p.4 #1 · Deal alert -- OWC CFe-A 4.0 cards on sale
GMPhotography wrote:
From my email
4. If you do not have an OWC card reader, please OWC’s support team by visiting their web site and they will provide you with additional options, including helping to get a reader in your hands or performing the firmware update for you free of charge. OWC will pay for shipping both ways!
Yes, they "helped get a reader into my hands", i.e., 50% discount if I buy one, but it's still a hassle.
p.4 #6 · Deal alert -- OWC CFe-A 4.0 cards on sale
corposant wrote:
Do people still use readers these days, or is it just easier and faster to plug your camera into your computer and select "mass storage?"
I think the reader will be quite a bit faster if you have a 4.0 card.
p.4 #7 · Deal alert -- OWC CFe-A 4.0 cards on sale
corposant wrote:
Do people still use readers these days, or is it just easier and faster to plug your camera into your computer and select "mass storage?"
I always use readers. Faster and easier than plugging a camera in to the PC. With dual card readers or multiple readers you can offload multiple cards at once.
p.4 #9 · Deal alert -- OWC CFe-A 4.0 cards on sale
Another reason to use card readers is often that is the only way to do firmware updates on cards. Often that also requires using a card reader of the same brand as the card. OWC and Angelbird both fall in that category.
p.4 #10 · Deal alert -- OWC CFe-A 4.0 cards on sale
LBJ2 wrote:
Good news. How did OWC confirm that for you, by product serial number?
They asked me for cards' serial numbers and I guess that was enough.
Ahh, the money I saved on cards (that really is an amazing deal if you care about speed) I will now spend on upgrading my pc to be able to fully utilize them ...
p.4 #11 · Deal alert -- OWC CFe-A 4.0 cards on sale
j4nu wrote:
They asked me for cards' serial numbers and I guess that was enough.
Ahh, the money I saved on cards (that really is an amazing deal if you care about speed) I will now spend on upgrading my pc to be able to fully utilize them ...
Thanks. I think this info will be helpful to others that purchased these cards recently but don't own the OWC Reader to check if they have older potentially problematic card firmware.
p.4 #12 · Deal alert -- OWC CFe-A 4.0 cards on sale
My card was shipped Jan 21, expected today. Hope they can advise the update status from the serial number.
They offered me a reader at 50% off, (i guess it would be easier for them to have me do the update), but I don't need another reader, already have a dual CFe A and SD reader so I guess I will have them do it if it needs it.
Before anyone asks, i use the SD reader for my A7R3 files !!
Good news. How did OWC confirm that for you, by product serial number?
They asked me for cards' serial numbers and I guess that was enough.
Ahh, the money I saved on cards (that really is an amazing deal if you care about speed) I will now spend on upgrading my pc to be able to fully utilize them ...
p.4 #13 · Deal alert -- OWC CFe-A 4.0 cards on sale
My card was shipped Jan 21, expected today. Hope they can advise the update status from the serial number.
They offered me a reader at 50% off, (i guess it would be easier for them to have me do the update), but I don't need another reader, already have a dual CFe A and SD reader so I guess I will have them do it if it needs it.
PS. Before anyone asks, I use the SD reader for my A7R3 files !!
BTW, OWC was very quick to reply on their chat system.
Good news. How did OWC confirm that for you, by product serial number?
They asked me for cards' serial numbers and I guess that was enough.
Ahh, the money I saved on cards (that really is an amazing deal if you care about speed) I will now spend on upgrading my pc to be able to fully utilize them ...
p.4 #14 · Deal alert -- OWC CFe-A 4.0 cards on sale
They asked me for cards' serial numbers and I guess that was enough.
Ahh, the money I saved on cards (that really is an amazing deal if you care about speed) I will now spend on upgrading my pc to be able to fully utilize them ...
The funny thing is I would most probably buy the reader now (the appetite grows with eating) if they only offered it to me...
On the other hand, I can see now that my old "storage" sata SSD (circa 500 mb/s) is too slow for these cards, and I'm not running them at full speed yet! Even my nvme SSD (circa 3000 mb/s) seemed to choke a bit while importing...
p.4 #15 · Deal alert -- OWC CFe-A 4.0 cards on sale
The funny thing is I would most probably buy the reader now (the appetite grows with eating) if they only offered it to me...
On the other hand, I can see now that my old "storage" sata SSD (circa 500 mb/s) is too slow for these cards, and I'm not running them at full speed yet! Even my nvme SSD (circa 3000 mb/s) seemed to choke a bit while importing...
Welcome to the need-for-speed club! But watch out, It can become addictive leading to who knows what must-have upgrade costs haha. Even with Thunderbolt 4 and USB4 up to 40Gb/s, I'm already dreaming about Thunderbolt 5 up to 80Gb/s 😜
p.4 #16 · Deal alert -- OWC CFe-A 4.0 cards on sale
I just checked with OWC support regarding the two cards received over the weekend. Good news for me is that the ones I received have the updated firmware.
Here is the description of the issue from their CSR:
Edward, we’ve found that OWC CFExpress Type A cards can stop working after being powered on for 1344 hours. Once this threshold is hit, the card will become temporarily unusable but don’t worry, your data is safe.
This is an issue affecting cards industry-wide, stemming from the card’s controller, not just ours. Not all CFExpress cards are impacted, though. We need to check the serial number of your CFExpress Type A card, we can double-check if it’s one of the affected models.
——
I think VERY few people will actually encounter the problem unless they are using the cards as SSD’s.
I guess I’ll have to make sure I turn my camera off at least once every 56 days
p.4 #17 · Deal alert -- OWC CFe-A 4.0 cards on sale
regulator wrote:
I just checked with OWC support regarding the two cards received over the weekend. Good news for me is that the ones I received have the updated firmware.
Here is the description of the issue from their CSR:
Edward, we’ve found that OWC CFExpress Type A cards can stop working after being powered on for 1344 hours. Once this threshold is hit, the card will become temporarily unusable but don’t worry, your data is safe.
This is an issue affecting cards industry-wide, stemming from the card’s controller, not just ours. Not all CFExpress cards are impacted, though. We need to check the serial number of your CFExpress Type A card, we can double-check if it’s one of the affected models.
——
I think VERY few people will actually encounter the problem unless they are using the cards as SSD’s.
I guess I’ll have to make sure I turn my camera off at least once every 56 days ...Show more →
Good to know. Particularly the part about potentially affecting CFexpress cards across the brands for those of us with multiple brand cards as OWC seems to be the only one calling this out at the moment. TBD for the other brands I guess.
p.4 #18 · Deal alert -- OWC CFe-A 4.0 cards on sale
LBJ2 wrote:
Welcome to the need-for-speed club! But watch out, It can become addictive leading to who knows what must-have upgrade costs haha. Even with Thunderbolt 4 and USB4 up to 40Gb/s, I'm already dreaming about Thunderbolt 5 up to 80Gb/s 😜
Haha, yes - I'm planning to setup a ramdisk once I get a fast reader to see how fast the import can be ...
p.4 #20 · Deal alert -- OWC CFe-A 4.0 cards on sale
FWIW, OWC's support team told me this:
"After checking, newly purchased OWC Atlas Pro CFexpress 4.0 Type A Memory Cards from 2025 already have the latest firmware and do not require an update."
Edit: I would expect this only applies to cards purchased directly from OWC/Macsales and not other retailers which might have older inventory.
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