Competition for Sony: Pro Grade introduces CFexpress Type A card with 700 MB/s write speed

[10:23 wed,22.September 2021 by Thomas Richter]

The American manufacturer ProGrade Digital has now for the first time introduced an alternative to Sony&s two CFexpress Type A memory cards, which are used for example in the Sony A7s III, A1, FX3 and FX6.

Pro Grade CFexpress Type A card

The ProGrade Digital CFexpress Type A Cobalt card, with a capacity of 160 GB, offers read speeds of up to 800 MB/s

and burst write speeds of up to 700 MB/s

- but for working with high-resolution (and non-compressed or low-compressed) video, the most important feature is of course the minimum sustained write speed, which is 400 MB/s

(VPG 400).

Main features of the ProGrade Digital CFexpress Type A memory card

.
- Fully compliant with CompactFlash Association 2.0 specification
- NVMe host interface with PCIe Gen3 X1 connectivity
- Extended battery life and low standby power consumption with NVMe PS0 - PS4 support
- Metal enclosure for improved durability and heat dissipation
- Thermal throttling protects the card from overheating
- Serialized tracking of each card, enabling identification of key components and manufacturing data for the highest level of quality control
- Rigorous 100% card inspection down to individual memory chips for optimal quality
- X-ray proof, shock resistant
- Temperature ranges: Operating 14 to 158°F/ -10 to 70°C; storage -4 to 185°F/ -20 to 85°C
- Three-year warranty

Pro Grade cards in comparison

The Pro Grade provides CFexpress Type A Cobalt card with a capacity of 160 GB costs around 280 euros. Prograde Digital also offers a matching

CFexpress Type A USB 3.2 Gen 2 reader, which can be used to read the cards at maximum speed (theoretically 1.25 GB/s).

CFexpress vs SD cards

CFexpress 2.0 Type A memory cards are relatively small, as they are uthought for use in compact DSLR and mirrorless cameras, but offer three times the performance of the fastest UHS-II SD cards available on the market, which are also slightly larger.

Hope for a significantly higher maximum transfer speed for SD cards is first brought by the

SD Express card standards, but since its development has been quite slow (the

first cards are not expected to appear until 2022) and support from camera manufacturers is still unclear, the CFexpress 2.0 standard currently seems to have the better cards for the future. Currently, it is only supported by Sony, but Prograde Digital expects more manufacturers to use CFexpress Type A cards in new cameras due to the high speed in the small format.

Sony A7s III uses CFexpress Type A memory cards

An expansion of the range of suitable CFexpress 2.0 Type B cards is thus good news, especially the new model from ProGrade Digital clearly undercuts the price that Sony has kept quite high so far (currently about 350 Euros) and thus also gives hope for further competition and lower prices in the future. However, the still very small memory sizes offer a point of criticism - 160 GB are quickly filled up with some recording formats.

The CFexpress card types

CFexpress cards come in several formats: As compact Type A cards (20x28x2.8 mm, even smaller than SD cards with 32.0×24.0×2.1 mm), which use a PCIe 3.0 lane and achieve a maximum transfer speed of around 1 GB/s

using the NVMe 1.3 host controller interface, as somewhat larger Type B models (38.5x29. 8x3.8 mm) and in the future as even larger Type C models (54x74x4.8 mm) with capacities of up to 4 TB and up to four PCI 3.0 lanes (1,2 or 4 to be exact) - depending on the number of lanes used, the speed also scales, which can then be 1 GB/s

, 2 GB/s

or (in the future) even 4 GB/s.

The most common cards are CFexpress 1.0/2.0 cards in XQD and Type-B form factor (which use two PCIe 3.0 lanes with a maximum (theoretical) speed of 2 GB/s

and capacity of 2 TB (soon also 4 TB) - these are used by the

Canon EOS R5, Panasonic S1, Nikon Z6 and Nikon Z7.

CFexpress card types in comparison

ProGrade Digital is finally giving Sony some competition in the CFexpress Type A market with the introduction of its own lower-priced card, the CFexpress Type A Cobalt. The new series offers read speeds of up to 800 MB/s

and write speeds of up to 700 MB/s.

CFexpress Type A is a memory card format that is smaller than SD and larger than microSD. Using PCIe, Gen 3 interconnect with NVMe 1.3 host controller interface, CFexpress Type A offers three times the performance of the fastest UHS-II cards on the market.

more infos at bei shop.progradedigital.com

deutsche Version dieser Seite: Konkurrenz für Sony: Pro Grade stellt CFexpress Typ A Karte mit 700 MB/s Schreibgeschwindigkeit vor