So the main takeaway is this – CFexpress cards are fast. The maximum theoretical performance of a Type C CFexpress card (the fastest of the three speed classes) is 4,000MB/s; for context, UHS-III SD cards can theoretically manage a little over 600MB/s. Don’t worry about CFexpress Type C quite yet. No camera uses it and no manufacturer is producing on the standard yet. VPG 400 CFexpress 2.0 already has a stellar reputation for extremely fast performance, with maximum transfer speeds hitting up to 1 GB/s (1000MB/s) and 2 GB/s (2000MB/s) for Type A and Type B cards, respectively. However, keep in mind that's 'theoretical max speed.' Even the current fastest CFexpress cards on the market don't achieve this maximum speed, although they are coming close. The just-announced CFexpress 4.0 standard aims to double the performance, with a theoretical maximum throughput of 2 GB/s for Type A and 4 GB/s for Type B. For the most part, these cards were all pretty consistent in their performance during our benchmarking with the exception of Acer and Atlas Pro, both of which were a lot more frenetic in how much they jumped from high speeds to low speeds during testing, which gives us pause recommending either for video workflows. Photo Performance Before the ProGrade USB 4.0 reader, we weren’t coming close to seeing the promised speeds printed on the sides of the memory cards in practice, but we certainly are now. No longer bandwidth limited by USB 3.2, the cards are showing their true colors, and they’re gorgeous.

A trusted name in memory cards, Lexar makes reliable Professional cards with capacities ranging from 64GB to 512GB. Type A cards measure 20 x 28 x 2.8mm and are typically used by Sony cameras, including the Sony A7S III and the Sony A7 IV. CFexpress Type A cards are actually smaller than SD cards, making them useful for cameras that support both memory card types that have a limited number of slots. First announced in 2010 by SanDisk, Sony, and Nikon, XQD is a flash memory card using the PCI Express interface. XQD Version 2.0, announced in 2012, moved to the PCI Express 3.0 interface. As mentioned, it seems as though that, outside of a few outliers, most CFexpress memory cards are coming up against the limitations of camera hardware. While ProGrade’s older CFexpress 2.0 cards and Acer’s card provided us with about a second less time with the shutter held down and SanDisk’s gave us just shy of a tenth of a second more, basically every other card hovered in the same region.Finally, there’s CFexpress Type C. These cards have the most transfer lanes, allowing them to reach transfer speeds of up to 4GB/s. However, they measure 54 x 74 x 4.8mm making them much too large for cameras. Type C cards are typically featured alongside computers and SSDs instead. IS CFexpress better than SD? We’re highly likely to see this announced at some point, because arch CFexpress-rival the SD Association has already announced PCIe 4.0 integration for a future version of SD Express cards; however, don’t expect to see these cards on sale for a couple of years at least. No; the majority of cameras use SD or microSD cards for storage. However, with CFexpress rising in popularity, many newer, high-end mirrorless and DSLR cameras are capable of utilizing the improved storage format. These include Sony's A7 III and Alpha 1, Nikon's Z6 and Z7 series, Canon's EOS R5, Panasonic's Lumix S1, and some similar options. What's the difference between CFexpress types A and B? There are three CFexpress variants: Type A, Type B and Type C. The two newer ones, A and C, were introduced when the CompactFlash Association revised the standard to ‘2.0’ in 2019. Avoid these at all costs. No cameras support the format and mutliple experts that have spoken to PetaPixel don’t believe any ever will. Repeat: no camera on the market in any category supports the SD Express format. Without such support, you get worse performance while paying significantly more than SD UHS-II cards. SD Express looks identical to SD cards, but don’t perform the same. Avoid them. | Photo by Jaron Schneider for PetaPixel

Delkin start out at 75GB and go all the way up to a whopping 2TB. Read/write speeds increase as the capacities do, although, of course, so does the price. Lexar Professional CFexpress cardsPanasonic rolled out updates for their XQD cameras in 2019. Nikon have updated firmware for mirrorless Z6/7 and DSLRs D5 / D500 / D850 / D4S / D4 which all have XQD slots. CFexpress cards are typically also more durable than SD cards. More importantly, they’re a great feature for those who shoot video; now that high-bitrate (even RAW in some cases) 4K and 8K video is becoming commonplace, the CFexpress standard is the best option to make the most of that data. CFexpress Type C

Why it made the cut: Lexar’s newest card provides the fastest burst shooting results of any CFexpress. SD Express also arrived three years after CFexpress, giving the latter a significant head start. What kind of CFexpress cards are there? Of the three, photographers and videographers don’t need to concern themselves too much with Type C – these larger cards are designed more for use with computers and Solid State Drives. The types you’ll most typically find compatible with cameras are Type B – this is the type you’ll be able to use with the Canon EOS R5, Nikon Z6, Panasonic S1R and other cameras.Adapters are also the easiest way to transfer data to your computer, though many multi-slot cards external readers are equipped with MicroSD slots as well. CompactFlash (CF) No, CFast and CFexpress cards are not the same. The cards are physically different sizes, meaning you won’t be able to use a CFast card in a CFexpress-compatible slot. Also, CFexpress cards are much faster than what CFast cards are capable of. Final thoughts on the best CFexpress cards CFexpress cards offer significantly faster performance compared to standard SD or XQD cards, with speeds ranging from 1GB/s to 4GB/s depending on the number of PCIe data transfer lanes. considering that the proven buffer cache is much cheaper to increase it in size than implementation of the new PCIe interface."