Sony releases brand new CFexpress Type A memory cards

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Along with Sony's new A7S III, the company has also debuted new CFexpress Type A memory cards for the camera.

You may be familiar with CFexpress Type B (As used in the Canon EOS R5 and Nikon Z7), but Type A is a new, smaller variant that offers slightly slower read/write speeds but a considerable reduction in physical size.

In comparison to a CFexpress Type B card (38.5 x 29.8 x 3.8mm), a Type A card is considerably smaller (28 x 20 x 2.8mm), and also much smaller than a standard SD card (32.0 x 24.0 x 2.1mm).

The compact size allows the A7S II to use both a CFexpress Type A card and an SD card together in the same slot (although not at the same time), and also allows for a mix and match type arrangement too.

© Sony Australia
© Sony Australia

The other advantage of the new system is they offer incredibly fast read and write speeds - Sony's cards are capable of 800MB/s read and 700MB/s write - twice as fast as most high-end UHS-II SD cards.

Sony has suggested that the new CFexpress Type A cards are suited to high-speed continuous RAW still image shooting and 4K 120p video recording. High resolution video generates plenty of heat, and the new cards feature a built in heat sink as to manage extreme temperatures, and are also VPG400-compliant (video performance guarantee), ensuring stable video recording at 400MB/s.

In addition, Sony has also released a dedicated CFExpress reader, the CFexpress Type A/SD Card Reader (MRW-G2). This uses a USB 3.2 Gen 2 interface with a maximum theoretical transfer speed of 1250MB/s - fast enough to let one of the new cards transfer at its maximum speed.

The MRW-G2 card reader also supports SDXC/SDHC UHS-I and UHS-II cards.

The new cards are available for purchase in both 80GB and 160GB .To find out more visit the Sony website here.

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