Sony Unveils World’s First CFExpress Type A Memory Cards and Reader

julio 28, 2020

Sony Unveils World’s First CFExpress Type A Memory Cards and Reader

Alongside the much-anticipated launch of the full-frame Sony a7S III, the company also debuted another product: the world’s first CFExpress Type A memory cards, and a card reader to go along with them.

The new CFExpress Type A cards—not to be confused with Type B, which are the same form factor as XQD—are part of Sony’s ‘Tough’ line of memory cards, and they’ll come in 80GB and 160GB variants to start. At full speed, they offer about twice the maximum data rate of SDXC memory cards, maxing out at an advertised 700MB/s write and 800MB/s read—that’s MegaBYTE not MegaBIT.

Additionally, these small cards are each equipped with their own “heat sink” to transfer heat away from the memory chip and out to the surface of the card, allowing the transfer of “large amounts of data at high speed … for long periods of time.” And since these are ‘Tough’ cards, they’re bend and shock resistant, as well as IP57 water and dust proof.

According to Sony:

The CFexpress Type A cards are ideally suited for high-speed continuous shooting of more than 1,000 uncompressed RAW still images, as well as 4K 120p movie recording at high bit rates with the Slow & Quick Motion function when paired with new Alpha 7S III, which features two CFexpress Type A compatible media slots, that also support UHS-I and UHS-II SDXC/SDHC cards.

Finally, since you need a way to actually pull the data off of these cards, Sony is also releasing a USB-C (USB 3.2 Gen 2) memory card reader that supports both SD cards and CFExpress Type A cards, and which boasts a maximum data rate of 10Gbps.

The new Sony CFExpress Type A cards and the SD/CFExpress Type A card reader are available to pre-order today, with shipping expected to start in September (at the same time as the Sony a7S III). The 80GB card will cost you $200, the 160GB card will cost you $400, and SD/CFA the card reader will run you a cool $120.

To learn more or pre-order yours, follow the links in the paragraph above.