They're not making XQD cards yet, which doesn't mean they won't in the future. I suspect they'll wait a bit to see what else appears on the market that will use them. With only the D4 using them, which isn't widely available yet, none will want to make the large initial investment for what might be a relatively small market.
XQD is the next gen of CF. actually they are making the card and yes right now the D4 is the launch customer for them. it will go forward for the simple reason... SPEED. the XQD write speed seems to start where UDMA 7 writes are leaving off. UDMA is a parallel process and is getting real close to its limit. using the PCIe bus opens up the speed limit quite a bit. they say over 250MB/s for future product. it is a serial design too (less contacts/pins). there are other reasons too. the many complaints about the 50 pin connector and bent pins in bodies/readers getting junk stuck in the card holes (though in the 12 years of using them i only had one bent pin in a reader which i fixed.
the D4 is not available as of today until mid march due to a firmware issue so those XQD cards you don't see right now(and they are made and ready to go) will be available next month too if not a little earlier.
why be alarmed. someones gotta go first. and if you're buying a D4 you still have the now UDMA 7 CF slot that supports the shiney new 128GB UDMA 7 CF (there are smalller ones too) card. in the end you still have the same choices of using the the slots as you wish. you just decide if you need 1 or 2 XQDs or the other way around if at all.
as to the large investment aspect. the pricing on XQD cards are also competitive in the same arena as the equivelent CF model $129/16GB/125MB/s write. the new 1000x UDMA 7 CF lexar cf boasts 150MB/s READS but follow the asterisk down to that little printing at the bottom and the WRITE speeds are claimed at only lower w/o any actually referenced speed except for this (and these are all current UDMA6 bodies): http://www.robgalbraith.com/bins/content_page.asp?cid=7-11673-12268
the sony reader is USB3 and all of $45
unlike the canon CF/SD (transitional from lower models) setup and the D800 (same) this is a more forward looking idea.
The biggest bummer about XQD is that Nikon didn't have the balls to go dual-XQD in the D4.
There are people complaining Nikon is *forcing* the XQD on them simply by having athe one slot.
I am presuming the XQD is slot A, If I am only shooting with a CF card and it is in slot B - Is it ok to write to slot B? I think I remember it being said that you should always have slot A filled first. I hope I Sandisk produces XQD cards, From the posts I read here it sounds like the XQD cards are the way to go.
gfinlayson wrote:
They're not making XQD cards yet, which doesn't mean they won't in the future. I suspect they'll wait a bit to see what else appears on the market that will use them. With only the D4 using them, which isn't widely available yet, none will want to make the large initial investment for what might be a relatively small market.
JohnBrose wrote:
I would guess Nikon got a huge payment from the XQD manufacture to include it on the camera.
Sony makes Nikon's sensors. Sony makes XQD cards.
It's not hard to see why XQD is a feature in the D4. I suspect it has everything to do with negotiating price that Nikon has to pay for custom sensors, and little else.
JohnBrose wrote:
I would guess Nikon got a huge payment from the XQD manufacture to include it on the camera.
that was my first thought, although I hope it's Nikon's forward thinking.
most camera makers would like a smaller card. that more room for other stuff in the body or even smaller bodies.
the XQD is priced competitively to its somewhat CF equivelent. being that it is open source to members of the CFA its going to most likely fly. there always has to be a first. unlike Sony's original memory sticks which were propriatary along with olympus's media and the fuji card i can't remember.
philipj wrote:
Sony makes Nikon's sensors. Sony makes XQD cards.
It's not hard to see why XQD is a feature in the D4. I suspect it has everything to do with negotiating price that Nikon has to pay for custom sensors, and little else.
Sounds like you hit the nail on the head here...why else go with XQD rather than CFast (PCIe-based, been out for a few years, works well, many manufacturers)...I guess Sony is hoping to break that "Beta/8mm video/Hi8/Digital8/Memory Stick/Memory Stick Pro/MD/CD DRM RootKit/PS2 change-of-terms-after-you-buy-it" streak they've had going since 1975... The way I see it, they're a little overdue on a win, maybe this one is it!
1- CFast is SATA not PCIe. it links to PCIe bus through its controller if you go that route
2- there really isn't that may makers of CFast cards. it really didn't take off all that well for the years it has been around.
3- it hasn't got the potential of PCIe which eliminates potential bottlnecks depending on available lanes.
if there is any win its for us as we will get faster thruput then any other method at this point. as it says it was a joint proposal of sandisk, sony, and nikon. it is pretty much open source as is CF.
quote from Wikipedia:
"In November 2010, Sandisk, Sony and Nikon proposed a next generation card format to the CompactFlash Association which would come in a similar form factor as CF/CFast but be based on PCI Express instead of Parallel ATA or SATA."
remember any member of the CFA can licence and make them. its not limited to sony. they are just the first to do so.
just as apple is the first to use thunderbolt and thats Intels property not apples. thunderbolt makes sense too. it comes to PC in april after a year of doing nothing on apple machines.
The biggest bummer about XQD is that Nikon didn't have the balls to go dual-XQD in the D4.
Presumably they did not want to alienate D3/D3s and most other CF camera users that have tons of pricey CF cards and share them between multiple cameras. I don't think everyone will be throwing out their D3/D3s or replacing all of them at one time. Many will be used as backups or as 2nd/3rd bodies.
