New Delkin Black claims no buffer on Z9...

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As per NRs and Delkin's marketing. Supposedly this new card can write till card full without hitting buffer for full on Lossless Compressed RAW on the Z9. Crazy!!


Looks like B&H already has these in stock...snuck under the radar I guess: https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/prod...s_dcfxbblk325_325gb_black_cfexpress_type.html

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Interesting. I recently bought a couple more of the older version of the Delkin Black 128 gb cards at Paul’s at a reduced price. Paul’s was also advertising the new version of the cards, so I knew they were coming.

I have generally been using High Efficiency Raw* for my wildlife shooting and have never hit the buffer limit.
 
Forget using that in my Z9, that would be an upgrade for most laptops!

Now that many of us have had some time with the Z9, is anybody really hitting the buffer? I’m using a Lexar Professional CFE card, and have shot Lossless, HE+, HE, and C120, and have not hit the buffer once. By the time I even think to look at the frame remaining counter after a burst, it has already flushed.

I was planning on relegating this kinda-fast Lexar card to second-slot duty when a good deal came along on a really fast card, but at this point I’m more tempted to buy a really big, really slow CFE to use for overflow.

At least for me, the fast cards seem unnecessary. Is this crazy Delkin card in your guys’ sights?
 
I think the only time one will run into buffer is if shooting 20FPS and Lossless compressed. Still with the better cards (including the not so expensive Delkin Power) you will get 80 shot buffer so that is still 4s of shooting. I usually don't shoot much more than 4s bursts and even then only occasionally shoot anywhere near 4s. Considering that the buffer clears in an instance, I don't think many really need unlimited buffer.

If you shoot He/* or less than 20FPS then you will never have buffer issues even without the very best cards.
 
I had two 128 GB Delkin Black CF Express type B's waiting here when my Z9 finally arrived. They show the same speeds as the new larger capacity and seem to have plenty of capacity for me and I fear no buffer LOL.
 
according to the specs, these look only a bit faster 🤷‍♀️. i want to see someone offer something substantially faster.

i don’t buy these can shoot endlessly with compressed raw. i bet they are talking about he*

edit: they certainly say lossless compressed 🤔
 
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As per NRs and Delkin's marketing. Supposedly this new card can write till card full without hitting buffer for full on Lossless Compressed RAW on the Z9. Crazy!!


Looks like B&H already has these in stock...snuck under the radar I guess: https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/prod...s_dcfxbblk325_325gb_black_cfexpress_type.html

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Delkin Black has been one of the top 2 or 3 CFexpress cards recommended for the Z9. I have a few of them and have been very pleased. But this new announcement is exciting because apparently the Delkin Black will now be even better. And at a lower price! The previous Delkin Black 128GB card was about $230. The new Delkin Black 150GB card (20% more capacity) is priced at $175 - a bargain. And B&H is listing the card as "in stock".
 
The most important thing to notice about this in my opinion is that the Z9 is card speed limited only. If its true that these cards can really allow a Z9 to shoot lossless compressed raw at 20fps continuous then its not a camera limitation. This would also imply that other rates might become possible with some firmware updates like 30fps for example. These Delkin Blacks while very fast still are not running at the max attainable for a CFE B card at 2GB/s. At least I hope so :)
 
These look like premium cards to me. I cannot see that premium and even large capacity cards are needed given the costs involved at the moment. I am finding 128gb in each slot gives plenty of capacity. Cards speed and size is much less of an issue than I expected.
I use Delkin Power 128gb cards. I also have one Sony Tough and one Lexar 128. All seem great and have plenty of buffer. My default setting is for to use either 12fps (but if I am expecting fast moving subjects I sometimes preset this to15fps) for the wildlife action bank but have Fn3 as a boost to 20fps. I seldom bother with 20fps however. Even with high frame rates most of the images can be deleted anyway once you pick out the image which captures the key moment or action.
I have started to think that high frame rates have become far less important now that it seems virtually all of them are in focus. A lot of the time high frame rates seems to have been about improving your chances that you had a great image. I find myself zooming in to check focus and having plenty with excellent focus and a few with ‘ever so slightly off‘ focus which get deleted.
Maybe “Spray and Pray” should just be changed to “Spray and Select carefully”.
 
The most important thing to notice about this in my opinion is that the Z9 is card speed limited only. If its true that these cards can really allow a Z9 to shoot lossless compressed raw at 20fps continuous then its not a camera limitation. This would also imply that other rates might become possible with some firmware updates like 30fps for example. These Delkin Blacks while very fast still are not running at the max attainable for a CFE B card at 2GB/s. At least I hope so :)
RAW pre-capture maybe?
 
RAW pre-capture maybe?
Would be great. Even if HE Raw* precapture.

I think precapture is stored in the camera buffer and not written to the card unless you press the shutter release fully. That way, precapture can continue to store the most recent possible shots, pushing the older ones out of the buffer.

Faster card speed may still help, if you can still shoot at the desired speed after pressing the shutter button even though the buffer is partly or wholly filled with precapture shots.
 
Would be great. Even if HE Raw* precapture.

I think precapture is stored in the camera buffer and not written to the card unless you press the shutter release fully. That way, precapture can continue to store the most recent possible shots, pushing the older ones out of the buffer.

Faster card speed may still help, if you can still shoot at the desired speed after pressing the shutter button even though the buffer is partly or wholly filled with precapture shots.
But if the cards are the bottleneck, perhaps when they are fast enough the pre-captured RAWs can go on the cards and erased continuously.
 
But if the cards are the bottleneck, perhaps when they are fast enough the pre-captured RAWs can go on the cards and erased continuously.
I think they were only part of the issue. If the camera can hold 20+ photos in the buffer, it wouldn’t need to write anything to the card for precapture. The problem with the card speed is if the card is that if you have filled the buffer for precapture, you’re already hitting buffer when you go to shoot. So if performance here is as advertised where it can write as fast as the Z9 can shoot, you would be able to put 20 frames in the buffer for precapture and not need to worry.

I had wanted one more card so ordered one. Am interested to see how it works.
 
Im gonna go out on a limb and say we wont get any FPS improvements in the Z9 in 14 bit RAW I suspect the limiting factor is actually the Tico raw compression. The section of the processor dedicated to raw compression can only handle 20 fps max at 14 bit. That could potentially change with a new raw algorithm or dropping to 12 bit, or somehow bypassing the compression all together.
 

Nimi -​

The buffer is a type of dynamic RAM device designed for continuous FIFO (first-in first-out) operation and is the appropriate device location for precapture. The card is a solid state storage device so continuously writing precapture to the card and then continuously overwriting it would be incredibly processor inefficient and also shorten the card life.
 
I think the only time one will run into buffer is if shooting 20FPS and Lossless compressed. Still with the better cards (including the not so expensive Delkin Power) you will get 80 shot buffer so that is still 4s of shooting. I usually don't shoot much more than 4s bursts and even then only occasionally shoot anywhere near 4s. Considering that the buffer clears in an instance, I don't think many really need unlimited buffer.

If you shoot He/* or less than 20FPS then you will never have buffer issues even without the very best cards.
I only shoot stills and prefer multiple smaller cards vs on large one. So I opted for the 128G Delkin Power. My own testing at 20fps, 14 bit lossless yielded 75 frames before bogging down. At 15 fps I got to 600 frames and stopped the test. In DX mode at 20fps I reached 800 plus and stopped the test. I haven't yet tried shooting with HE settings because Adobe nor DxO support the format yet.
 
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