ProGrade has launched new high-capcity CFexpress cards to their Gold line of memory cards. The new memory cards are available for preorder from B&H Photo.
Overview
Designed for emerging mainstream imaging applications, the 512GB CFexpress 2.0 Type B Gold Memory Card from ProGrade Digital provides read speeds of up to 1700 MB/s, which helps to quickly offload content to your computer, and write speeds of up to 1500 MB/s. Additionally, the Gold's minimum write speed is guaranteed not to drop below 400 MB/s, which allows for the uninterrupted recording of a wide variety of codecs, including raw 4K video, 4K and 6K ProRes 4444, 4K, 6K, and 8K ProRes 422 HQ, and more. This card is resistant to temperature extremes, shock, vibration, and X-rays, and is also backward compatible with select XQD cameras that adopt firmware to enable CFexpress. This card also takes advantage of an NVMe host controller interface and backward compatibility with CFexpress 1.0.
ProGrade Gold General Features
- Fully compliant with CompactFlash Association CFexpress Type B 1.0 and 2.0 specifications
- XQD host interoperable with firmware support from device manufacturer
- Metal enclosure/encasement to endure high temperatures while providing better thermal conductivity
- Built-in thermal throttling to protect your card and its content in the event of overheating
- Designed to provide improved performance for flagship cinema, video, and photography cameras
- Optimized controllers specifically designed for use in professional-grade cameras
- Rigorous full card testing with serialized tracking of key components and manufacturing data for high quality control
- Component-level testing down to individual memory chips for greater reliability
- Refresh Pro enabled to quickly refresh card performance and monitor card health
Preorder the new ProGrade CFexpress Gold
- ProGrade Digital 512GB CFexpress 2.0 Type B Gold Memory Card $179
- ProGrade Digital 1TB CFexpress 2.0 Type B Gold Memory Card $399
- ProGrade Digital 2TB CFexpress 2.0 Type B Gold Memory Card $799
Edit: here are handful of 512GB UHS-II V90 rated cards(which should provide equivalent performance to this 512GB card. SD cards need to come down in price in current scenario they simply dont make sense.
Memory Cards, SD Cards & Micro SD Cards | B&H
-Brian
https://havecamerawilltravel.com/fastest-sd-cards/
Another website with similar testing is
https://www.cameramemoryspeed.com/reviews/sd-cards/
I believe that CFe Type B has such a lead in the market (price/capacity/speed) that SD Express 8.0 can never catch up even if it is slightly bigger.
https://www.the-digital-picture.com/News/News-Post.aspx?News=34990
but they didn't use a V90 USH-ii card so it is a little misleading.
CFexpress Cards - Camnostic
The Best CFexpress Memory Cards in 2024
There may have been some blowback in the media if Canon went dual CFe B cards but I think that users wouldn't have complained that much and would have had an even better experience eg faster buffer clearance and the option of dual raw video recording. It would have meant more heat being generated though.
This also brings into question stupidity of excluding CFexpress slot in 7D series replacement.
ProGrade Digital CFexpress™ 2.0 Type B Memory Card (Gold) 1700
R6 won't need anything faster than fast UHS-ii cards as it doesn't have 8k and 20fps can be managed within the bandwidth of the faster UHS-ii cards.
I think that the faster UHS-ii cards are close to the theoretical limit of 312MB/s half duplex write speed with 10 of them at ~260MB/s. I don't think that we will see a step improvement over time.
The UHS-ii pricing is still high as there is limited demand for the fastest ones. Without those websites with actual tests, the market has no idea about what the cards are actually capable of.
Maybe so, but I believe there are still improvements to be had once hardware changes are on the table for the Mark II.
Better heat pipes/spreaders will help a R5ii to avoid hot spots but that is already now allowed with the high temperature settings. Most people wouldn't have an issue of high temperature surfaces especially on a tripod or in a housing but low temperature burns when handheld would have been a blocking issue in the original design. The availability of raw lite modes and external recorders completes the choices. If the external recorder/high temperature limit/raw lite option was available from the initial release then it would have addressed all the criticisms.
I am expecting the most gains to be had with a new Digic design. I believe that is a key heat generator and the biggest issue for battery life/efficiency in the current generation vs Sony for instance. CFe Type B slot/cards are also clearly a heat generator but I think that most users would prefer dual CFe B slots than mixed media. The argument for the availability of a cheap SD from any store for a high end body doesn't seem to gel for me.