By Mark E. Lewis, VP Marketing

“The ProGrade Digital cards were the fastest I have ever used!” Colin McMaster, McKlein Photography

CFast 2.0 Cards

ProGrade Digital’s latest V60 workflow solutions, available in capacities ranging from 128GB – 512GB, offer incredible speeds of up to 550MB/sec, which is blazingly fast. How fast? Just ask Colin McMaster, Partner at McKlein Photography specializes in Race and Rally photography—one of the first to test out the new card prior to its release. McMaster paired the 128GB and 256GB cards with the Canon EOS 1DX Mark II while shooting the FIA World Rally Championship in Monte Carlo.

McMaster reports that he was “thoroughly impressed with the write speed of the cards.“ He goes on to explain, “on a couple of locations I was using remote control radio sync to shoot the action on a second camera, located in a place that would be unsafe to stand. I needed to keep shooting on my handheld camera, even after the cars had left the frame in order to trigger the remote camera. Most data cards I know would have stopped to buffer just when I needed the camera to keep shooting. The ProGrade Digital CFast 2.0 card had the speed to write and shoot continuously, so both cameras could get the shot… The ProGrade Digital cards were the fastest I have ever used!”

SDXC UHS-II, V60

With speeds of up to 200MB/s and a V60 speed grade, affordably-priced cards come in capacities of 64GB-256GB. The V60 speed grade achieves the benchmark for shooting 4K UHD video, so they’re the perfect workflow solutions for both stills and motion capture.

PG-02 Dual CFast/SD Card Reader

The first* dual card reader with both CFast and SD slots, the PG-02 is ideal for pros who shoot both formats. Like the CFast and SD cards from ProGrade Digital, the card reader is exceptionally fast. And, notably, the reader can transfer data from both cards simultaneously at approximately 675Mbytes/second—about 35% faster than previously possible–thanks to its USB 3.1 Gen 2 compatibility. Two cables are included with the reader: a Type C to Type C for users of the newer computers and a Type C to Type A, which is backward compatible to older computers with USB 2.0 or 3.0 compatibility.

For photographers who work on location or are offloading files in a cramped pressroom, ProGrade Digital has designed the reader with an internal magnet to attach to your laptop or other metal surfaces. Adding to this device’s convenience is the ability to stack two or more readers atop one another. Speed counts when you’re rushing to meet a deadline and so does being able to find a space for the card reader when working in tight spaces.

*As of February 15, 2018

Looking to the Future

The continued development of CFx standards has enormous potential and you can be assured that ProGrade Digital is working on future workflow solutions based on the standards established by the CFA, as well as the SD Association (SDA).

For more than two decades, memory cards have been a hodgepodge of formats including the paper thin SmartMedia Card and tiny xD Card. And let’s not forget Sony’s Memory Stick or the chunky Microdrive. While CompactFlash and SD cards have stayed the course. XQD and CFast came on the scene to provide the speed and capacities required for high resolution still and video capture although support for those formats is segmented by brand, continuing to leave the industry without a universal standard.

But the future looks bright for high-end imagers. In 2017, the CompactFlash Association (CFA) announced specifications for CFexpress 1.0 (CFx) with great increases in speed performance and, possibly, more universal adoption by the industry of a single format. The latter would not only simplify photographer and cinematographer workflows, but manufacturers would no longer have to support multiple formats—a win-win proposition.

There is also the potential for cross-compatibility between XQD and CFx cards since the physical formats are identical in size and shape, theoretically achievable with nothing more than a camera firmware update.

With a close eye on the future, as well as taking on the role of the driving force in today’s market, ProGrade Digital offers products—today and into the future– products that are designed to help photographers and cinematographers speed their way through every job.

Be sure to visit the ProGrade Digital site often for the latest news and information. There’s a lot more to come.