OTHER: Cfexpress type-A cards for ~$.25/GB

ahalpert

ahalpert

Major Contributor

ProGrade will be offering a 2-pack of their new 960GB Gold-series card for $540. Looks like this will be the regular price, not a special.

I have some of their cards in smaller capacities and have found them reliable. But at this cost and capacity you can affordably dual-record to both cards simultaneously as an extra precaution. The days of getting totally reamed by Sony for cfexpress type-a cards are over.
 
Yup, there seems to be a flood of cheaper CFExpress Type A hitting the market (which is great). I've got a couple of the original AngleBird 1TB cards (now discontinued), and they have never missed a beat in the FX6 and A7Siii. As I'm in no rush, I will probably pick up a couple of 512GB Cards (due to the stupid clip limit on the FX6) but will probably get the newer VPG400 / CFE4 cards when it settles down in price (simply for the higher off load speeds).
 
I still can't believe I bought a 120GB CFast card for the big URSA in 2014 (September 29th) for $1,199 plus NY tax to fit a few minutes of footage on it.
 
jmone said:
but will probably get the newer VPG400 / CFE4 cards when it settles down in price (simply for the higher off load speeds).
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Yes, I probably should have mentioned. These cards are "only" VPG200. The newer, faster cards that are now available are part of the reason these are so cheap. But these are fast enough for all my current available codecs. They claim a sustained 600MB/s write speed. So, the sustained read speed should be at least that which means it would take up to 26 minutes to offload a full card. Personally, I rarely shoot more than 1TB in a day and usually it's more like 250-500GB.
 
Your right. All the current CFExpress Type A "speeds" are fast enough for any combo of settings on the camera, and by some multiple. I think the Max on the FX6/A7Siii is like 500Mb/s and VPG200 is 1,600Mb/s.

That said, I'm dubious of claims on "sustained 600MB/s" yet they only got a VPG200 certification? If it really was 600MB/s they would have got VPG400.
 
jmone said:
Your right. All the current CFExpress Type A "speeds" are fast enough for any combo of settings on the camera, and by some multiple.
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That is absolutely true. I use V60 SD cards (not even V90 cards) for everything the FX6 and Z200 can put out. Even 4K XAVC-I @ 120 fps. No problems whatsoever. I have a couple of TypeA cards for my A1 because it won't even let you attempt 4K @ 120 fps unless a Type A card is loaded, but I don't use them with the video cameras. Overkill.
 
jmone said:
That said, I'm dubious of claims on "sustained 600MB/s" yet they only got a VPG200 certification? If it really was 600MB/s they would have got VPG400.
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I would assume that the average rate is 600MB/s but that there's a chance it could momentarily drop below 400MB/s. Dunno.

I can't find a real world test of the speed of the ProGrade cards but here's a Newsshooter tested review of a Pergear card (no VPG rating) and the read/write speeds are coming out to 500-600MB/s. I'm guessing the tech is similar. https://www.newsshooter.com/2023/06/28/pergear-260gb-cfe-a-cfexpress-type-a-card-review/
 
Yup... I saw a deal on B&H not to long ago for a 2 pack of Lexar 128GB cards. I needed them for my Fx6 as a "just in case" for a bigger job I was shooting. However when i got them I noticed they were V60's not 90's...****. I was leaving the next day for the gig so i was stuck with them. I did a quick online search...hmmm, maybe i'm not SOL. I shot some tests that evening 4K XAVC-I as well as some 120fps and had no issues. I now rotate them into the media pile and don't really give it a second thought.
 
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