrade enthusiast gradeProGrade nearly pro gradeProGrade pro grade. I mean, by that reasoning, if you're spending $6500 on a camera body, then why not spend $1000 on a media card? The A7S III has two card slots, both of which will accept SD and CFexpress cards. The new ProGrade CFexpress Type A 160GB card is available to order now: Single-pack and double-pack. We're excited to announce the ProGrade Digital CFexpress Type A card - a small yet powerful memory card capable of sustaining a read rate of 800MB/s and write speed of 700MB/s. The ProGrade CFexpress Type A Cobalt Memory card is available for $329.99 USD. And I think 8K does require them. It's expensive so people don't buy them. Essentially, Sony wants to carve out a part of the market for themselves since they develop their own memory cards. This quick performance benefits recording a variety of video resolutions, bit-rates, and compressions, as well as high-resolution continuous raw photo shooting. M.2's requires a certain power supply+processor combination that is not small enough to properly fit in a camera. Sure. Perhaps they had too much nostalgia for the old large and bulky CF cards, which is a format that I don't recall Sony ever supporting. Send it in to the service center? They have storage oddities across their lineup: the APSC and RX cameras are still crippled UHS-I/Memory Stick Duo slots, the third generation FF MILCs were one fast one slow slot, and now they've standardized on a slower, pricier card type. This is usually a celebration sequence that goes on longer than a normal play. The Long Gop 120p on the A7siii is pretty much good enough that you don't need the All-I option that is allowed with the type A. First, Sony is the only camera manufacturer that currently has cameras with the slot and support to use the media. Now lets think what ProGrade might call similar products. Theres a little more to learn about CFexpress cards, other than that they cost more than SD cards, though. You will find Sony amongst them and so far only Sony uses type A. These cost $199 / 279 (128GB), $399 / 449 (256GB) or $599 / 699 (512GB), and come with a lifetime limited warranty that covers failure, but not wear-and-tear or you accidentally snapping them. ProGrade has announced a new CFexpress Type A Memory card. I think that's a fair summation: that right now CFE-A is for a very narrow niche. Sony's adopting CF type A is probably a precursor of what is to come, their use on the A7S3 and A1 seems more like testing the waters, at least you're not pigeonholed into using them. Tazz, yup. Its called SD Express, and uses the same PCIe 3.0 interface while offering similar max speeds of 4GB/s. As mentioned they dont seem to have the same overheating problems as Type B cards has in Mirrorless when you push the performance with high fps or high resolution high frame rate video. It's presumptuous and not their call to make. But my point is that many respected photographers using the A1 are using SD and will not go to CFE-A due to the cost. They have been doing this since the days of Betamax, Sony does it because they don't just sell cameras, arguably cornering the storage medium has the potential to net way more profits. For example, the Sony Tough UHS-II series of SD cards is rated for 299MB/s write speeds, but only provides (minimum) 90MB/s sustained write speeds. Everyone has their standards for judging pricing and relative value. I wouldn't exactly call these "reasonably priced." The real question is why did other manufacturers choose the larger, less flexible format? @ Samuel Lucifer: A quick Google search tells that CFexpress is a standard proposed by the CompactFlash Association. Watch this video: https://youtu.be/qPyjaHANuIo. I wouldn't want to see more cameras go the route of the Zeiss ZX1, but having both a card slot or two plus some amount of internal storage that works faster than SD card read/write speeds seems like it could be handy. What about spending $10 for one spare battery too? The increased speed is worth it for me. You would only "need" more than 160GB per slot if you were going to shoot more than 2,500 images in *uncompressed* raw without being able to pause long enough to hot swap a CF-E card. So when the largest mirrorless brand use CF Express A not only in the top level cameras but also in the volume sales camera then there is good business for the card manufacturers. @Sup Yall has the right point. Also, you can use KIOXIA BG4 Series NVME drives in any USB-C enclosures and they will work with any camera that supports USB recording like BMPCC. You will just end up with the slow speed with the added headache of incompatible media and expensive cards. That kinda makes me wonder: why don't more cameras have internal SSDs? They need to give those cameras M.2 slots rather than CFexpress, or make a connector passive adapter that are more robust for the wear of repeated insertions. Thank you ProGrade! That's the bottom line. So maybe Canon will switch to Type A as well in the future, to redce their overheating problems. How many high end cameras do you think have been designed in the last two years? Even more intensive video capture modes are the obvious use, but do we really need 4GB/s? Second, CFexpress Type A cards tend to be quite a bit more expensive than SD cards with the same capacity, which leads many shooters opting to stick with the SD cards they have. @RubberDials, How come Type B cards were announced in 2016, but Type A and C cards were announced in February 2019? It would be more or less permanent fixture. The last thing we should want is for cameras to be sealed up like iPhones. The biggest problem for SDExpress taking is they top out at 985 MB/s. And as a result, two commenters were kind enough to clue me in about their actual pedigree. Its been a year where they mostly were out of stock, especially the 160Gb version. Ultra-high performance Cobalt cards are $359 / 389 (325GB) and $899 / 799 (650GB). Many more "everyday Joe's" will use that model over the A1 or A7SIII. While the CFexpress Type A format is smaller than the more ubiquitous SD card and up to three times faster the format has struggled to take hold, for two reasons in particular. I think when you consider that these are simply an upgrade option for power users, you start to realize that they are not meant for everyday Joes, and then the price makes more sense. Seems like it could be handy and fast for when you need speed, and offload from the SSD to a computer or SD card later when speed isn't important. Rumor has it that the next A7 IV will also use the dual CFE-A/SD card slots. TechRadar is part of Future US Inc, an international media group and leading digital publisher. Because SD is only interesting because it's cheap and the newer standards aren't. 8K on the A1 can be written to Dirt cheap V60 SD cards.You dont even need V90 cards.You can even write low data rate 8K to v30 cards.. (at 200MBPS). Speed losses when doing something like shooting video are much lower in a well-designed CFexpress card. The reason is simple Sony does understand dual card slots. This performance is good enough for ~95% of A1 shooters and therein lies the problem. Up until recently, the only CFexpress Type A cards you could buy were made by Sony, and their cards only come in capacities of 80GB and 160GB. But, every once in a while, I need to go longer. And now they have CF Type A. Sony 80GB CFexpress Type A TOUGH Memory Card - B&H Photo Video I like Sony's approuch with providing dual card options.Canon may struggle to use CFE-A card due to their large data throughput requirements compared to peers. By calling themselves ProGrade, the implication is that everything they ever make will be pro grade, because they say so. so how do you feel about Sandisk and their EXTREME to the max lines? You may have heard: theres a new kind of memory card in town, and its called CFexpress. So I do not buy the argument that the cameras cannot use them. Never tried it, but the 8K IPB "Light" option might write to a fast V30 considering the bit rate is close to 1080 All-I (230Mbp/s). Sony likes to have their own proprietary storage memory. Delkin Devices Unveils 80GB and 160GB CFexpress Type A Cards Sony is the only company making CFexpress Type A cards at the time of writing, and these are, sadly, even more expensive than the Type B kind, at $199 / 209 for 80GB, rising to $649 for 512GB. Business-wise, it's a smart move - people can't complain much because each slot still supports the fastest SD cards, but Sony benefits from selling the (MUCH) more expensive Cfexpress cards that only they currently make. It only takes 10-20sec to fill (or copy) such card at its max speed. posted Tuesday, September 21, 2021 at 10:30 AM EDT. Theres a significant difference in the prices of cards from these different brands. There is no way I would buy a camera to have built in storage. As soon as they have been in stock they have been sold out again. ProGrade Digital CFexpress 2.0 Type A Memory Card (160GB) $ 364.99 USD Hey I write 21MP JPGs to one card and 50MP raws to another and the JPG card is an old 128GB V30 card. It's Sony that chose Type-B for them. CFexpress Type A FX3 I 80GB(ILCE-1 TOUGH CEA-G80T FX6 AmazonCFexpress36 | @Sup YallIf you are shooting with camera like A1, cost of a memory card probably shouldn't be even a concern? You're stuck, if you want to take more photos, you'll have to quickly transfer the images to a computer, which you might not have brought with you.With the cards, if one is full, no problem, you can just put another one. It's very simple: nobody likes Type-B. With few camera models supporting CFexpress Type A, other third-party card manufacturers had yet to jump on board until now, though Delkin also announced cards that are coming soon. CFexpress Type ASony 1 . "Even if there existed a card that never failed AND a slot that never failed (you need both), then there would still be a reason to have 2 cards and 2 slots.You know why? Allot of complaints about cfa prices here, but you need to remember that they arent needed for 90% of A1/A7sIII users out there. I'm less motivated to do so with yours however. The pros dictate what they consider Pro grade. Still, it's easily fast enough to capture high-speed photo bursts without any stuttering, along with 8K or 4K 120p video. @Kona MikeWell then it would also look bad for Type B, since SD-Express is backwards compatible with SD and that has been around for even longer. Video shooter doesn't need CF-A unless internal RAW which is can't be found on any Sony camera under $50k; even V60 would work for 8K on A1. The SD cards just cannot keep up with raw files at 30fps for more than a few seconds. Unfortunately, Sony itself is the only manufacturer using that slot and actually selling memory cards, so it's charging through the nose. CFexpress Type A is still a relatively new recording medium and there are very few cards available on the market, mainly due to the fact that not many cameras currently support or use them. Though it would not benefit a camera use case, since the SSD can have writes cached to the SSDs RAM while it is transitioning to a higher power state. Anyway Id like to see your reliability data on SD compared to other formats, especially if you consider the tough-type fully molded parts available from a few manufacturers they are virtually indestructible mechanically. (The other is a 256GB v90 card. Thats performance and reliability combined with the compactness bolds well for the continued use of Type A. Im an A1 user and I do use cfa for one reason; I shoot stills and video clips on the same jobs and often have to quickly grab a video clip after snapping stills. And then you lose ALL your data, even though the card never failed. Comments on this article may be moderated before they are made public. It is not until recently that Sony CF Express Type A is available most of the time in store. CFexpress Type A FX3 I 80GB(ILCE-1 TOUGH CEA-G80T FX6 TV | servicestoschools.royalgreenwich.gov.uk. For consumer targetted part of market it would tottaly make sense, but manufacturers like to sandbag the lower models so they are writing memory slowly on purpose. Its reinforced physical design can withstand falls from up to 15', and its rigidity has been tested against 70 N of force. Then expect increased capacity, more speed, and price drop. And you illustrate perfectly why CFE-A is not taking off in the market and hence why costs are not being driven down. Their CFExpress Type B cards are the best out there. Sony, a longtime supporter of its own memory cards (who remembers Memory Stick? Well they instantly lose 2 credibility points for calling themselves ProGrade. CFExpress Type B is vastly faster. You just need to use an adequate low-power NVME SSD with an adapter. ProGrade Digital launches CFexpress Type A Memory Card | ProGrade Digital Future US, Inc. Full 7th Floor, 130 West 42nd Street, Sonys Tough CFexpress series is the top choice for travel use. Proprietary storage isn't anything new nor unique, RED, Arri all do it but for consumer markets, I believe the more universal format would win if it matches the proprietary medium in performance. Matthew Allard is a multi-award-winning, ACS accredited freelance Director of Photography with over 30 years' of experience working in more than 50 countries around the world. You can. Sure the state of the CFE-A is what it is right now, but the reality is that the for users of those few Sony cameras, the choice is between CFE-A and SD, and so far SD is winning by a landslide. The 160GB CFexpress Type A Cobalt Memory Card from ProGrade Digital provides read speeds of up to 800 MB/s, and write speeds of up to 700 MB/s. If you push 30 fps 50Mpxl RAW then CF Express Type is useful :-). Cool but if you're shooting raw on a Sony a1 you really need 512GB - 1TB Type A and they literally don't exist. Type A will catch up with Type B, Type B is just almost a decade old at this point. The cost differential between SD and CFE-A is too big to ignore, and one can get higher capacity SD cards easily. Hopefully this means there will be Type A cards available regularly. So it does make sense to have some native flash/SSD memory because it will be optimized for the camera's use and guaranteed to be fast enough for every working mode, even for RAW video capture. CFexpress raises that to 4GB/s for the fastest, Type C variant, in line with the speed of the main storage drive of a high-end laptop. It's a really weird corporate blind spot. It depends on the feature set. But I guarantee the former was the biggest driving factor - now they can use them in all of their future bodies, and inevitably some people will buy them even if the camera can't even benefit from the difference between CFE-A and SD V90 cards. When a new camera comes along and offers fast-than-ever burst modes or higher-resolution video at greater frame rates, the processor or sensors raw capabilities usually get the credit. More 3rd party options may drive other camera manufacturers to opt for CFE-A with SD combo. @Tony Northrup "if you're shooting raw on a Sony a1 you really need 512GB - 1TB Type A". Or perhaps I've casually noticed them but because my immediate association with the brand name was to think it sounded like one of the cheap no-name products that like to give themselves a grandiose name, I instinctively filtered it out. Most do not need CFE-A. ; ). Designed for emerging mainstream imaging applications, the 160GB CFexpress Type A Cobalt Memory Card (2-Pack) from ProGrade Digital provides read speeds of up to 800 MB/s, which helps to quickly offload content to your computer, and write speeds of up to 700 MB/s. The m.2 can be harder to replace and need much less complications. It has the necessary speed, Flash memory is dense enough that it doesn't require a larger format, the cards are physically smaller so you can have dual slots in a small body, and the slots can be made compatible with SD cards. Agree. Nikon Z fc Hands-on Review: Is Nikons stylish new camera more than a pretty face? The way BMPCC cameras record to external SSD's over USB-C is a good start tho to incorporating consumer drives as storage options. IMHO, I will take removable storage cards over internal storage any day. Seriously, who exactly would "need" to do that??! Type A cards are the smallest at 28mm x 20mm x 2.8mm, which is slightly smaller and slightly thicker than a standard SD card. However, the cards are expensive (and don't work across all CFexpress devices, by the way). I really want to shoot action without worrying about hitting the buffer, then having to shoot more selectively when I do hit it. Magnar - Tell me which companies make part of the Compact Flash Association. And, like SD cards, you should also look at their sustained write speeds, rather than just those printed on the card and its packaging. I think the most relevant point is that there are higher capacity, cheaper cards available right now, that can be used in those cameras able to use CFE-A, and that those cards are SD! Looks like Type A will never catch on since Type B is faster, cheaper, more widely adopted, and been around longer. They even confirm to the same standards as desktop NVMe SSDs for both communication and power states. An m.2 drive needs no frequent replacement. However, at around 165 for the 128GB card (integral cards are much easier to find in the UK and Europe than the US), theyre pretty attractive. Not only the A7s3 and A1 has the dual card slots, but there is a rumour that A7iv will have CF express A / SD dual card slots as well. The only difference is that CFExpress is only PCIe 3.0, and 1/2/4 lanes for A/B/C, while there's (up to) 4 lanes of PCIe 3.0 and 4.0 (which is 2x faster than 3.0) for M.2. You cant buy them yet, and you have to wonder which cameras, or other devices, might take the size hit in terms of design as a trade-off in order to benefit from its 4GB/s maximum speed. I am not aware of any cameras that are currently on the market that use CFexpress Type A cards that can internally record ProRes. So, they will be a valuable tool for my work. What if someone wants/needs more on a single card? So it seems Sandisk (Western Digital) have found a way to sell different grades of products, consumer, enthusiasts, pro, etc. $ 79.99 USD or 4 interest-free payments of $20.00 with Quantity Add to Cart Free USA Shipping Free International Shipping Orders $375+ Hassle Free Returns Specs Overview Reviews FAQ Model CFEXPRESS TYPE A & SD Dual-Slot (PG09) Transfer Speed Up to 10Gb/s (1.25GB/s) Interface Support USB 3.2, Gen. 2 interface Cards Supported I am sure more people will post the same "proprietary card" nonsense. SanDisks highly regarded Extreme Pro series are a solid mid-price option, and will be the first choice for many. I mentioned the A1 because some people seem to think because the A1 shoots 8K and because the A1 takes CF-A cards that CF-A cards are required for 8K. SONY Cfexpress type A 80GB // moorlandsafaris.com Up to this point they pretty much make the best in the business. @Alam12 "why use 2 if 1 never fail? However, the image buffer, the storage wafer in your memory card, and the storage controller all need to be up to the job too, and the CFexpress format handles the last two of these. Its a better solution than forcing users into using mismatched cards. Someone should think hard. And having slots that allow people to keep using SD cards for a while. The key isn't how many Sony cameras have that CFE-A/SD slot, but how many users actually use the CFE-A cards. Again, I respect that and am not trying to change your mind. For long term use which cameras are likely to be, its not a good idea to have inbuilt memory, storage fail and have read/write limits so redundancy in terms of replacement would be a better idea. Otherwise, they'd be pretty cool. Because we need six of these $330 cards to have 960GB (for $1980 in total). Lucifer its ironic you wrote Sony likes to have their own proprietary formats on an article about another companys memory card release. Order within 3 hrs 40 mins Select delivery location In Stock Qty: 1 Add to Cart Buy Now Payment Secure transaction Ships from Amazon Sold by Electronics Basket Returns Eligible for Return, Refund or Replacement within 30 days of receipt Support Free Amazon tech support included Payment Seriously Gannon? The thing is z6 only uses xqd or cfx. MikeRan - those XQD slots in the initial Z have been made 100% compatible with CFexpress. All but the shortest m.2 devices are too long and generate heat which isn't problem in ventilated PC case or with external heatsink. Both Nikon and Canon claim they cannot put in two fast slots of Type B for size reasons [and Canon doesn't put in two fast slots in the R3 for stubborn reasons]Sony managed to go for two fast slots which is VASTLY better than one fast slot. The Sony Alpha A7S III (above) is the first camera to support CFexpress Type A, and this the most interesting format of the moment. Heres everything you need to know. Why can't we have some reasonably priced 512GB or 1TB CFX? CF Express type A is absolutely a superior format for digital cameras. 50mp spray and pray photography awesomeness. If you own either of those cameras, though, you know that CFexpress Type A is much preferred as it supports all of those cameras' video formats and works better for high-speed bursts. Theres still a question mark over Type C cards in general, before we even think about the next CFexpress standard. Not perfect, but better than just one port. ), sells CFexpress Type A Tough memory cards in 80GB and 160GB capacities for $200 and $400, respectively. The Sony and new ProGrade cards each offer maximum read speeds of 800MB/s and top out at 700MB/s write speeds. ProGrade Digital61Amazon.co.jp62964Amazon Nextorage is Sony subsidiary. The answer is that we need to build a SSD into these cameras instead of paying outrageous amounts for flash memory. I am not sure why Sony made SSDs are important. available to pre-order on ProGrades website, https://progradedigital.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/ProGrade_DS_CFexpress_Final_E.pdf, ProGrade's new 320GB, 640GB CFast 2.0 cards are its fastest yet, but still fall short to CFexpress, Pergears new 1TB, 2TB CFexpress Type B cards offer 1400MB/s write speeds at reasonable prices, Nikon announces $730 660GB CFexpress Type B memory card, Micron ships its 232-layer 3D NAND flash with more storage, better performance and a smaller package size, Leica Summicron-SL 35mm F2 ASPH sample gallery, The best cameras for family and friends photos in 2022, Best affordable cameras for sports and action in 2022. Otherwise the actual memory chip will the same, no matter if it's in USB-C, m.2, or CFExpress form factor, that's not the issue here. 1 ProGrade Digital CFexpress Type B 1700 Cobalt Check Price 2 Integral UltimaPro X2 CFexpress Memory Card Type B 2.0 Check Price 3 Delkin Devices 256GB CFexpress Check Price 4 SanDisk 128GB Extreme Pro CFexpress Card Check Price 5 Acer CFexpress 512GB Check Price 6 ProGrade Digital CFexpress Type B 1700 Gold