Sony, the company that created XQD, announces new XQD competing CFast line
posted Tuesday, November 28, 2017 at 4:10 PM EDT
In "news from the upside down," Sony has today announced a series of CFast cards for high-performance cameras. The new cards will be called the "G Series CFast 2.0" and will be available in 32GB (CAT-G32), 64GB (CAT-G64) and 128GB (CAT-G128) capacities. Sony says that this choice is in response to the "ever increasing capabilities of high-end DSLR and 4K cinema-grade broadcast cameras." The cards offer lightning-fast, though standard for the CFast 2.0 format, write speeds of up to 510MB/s and read speeds of up to 530MB/s.
Sony’s G Series CFast cards are planned to be available in early 2018 for a suggested retail price of $119.99 for 32GB, $199.99 for 64GB and $349.99 for 128GB. For more information, click here.
What's not weird is that these cards are likely going to perform excellently, as all Sony SD cards have really been pinnacles of high quality over the last couple years. Knock on wood, I've never had a Sony card fail, and the stated Min/Max speeds on them may be the same as a Sandisk or Lexar (Rest in peace my friend), they actually tend to overperform in those categories. For example, my normal UHS-1 Sony 128GB card can handle the 4K recording of my Canon 5D Mark IV, but an identically spec'd Lexar card I own does not.
What is weird is that these exist at all. Sony created a competing format to CFast, XQD, years ago, and it's already been accepted as the format of the future, since CFast has reached its maximum read/write speeds. I covered this situation over a year ago, and you can read about it here. My only explanation is that CFExpress is taking longer to roll out than expected, and that CFast is still going to hang around long enough for Sony to get in on the action. These cards are not cheap, as no CFast card is, so there certainly is money to be made. There is less demand for CFast than SD, so the market has dictated the price can remain high. I'm still hesitant to recommend buying any CFast card, as the entire system is going to be obsolete soon. Or rather, soonish. Maybe.