Are XQD and CFExpress memory cards same physical size?

4 years 3 months ago #670269 by Jason Stevens
I had always thought the CFExpress memory card was completely different from the XQD cards.  Now I'm reading Nixon Z6 and Z7 owners can update with the latest firmware, then use CFExpress cards in their cameras?  

Which brings me to my next question, with read speeds of 1700MB/s and write speeds of 1480MB/s.  Aside from ON PAPER being like 15-20X quicker, what does this mean in real world using?  Will this mainly matter when shooting video, or will this make a difference with shooting stills? 


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4 years 3 months ago #670281 by garyrhook

Jason Stevens wrote: I had always thought the CFExpress memory card was completely different from the XQD cards.  Now I'm reading Nixon Z6 and Z7 owners can update with the latest firmware, then use CFExpress cards in their cameras?  

Which brings me to my next question, with read speeds of 1700MB/s and write speeds of 1480MB/s.  Aside from ON PAPER being like 15-20X quicker, what does this mean in real world using?  Will this mainly matter when shooting video, or will this make a difference with shooting stills? 


If you read up on the history of both, you find that yes, CFE uses the same form-factor as XQD. By design.

The FW update to which you refer, v2.20, was announced mid-December, so it's kinda hot-off-the-press. We can hope this means that the awaited FW for the D850, D5, etc, that adds support for CFE, will be coming soon.

As for speed, it's not "on paper". XQD and CFE are based on PCIE/NVME protocols, and sit directly on a fast bus. They run faster by design.

In the real world, it should mean that an XQD device on a D850 shouldn't require buffering (7 fps x 72MB/f) which is 500 MB/s. And that's uncompressed 14 bit images. But alas, reality is otherwise. There's probably a computational element involved.

But yeah, faster device speeds means more throughput. Maybe native uncompressed 10 bit, 4K video at 60p. Or some such. Maybe, one day.

It will matter when shooting stills if the frame rate of the camera is high enough.


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4 years 3 months ago #670347 by CatherineW
Interesting, I have to be honest, I didn't know they were the same size either.  Thanks Gary, that was a good read you provided.  

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