CFexpress Type B Media Standard Discussed With Angelbird

by Francesco AndreolaSeptember 16^th, 2023

During IBC 2023, we sat down with Angelbird’s CEO Roman Rabitsch for a friendly chat on the present and future of the CFexpress Type B media card standard. Roman walked us through their current CFexpress Type B lineup and offered a brief glimpse into what the future might hold.

With bigger data rates always on the horizon, CFexpress Type B media is rapidly establishing itself as the de-facto standard for high-resolution and high-speed capture, especially considering the increasing popularity of RAW video formats.

If we just take a look at some of the most recent camera releases, it’s evident that CFexpress Type B is here to stay. RED’s KOMODO-X, the freshly-released Blackmagic Cinema Camera 6K, and Sony’s high-end BURANO CineAlta camera are just a few examples of this trend. So let’s take a quick look at what leading media manufacturer Angelbird has to offer on this front!

Angelbird CFexpress Type B – product lineup

Angelbird currently offers 4 lines of CFexpress Type B 2.0 cards – AV Pro SE, SX, MK2, and XT MK2 – along with their Media Tank hard-aluminum case that allows you to safely store your cards. By the way, we also took an exclusive “How It’s Made” factory tour at Angelbird a while back, so make sure to check that out to see how your cards are produced.

The SE and SX series are designed to provide users with a cost-effective media solution. The major difference is that the former is meant to offer some extra capacity when shooting long videos, while the “SX” line is engineered for endurance, thus making it ideal for high-speed continuous capture in stills photography.

Both lines were expanded back at NAB 2023. Hence, the SE series is now available in 512GB and 1TB capacities, while the SX cards come in 160GB and 330GB. Both lines share the same maximum read speed of 1785MB/s, but the SX series is 50MB/s faster when it comes to write speed (1600MB/s on the SX line vs 1550MB/s on the SE cards).

On the other hand, the MK2 cards are designed with high capacity in mind (up to 4TB). These are the same cards that RED rebranded for their V-RAPTOR cameras (and now KOMODO-X). Lastly, the XT MK2 cards bring the “high-endurance” concept a step further by applying it to long-duration RAW video capture. The XT MK2 cards are available in 660GB and 1320GB sizes.

CFexpress Type B Gen 3.0 and 4.0

While Angelbird exploits the 2.0 standard for their cards, the most up-to-date version on the market for CFexpress Type B media is 3.0. According to Roman, its specifications exceed the write speed requirements of today’s camera technology and should be plenty enough for the next 2/3 years.

However, the CompactFlash Association has just announced CFexpress 4.0, which promises to double the theoretical maximum throughput of CFexpress 2.0 by bringing it to 4GB/s. While this seems like an overkill for now, it also hints towards an exciting future for camera technology.

For more information, please visit Angelbird’s website here.

Does your camera record on CFexpress Type B media? What is your go-to brand when it comes to choosing a reliable card? Let us know your thoughts in the comment section below!