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The NAND storage market has been overcome by AI datacenter demands and unfortunately it is having a serious impact on the price of memory cards and another storage solutions. I have noticed some drives and memory cards have doubled in price over the last couple of months.
There are some analysts that think the supply and demand issue could continue into 2027. We'll have to wait and see how that plays out, but for the moment, things are moving the wrong way when it comes to pricing.
Memory Prices Rising
When it comes to CFexpress Type B cards for Canon shooters, we see a big range of pricing from brands and memory card capacity. A lot of it has to do with inventory that was already purchased before the spike in NAND demand and you can still find memory cards for a “normal” price, even if those prices are still a bit painful, especially for video shooters.
I don't recommend memory cards that aren't from known brands. Avoid paid branding cards from the likes of Kodak and any branded card you don't recognize. At a point, these cards are not created equal.
Recommended Brands
I looked around to see what cards are out there that have similar prices that we say 3-6 months ago. The list isn't exhaustive and you'll find good pricing in many places. Large capacity cards 1TB and up have become extremely expensive, and you may have to work harder to find more affordable options than what I'm seeing at most places.
I know that budgets matter, but if you're a photographer. I'd take a lower capacity card from a known brand over a larger capacity card by a random brand. Videographers will have a bigger decision to make if they don't want to be swapping cards when shooting high resolution and/or high-frame rate footage.
The list below isn't exhaustive and as always, YMMV with certain brands.
Recommended CFexpress Type B Memory Cards
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I am not an economist with an expertise in NAND manufacturing or the demand coming from AI dataceters. The current rise in pricing may subside sooner than analysts are predicting, but if you're in the market, I don't think waiting a few months for things to improve is going to work out.
