Choosing an SDXC or CFExpress Type B Camera Cards: What Speed do you Need?
Related: all videos, backup, camera cards, CFExpress camera storage card, Eric B, Other World Computing, OWC Atlas camera storage cards, SDXC camera storage card, SSD, videos by Lloyd
re: How to Create an Encrypted Volume on an SSD or Camera Card
re: OWC Atlas Ultra CFExpress B Camera Card: Awesomely Fast, Perfect Encrypted Wallet Backup
Readers please note that I am a brand ambassador for OWC camera cards. I have used them exclusively for nearly two years now, observing flawless operation for both SDXC and CFExpress Type B in all cameras I’ve used including Fujifilm, Nikon, Sony, Leica.
Reader Eric B writes:
OWC Atlas camera cards — SDXCI have a question about OWC SDXC cards. I saw the 512GB Atlas Pro on sale and thought I’d get a couple for my Sony A7R V, used almost exclusively for landscape shooting. I do NO video.
I always shoot at full resolution, no compression. I looked at the website and it says the Atlas Pro cards are not recommended for the A7R V because, "compatible, but not at highest resolution settings.” This did not make sense to me so I sent an email to OWC and this is the response I got…
[response omitted because it lacks details that I could understand]
DIGLLOYD: first, it’s unwise to shoot without lossless data compression because it’s a huge waste of space both on the camera card and on the computer as well as taking longer to download and longer for the camera to store images.
zero benefit—set the camera to lossless compressed raw instead.
Like *all* other SD V60 cards, the OWC Atlas Pro cards do *not* guarantee high enough minimum sustained write speed sufficient for extreme cases. But I am unsure of how a Sony A7R V could outrun the card speed other than 8K raw video, or sustained high-speed bursts. If you’re doing something like that or shooting a 30 fps on a Sony A1 or similar, by all means get the OWC Atlas Ultra cards. But in those cases on Sony, you should be using a CF Express Type A card in slot #1, which would be 3X to 5X faster than SDXC. So none of that makes sense to me in the context of the Sony A7R V.
Summarizing:
- For still shooters and typical 4K or 8K video (non-RAW), the OWC Atlas Pro cards are an oustanding choice. You get everything you need at a much lower price. There will never be any issues with card speed, not even for 35 frame focus stacks—I speak from experience.
- For extreme frame rates and raw video, OWC Atlas Ultra is the way to go.
- Always choose CFExpress over SDXC if your camera supports it, because CFExpress runs 3X to 10X faster than SDXC (SDXC is limited to 300MB/sec or so)
Unfortunately, as of Nov 2023 OWC does not yet offer a CFExpress Type A card as used in Sony A7R V, but cameras like the Fujifilm GFX100 II and Nikon Z8/Z9 have a type B slot.
Below in the video, it’s not easy perched on a boulder at 11700' with 20 mph gusts while holding an iPhone.
More background
Flash speed/quality
Generally speaking, there are two tiers of flash memory when it comes to camera cards. The flash kind used in OWC Atlas Ultra cards costs 4X or so as much as the other kind, while the OWC Atlas Pro cards use another kind.
Both kinds of flash have outstanding longevity and quality. And with OWC Innergize the OWC cards can be restored to factory-fresh performance, an awesome feature that no other vendor offers, to my knowledge.
Read and write speed
Read speed is essentially identical for OWC Atlas Ultra and OWC Atlas Pro, but what OWC Ultra cards offer is a higher guaranteed write speed—impressively so that the CFExpress Type B card is much faster than all USB-C SSDs. It is this guaranteed write speed that distinguishes the OWC Ultra cards. That write speed may be required for certain very high-end situations, like very high speed bursts of RAW files, 8K raw video, etc.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
$499 SAVE $151 = 23.0% OWC (*) 2.0TB OWC Atlas Pro CFexpress 2.0 Type B Memory Card in All Other Categories
|
|
|
|
$290 SAVE $110 = 27.0% OWC 325GB OWC Atlas Ultra CFexpress 2.0 Type B Memory Card in All Other Categories
|
|
Cards and card readers I use
At present I use the following cards/readers:
- 2 X 650GB OWC Atlas Ultra CFExpress Type B
- 4 X 256GB OWC Atlas Ultra SDXC
- 2 X 1TB OWC Atlas Pro SDXC
- OWC Atlas FXR card reader
- OWC Atlas Dual CFexpress + SD Card Card Reader
Most people do not need this many cards and/or that much capacity, though some video shooters might need a lot more. But I use up to 4 cameras at a time in my field work (comparisons, etc), so my needs are unusual for still photography.
In-camera backups
Dual-slot cameras afford an option to simultaneously write to two cards. I configure/configured my cameras like this, or similar:
- In Sony A7R V, 256GB card as primary and a 1TB backup card.
- In Nikon Z8, 650GB primary and a 1TB backup card.
- In Fujifilm GFX100S, 256GB primary, 1TB backup card.
- In Hasselblad X2D, internal SSD primary, 1TB backup card.
The idea is that the 1TB cards serve as a built-in backup (simultaneous write), which I never erase during a trip, not until I am at home with full backups of everything.
Recommended camera cards and dedicated readers: and
