Lexar taken over by Chinese firm Longsys

[privatebydesign]

........CFast cards are much more expensive.

I got two for 'free'.

 

[RGF]

........CFast cards are much more expensive.

I got two for 'free'.

Do you mean you bought 2 1Dx Mark II when they were first released. Perhaps you should think you got the cameras for free and you paid a lot for the cards? :

 

[privatebydesign]

........CFast cards are much more expensive.

I got two for 'free'.

Do you mean you bought 2 1Dx Mark II when they were first released. Perhaps you should think you got the cameras for free and you paid a lot for the cards? :

Kind of. I got two but not on first release, I just shopped around and the best deal I found was still offering the 'Premium Kit' though no cute fold out box.

And yes you could reason it the other way too. But I suppose my point was that 'new' formats often come with sweeteners, Nikon did the same thing when they released their first cameras with XQD, they came with a free card. Canon gave you a free card and reader with their first stills centric DSLR with CFast.

Now what am I going to do with two unused CFast 2.0 readers?

 

[Talys]

Another benefit of SD that is hard to overstate -- having readers built in to a massive number of notebooks is a huge advantage, not to mention that they're on many monitors, PCs, televisions, and so on.

It's just very convenient -- and again, if I can't benefit from 100MB/s, I'll lose this convenience, because I don't think builtin XQD or CFast readers are coming to devices any time soon. In part, this could be because these are really, really fast, and would encourage people to NOT buy very expensive, higher end SSD storage on their $1500+ notebook (often one of the best moneymakers for notebook manufacturers), instead opting to store stuff in a super fast card and buying a base model.

 

[pvalpha]

Personally I think CFast (or something based on PCIExpress) will be the winner for high end video and SD will be the format for everything else because of ubiquity. PCIe over USB-Type-C will be the winner for CFast 2+ and SD UHSIII will be the standard for everything under 4k@60 with compression. Just because everything from 4k TV's to laptops and tablets will have readers built in.

Eventually SD will have an X2 or X4 PCIe interface in micro and full-sized formats. (X1 PCIe is basically the equivilant USB spec of the same number. So a PCIe 3.0 X1 connection is exactly one USB 3.0 connection.)

Sadly, I think canon will still lag at least half-a-decade behind on their standards implementations. By not responding to the D500 they basically proved that they don't give a rat's fart for preserving anything other than their flagships (5D and 1D). And MILC will never be anywhere near an XD series camera in their mind's eye - to them its consumer claptrap or something a pro considers a disposable camera to be used in a pinch. They're crazy protective of their product lines to prevent cannibalism of any kind and using older tech is a way of saying "If you want to do better, buy a higher end model and pay the price".

 

[magarity]

Manufacturing is moving east for decades, and there's sense in doing everything (from NANDs to slapping the sticker on) in one place.

When you outsource manufacturing to China, you get exactly the quality you specify in the contract if you don't pay until it passes your own QC. Specify and pay for high quality, get high quality. When everything is local, however, buyer had best beware because it can be hit or miss until the company's reputation becomes known.

 

[RGF]

And Canon will move to XQD. It's only a matter of time before CFast and XQD have completely taken over.

Canon will move, one day, to CFExpress. Smaller CFExpress card will have the XQD form factor (other form factors will be availabe, depending on the number of PCIe lanes), but they use a standard PCIe 3.0 (instead of XQD 2.0) and NVMe interfaces, making them compatible with a large number of devices without relying on proprietary standards.

Don't expect SD cards to be used on high-end devices, especially those needing high-speed and low latency.

I am not an engineer but personally I hate (perhaps too strong a word) SD cards. Very small, high risk of losing one.

I would rather see faster/larger/cheaper CF, CFast cards. Dual slots in the camera so there can be an internal redundancy.

 

[AvTvM]

I am not an engineer but personally I hate (perhaps too strong a word) SD cards. Very small, high risk of losing one.
I would rather see faster/larger/cheaper CF, CFast cards. Dual slots in the camera so there can be an internal redundancy.

Funny, i like 'em as small as possible and have pretty much standardized on MicroSD ... putting them into SD adapters in cameras with SD slot. Never lost one. Never had any failure. [I also never had a bent pin or failure with my CF cards.]

And ... dual MicroSD card slots would easily fit into even the smallest cameras ...

 

[Loswr]

And ... dual MicroSD card slots would easily fit into even the smallest cameras ...

Or into a camera with one CF slot...

There are also dual-microSD-to-MemoryStick adapters, not sure about dual-microSD-to-SD.

 

[LDS]

Manufacturing is moving east for decades, and there's sense in doing everything (from NANDs to slapping the sticker on) in one place.

When you outsource manufacturing to China, you get exactly the quality you specify in the contract if you don't pay until it passes your own QC. Specify and pay for high quality, get high quality. When everything is local, however, buyer had best beware because it can be hit or miss until the company's reputation becomes known.

Yet not all plants are in China yet And there are several good reason to avoid a single supplier in a foreign country.

This list in Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_semiconductor_fabrication_plants), which may not be up to dare or exhaustive, says Micron had no plants in mainland China (don't know if some production may have been outsourced).

Look also who Japan is trying to avoid Toshiba and his Japanese foundries and technologies end in Chinese hands...

Let's see if Lexar will still be an high-end brand, of will just become a way to sell to customers unaware of the changes.

 

[RGF]

I am not an engineer but personally I hate (perhaps too strong a word) SD cards. Very small, high risk of losing one.
I would rather see faster/larger/cheaper CF, CFast cards. Dual slots in the camera so there can be an internal redundancy.

Funny, i like 'em as small as possible and have pretty much standardized on MicroSD ... putting them into SD adapters in cameras with SD slot. Never lost one. Never had any failure. [I also never had a bent pin or failure with my CF cards.]

And ... dual MicroSD card slots would easily fit into even the smallest cameras ...

In the winter, even with liner gloves, I find SD cards hard to handle. Rather not go bare handed with it subzero F or -20 C

 

[AvTvM]

In the winter, even with liner gloves, I find SD cards hard to handle. Rather not go bare handed with it subzero F or -20 C

on theory yes. in practice i cannot recall ever having to swap cards in the field. at least not since i am using microSD cards from 32 GB upwards. at least if one does not capture video.

even 128 GB microsd cards are quite affordable now. i'd love to get a camera with dual micro sd slots recording in parallel - both slots running at full uhs II (or soon uhs iii) speed, without slowing down camera (as in any current dual slot canon camera whete only 1 söot is fast and the other one is dead slow and 2 generations behind current standards).

 

[9VIII]

In the winter, even with liner gloves, I find SD cards hard to handle. Rather not go bare handed with it subzero F or -20 C

on theory yes. in practice i cannot recall ever having to swap cards in the field. at least not since i am using microSD cards from 32 GB upwards. at least if one does not capture video.

even 128 GB microsd cards are quite affordable now. i'd love to get a camera with dual micro sd slots recording in parallel - both slots running at full uhs II (or soon uhs iii) speed, without slowing down camera (as in any current dual slot canon camera whete only 1 söot is fast and the other one is dead slow and 2 generations behind current standards).

I hadn't though about using Micro SD before. It's an excellent point, there's no way they could realistically say there isn't enough room for cameras to have both SD and Micro SD.

Manufacturers need to get over themselves and put "some" sort of dual card capabilities in their cameras. All EOS bodies should have it without exception.
To make things simpler for consumers, on Rebel bodies Canon should make the Micro SD slot act as a "Memory Buffer" that would store images up to certain number and then overwrite old images like a security camera would.
Just include an 8GB card in the camera by defaut (it would add less than $2 to the overall cost) and then consumers wouldn't have the option of forgetting to backup their images.

 

[RGF]

In the winter, even with liner gloves, I find SD cards hard to handle. Rather not go bare handed with it subzero F or -20 C

on theory yes. in practice i cannot recall ever having to swap cards in the field. at least not since i am using microSD cards from 32 GB upwards. at least if one does not capture video.

even 128 GB microsd cards are quite affordable now. i'd love to get a camera with dual micro sd slots recording in parallel - both slots running at full uhs II (or soon uhs iii) speed, without slowing down camera (as in any current dual slot canon camera whete only 1 söot is fast and the other one is dead slow and 2 generations behind current standards).

I don't erase cards till I get home. THey are my final backup. So it is not uncommon for me to fill a card in the field. For example, if I have 32 GB card that is 60% full, I can easily fill it if I have a great day in the field.

 

[AvTvM]

In the winter, even with liner gloves, I find SD cards hard to handle. Rather not go bare handed with it subzero F or -20 C

on theory yes. in practice i cannot recall ever having to swap cards in the field. at least not since i am using microSD cards from 32 GB upwards. at least if one does not capture video.

even 128 GB microsd cards are quite affordable now. i'd love to get a camera with dual micro sd slots recording in parallel - both slots running at full uhs II (or soon uhs iii) speed, without slowing down camera (as in any current dual slot canon camera whete only 1 söot is fast and the other one is dead slow and 2 generations behind current standards).

I don't erase cards till I get home. THey are my final backup. So it is not uncommon for me to fill a card in the field. For example, if I have 32 GB card that is 60% full, I can easily fill it if I have a great day in the field.

i use a fresh/empty card every day. swap of cards never in the field/during action. 64gb MicroSD cards are quite cheap by now and get me through any day of shooting, including a full wedding ... raw of course. ;-)