Good info, same day I did my NPS priority order, yes I got my hat, I immediately bought 4) ProGrade 325 gb cards and Thunderbolt 3 reader. I figured there would be a run on them and sure enough, two days later, no one had stock, including ProGrade. Now all I need is my Z9. Keep up the informative videos. I also have 12 Sony QXD cards, but I'm keeping them for my D850's and D5's.
Great vid Hudson, exactly what I would have wanted to make myself in trying to explain to those who may not know or want to know more about memory options for cameras. A lot of information to parse and digest out there but you really condensed it down to an easy to watch and understand explainer. Awesome work and keep it up!
I’ve been only using CF EXpress cards in my Z7 II cameras because I was concerned about the SDXC card slowing down the write speed. Going to repeat your test with various combinations using both slots. I’d like to have redundancy if that doesn’t impair write speed. Thanks for the YT video.
Okay, okay! Don't buy anything till Hudson has reviewed it for me! I finally jumped in and thought I knew what I was doing. Bigger and faster is better. Nope, not this time! Geez. If I had only waited a couple of weeks! I purchased the CF before you did this ATS and now I need to buy a new reader and it seems I didn't need to go this direction. So, once again, WAIT and see what HH has to say. Even though I have probabaly spent a fair amount of dough on camera equiptment and accessories, if I wait to see what you suggest, I have found I save myself time, money and hassle in the long run. I will reach out before I invest in anymore "stuff". Lesson learned. :-) Thank you friend, from a loyal follower.
Interesting data. I don’t shoot long bursts very often at all since I concentrate on landscapes. When I got my Z7II, I bought two 128gb Delkin CF-B’s. I shot on the first one for 5 months before switching to the second.
Great information, very timely for me. I just upgraded from a D5600 to Z6 II and was researching what card to buy. Z9 is not in my future as the Z6 is more than I need. I'm using my old SDs and I was wondering if I 'm missing out by not upgrading to the Type B cards. I do landscape/family pics as a hobby.
Cool another Henry into photography 🙂 I am learning Wildlife photography now. Trying to decide if I should upgrade my Nikon D500 from SD card to CFExpress.
I run a cfexpress in my d500. On 14bit lossless compressed raw buffer says 27 but only ever drops by like five. I’ve burst more than 70 photos it just never goes down. If you run an sd as a second card backup it will run down the buffer as that would control. My sd isn’t super fast 120mb/s. Fast enough for 4K video but the buffer runs down even with small jpegs. I’m running a Sandisk extreme pro 1700 read 1200 write in there.
great review, Question - shouldnt the test begin upon the abrupt slowing down? I thought that the cameral's buffer is being used up until that point , and not the card. thanks.
Thanks for the tests. I normally use 14 bit lossless compressed. It's a little slower to create the file, but faster to write to the card so I'm getting 50+ frames in a burst with the Delkin Power 128 GB. The big difference is what happens after the buffer is filled. I found the ProGrade Gold was VERY slow - 2.5 fps - once the buffer was filled while the 128GB Delkin Power was 5 fps with a full buffer. I've sold my XQD cards and readers in favor of CFExpress. It's easier to standardize on one type of card.
Yeah the ProGrade cobalt, wise or DELKIN black cards will write with a more sustained speed. That minimum write speed matters. Lossless is my favorite too, but I used uncompressed to really push the cards.
great review. clears up a lot of potential issues. Personally, I'd never recommend ProGrade CFExpress cards. I got one, it was terribly slow, way slower than my Sony XQD ... I wanted a 2nd card for backup ....and Prograde support was non-existent ... all they said was that I had the latest version... they got their card and reader back in the next post! LOL I got a 2nd Sony. I have the Z6, so speed isn't essential, but overall performance is needed .
Hmmmmm, so sorry to hear that. I've had the opposite experience with thier customer service and performance. They got right back to me with an issue on the reader. A number of preproduction testers are finding the Wise pro and ProGrade cobalt cards are the fastest available for the Z9 and my gold ProGrade cards test the same as Sony and Lexar cards I also have. I'm a big fan.
Great review and really pertinent and timely information With so many existing Nikon xqd compatible cameras out there, and the xqd format going out of production, I think the xqd will retain its value as it's pretty rugged and relatively low cost and small sized. It may even become a sought out format. CF express b will likely push speed and size, with good quality vendors opting for the biggest and fastest. Lexar and Sony have a great name for reliable xqd cards so if you shoot a current Nikon xqd compatible camera I am not sure I would sell my xqd cards yet, as you have shown there is no advantage switching at this time. They are perfect and super reliable in the single slot cameras. That's just my opinion. Once you get a z9 that changes and then spring for a couple of fast cobalt cards for the z9. Not sure you need more than 2 as it's really quick to transfer to lower cost portable drives, so buy fewer but faster cards. It will add $1500 to the cost of a z9, but that is what an A1 costs with grip and no cards. This high end stuff gets expensive, but lenses are not cheap either. As lower cost and potentially lower quality CF b cards show up, the XQD may gain legend status. I have been really happy with it over SD.
Very helpful for those of us who will not be in the Z9 world, at least for a long time. One of my main interests is timelapses. The "dark time" during file writing is important, especially if you are trying to shoot short intervals and most of it using exposure time (e.g. 6 sec intervals for a 4 sec exposues, +/-). In this example, the dark time would have to be limited to 2 secs or less or the interval lengthened. On the Z7ii, what standard should I be looking at for the SD and CFExpress, in order to not waste money but to have the throughput needed for nighttime timelapses with around 5 seconds exposure?
Hey Hudson, interesting test. Did you do any tests on the other side of the card use? I would be interested in the speeds for a read between the various Express-B cards into LR or ON1? Folks that don't shoot action or wildlife the majority of the time are probably just as interested in how the cards and readers perform on import. After doing a whole day on a workshop with tons of images I was sort of surprised how long it took. Granted there are many more variables but do you have any sense of difference between the cards with your equipment? It would also be interesting to know what a plane copy to an SSD would be like in your typical workflow.
I have been thinking about getting a couple of CFE/B cards since my Nikon D850/D500 now supports them. I know they won't be any faster in my camera than a XQD but it will be a lot faster transferring the files to my computer. There are some readers that will read both CFE/B and XQD. The way I heard it, even though the Nikon firmware now supports CFE/B but they are using all the extra data lanes that CFE/B has over XQD? CFE may have 8 lanes where XQD may have 4 lanes. Nikon isn't using all the extra lanes, even though you can use the cards. Apple is FINALLY putting USH/2 SD cards in their computers. It DOES make a difference.
Transfer speed into a fast computer is nice. No doubt. You won't see any buffer or performance change in the DSLRs. Heck there isn't much of one in the Z6/7ii. Look at minimum sustained write speeds if you're buying a cf express b with an eye to the future. If it's not listed assume it's only about 400mb/s. The better ones like I link here in the full description maintain at least 1400mb/s, but you pay more and currently only the Z9 uses that speed. The cheaper CF Express B cards don't sustain speeds much faster than XQD. Keep that in mind.
Hey Hudson. Thank you for such an informative Video.... so for my clarity with the Prograde Cobalt CF-Express B cards: would you recommend NOT going above the 325GB size for the Z9? Cheers Manjul
If I had the new Z9 and wanted to shoot 1200fps in 11mb jpeg then I’m going to need read fast cards but anything over 400mbs will do for most cameras including my Z7
I don't think the 11mb jpeg files are going to test the card much even at 120fps. It's the big data rich 46mp lossless RAW files at 20fps that will test write speed. But yes... Exactly.
I have a Z71, but I still took advantage of the Black Friday sales on CFExpress Cards for a few reasons. First, I can still sell my XQD cards and get a decent return on them. In the future that will not be the case. Second, with the CFExpress cards I can hold down the shutter button on Continuous High (not extended) and the buffer never fills. With the XQD cards, the buffer fills even on Continuous High (not extended). Third, on Continuous High Extended I can tell that I am getting slightly more frames per second for those first second or two.
One of the issues I have seen lately especially with th Z9 is the heat generated by the different cards with Delkin being the best. Any thoughts on that.
We'll see. I've had CF express cards get hot in the z6ii during long video takes, but not as bad as the Canon r5 and never while still shooting. I'll sure test it in the weeks ahead though.
Hey Hudson, sorry, one more question. I had an Express-B fail but was saved, to some extent, because I push full JPG to the SDXC card. I know that is not your setup but what would you expect to happen to those speeds with a setup like that. I would run the test myself, but I don't have any of the high end cards you tested - yet. The thought is that perhaps Nikon is "reserving" some of the pipeline for just such a setup configuration.
@@HudsonHenryPhoto It is a Lexar 64gb CF Express B, used only a few times. The Z7 II stopped working and I could not read the card on my PC but the SDXC was Ok. My Z6 will sometimes report it can't access the card and requests that I insert a different one. What makes matters worse is doing multiple tests with it using the Z6 and reformatting several times, the card now just randomly fails while using it during the test. I have 2 of these cards bought at the same time and the other one works fine in both cameras. I drew a big "X" on the back and stopped using the one that has issues completely. With only one card in the Z6 I don't bother with the JPEGs. I don't do much action or wildlife where speed would be an issue, but I may have to re-think the backup JPEG setting if I do. Didn't know it has that kind of impact. On the Z7II could I set U3 default to turn off JPEG backup or would it have to be done manually each time?
![АЛАУДИНОВ у Скабеевой: эти их ВСУ нас НЕ ДОГОНЯТ 😁 [Пародия]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/an0anqU4WGQ/mqdefault.jpg)
Good info, same day I did my NPS priority order, yes I got my hat, I immediately bought 4) ProGrade 325 gb cards and Thunderbolt 3 reader. I figured there would be a run on them and sure enough, two days later, no one had stock, including ProGrade. Now all I need is my Z9. Keep up the informative videos. I also have 12 Sony QXD cards, but I'm keeping them for my D850's and D5's.
Great vid Hudson, exactly what I would have wanted to make myself in trying to explain to those who may not know or want to know more about memory options for cameras. A lot of information to parse and digest out there but you really condensed it down to an easy to watch and understand explainer. Awesome work and keep it up!
Thanks, Hudson! It's always nice to see simple, clear tests of these things.
I’ve been only using CF EXpress cards in my Z7 II cameras because I was concerned about the SDXC card slowing down the write speed. Going to repeat your test with various combinations using both slots. I’d like to have redundancy if that doesn’t impair write speed. Thanks for the YT video.
Okay, okay!
Don't buy anything till Hudson has reviewed it for me!
I finally jumped in and thought I knew what I was doing. Bigger and faster is better. Nope, not this time! Geez. If I had only waited a couple of weeks! I purchased the CF before you did this ATS and now I need to buy a new reader and it seems I didn't need to go this direction.
So, once again, WAIT and see what HH has to say. Even though I have probabaly spent a fair amount of dough on camera equiptment and accessories, if I wait to see what you suggest, I have found I save myself time, money and hassle in the long run. I will reach out before I invest in anymore "stuff".
Lesson learned. :-)
Thank you friend, from a loyal follower.
This is very thoroughly explained
Excellent comparison, Hudson. Thanks for doing it.
Interesting data. I don’t shoot long bursts very often at all since I concentrate on landscapes. When I got my Z7II, I bought two 128gb Delkin CF-B’s. I shot on the first one for 5 months before switching to the second.
I got a free Lexar CFx 128 when I got my Z9 from Nikon Malaysia
Thanks for the MPB suggestion. Fair, fast and easy. Just waiting for a Z9 to appear at my door. Not NPS so may be a wait.
Great information, very timely for me. I just upgraded from a D5600 to Z6 II and was researching what card to buy. Z9 is not in my future as the Z6 is more than I need. I'm using my old SDs and I was wondering if I 'm missing out by not upgrading to the Type B cards. I do landscape/family pics as a hobby.
So glad to help. I love my z6ii. You don't miss much really with a fast SD card in that camera particularly for that sort of work. :)
Thank you
Ship date is Dec 15th!!! 2 weeks to go!!! Can't wait....
Great information Hudson! Really appreciate it. 📷😎👍
Cool another Henry into photography 🙂 I am learning Wildlife photography now. Trying to decide if I should upgrade my Nikon D500 from SD card to CFExpress.
I run a cfexpress in my d500. On 14bit lossless compressed raw buffer says 27 but only ever drops by like five. I’ve burst more than 70 photos it just never goes down. If you run an sd as a second card backup it will run down the buffer as that would control. My sd isn’t super fast 120mb/s. Fast enough for 4K video but the buffer runs down even with small jpegs. I’m running a Sandisk extreme pro 1700 read 1200 write in there.
Very informative - thank you Hudson.
great review, Question - shouldnt the test begin upon the abrupt slowing down? I thought that the cameral's buffer is being used up until that point , and not the card. thanks.
Merry Christmas!
Thanks for the tests. I normally use 14 bit lossless compressed. It's a little slower to create the file, but faster to write to the card so I'm getting 50+ frames in a burst with the Delkin Power 128 GB. The big difference is what happens after the buffer is filled. I found the ProGrade Gold was VERY slow - 2.5 fps - once the buffer was filled while the 128GB Delkin Power was 5 fps with a full buffer.
I've sold my XQD cards and readers in favor of CFExpress. It's easier to standardize on one type of card.
Yeah the ProGrade cobalt, wise or DELKIN black cards will write with a more sustained speed. That minimum write speed matters. Lossless is my favorite too, but I used uncompressed to really push the cards.
great review. clears up a lot of potential issues. Personally, I'd never recommend ProGrade CFExpress cards. I got one, it was terribly slow, way slower than my Sony XQD ... I wanted a 2nd card for backup ....and Prograde support was non-existent ... all they said was that I had the latest version... they got their card and reader back in the next post! LOL I got a 2nd Sony. I have the Z6, so speed isn't essential, but overall performance is needed .
Hmmmmm, so sorry to hear that. I've had the opposite experience with thier customer service and performance. They got right back to me with an issue on the reader. A number of preproduction testers are finding the Wise pro and ProGrade cobalt cards are the fastest available for the Z9 and my gold ProGrade cards test the same as Sony and Lexar cards I also have. I'm a big fan.
@@HudsonHenryPhoto I got a lemon card 😂😂
Great review and really pertinent and timely information
With so many existing Nikon xqd compatible cameras out there, and the xqd format going out of production, I think the xqd will retain its value as it's pretty rugged and relatively low cost and small sized. It may even become a sought out format. CF express b will likely push speed and size, with good quality vendors opting for the biggest and fastest. Lexar and Sony have a great name for reliable xqd cards so if you shoot a current Nikon xqd compatible camera I am not sure I would sell my xqd cards yet, as you have shown there is no advantage switching at this time. They are perfect and super reliable in the single slot cameras. That's just my opinion. Once you get a z9 that changes and then spring for a couple of fast cobalt cards for the z9. Not sure you need more than 2 as it's really quick to transfer to lower cost portable drives, so buy fewer but faster cards. It will add $1500 to the cost of a z9, but that is what an A1 costs with grip and no cards. This high end stuff gets expensive, but lenses are not cheap either.
As lower cost and potentially lower quality CF b cards show up, the XQD may gain legend status. I have been really happy with it over SD.
Great video, I just wish the type-B were cheaper lol.
Very helpful for those of us who will not be in the Z9 world, at least for a long time. One of my main interests is timelapses. The "dark time" during file writing is important, especially if you are trying to shoot short intervals and most of it using exposure time (e.g. 6 sec intervals for a 4 sec exposues, +/-). In this example, the dark time would have to be limited to 2 secs or less or the interval lengthened. On the Z7ii, what standard should I be looking at for the SD and CFExpress, in order to not waste money but to have the throughput needed for nighttime timelapses with around 5 seconds exposure?
Any type ii SD should be just fine for that. It will clear the buffer long before the next shot with each frame. :)
Hey Hudson, interesting test.
Did you do any tests on the other side of the card use? I would be interested in the speeds for a read between the various Express-B cards into LR or ON1? Folks that don't shoot action or wildlife the majority of the time are probably just as interested in how the cards and readers perform on import. After doing a whole day on a workshop with tons of images I was sort of surprised how long it took. Granted there are many more variables but do you have any sense of difference between the cards with your equipment? It would also be interesting to know what a plane copy to an SSD would be like in your typical workflow.
I have been thinking about getting a couple of CFE/B cards since my Nikon D850/D500 now supports them. I know they won't be any faster in my camera than a XQD but it will be a lot faster transferring the files to my computer. There are some readers that will read both CFE/B and XQD. The way I heard it, even though the Nikon firmware now supports CFE/B but they are using all the extra data lanes that CFE/B has over XQD? CFE may have 8 lanes where XQD may have 4 lanes. Nikon isn't using all the extra lanes, even though you can use the cards. Apple is FINALLY putting USH/2 SD cards in their computers. It DOES make a difference.
Transfer speed into a fast computer is nice. No doubt. You won't see any buffer or performance change in the DSLRs. Heck there isn't much of one in the Z6/7ii. Look at minimum sustained write speeds if you're buying a cf express b with an eye to the future. If it's not listed assume it's only about 400mb/s. The better ones like I link here in the full description maintain at least 1400mb/s, but you pay more and currently only the Z9 uses that speed. The cheaper CF Express B cards don't sustain speeds much faster than XQD. Keep that in mind.
Hey Hudson. Thank you for such an informative Video.... so for my clarity with the Prograde Cobalt CF-Express B cards: would you recommend NOT going above the 325GB size for the Z9? Cheers Manjul
If I had the new Z9 and wanted to shoot 1200fps in 11mb jpeg then I’m going to need read fast cards but anything over 400mbs will do for most cameras including my Z7
I don't think the 11mb jpeg files are going to test the card much even at 120fps. It's the big data rich 46mp lossless RAW files at 20fps that will test write speed. But yes... Exactly.
Can you use all 3 cards on a z6? Just bought one
I have a Z71, but I still took advantage of the Black Friday sales on CFExpress Cards for a few reasons. First, I can still sell my XQD cards and get a decent return on them. In the future that will not be the case. Second, with the CFExpress cards I can hold down the shutter button on Continuous High (not extended) and the buffer never fills. With the XQD cards, the buffer fills even on Continuous High (not extended). Third, on Continuous High Extended I can tell that I am getting slightly more frames per second for those first second or two.
When you tested the SD Card, did you test a "Type I" or a "Type II" card?
II
One of the issues I have seen lately especially with th Z9 is the heat generated by the different cards with Delkin being the best. Any thoughts on that.
We'll see. I've had CF express cards get hot in the z6ii during long video takes, but not as bad as the Canon r5 and never while still shooting. I'll sure test it in the weeks ahead though.
Hey Hudson, sorry, one more question. I had an Express-B fail but was saved, to some extent, because I push full JPG to the SDXC card. I know that is not your setup but what would you expect to happen to those speeds with a setup like that. I would run the test myself, but I don't have any of the high end cards you tested - yet. The thought is that perhaps Nikon is "reserving" some of the pipeline for just such a setup configuration.
It slows you to the SD speed for everything. What cfexpress b card failed? That's ludicrously rare.
@@HudsonHenryPhoto It is a Lexar 64gb CF Express B, used only a few times. The Z7 II stopped working and I could not read the card on my PC but the SDXC was Ok. My Z6 will sometimes report it can't access the card and requests that I insert a different one. What makes matters worse is doing multiple tests with it using the Z6 and reformatting several times, the card now just randomly fails while using it during the test. I have 2 of these cards bought at the same time and the other one works fine in both cameras. I drew a big "X" on the back and stopped using the one that has issues completely. With only one card in the Z6 I don't bother with the JPEGs.
I don't do much action or wildlife where speed would be an issue, but I may have to re-think the backup JPEG setting if I do. Didn't know it has that kind of impact. On the Z7II could I set U3 default to turn off JPEG backup or would it have to be done manually each time?
Lexar will replace that I'm sure. I've had a bad Lexar XQD card replaced. No issues with ProGrade. :)
How about Hoodman Steel or Delkin Black for the Z 9? I currently use Hoodman Steel CFexpress for my Z 7ii
Delkin Black gets good reviews,