Arghh. I have about 500GB of CF cards. I wonder if there will be a gradual phase-in with one CF slot and one XQD (awful acronym) slot in the pro bodies.
EB-1 wrote:
Arghh. I have about 500GB of CF cards. I wonder if there will be a gradual phase-in with one CF slot and one XQD (awful acronym) slot in the pro bodies.
EBH
Someone enlighten me please (apparently I live under a rock)...what the heck is XQD
looks perfect to me, sd size with cf build so easier to find when dropped. isnt there a couple of new nikons in january? 36mp at V1 frame rates i'm guessing this is needed...
We've previously discussed the reasons for the eventual move away from CF, and why SD is not a suitable alternative. Those reasons are summarized as follows:
1. CF is based on the PATA bus and read/write speeds cannot be increased indefinitely without breaking compatibility in some critical fashion.
2. SD is flimsy, was never designed for professional use, and its data throughput is also limited.
That said, XQD seems promising but doesn't really feel sufficiently forward-looking to last more than a decade or so. The target speed is 125 MB/s, which is faster than today's commonly-available 90 MB/s of UDMA 6 CF, but in my opinion, it's not *so* much faster that it justifies a physically incompatible form factor and hardware interface. Granted, the theoretical maximum of the PCIe bus is much higher, but the point here is that if the first devices and cards to use this new standard are not MUCH better than what CF offers, consumers may resist adopting it. This may be less of a problem in professional circles, where people are more easily (and often grudgingly) forced into adopting new standards, but XQD still needs to prove itself and get consumers on board if it is to eventually replace CF, which has a long history with lots of people already invested in the cards and devices. At 39% more speed, it seems only incremental; and UDMA 7's maximum theoretical speed actually is faster than the XQD's stated goal.
What is happening with CFast then? It is based on SATA, and I know a few companies have released CFast cards, but no camera manufacturers have released cameras using it yet.
as to CFast relying on sata, its that reason it has been bypassed. XQD is direct mainline PCI express. scaleability is considerable higher with this. a brighter future. 125MB/s is the starting point not the goal.
I wonder if there will be a gradual phase-in with one CF slot and one XQD (awful acronym) slot in the pro bodies.
