SanDisk CF Express Cards are Arriving

Links:

• Adorama: https://www.adorama.com/l/?searchinfo=cf+express
  
• B&H: SACF*GB | B&H Photo Video - Grid View
  

The 64G version seems to be very expensive at $150, but the 128G at $200 seems to be in line with XQD cost.

In any case, I wouldn't rush out to get these CFx cards, as I am quite sure that prices will come way down when more competition getting into the market. Memory card prices can drop drastically and rapidly. And Nikon cameras don't yet have the firmware upgrade to use CFx anyway.

Nice Prices!

Sadly Amazon UK has the 64s for £174, 128's for £293, 256s for £493 and 512s for £691

Nice Prices!

 

Sadly Amazon UK has the 64s for £174, 128's for £293, 256s for £493 and 512s for £691

Nice for Sandisk , yes, not for ppl who need them..:(

XQD and CF Express. The difference being?

XQD is a Sony trademark and apparently a lot of manufacturers didn't want to pay royalties to Sony so the card format didn't get as widely used as it might have. CFexpress does not apparently come with that issue and a lot of card manufacturers have stated that they will make CFexpress products. XQD supports PCI express 1.0 and 2.0; CFexpress type B is similar to XQD but with PCI express 3.0. The CFexpress standard includes cards of different physical sizes but the one that is XQD compatible is the type B chassis.

Commercially available XQD cards have had read/write speeds up to 440/400 MB/s (early types were slower). The CFexpress cards now becoming available have speeds up to 1700/1400MB/s, but not the cards are as fast as that.

It seems the prices will be comparable with XQD of similar capacity but the small capacity cards (i.e. 32GB or smaller) don't seem to be available for CFexpress. I guess the 64GB is ok for a smallest size.

Nice for Sandisk , yes, not for ppl who need them..:(

My experience is that memory cards are best purchased from somewhere else than Europe (I have bought most of mine from B&H in New York). In no other electronics product have I found the price premium in the EU area to be so great. However, even within the EU area some price-shopping across country lines can save money.

XQD is a Sony trademark and apparently a lot of manufacturers didn't want to pay royalties to Sony so the card format didn't get as widely used as it might have. CFexpress does not apparently come with that issue....

Thanks Ilkka. That probably saved me an hour of trawling through internet drivel trying to get some straight facts.

A few more questions:

Will Sony continue to manufacture their XQD cards? Could they switch to CFexpress themselves entirely?

Are their current XQD cards expected to drop in prices in the following months?

Any information on when Nikon are expected to put out the firmware upgrade?

A few more questions:

Yes

Yes

Ha! Dream on....

No

:)

A few more questions:

 

Will Sony continue to manufacture their XQD cards? Could they switch to CFexpress themselves entirely?

 

Are their current XQD cards expected to drop in prices in the following months?

 

Any information on when Nikon are expected to put out the firmware upgrade?

Currently it is mainly several Nikon bodies, such as D4/D4S, D5, D500, D850, Z6 and Z7 that use XQD cards. (And I am sure the D6 will also.) There are a couple of Sony camcorders that require XQD and some medium-format digital camera plus the Panasonic FX bodies. CFexpress should be important for 4K and future 8K video capture. Now that Nikon has pre-announced the D6, it'll be interesting to see whether Canon's future 1Dx Mark III will stay with CFast (which is a dead end) or switch to CFx.

Not sure Sony's camcorders can be upgraded to use CFx. That may keep Sony to continue to supply XQD cards, but as far as I know there are only a few Sony camcorders in that situation.

It really doesn't matter Sony will drop XQD prices, most people will only purchase CFx in the future. Apparently Sony is charging a lot of royalty for XQD, such that CFx has the potential to become much cheaper, especially when there is plenty of competition. I understand Nikon will issue firmware upgrades to all of the above-mentioned bodies (perhaps except the D4/D4S, which were discontinued several years ago) to use CFx. That is supposed to happen later in 2019.

I wouldn't rush out to buy CFx cards, as I think the prices will drop pretty quickly. I may eventually get one for compatibility testing and replace my oldest XQD cards.

Just saw a new Canon video cam announcement on DPReview: Canon announces C500 Mark II camera with 5.9K Cinema RAW Light recording

The Canon C500 Mark II has two CFexpress memory card slots and one SD slot, no more CFast. Clearly Canon is also migrating from CFast to CFx. I am sure the timing is all coordinated so that CFx cards as well as cameras that use them are now coming to the market.

FWIW, the C500 Canon just announced has a couple of CFexpress slots - admittedly this is a premium video camera and Canon might decide to retain compatibility with the other Eos line, but I suspect that's an indicator they'll be moving to CFx sooner rather than later.

Edit: Crossed over with Shun. :-)

FWIW, the C500 Canon just announced has a couple of CFexpress slots - admittedly this is a premium video camera and Canon might decide to retain compatibility with the other Eos line, but I suspect that's an indicator they'll be moving to CFx sooner rather than later.

 

Edit: Crossed over with Shun. :)

Beat you. :cool:

I went back and checked, since I am not familiar with Canon video cams. It turns out that Mark I of that C500 uses CF and SD cards. However, some newer Canon cams such as the 1Dx Mark II (introduced for the 2016 Rio Olympics) uses CFast + CF and some other Canon video cams use just CFast. Anyway, it looks like Canon is fully embracing CFx now. I think CFx type B will quickly emerges to be the industry standard for higher-end cameras, especially for those that need speed, such as high-resolution video, but I wonder what the smaller CFx type A will be for. That may compete against SD cards due to the smaller size.

I was in a meeting! :-) I suspect Canon were being bloody minded about not wanting to pay Sony royalties for XQD; presumably Nikon were already comfortable paying Sony for their sensors, so it was less of a problem. It would be nice for there not to be a format war going on for once, because everyone loves choosing between HDMI and displayport, Blu-Ray and HD-DVD, CD-RW/+RW/-RAM, USB and firewire/IEEE.1394, VHS and betamax... I'm not going to rule out a last hurrah for CFast just to make everyone miserable, though.

I think SD will be hard to shift, with micro-SD so prevalent and with format compatibility between UHS-II and older versions - I get wanting CFx for the applications where it's the better solution, but I hope there isn't too much of a fight where there's no reason for cross-over and it comes down to corporate interests. I still have a camera that takes SmartMedia cards and a phone that takes memory stick (pro duo). My D810 is CF with a fast UHS-I card, my D850 is XQD with a UHS-II card, and everything else I use regularly is SD - so getting rid of SD entirely would irritate me. I don't really want to have to change more than that; the media purchase was already a detectable premium on the camera upgrade.

Following Canon, Sony has just announced the PXW-FX9 video cam that costs about US$11K:

Sony PXW-FX9 XDCAM 6K Full-Frame Camera System (Body Only)

Similar to the Canon, the new Sony also has dual XQD slots and one SD slot. That is why Sony cannot "hurt" Nikon by not supplying XQD cards or make them very expensive.

I am sure those XQD slots will also be CFx compatible. It'll be interesting to see when Canon and Sony start using XQD/CFx type B in their still cameas.

i did not see this question before, so here it is :

If Nikon XQD camera's get a upgrade to accept and work with CFx cards, will they also remain compatible with XQD cards that peolple allready have invested in?

i did not see this question before, so here it is :

 

If Nikon XQD camera's get a upgrade to accept and work with CFx cards, will they also remain compatible with XQD cards that peolple allready have invested in?

Yes, they will.

Yes, they will.

...or at least, it'll be a PR nightmare if they don't.

i did not see this question before, so here it is :

 

If Nikon XQD camera's get a upgrade to accept and work with CFx cards, will they also remain compatible with XQD cards that peolple allready have invested in?

Why wouldn’t they still be compatible with XQD? Those cameras were all introduced as XQD compatible? Their owners have hundreds of dollars of XQD cards, if not more.

If Nikon changes the specs all of a sudden and people need to buy all new cards, there is hardly any better way for Nikon to shoot themselves in the foot.

What is not good is that those who have invested into CFast memory cards. CFast tends to be even more expensive than XQD. Of course current cameras won’t change, but future cameras won’t use them any more.

I just gave away my 32 and 64G CF cards to a relative who bought a new gray-market Canon 5DS for like $1500 last month (vs $3500 for Canon USA new). I told him not to buy more CF since that is a dead end. I haven’t used those CF cards since I retired my D800E.

...or at least, it'll be a PR nightmare if they don't.

I don't understand why this is even doubted. Nikon have officially stated that the cameras remain XQD compatible after the CFexpress update is installed:

Development of New Firmware for Nikon's Full-Frame Mirrorless Cameras, The Nikon Z 7 and Nikon Z 6

"After upgrading, users will be able to use both CFexpress as well as XQD cards in their camera interchangeably."

Firmware updates cannot realistically break the specifications of the camera, and these cameras have been sold with XQD compatibility.

The whole point of using the XQD chassis and contacts for CFexpress is compatibility. It would be completely stupid to base the new standard on compatibility with XQD and then implement it in such a way that it doesn't work.

Who made all the profit from CFast?

Several manufacturers make CFast cards, including Sandisk, Lexar, Sony, Delkin, Transcend, Angelbird, ProGrade Digital, Wise, and Hoodman.