Canon EOS-1D X Mark II To Feature CFast & CF Slots [CR3]

[Canon Rumors Guy]

We’re told that the upcoming Canon EOS-1D X Mark II will feature one CFast slot and one CompactFlash slot. We had been told Canon was going back and forth on whether they would offer dual CFast slots or not. This will be a nice tradeoff for photographers, and they can upgrade to CFast on their own time, instead of having to go out and buy a bunch of new cards when the camera launches.</p>
<p>I’m hoping there is a good safety device that prevents CFast cards from being jammed into the CF card slot, or we may have a rash of bent pins in people’s cameras. I’m sure Canon developers have already thought of this though.</p>
<p>I probably would have preferred dual CFast slots, but I may be in the minority.</p>
<p><em>More to come…</em></p>
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[rfdesigner]

looking at current prices for CFast this seems reasonable.

However I would hope that given Canon has been deliberating, that the card reader PCB should be seperate and upgradable. That way if CFast becomes dirt cheap 1DXII owners could ask canon to upgrade their cameras to 2xCFast... for a small fee of course.

 

[john1970]

I would have preferred dual CFast slots personally. Nikon finally bit the bullet and did dual XQD cards on the D5; I would have expected Canon to do the same with 1D MKII with dual CFast slots. Even with only 1 CFast slot I will be upgrading to CFast because I am sure that one will be able to shoot a longer burst using the CFast slot instead of the CF slot.

 

[jebrady03]

I'm not sure that several hundred more dollars for same-style memory cards should have factored into the design decision for a $6000 camera. "Drop in the bucket" comes to mind.

 

[et31]

I really like how Nikon gave two options for professionals on the new D5:
Option A: Dual XQD cards or
Option B: Dual CF cards

Your choice, same price!
Canon should have done the same with their CFast cards and traditional CF cards.

The one CFast slot and CF combination should have been the new configuration on the 5D Mark IV.
No more slow SD card slot!

 

[bgoyette]

This one doesn't really make much sense to me. I'd expect canon to put the new xf-avc codecs on this camera, and standard cf cards won't cut the mustard. So then we're looking at proxy mode or two sets of codecs in camera.. Seems like an odd approach , or an ominous sign that this won't be a 1dc-like replacement. Cfast is such a joy, offloads are lightning fast and would allow for much greater continuous raw shooting. You're not in the minority.

 

[Chaitanya]

Dual CFast would be welcome, they are a lot faster than CF and XQD.

 

[YuengLinger]

CFast is still ''new,'' so we are in a transition period. Canon is making a reasonable compromise. Especially if new body is ''only'' 22MP.

I am sorry, though, that there is a split between CFast and XQD, the latter seemingly faster and perhaps more universal in the long term.

 

[JMZawodny]

I too would have preferred dual CFast, but will be quite happy with this arrangement. I already have a modest investment in very large and fast CF cards and readers. We'll have to see just which features, if any, other than 4k Vid will require the use of CFast. I'd like to add CFast cards and readers at my own pace and not at the time of purchase of the the 1Dx2.

 

[whothafunk]

No more slow SD card slot!

it's not as fast as QCD or CFast, but in what world is 280MB/s slow?

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/buy/sandisk/Ntt/Sandisk+extreme+pro+UHS-II+memory+card+GB/N/0

 

[Canon Rumors Guy]

No more slow SD card slot!

it's not as fast as QCD or CFast, but in what world is 280MB/s slow?

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/buy/sandisk/Ntt/Sandisk+extreme+pro+UHS-II+memory+card+GB/N/0

The SD card slot in the 5D Mark III is not high speed (UHS), so the maximum transfer speed is 133x (around 20 MB/s I think).

 

[koenkooi]

No more slow SD card slot!

it's not as fast as QCD or CFast, but in what world is 280MB/s slow?

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/buy/sandisk/Ntt/Sandisk+extreme+pro+UHS-II+memory+card+GB/N/0

Current EOS cameras (including the M series) top out at 40MiB/s or slower for older models. The Lexar 2000x card I use is mainly for making the import into lightroom very, very fast.

See http://www.magiclantern.fm/forum/index.php?PHPSESSID=dbunbm757n4ijdet0s6fkrd8b4&topic=6215.0 for more information.

 

[Chaitanya]

No more slow SD card slot!

it's not as fast as QCD or CFast, but in what world is 280MB/s slow?

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/buy/sandisk/Ntt/Sandisk+extreme+pro+UHS-II+memory+card+GB/N/0

there are very few cameras which support that UHS-II standard to fullest. Even most cameras which are marked as Uhs-I dont support full Uhs-I speed. Also 280Mb/s is read speed not write speeds, writes are lot slower than that.

 

[Gcon]

Dual CFast would be welcome, they are a lot faster than CF and XQD.

CFast is faster than CF, but you're incorrect when it comes to XQD.

CFast is based on the legacy SATA 3.0 protocol. It is nominally 6Gbps but wastes 20% of it's bandwidth with the inefficient 8b/10b encoding scheme. Thus, the maximum transfer rate is only 4.8 Gbit/s (600 MB/s).

XQD on the other hand is based on the newer PCI Express (PCIe) standard. PCIe 3.0 employs the very efficient 128b/130b encoding scheme (approx 1.54% overhead). A single PCIe 3.0 "lane" can transfer at 985 MB/s. That's already over 60% faster than SATA. Use 2x or 4x PCIe lanes, and you're leaving SATA in the dust (and before you ask - no - SATA cannot be bonded into multiple lanes like PCIe can).

Not only that but SATA employs the legacy AHCI (Advanced Host Controller Interface), which has a command set aimed at mechanical drives and not flash memory. A newer interface for flash media called "Non Volatile Memory Express" aka "NVMe" has been created which is fully optimized for flash with lower latencies with more command queues and greater command depths. PCIe supports it natively but SATA doesn't, and is unlikely to ever support it.

In the PC word, PCI Express (PCIe) is supplanting SATA slowly but surely. SATA 3.2 brings in "SATA Express" which kludges together two older SATA3.0 with 2x PCIe lanes. The PC world has largely ignored SATAe, in favour of smaller and more efficient PCIe-only buses that employ 4x PCIe lanes like the M.2 and U.2 formats. M.2 screws onto the motherboard, and U.2 is a plug for a stand-alone drive.

Over time you'll see CPUs with more PCIe lanes and less SATA ports, until SATA dies out completely, just like Parallel ports before it.

In any case, Canon are stupid for going with CFast. It's wasteful and legacy. Nikon are much smarter and more forward thinking by going with XQD. Canon should have done the same.

Here's some info on SATA and PCIe http://www.tested.com/tech/457440-theoretical-vs-actual-bandwidth-pci-express-and-thunderbolt/ and you can find info on CFast and XQD on Wikipedia:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CompactFlash#CFast
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XQD_card

 

[StudentOfLight]

[CR0] This just in: The sucessor to the 1D-X will be called the "1D-Why?" :'(

 

[neuroanatomist]

Mixed card types would be disappointing. Far better to use a single type, so the same high speed is available for simultaneously writing to both.

So far, I'm not seeing much worth upgrading from my 1D X – 4 extra MP, higher available ISO (not necessarily much higher usable ISO), 1-2 more FPS, and now a step backward for card slots.

1D Y, indeed.

Now if I was using a 5DIII, this would be very tempting – lots of improvements and no MP decrease.

 

[mclaren777]

In any case, Canon are stupid for going with CFast. It's wasteful and legacy. Nikon are much smarter and more forward thinking by going with XQD. Canon should have done the same.

Change "Canon" to "Sandisk" and I agree with your post 100%.

I hate it that both Lexar and Sandisk didn't adopt XQD.

 

[tron]

No more slow SD card slot!

it's not as fast as QCD or CFast, but in what world is 280MB/s slow?

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/buy/sandisk/Ntt/Sandisk+extreme+pro+UHS-II+memory+card+GB/N/0

The SD card slot in the 5D Mark III is not high speed (UHS), so the maximum transfer speed is 133x (around 20 MB/s I think).

So what? The controller can be upgraded. Even now 7D2 has a much faster SD controller than 5D3.

http://www.cameramemoryspeed.com/canon-7d-mark-ii/fastest-sd-cf-card-comparison/

 

[Wizardly]

In any case, Canon are stupid for going with CFast. It's wasteful and legacy. Nikon are much smarter and more forward thinking by going with XQD. Canon should have done the same.

What do you suppose Nikon and Sony would charge Canon for licensing XQD?

Let's also note that theoretical speed and current speed vary by a wide margin. Today the CFast cards and XQD cards have comparable R/W speeds.

Next Olympics cycle we'll see what Canon does with memory. By then maybe the limit of SATA3 capabilities will be reached.

The mixture of CF and CFast makes perfect sense - CF is alive and well for stills and there's a huge number of them out there. Forced-upgrades at great cost would only alienate the user base.

 

[Canon Rumors Guy]

Mixed card types would be disappointing. Far better to use a single type, so the same high speed is available for simultaneously writing to both.

So far, I'm not seeing much worth upgrading from my 1D X – 4 extra MP, higher available ISO (not necessarily much higher usable ISO), 1-2 more FPS, and now a step backward for card slots.

1D Y, indeed.

Now if I was using a 5DIII, this would be very tempting – lots of improvements and no MP decrease.

I don't think there's going to be an issue of simultaneously writing to both CF and CFast for stills in the real world, especially if the camera has a massive buffer, which it likely will.

CFast is going to have its advantages for 4K video, but anyone doing any serious cinematography is likely going to be using an external recorder.

There's going to be a minor inconvenience to having two card types, but I think the inconvenience of making anyone that buys this camera dump all their CompactFlash cards would be greater.

Perhaps Canon will offer a CF to CFast slot "upgrade" like Nikon is going to do for CF to XQD.