ajamils wrote:
I currently have couple of Sony - SF-G Series 64GB SDXC UHS-II (V90) that I was using with A9II. Will they be good enough for R5 stills or do I need to get CFExpress card?
They will be fine for the R5, however, you will not get redundant writing of course, and you *could* be clearing your buffer ~5-7x faster ;-)
Jesse Evans wrote:
They will be fine for the R5, however, you will not get redundant writing of course, and you *could* be clearing your buffer ~5-7x faster ;-)
That's great! I don't plan on shooting video and not worried about redundancy. I will most likely get some CFExpress cards when they get cheaper or I get a good deal on them but for now R5 and lenses have already cleaned up my bank account
patotts wrote:
I ended up buying Delkin 512 for CFexpress-B cards, seemed to be a good compromise between performance, reliability and value.
I splurged and sprung for the 2 tb Delkin, as i was only a bit over double the cost of the 512, but is 4x the size...almost, lol.
That said, I recall that my first CF card was a 512 mb, and cost about $250.... my first digital camera, a Canon G2, probably shipped with a 32 mb card.....
So, the Delkin is almost 4000 times as large, if my math is accurate.....
I am preparing for an accessory splurge on Black Friday as I get ready for the arrival of my R5. One of the things on my shopping list is Delkin CFexpress cards. I was planning on buying two 64GB and one 128GB cards. However, at present the price of the 128 isn't that much more than the 64 for whatever reason so I may just buy two 128 cards (although I do like having a number of cards so my 'eggs' aren't all in one basket).
My question is around how to identify the newer, optimized Delkin 64 and 128 cards. I believe it was arbitrage that posted about, or provided the link to, a test site that indicated these two cards had their firmware recently updated and, in what is an unusual result for a firmware update, those cards are * substantially * faster (Delkin says they will be updating the firmware on their other size cards 'soon'). I want to make sure I am getting the faster cards rather than old stock.
Does anybody know how to identify the updated cards so I can can specify that when placing an order? From my research, it does not appear that there is a different manufacturer's code on them.
EverLearning wrote:
I am preparing for an accessory splurge on Black Friday as I get ready for the arrival of my R5. One of the things on my shopping list is Delkin CFexpress cards. I was planning on buying two 64GB and one 128GB cards. However, at present the price of the 128 isn't that much more than the 64 for whatever reason so I may just buy two 128 cards (although I do like having a number of cards so my 'eggs' aren't all in one basket).
My question is around how to identify the newer, optimized Delkin 64 and 128 cards. I believe it was arbitrage that posted about, or provided the link to, a test site that indicated these two cards had their firmware recently updated and, in what is an unusual result for a firmware update, those cards are * substantially * faster (Delkin says they will be updating the firmware on their other size cards 'soon'). I want to make sure I am getting the faster cards rather than old stock.
Does anybody know how to identify the updated cards so I can can specify that when placing an order? From my research, it does not appear that there is a different manufacturer's code on them.
So that probably means they have made their way into the stores by now. I also noted that for a couple weeks B&H was Out of Stock of the 128 Power. Probably a good sign that whatever is In Stock going forward is updated.
But I don't know any way to check. A big retailer like B&H may be aware of the update but places like Amazon probably have no clue.
I have noticed different 'presentation' or 'packaging' (not sure the proper term for what is on the card surface) on the cards but don't know if that is indicative of newer vs older cards/firmware. Here are two examples of different presentation for the 128GB card:
I can find no mention of 'premium' for CFexpress cards on delkindevices.com site. But since McBain is a big, reputable retailer in Canada, I am not concerned about these being knock offs. I'm just concerned that they might have the older firmware and be slower. And, unlike cameras, the user cannot update the firmware on the delkin card so i don't want to get stuck with slower cards at time of purchase.
I had read an earlier post that if you are buying Delkin to get the newer ones with the green packaging (vs blue). So now is there a need to differentiate between the “premium” vs “power” on the green packaged cards
The Camera Store in Calgary also shows the “premium” verbiage on the label. Is there actually a difference (ie firmware, or is this a Canadian packaging vs USA packaging difference
A Follow-up question is that if there is a difference and we should be buying the cards with the “power” label, are only the 128gb “power” cards that have received the firmware updates
EverLearning wrote:
I have noticed different 'presentation' or 'packaging' (not sure the proper term for what is on the card surface) on the cards but don't know if that is indicative of newer vs older cards/firmware. Here are two examples of different presentation for the 128GB card:
I can find no mention of 'premium' for CFexpress cards on delkindevices.com site. But since McBain is a big, reputable retailer in Canada, I am not concerned about these being knock offs. I'm just concerned that they might have the older firmware and be slower. And, unlike cameras, the user cannot update the firmware on the delkin card so i don't want to get stuck with slower cards at time of purchase.
EverLearning wrote:
I have noticed different 'presentation' or 'packaging' (not sure the proper term for what is on the card surface) on the cards but don't know if that is indicative of newer vs older cards/firmware. Here are two examples of different presentation for the 128GB card:
I can find no mention of 'premium' for CFexpress cards on delkindevices.com site. But since McBain is a big, reputable retailer in Canada, I am not concerned about these being knock offs. I'm just concerned that they might have the older firmware and be slower. And, unlike cameras, the user cannot update the firmware on the delkin card so i don't want to get stuck with slower cards at time of purchase.
I believe the Premium ones are fairly outdated now. They aren't indicative of the FW update. The Delkin Power cards look like the B&H image before and after FW as far as I know.
I had wondered about that Premium image as it was also on TheCameraStore's Delkin listing but someone confirmed that the ones they ordered recently from TheCameraStore had the new Power packaging seen on the B&H listing. However, having the new packaging doesn't mean they have the update.
Is there any definitive way to know if the cards have the FW update, or is it better to hold off on Delkin for now? Can the cards be updated post purchase?
arbitrage wrote:
I believe the Premium ones are fairly outdated now. They aren't indicative of the FW update. The Delkin Power cards look like the B&H image before and after FW as far as I know.
I had wondered about that Premium image as it was also on TheCameraStore's Delkin listing but someone confirmed that the ones they ordered recently from TheCameraStore had the new Power packaging seen on the B&H listing. However, having the new packaging doesn't mean they have the update.
khurram1 wrote:
Is there any definitive way to know if the cards have the FW update, or is it better to hold off on Delkin for now? Can the cards be updated post purchase?
I think the only way would be to ask the store you want to buy from and see if they can contact Delkin to find out. But given that the SSDReview had updated cards back in September (for 64 and 128) I'd say if the store's stock was received in Oct/Nov then it is pretty good bet they are updated.
Ok. So just stick to either of those cards. I read there were issues using card readers across manufacturers, so just want to make sure I go with same manufacturer for both.
All this prep and I’m still waiting for the actual damn camera☹️ I figured I’d get most of what’s left during the Black Friday sales if all goes according to plan get the camera in by the end of next week.
arbitrage wrote:
I think the only way would be to ask the store you want to buy from and see if they can contact Delkin to find out. But given that the SSDReview had updated cards back in September (for 64 and 128) I'd say if the store's stock was received in Oct/Nov then it is pretty good bet they are updated.
I don't know if the cards can be updated after purchase but I do know they cannot be user updated after purchase.
I think I will go along the lines of what arbitrage mentioned. I will simply ask when the cards they have in stock arrived. Anything in the last month or so should be fine.
That’s harder to do with online Black Friday deals (if any are offered for Delkin). I was going to go with Delkin, Sony or Sandisk, depending on which ones have the beat deal.
EverLearning wrote:
I don't know if the cards can be updated after purchase but I do know they cannot be user updated after purchase.
I think I will go along the lines of what arbitrage mentioned. I will simply ask when the cards they have in stock arrived. Anything in the last month or so should be fine.
True. I believe arbitrage said amazon purchases could be returned though. I suspect I will just buy from a store that I can phone a few days in advance to discuss this with them. Even if that means paying a few dollars more, being sure of getting the extra speed is worth it.
Per Tiggy's research Transcend cards were great value and good performance. From this site the price is very good. Also revealed was some of the 128gb cards were slower than their higher GB versions.
goalerjones, the reason I am so interested in the Delkin 64GB and 128GB cards is the 'recent' firmware upgrade that has resulted in spectacular performance for these cards. From the review:
Something that we were totally unaware of, at least until we had tested these cards and later spoke to Delkin Devices, was that the first two cards, the Prime 64GB and the Power 128GB, have recently been optimized for better performance, while the Power 256GB version is still the older version and has yet to be optimized. All three cards run at cool temperatures, but we discovered that the 64 and 128GB have sustained write data transfers well over 1GB/s, while the 256GB Power card has sustained write speeds of just over 300MB/s.
A quick update on the Delkin cards with the new firmware. I believe those cards would be manufactured sometime in September, based on the thessdreview.com review. It seems like retailers order substantial stock. One major retailer in Canada told me their stock was from July and August. Even BH isn't sure if their stock is new enough to have the new firmware (they are checking and will email me). Unfortunately it takes special equipment to update the firmware and cannot be done by users (or even retailers by the sounds of it).
I may have to suffer short term pain for long term gain. I am still two to four weeks away from getting my R5 so I will wait and if necessary use an existing (really slow) card for a bit if necessary.
