Lexar unleashes world’s fasted XQD card, speedier CF and SD cards to boot
posted Tuesday, October 13, 2015 at 4:14 PM EDT
Today, Lexar has unleashed upon the world a barrage of flash storage units and accessories that will speed up your photo storage and transferring to speeds you’ve never seen. Whether your workflow involves an SD card, CF card, XQD card, or any combination of the above, Lexar's new lineup has you covered.
Lexar XQD cards and reader
First up is Lexar’s new Professional 2933x XQD 2.0 card and Professional 1400x XQD 2.0 card. The former clocks in as the fastest XQD card on the market with read speeds up to 440MB/second, while the latter comes in at still-impressive read speeds of 210MB/second.
Despite being designed with DSLR cameras in mind, the Nikon D4s is the only DSLR to support the XQD format. This is due in part to Nikon being one of three manufacturers who have collaborated on the format. Canon has yet to even hint at XQD support, although it’s not entirely impossible we’ll be seeing it in the inevitable 1DX successor.
Interestingly, Lexar’s new Professional 2933x XQD 2.0 card doesn’t even max out at half of the possible read speeds of the 2.0 version of XQD, first announced in June 2012, which is capable of topping out at a transfer rate of 1000MB/s (8 Gbit/s).
To transfer data between the card and your computer, Lexar has also introduced the Professional Workflow XR2 card reader, which uses USB 3.0 to ensure your photos leave the card as quickly as they’re recorded to it.
The Lexar Professional 2933x XQD 2.0 is available in 32GB, 64Gb and 128GB capacities for US$177.99, US$328.99 and $616.99, respectively. The Lexar Professional 1400x XQD 2.0 card is available in 32GB and 64GB capacities for US$123.99 and US$191.99, respectively. The Lexar Professional Workflow XR2 will retail for US$44.99.
Lexar 2000x SDXC card
In addition to Lexar’s new XQD cards, they’ve also released a brand new Professional 2000x SDXC(TM) UHS-II card that comes with its own SD UHS-II reader and clocks in with read speeds at up to 300MB/s.
The Lexar Professional 2000x SDXC UHS-II card is set to go on sale in October of 2015 with a MSRP of US$289.99.
Lexar 3600x and 3500x CFast 2.0 Cards
With both the XQD and SD formats taken care of, Lexar makes sure to show some love to those who use CF cards. Today, Lexar unleashed the a pair of Professional 3600x and 3500x CFast 2.0 cards.
First up is the Professional 3600x CFast(TM) 2.0 card which is specifically optimized for ARRI cameras (although it works perfectly fine with others) and clocks in a read speed of up to 540MB/s. A little behind that is Lexar’s Professional 3500x CFast 2.0 card, which replaces its current Professional 3400x CFast 2.0 card and offers a read speed up to 525MB/s.
The Lexar Professional 3600x CFast 2.0 card comes in 128GB and 256GB capacities that will retail for US$506.99 and US$944.99, respectively. The Lexar Professional
3500x CFast 2.0 card is available in 32GB, 64GB, 128GB and 256GB capacities for US$164.99 US$273.99 US$506.99 and US$944.99, respectively.