Hasselblad X2D: Works Fine with OWC Atlas 1TB CF Express Type B Card, also 320GB, 512GB
re: Announced: Hasselblad X2D-100C with 100 Megapixel Sensor, IBIS, Phase-Detect AF
The Hasselblad X2D 100C includes built-in 1TB storage, hyper fast, at least internallym (real transfer speed only about ~750MB/sec, far short of its internal speed).
That 1TB is ample for most users, so that they might never need to buy a CFExpress Type B storage card and/or reader. But to download, you do have to connect the camera to the computer and turn it on and put it into mass storage mode, in a modal step-by-step fashion. A process which can be irritating, since the camera isn’t charging and it means the cable has to be found and connected and the camera cannot be used while so doing. Still, it’s a big plus to have 1TB internally.
Adding storage via CFExpress Type B card
Professionals may be keen on having a card that matches the internal SSD capacity, for simultaneous backup, or for X3F raw files on one and JPEG on the other.
Hasselblad states in the user manual for the Hasselblad X2D that CF Express Type B cards “up to 512GB” are supported. Which seems crazy—no possibility of matching internal storage to the card? Yes, this crazy situation is confirmed by Hasselblad.
Except that there appears to be no such limit.
Works great
Wwhen formatting the card, the X2D issues a warning that the card might not operate properly and that data might be lost. This is apparently a protect-its-ass thing more than a real issue, but who knows.
The past several days I have been using the 1TB OWC Atlas Pro CFExpress Type B card for simultaneous backup. The camera writes captures to both the internal SSD and the card. I have not seen a single glitch—flawless operation.
I’ve tested the OWC Atlas Pro 320GB, OWC Atlas Pro 320GB, and OWC Atlas 1TB. All format with the aforementioned warning, and all appear to work flawlessly.
Presumably Hasselblad just does not want to test and support more than a tiny number of cards, which is not very acceptable except as a short-lived anachronism.
Performance
Figures on 2019 iMac 5K.
Download (read) speed is fast but not as fast as the USB-C bus allows (using diglloydTools DiskTesterread-files command), and well below the ~1050MB/sec USB-C bus capabilility.
OWC Atlas 1TB: 732 MiB/sec = 768 MB/sec
H2D internal SSD: 727 MiB/sec = 744 MiB/sec
IntegrityChecker Java can operate directly on the X2D volumes, with its sophisticated concurrent I/O strategy eking out faster speed than just reading the files, even though it is also doing hashing:
OWC Atlas 1TB: 777 MiB/sec = 815 MB/sec
H2D internal SSD: 767 MiB/sec = 804 MiB/sec
Similar performance is seen using Finder copy. There is no advantage in download speed of theX2D internal SSD vs the OWC Atlas 1TB CFExpress/B card.