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BUYERS’ GUIDE
LEXAR PROFESSIONAL CFEXPRESS TYPE A GOLD Price TBC lexar.com
ADATA HD830 HDD From £72/$89 adata.com
Lexar is the now the fourth manufacturer to launch CFexpress Type A cards to fit Sony cameras. The new Lexar Gold series features speeds of 900MB/s read and 800MB/s write, faster than its rivals, allowing 8K, 6K and 4K video. Lexar will launch the CFexpress Type A Reader, supporting ultra high-speed USB 10Gbps transfer protocol via USB Type C. The 160GB card supports VPG 400 specification, which guarantees a minimum sustained write speed of 400MB/s. It is designed to be shock and vibration-proof, and resistant to extreme temperature. And it’s backed by a lifetime warranty.
For a rugged HDD external drive at an affordable price, check out the 2TB Adata HD830. It has a sturdy aluminium case, fins to dissipate heat, and a shock-absorbing inner layer to cradle the drive. Blue silicone rubber bumpers around the edges protect against drops. It’s waterproof, dustproof and shockproof, has passed the US military’s standard 1.22m drop test and can be safely submerged in water for two hours. It has a conventional 5200rpm spinning mechanical drive and the connection is the slower USB 3.1. This works fine with most PCs or Mac computers, but you may need a different cable.
Pros: Fastest claimed speed Cons: No prices announced yet
Pros: Inexpensive and very durable Cons: Not the speediest transfer rates
OWC ENVOY PRO ELEKTRON SSD From £97/$94 owcdigital.com
ProGrade Digital became the first company to rival Sony by selling CFexpress Type A cards to fit the Sony A7S III and A1 mirrorless, as well as FX6 and FX3 cinema cameras. They have the same claimed read speeds up to 800MB/s and write speeds up to 700MB/s of the Sony cards, but are cheaper. The ProGrade Digital Type A Cobalt card is £292/$365 for the largest 160GB, while the Sony is £399/$398. CFexpress Type A cards are smaller than full-size SD, but bigger than microSD, and offer performance three times greater than the fastest UHS-II cards. PROGRADE DIGITAL CFEXPRESS TYPE A From £292/$365 progradedigital.com
The pocket-size OWC Envoy Pro Elektron USB-C external drive is crushproof and dustproof, with up to 1011MB/s in real-world speeds. The cool-running, aircraft-grade aluminium SSD drive comes with a USB Type C cable and Type A adapter, making it plug-and-play compatible with Macs or PCs – as well as the iPad Pro and Chromebook tablets. The unit is powered by the OWC Aura SSD, with advanced NVMe technology for fast performance. The rugged build is crushproof, dustproof and waterproof (IP67-rated), and it boots up in seconds. A three-year warranty is included.
Pros: Plug-and-play ease Cons: More expensive than some
Pros: Same spec as Sony, but cheaper Cons: Nothing obvious!
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