Choosing an SDXC or CFExpress Type B Camera Cards: Reader Question for Fujifilm GFX100S
Related: all videos, backup, camera cards, CFExpress camera storage card, encryption, focus stacking, Fujifilm, Fujifilm GFX100S, Fujifilm medium format, Fujifilm mirrorless, Luis C, medium format, Other World Computing, OWC Atlas camera storage cards, reader comment, SDXC camera storage card, security, 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
re: Choosing an SDXC or CFExpress Type B Camera Cards: What Speed do you Need?
Reader Luis C writes:
I have always been following your blog with interest. It's very nice to see you on YouTube too.
A quick question after watching one of your videos and this latest article about memory cards on your blog.
For use on the Fujifilm GFX100s (new to me), for RAW Lossless/16 bit+Superfine JPEGs, I rarely shoot in AF-C mode and occasionally shoot a little in DCI 4K/400 Mbps video.
Am I well served with the OWC Atlas Pro 256GB SDXC? Or do I really need the V90s?
DIGLLOYD: the OWC Atlas Pro cards have worked flawlessly in the Fujifilm GFX100S for me for a long time now and are a great choice for the GFX100S.
My typical setup is OWC Atlas Ultra 256GB as primary slot, plus OWC Atlas Pro 1TB in 2nd slot as a simultaneous backup. I do not recall ever seeing more than a few seconds to finish up writing even the largest focus stack captures of 30-40 frames—no delay issue has ever arisen.
Get OWC Atlas Ultra and OWC Atlas Pro at MacSales.com.
Get OWC Atlas Ultra and OWC Atlas Pro at bhphoto.com.
Appropriate sizing for the camera
I would argue that if you are shooting a $6000 camera that snaps ~110 MB lossless compressed raw files (+ ~40MB JPG SuperFine for useful in-camera image review), then a 512GB card for $110 or so makes more sense than 256GB. And... a pair of them, shooting one as primary and one as backup.
Backup considerations
Also, when I travel, I never erase cards, so I use an OWC Atlas Pro 1TB SDXC in the GFX100S. See my video on that reasoning.
* 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.
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OWC Blog: Why and How You Should Be Using Both of Your Camera's Memory Card Slots
Camera shooting rate vs SDXC card speed
OWC Atlas Pro specifies a minimum write speed of 60MB/sec. In practice, that is almost never going to happen, a sporadic and brief dip aside.
The GFX100S can shoot at 2.9 fps raw. Adding in a JPG Superfine to lossless compressed raw, that’s about 110 + 40 = 150MB per shot ±= 20MB or so depending on subject matter.
Assuming continuous capture of 23 frames (camera buffer max), that’s about 3450 MB of files. In theory, if a V60 card performed at its minimum write speed of 60MB/sec, it could take 58 seconds to write it all out. In practice, I have never seen anything anywhere like that. Basically, the 30 or 40 frame focus stack is all written within a second or two of the captures being done.
Such a slowdown is highly unlikely: with OWC Innergize the OWC cards can be restored to factory-fresh performance, an awesome feature that no other vendor offers to my knowledge as I write this.
Finally, my testing in which I brutalized the OWC Atlas Pro shows a sustained speed of 268MB/sec across the full 256GB capacity!
No real-world usage will ever push a card that hard* in actual use for still photography. Well, OK, a 300 frame focus stack might, but that GFX100S would self-limit to a much slower rate once 23 frames are shot (full internal buffer). If you do that sort of thing, you had better use a CFExpress Type B card in a Fujifilm GFX100 II.
Note: no SD card can ever be fast for encryption for technical reasons. So ignore that write speed for encrypted. See also Incredibly Fast OWC Atlas CFExpress Type B Cards in OWC Atlas FXR Card Reader, Encrypted or Not.
