Z9 Buffer & memory card results

[sid_19911991]

I bought a Lexar GB CF express B card. Going by the following table, it seemed the best performer relative to price. Its buffer/write capacity is the 3rd best on the list!

The results I got...

1) Lossless Raw only @ 20 FPS - 61 raw images - before buffer starts to slow down. But one can keep pressing the shutter button, it continues to write images at a slower FPS. I got a burst of 135 images & kept going!

2) Lossless Raw only @ 15 FPS - 132 raw images.


A 256 GB Acer card came bundled with my Z9 which can only shoot 30-32 lossless raw images at both 20 FPS & 15 FPS before the buffer runs out. And then, one has to pause for 2-3 seconds before it catches its breath. So basically, pathetic.



Source: Matt Granger

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[RichF]

I bought a Lexar GB CF express B card. Going by the following table, it seemed the best performer relative to price. Its buffer/write capacity is the 3rd best on the list!

The results I got...

1) Lossless Raw only @ 20 FPS - 61 raw images - before buffer starts to slow down. But one can keep pressing the shutter button, it continues to write images at a slower FPS. I got a burst of 135 images & kept going!

2) Lossless Raw only @ 15 FPS - 132 raw images.


A 256 GB Acer card came bundled with my Z9 which can only shoot 30-32 lossless raw images at both 20 FPS & 15 FPS before the buffer runs out. And then, one has to pause for 2-3 seconds before it catches its breath. So basically, pathetic.



Source: Matt Granger
View attachment 30955

Thanks for posting this. I'd be interesting to see cost per GB added to the table. I recently was able to to get a pair of 325GB Prograde Cobalt for around $630, normally around $775 or so That is less than $1/GB on sale and otherwise $1.20. Sony CFE Type B toughs and Wise are around $1.50/GB.

Interesting that only card were size results in increased speed is the Wise Pro line. Otherwise results are similar, though not always identical, between different card sizes.

 

[ruley74]

Nice, funny it's the first thing i did yesterday also, as i got a relatively unknown brand of card for a good price before the Z9 was delivered. Both my tests were done at 20FPS, single point, ISO 100, AF-C and Auto distortion off. I did both 2-3 times with similar results.

The card is a ProMaster Velocity Cine 128GB. Min write speed is claimed to be quite high ("1700MB/s minimum sustained sequential write speed & 1770MB/s read speed") so i thought is was worth the gamble and the price is really competitive (170USD, 380AUD.... yes we get stitched up on pricing!)

Quick and dirty result: Lossless ~75, HE* ~375.

 

[RichF]

Nice, funny it's the first thing i did yesterday also, as i got a relatively unknown brand of card for a good price before the Z9 was delivered. Both my tests were done at 20FPS, single point, ISO 100, AF-C and Auto distortion off. I did both 2-3 times with similar results.

The card is a ProMaster Velocity Cine 128GB. Min write speed is claimed to be quite high ("1700MB/s minimum sustained sequential write speed & 1770MB/s read speed") so i thought is was worth the gamble and the price is really competitive (170USD, 380AUD.... yes we get stitched up on pricing!)

Quick and dirty result: Lossless ~75, HE* ~375.

sounds like a great deal.

 

[sid_19911991]

Thanks for posting this. I'd be interesting to see cost per GB added to the table. I recently was able to to get a pair of 325GB Prograde Cobalt for around $630, normally around $775 or so That is less than $1/GB on sale and otherwise $1.20. Sony CFE Type B toughs and Wise are around $1.50/GB.

Interesting that only card were size results in increased speed is the Wise Pro line. Otherwise results are similar, though not always identical, between different card sizes.

Hmmm... I hope the cards get cheaper & better. Apparently more manufacturers are going to jump on the CF express B card bandwagon in 2022...time will tell.

Where I live,

325 Pro cobalt is 2.35 USD / 1 GB

Sony Tough is 3 USD / 1 GB

Lexar 64 GB is 2.3 USD / 1 GB

Lexar 128 GB is 1 95 USD / 1 GB.

In per gb cost terms, Lexar & pro cobalt is similar, but for those who don't want to spend more on a bigger card, but want to avail the speed benefits on a smaller card, looks like Lexar is a decent deal.

 

[DGettisNC]

Delkin Power 128gb CFE-b
~76 shots on lossless before hitting the buffer. Then it clears extremely fast. Stays very cool as well. Its another great performing, lower gb card for the people that didnt want or need to order mulitple 325gb or 512gb cards.

 

[arbitrage]

FWIW the Delkin Power and the ProMaster are the same card with a different sticker on them

If you don't need the higher capacity Prograde Platinum cards then the Delkin Power or ProMaster have to be the best $/performance cards. I've read other reports of people getting 80 shots with those but it probably depends on a few things like ISO which can affect file size and therefore when buffer stalls. Still 76 or so is right up there with the most expensive cards.

 

[DGettisNC]

FWIW the Delkin Power and the ProMaster are the same card with a different sticker on them

If you don't need the higher capacity Prograde Platinum cards then the Delkin Power or ProMaster have to be the best $/performance cards. I've read other reports of people getting 80 shots with those but it probably depends on a few things like ISO which can affect file size and therefore when buffer stalls. Still 76 or so is right up there with the most expensive cards.

I just checked again, with iso set to 64 and SS set to 1/2500 (using my 500PF) just to clear out any possibilities I didnt do the previous tests correctly.
You're right, I'm now getting somewhere between 84-89 shots on lossless at 20fps before hitting buffer (so hard for me to stop quick enough once you hear the buffer...so at least 84 shots.)

 

[arbitrage]

In Canada the $/GB is the same $1.64 for the 128GB Delkin Power and the 330GB Prograde Cobalt. So really just depends how big of a card you want.
The card I'd really like someone to test is the 512GB NKI card sold on Amazon. It is only $0.74/GB. Somehow I doubt it has the sustained write needed for ~80 shots but I'd love to know how fast/slow it is. For some reason the US price is not as reasonable for that card...$319 USD vs $379 CAD which is only 1.19x so much lower than the normal exchange we see (~1.3x or so...1.27x on the Delkin Power).

I can't find anywhere to buy or price out the Promaster cards in Canada. The SD cards are on Amazon and are actually very expensive for what they are.

 

[abc123brian]

I tested one of my Delkin Power cards at higher iso and it was in the 70s. Didn’t test it again because it seemed sufficient.

 

[DGettisNC]

I'm about 95% sure at this point I will just use HE* instead of lossless anyway. I will test some more this weekend (finally looking like at least some sun will be out both days), but I didnt really notice anything that looked off to me from the few shots I was able to get last weekend during bad weather while using HE*.

With the 128gb cards, the camera tells me I'll get roughly 1400 shots using lossless vs 3300 shots using HE*.
Incomplete testing with the HE* at 20fps appears as if it will never hit the buffer (got to r015 but stayed there for hundreds of shots and never went below)

The only drawback to HE* for me, so far, is that I cannot fully open and zoom into the pics before importing into Lightroom on my PC (windows). I can see the images in the preview pane, and can make that preview pane almost full screen, but if I try to actually open and zoom in it says it cant do it. So last weekend I ended up importing a few more images than I normally would have because I couldnt 100% confirm sharpness until I got them into LR. (if I saw one that looked really sharp, I would basically import the 1-2 frames before and after that one just to make sure there was no movement or shake visible, instead of just confirming 1 was sharp by zooming in and only importing that 1)

 

[John Navitsky]

The only drawback to HE* for me, so far, is that I cannot fully open and zoom into the pics before importing into Lightroom on my PC (windows). I can see the images in the preview pane, and can make that preview pane almost full screen, but if I try to actually open and zoom in it says it cant do it.

I don't do it, but I recall folks shooting RAW + JPG and using Photomechanic to cull. If I recall, there is a way to have PM use the JPGs, then import the RAWs or something like that.

Of course, shooting HE*+JPG offsets the advantage of shooting HE* and makes for a more complicated workflow.

 

[DGettisNC]

I don't do it, but I recall folks shooting RAW + JPG and using Photomechanic to cull. If I recall, there is a way to have PM use the JPGs, then import the RAWs or something like that.

Of course, shooting HE*+JPG offsets the advantage of shooting HE* and makes for a more complicated workflow.

I didnt think about that. Not a bad idea for certain situations for sure.

 

[John Navitsky]

I didnt think about that. Not a bad idea for certain situations for sure.

I think it works if you use something like PM that can handle it seamlessly. Trying to juggle them by hand would probably just be a pain.

 

[SRLNY]

Sounds like, based upon this thread, that the Delkin Power cards are working just as well as the Delkin Black cards. That's a small cost savings right there. Anyone believe otherwise?

 

[Wes Peterson]

It really does seem as tho there is room to give us 30fps in HE*

 

[John Navitsky]

It really does seem as tho there is room to give us 30fps in HE*

that's what i think, too

 

[DGettisNC]

Sounds like, base upon this thread, that the Delkin Power cards are working just as well as the Delkin Black cards. That's a small cost savings right there. Anyone believe otherwise?

I believe it is somewhat dependent on which size card. Some of the Delkin Powers perform better than others. I believe the same goes for the Delkin Black cards. Some sizes are much better than other sizes. I read somewhere that they have been updating those cards though as well, so maybe all the sizes are about the same now.

From a chart I had:
Coolest to Hottest (of the ones tested, at least) Delkin Black 512GB was best, 2nd was Delkin Power 128GB, 3rd was ProGrade 650GB Cobalt, 4th Prograde 325GB Cobalt, 5th was ProGrade 1TB Gold, 6th best was Delkin Power 256gb, 7th was Delkin Prime 64gb.

For speed ratings (fastest to slowest, of the ones tested) Best was Delkin Black 512gb, 2nd was ProGrade 325gb Cobalt, 3rd was Delkin Power 128gb, 4tth was ProGrade 659gb Cobalt, 5th was Delkin Prime 64gb. But the Delkin Power 256gb was towards the end...and about 1/4 the speed of the Delkin Power 128GB.

But Delkin/ProGrade/etc may have updated the cards at this point to where all the sizes are similar. I do now know that info.

 

[John Navitsky]

I believe it is somewhat dependent on which size card. Some of the Delkin Powers perform better than others. I believe the same goes for the Delkin Black cards. Some sizes are much better than other sizes.

yes. within a given product line, the performance still varies between sizes of cards. iirc, most lines are slower under 300GB or so.

 

[SRLNY]

thanks for further info re card speeds!

 

[ruley74]

FWIW the Delkin Power and the ProMaster are the same card with a different sticker on them

If you don't need the higher capacity Prograde Platinum cards then the Delkin Power or ProMaster have to be the best $/performance cards. I've read other reports of people getting 80 shots with those but it probably depends on a few things like ISO which can affect file size and therefore when buffer stalls. Still 76 or so is right up there with the most expensive cards.

I was told it was made by Delkin but didn't know what it may have been equivalent to so good info thanks. I was at a lower SS so it's possible i could do better with the ProMaster also.

 

[EricBowles]

I believe it is somewhat dependent on which size card. Some of the Delkin Powers perform better than others. I believe the same goes for the Delkin Black cards. Some sizes are much better than other sizes. I read somewhere that they have been updating those cards though as well, so maybe all the sizes are about the same now.

From a chart I had:
Coolest to Hottest (of the ones tested, at least) Delkin Black 512GB was best, 2nd was Delkin Power 128GB, 3rd was ProGrade 650GB Cobalt, 4th Prograde 325GB Cobalt, 5th was ProGrade 1TB Gold, 6th best was Delkin Power 256gb, 7th was Delkin Prime 64gb.

For speed ratings (fastest to slowest, of the ones tested) Best was Delkin Black 512gb, 2nd was ProGrade 325gb Cobalt, 3rd was Delkin Power 128gb, 4tth was ProGrade 659gb Cobalt, 5th was Delkin Prime 64gb. But the Delkin Power 256gb was towards the end...and about 1/4 the speed of the Delkin Power 128GB.

But Delkin/ProGrade/etc may have updated the cards at this point to where all the sizes are similar. I do now know that info.

The speed for the 256 GB Delkin Power sounds off. You might want to contact Delkin and report the issue. Perhaps there is a firmware update for that card or they could send a replacement.

You might also try a Quick Format on your computer for that card. I saw another report recently of slow performance with a Delkin card and their customer service staff suggested a computer format which resolved the issue.

Delkin is known for good customer service.

 

[DGettisNC]

The speed for the 256 GB Delkin Power sounds off. You might want to contact Delkin and report the issue. Perhaps there is a firmware update for that card or they could send a replacement.

You might also try a Quick Format on your computer for that card. I saw another report recently of slow performance with a Delkin card and their customer service staff suggested a computer format which resolved the issue.

Delkin is known for good customer service.

I should have been clearer. I didnt personally test all of those. I read as many reviews/tests as I could before I purchased my 2ea Delkin Power 128gb cards.
This was the speed chart I was referencing, though

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[arbitrage]

The Delkin in that test by SSD Review was before the more recent FW. Any 256GB card bought in the last year or so will be up to the speed (or close enough) of the 128GB in that test. I spent a lot of time researching CFExpress and reading all of these tests back when I bought my R5.

 

[John Navitsky]

I should have been clearer. I didnt personally test all of those. I read as many reviews/tests as I could before I purchased my 2ea Delkin Power 128gb cards.
This was the speed chart I was referencing, though

Yah, the Powers seem to look reasonable in the test, but note that Delkin doesn't publish a spec, so if your card isn't as fast as the ones tested, Delkin probably isn't going to have any sympathy. I've adopted a policy at this point not to buy any more cards where they are unwilling to publish the sustained/minimum write speed.

Delkin CFexpress™ Type B Memory Cards - Delkin Devices

POWER Preferred by Professionals 128GB – 2TB 1730 MB/s Max Read 1540 MB/s Max Write Lifetime Warranty Ideal for professional photographers & videographers, the POWER CFexpress™ card is designed to excel in high-end cinema cameras for flawless 6K & 4K RAW video recording. BLACK Fastest on the...

www.delkindevices.com

(read the chart carefully. they have a "minimum write" column for the Black, but it says Maximum Burst for the Power)