Nextorage B1 Pro 1330GB CFexpress Card Review – Trusted, Reliable and Very Fast

by Johnnie BehiriAugust 2^nd, 2023

Our filmmaking industry is racing forward by introducing advanced cameras that can record at very high resolutions. 4/6/8/12K videos, you name it and one of the leading manufacturers will surely have it. But the game does not end there. Next to resolution, these workhorses can also record at a variety of different frame rates. 24/25/30/50/60p are all becoming the norm. Yes, higher frame rates can be found on selected cameras, but in many cases, the resolution is compromised. Those numbers are all nice and appealing, but we need fast, reliable cards to actually record the footage. Nextorage is one of those companies that offer solid recording media solutions, and on my table today is the Nextorage B1 Pro 1330GB CFexpress Type B card. Let’s review it.

Nextorage is a Japanese company that specializes in the development, design, and manufacturing of recording media devices. It was established at the end of 2019 by engineers and staff who previously worked at Sony.

B1 Pro Series vs. B1 SE

At the end of last year, Nextorage announced a couple of new CFexpress cards. The B1 Pro Series consists of four cards (165 / 330 / 660 / 1,330GB) and is aimed to serve those who are using the latest and greatest mirrorless cameras. Next, there is the B1 SE Series (128 / 256 GB) which is lower in capacity and is meant to accommodate the needs of photographers along with filmmakers with modest needs.

In my review, I’ll concentrate on the B1 Pro 1330GB card simply because it is the fastest and largest in the company’s arsenal.

Nextorage B1 Pro 1330GB – testing method

Testing media cards can be performed in different ways, and for those who are wondering, I won’t include card speed test slides simply because all those USB-C card readers are a bottleneck in achieving high data transfer rates. Currently, we are missing a Thunderbolt 3 card reader, so for our review, those won’t be relevant.

Saying this, who needs card speed tests if the actual testing is simply recording at the highest resolution, frame rate, and codec available?

This is why I’ve chosen the direct way. I simply took one of the most advanced mirrorless cameras on the market, the Nikon Z 9, and configured it to record internally in N-RAW at 8K/60p (highest data rate (5.8Gb/s). The card and camera might get hot, but I’m more interested in seeing if the card will choke at any point, or if it can actually record as long as the capacity allows. And by the way, 1330GB fits 30 minutes recording time of 8K/60p N-RAW. That means we had to record up to the card’s full capacity, then format it and repeat the recording again.

Now, this could be the shortest review I’ve ever done. Simply put, this card is phenomenal and did not stop me from recording at whatever resolution and frame rate I threw at it. I tried torturing it by recording N-RAW 8K/60p up to its full capacity, then immediately erasing the card and continuing to record on it as fast as possible.

The good news is that the Nextorage B1 Pro 1330GB card performed without any hiccups. The less good news is that the card and camera both got hot, but not to the point where they shut off immediately. In fact, it took a bit more than 1 hour and 45 minutes until the camera surrendered and showed us a black screen of death. Speaking of which, we also tried to record with the new Nikon Z 8 and the results were very disappointing as the camera got hot after 12 minutes and shut off completely after only 24 minutes. (In the above images we worked with Nextorage 660GB cards, so we erased the card after it was full and continued recording immediately afterward).

Next, we tried the card inside the popular FUJIFILM X-H2. Yes, the data rate the camera needs to record in 8K/30p ProRes HQ is lower than what the Z 9 just recorded in RAW, yet ProRes is becoming the defacto recording codec on these modern cameras so we wanted to see how well it worked. We recorded on the FUJIFILM X-H2 in 8K ProRes 422 HQ 29.97p = highest data rate (3.6Gb/s). The Nextorage B1 Pro 1330GB fits 42 minutes of 8K/30p ProRes HQ recording.

As you can see, it went rather smoothly up to 1 hour and 15 minutes of continuous recording before the camera overheated and stopped recording.

By the way, we decided to skip testing the EOS R5 C RAW recording as the Nikon RAW is more demanding.

Conclusion

The Nextorage B1 Pro 1330GB card is an extremely reliable recording media card. Is it the fastest out there? Maybe yes, but in all honesty, it doesn’t really matter because it can take whatever you give it. We never once had to stop recording because of the card itself, but rather always because of a camera limitation. Personally, I also like its capacity size. Many filmmakers are a bit concerned about using very large capacity cards due to the risk of potential data loss in the event of a complete failure. In my opinion, 1330GB is kind of the sweet spot between capacity and possible risk.

There are two points to consider when thinking about purchasing this card. The first point is the price. The B1 Pro 1330GB card will set you back $1,600. This is a considerable amount of money, but in this particular case, you do get what you are paying for.

The other thing to be aware of is that these cards are available for purchase primarily on Amazon. Is that a good thing or not – I’ll leave it up to you to decide. But, I would have loved to see these cards at other vendors like B&H and CVP.

Do you guys have any experience working with media cards made by Nextorage, and CFexpress cards in particular? If yes, please share your thoughts with us in the comment section below.