I purchased CF Express cards for the coming R5, and they arrived over the past few days. Three different types. I did the Black Magic Disk Speed Test to each and thought people might appreciate the results. This test does repeated read/writes to the card to simulate real world video file use.
Sony Tough CF Express G (512GB)
Read: 1050 MB/sec
Write: 1050 MB/sec
ProGrade (Gold Bar, apparently first generation, 256GB)
Read: 1250 MB/sec
Write: 950 MB/sec
The tests were performed about 10 times each. Card reader was a Sonnet reader with Thunderbolt 3.
The Sony card was abysmal, as it was the most expensive and claimed to be the fastest (1700/1480). The Delkin claimed 1730/1430 and wound up being the actual fastest by about 10 percent. The ProGrade with gold stripe is supposed to be 1600/1000. I have a ProGrade with black stripe (claimed 1600/1400) coming in and will add those results when it's tested.
For now, I'm giving this anecdotal crown to Delkin, which I know will drive certain forum members up the wall.
That's a nice improvement on the read speed, but the all-important write speed was only 7 percent faster. The claimed speeds are 1600/1400, so the write speed is definitely suffering versus the claim.
The upshot is that the Delkin is - by far - the best performer, and the best $/GB. I'd love to try the Lexar and Sandisk versions just to be complete, but can't justify buying more cards. If someone else has those, I can show them how to conduct this test.
One interesting note. After doing so much burn-in testing of these cards, I'm noticing that they get very, very hot. Unlike CF cards or SD cards. There's just a ton of heat generated from this format it seems. This may have implications for the R5 heat limitations, and might be good news. It may mean that using an external recording could, indeed, matter in terms of the amount of time before you hit a heat limit.
On photo trips I would routinely fill at least 1 if not 2 64gb cards a day on my 1DX II so I figured I'd need at least 128GB with the larger files sizes. Ordered 2 128gb Lexar Pro CFExpress cards along with 2 128gb Lexar Pro UHS-II 2000x cards plus readers.... I'm still stinging at what I spent on those today. Between an R5, R6, and a 100-500 this is going to be an expensive year! I'll end up selling 2 1DX and 1 1DX II, and a 100-400 to fund a portion but if my wife finds out I'm going to be buried with my new gear!
tiggy wrote:
I got the ProGrade Onyx version in. The increased performance over the Gen 1 version of the ProGrade gold version was a bit disappointing...
That's a nice improvement on the read speed, but the all-important write speed was only 7 percent faster. The claimed speeds are 1600/1400, so the write speed is definitely suffering versus the claim.
The upshot is that the Delkin is - by far - the best performer, and the best $/GB. I'd love to try the Lexar and Sandisk versions just to be complete, but can't justify buying more cards. If someone else has those, I can show them how to conduct this test.
One interesting note. After doing so much burn-in testing of these cards, I'm noticing that they get very, very hot. Unlike CF cards or SD cards. There's just a ton of heat generated from this format it seems. This may have implications for the R5 heat limitations, and might be good news. It may mean that using an external recording could, indeed, matter in terms of the amount of time before you hit a heat limit.
Bernie_King wrote:
On photo trips I would routinely fill at least 1 if not 2 64gb cards a day on my 1DX II so I figured I'd need at least 128GB with the larger files sizes. Ordered 2 128gb Lexar Pro CFExpress cards along with 2 128gb Lexar Pro UHS-II 2000x cards plus readers.... I'm still stinging at what I spent on those today. Between an R5, R6, and a 100-500 this is going to be an expensive year! I'll end up selling 2 1DX and 1 1DX II, and a 100-400 to fund a portion but if my wife finds out I'm going to be buried with my new gear!...Show more →
I've always been most comfortable with 128GB cards for my 45+ MP cameras and 64GB cards form my 20-30MP cameras so I think you made the right choice for the R5.
Not trying to be too negative but the new Lexar 2000x SD cards are not great performers (unlike the older ones before Lexar was sold). The 2000x Lexar cards used to be top of every UHS-II card test. But the new ones have dropped down to the bottom of most lists.
Of course SD card speeds seem to vary greatly camera to camera based on what parts are used for the slots themselves.
Alik Griffen has done tests on the R and more recently on A7RIV/A9II. On the R most cards tested about the same. But on the the Sony cameras there were a subset of cards that greatly outperformed other UHS-II SD cards....the Sony Tough, the Sandisk and the Delkin. The Sony Tough was almost 2x faster writing in camera than the Lexar 2000x. If you are wanting to shoot dual RAW (backup to the SD) then you may want to consider exchanging the Lexar SD cards for one of those other ones. Of course the R5 hasn't been tested yet and may show different results. A lot seems to depend on the camera and how it manages data. The A7RIV and A9II were the first cameras to ever show this big performance boost with these select cards. Write speeds are double what the R can do. But one thing that was present in a lot of the latest SD tests was the Lexar 2000x under new ownership were way down the pack now. I have both the new and old Lexar 2000x cards and the old ones do test faster in speed tests I've run them through like BlackMagic and CrystalDiskMark.
The Lexar CFexpress really haven't been tested in anything yet and may be top of the pack.
If I get an R5 I'll be going all Delkin as they seem to be testing the fastest for CFe and SD. Also I already own two 128GB Delkin Power UHS-II SD cards to pair with Delkin Power CFe.
arbitrage wrote:
If I get an R5 I'll be going all Delkin as they seem to be testing the fastest for CFe and SD. Also I already own two 128GB Delkin Power UHS-II SD cards to pair with Delkin Power CFe.
So make sure you get 256GB card 1730/1430 MB/s ...... 128GB card is only 1600/600 MB/s
Thanks! Somehow I’m still confused, the sheet says the prograde gold aren’t aren’t qualified for 8k but the 325gb prograde cobalt is qualified for 8k..... they both are over 400mm per second.
Am I missing something?
Andrew J wrote:
For people that just want the answer, yes.
CFexpress 1.0 [400MB/sec or more]
The speed on the card is READ speed not write speed so that might be part of it. Also, just because a card is not approved doesn't mean it won't work. I consider these charts a pretty general rule of thumb, only.
Thoughts on the Delkin 2tb for $999 vs Prograde 1tb for $899? It seems the value per mb gets much better as you go up in size with the Delkin appearing to be the best by far.
I could probably get away with anywhere from 256gb to 2tb for my use. I'm thinking I may future proof for potential 8k video footage and format my cards less with the larger sizes as I do now. I fill a 256gb every few days and am constantly needing to reformat by 64gb. But I've never used Prograde or Delkin so I'm unsure of their reputation for reliability, warranty, etc.
J.Marcus Photo wrote:
Thanks! Somehow I’m still confused, the sheet says the prograde gold aren’t aren’t qualified for 8k but the 325gb prograde cobalt is qualified for 8k..... they both are over 400mm per second.
Am I missing something?
The read and write speeds have nothing to do with what resolution (ie: 8k, 6k, 4k) is supported.
AlphaPhotography wrote:
Thoughts on the Delkin 2tb for $999 vs Prograde 1tb for $899? It seems the value per mb gets much better as you go up in size with the Delkin appearing to be the best by far.
I could probably get away with anywhere from 256gb to 2tb for my use. I'm thinking I may future proof for potential 8k video footage and format my cards less with the larger sizes as I do now. I fill a 256gb every few days and am constantly needing to reformat by 64gb. But I've never used Prograde or Delkin so I'm unsure of their reputation for reliability, warranty, etc....Show more →
Prograde was formed from the brightest at Lexar. I have several of their fast SD cards and they test great and work great. If not I'm sure they will honor their warranty. Delkin is a big name and I'm sure they stand by their cards.
AlphaPhotography wrote:
Thoughts on the Delkin 2tb for $999 vs Prograde 1tb for $899? It seems the value per mb gets much better as you go up in size with the Delkin appearing to be the best by far.
I could probably get away with anywhere from 256gb to 2tb for my use. I'm thinking I may future proof for potential 8k video footage and format my cards less with the larger sizes as I do now. I fill a 256gb every few days and am constantly needing to reformat by 64gb. But I've never used Prograde or Delkin so I'm unsure of their reputation for reliability, warranty, etc....Show more →
The Delikin 2TB card for $1k seems like the best deal by far. That's what I ordered. It was tested and approved for the 1Dx III so I'm guessing it will work in the R5 too. The Delkin cards seem to have the best write performance as well compared to Prograde and Sony as seen elsewhere in this thread.
