CFexpress is here! Well, almost. SanDisk has become the first company to officially launch a line of Extreme PRO CFexpress Cards here at B&H and they are now available for preorder with an expected ship date sometime later this year. These cards are the next generation of media and are rated to hit some incredibly fast speeds. Also, alongside these new cards is a necessary CFexpress Card Reader so you can transfer the data on the card to your computer.
Being essentially a first-gen product, the read and write speeds are exceptional. SanDisk has rated the 128GB, 256GB, and 512GB models at 1700 MB/s read and 1200 MB/s write, while the 64GB model hits 1500 MB/s read and 800 MB/s write. Having this speed in such a compact form factor will unlock new capabilities for current and future camera releases. SanDisk promotes this series as being an ideal pick for raw 4K video recording and this makes perfect sense. Filmmakers should have no worries about whether or not their media can keep up and, if they pick up the CFexpress Card Reader, they should enjoy fast transfers as well.
Want to use this new format and don’t know where to start? First, you should know that this is effectively the next version of XQD. CFexpress has the same form factor as XQD and can be supported through firmware updates with select cameras. Nikon, for example, announced future support for CFexpress is coming via a firmware update and there are a few other manufacturers who are doing the same. So, your second thing to check is your camera. If it takes XQD you are good, now just check and see if the manufacturer is planning on releasing a firmware update to support the new media.
Are you excited to see CFexpress and the major speed boost it gives camera makers? I can’t wait to see what this allows the next generation of cameras to do.
0 Comments