Are XQD Cards overpriced ?

TG.

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Tel
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Having recently got a camera, that takes XQD cards, I was looking at the prices, and even for a 32gb it costs over £100, I know they are a lot faster than SD/CF cards, but surely it still doesn't justify the extortionate price.

What are your thoughts please.
 
I got a D850 so selling my CF cards now, but have a few SD cards, just as well, I will be using it for mainly landscapes, so don't really need fast cards, as such, but when I looked at the prices of XQD cards I was gob smacked, I doubt I will be buying one anytime soon, I wish the D850 just had double SD card slots [emoji849]
 
I got a D850 so selling my CF cards now, but have a few SD cards, just as well, I will be using it for mainly landscapes, so don't really need fast cards, as such, but when I looked at the prices of XQD cards I was gob smacked, I doubt I will be buying one anytime soon, I wish the D850 just had double SD card slots [emoji849]

Hey, you're blessed Tel. My Z6 only has one slot and it's either QXD or CFExpress, both of which are similar prices. All my SD and CF cards are now redundant.. :(
 
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I got a D850 so selling my CF cards now, but have a few SD cards, just as well, I will be using it for mainly landscapes, so don't really need fast cards, as such, but when I looked at the prices of XQD cards I was gob smacked, I doubt I will be buying one anytime soon, I wish the D850 just had double SD card slots [emoji849]
I think the D850 had the best of both worlds. Fast slot and cheap slot. Fast SD cards aren't much cheaper than fast XQDs but they are not as fast. MPB usually have some XQDs at decent prices
 
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I was an early adopter when the D500 came out and 32mb Lexars were just over £50, I bought 3 and since bought a Sony used here for the same sum....

Compared to my recent 32 and 64 mb SD card (SD extreme pros) eyewatering. compared to uhs-II not too much of a gulf...

Prices shot up when Lexar announced they were pulling out of the memory card business...prices shot up ~50% overnight
 
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They do seem stupidly expensive. I suppose there's hardly any competition to keep prices down. The speed is all very well, but not everyone needs that. I just looked at my usual card supplier, MyMemory, and they don't even stock them. In comparison, a perfectly respectable Sandisk Extreme Pro V30 128GB is £32.
 
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I’ve just been through the same thing as my son is using my d500 had has had a few shoots where he’s “needed” a faster read speed. Also, one of my SD cards had died. I looked at a 64gb xqd which was £95 from MPB then I’d need a card reader so call it £125 all in.

i asked him if he wanted me to get an xqd but as soon as I told him the price he said no. I also think it’s quite easy for people to buy “fast” SD cards without reading that often the write speeds are the same as slower and cheaper ones.
 
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With the D850, I decided that 2 x 128gb XQD cards will be enough.. (lol) I have 11 fast SD cards for when I fill those before downloading - Never going to happen. I can tell however when I'm shooting on the SD card though - & yes happy to machine gun.
 
XQD were always pricey, :eek: and stocks that are left will probably rise in price as CFExpress start to take over, and older cameras may be made compatible with that format. If the cheaper CFExpress card will do, and it's a lot cheaper than the equivelant sized XQD, then that will be preferred by most.

When I got the D500 I also got the fastest 32Gb Lexar XQD and SD cards at the time, and they were a similar price. The SD card prices have continued to fall, but you can't get that Lexar XQD card now, and similar spec cards are similar or higher prices. The D500 has at last got a firmware update to be able to use CFExpress cards, but the camera can not take advantage of the extra speed the CFExpress format is capable of, and in most cases, from what I have read, the CFExpress cards do not offer the same performance as XQD and are similar to the fastest SD cards depth of buffer wise.

If someone needs the maximum performance from a D500, D850, or any camera designed for XQD, but capable of using CFExpress, the XQD is the one that will be needed, while stocks last, for no compromise performance. Not everyone will need that though. ;)

It is great that Nikon have offered the firmware upgrade to at least be able to use CFExpress cards, :) even if it took over a year from announcement to delivery of the update, :rolleyes: so that users will still have a usable slot way down the line if/when XQD cards get even harder to get,or the prices sky rocket.
 
I agree, they are expensive. :(

When I got my D850 from Panamoz, I bought a couple of Nikon 64GB ones with it for £75.00 each - at the time these were £161.00 each in the UK. The price has dropped a little in the last couple of months, but not by much.
 
Seems like CF express cards are just as stupidly over priced as XQD cards though, I honestly can't see how a XQD card/CF express card, is any more expensive to make than an SD card, or certainly not to justify the price hike, I've never understood why camera manufacturers make cameras with unmatching slots, the same as when I had my D810, SD slot, and CF slot, bloody redicoulos ! now I have no need for CF cards, so have to sell them, fortunately I have a few SD cards [emoji849]
 
Seems like CF express cards are just as stupidly over priced as XQD cards though, I honestly can't see how a XQD card/CF express card, is any more expensive to make than an SD card, or certainly not to justify the price hike, I've never understood why camera manufacturers make cameras with unmatching slots, the same as when I had my D810, SD slot, and CF slot, bloody redicoulos ! now I have no need for CF cards, so have to sell them, fortunately I have a few SD cards [emoji849]
Though the idea of mismatched slots seems odd, with current media pricing I think I'd rather have a CF Express/XQD and an SD slot than double CF Express/XQD slots. It would be worth it for the flexibility of stocking up on several cheap cards for a long trip, with the option of getting a more expensive fast card if required for something specific. I rarely need anything faster than SD, but have occasionally shot things like road cycling races where it's useful to have all the speed you can get.
 
I got a D850 so selling my CF cards now, but have a few SD cards, just as well, I will be using it for mainly landscapes, so don't really need fast cards, as such, but when I looked at the prices of XQD cards I was gob smacked, I doubt I will be buying one anytime soon, I wish the D850 just had double SD card slots [emoji849]

That put me off the D850 a little it has to be said - luckily the Pentax 645z has dual SD's.

Don't see the advantage to having 2 slots taking 2 different kinds of cards. I recommend though you do bite the bullet, SD cards fail and the dual write facility means you won't lose what you shot.
 
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Seems like CF express cards are just as stupidly over priced as XQD cards though, I honestly can't see how a XQD card/CF express card, is any more expensive to make than an SD card, or certainly not to justify the price hike, I've never understood why camera manufacturers make cameras with unmatching slots, the same as when I had my D810, SD slot, and CF slot, bloody redicoulos ! now I have no need for CF cards, so have to sell them, fortunately I have a few SD cards [emoji849]
XQD, and now CFExpress, are more technologically advanced formats compared to SD cards, in any iteration, because SD is a format that has evolved over time, SD > SDHC > SDXC and now SDUC. Changes have been made to capacities and speed over those different iterations, sometimes physically changing the pin configuration to add more data throughput, but the underlying technology is not as advanced. All the time they have kept format backwards compatible, and using the same physical shape. All plus points. :)

The benefit of keeping the same physical size, and starting at a 'lower level' technology enabled the quick take up by manufacturers in many different devices, and for them to update SD card compatibility with new formats over years of device updates, as the advances have been incremental. The more devices that can use a format affects the price of the format, this is what has affected the XQD format especially. The cost of using newer technology also increases the cost as a new format, and not being able to take advantage of the 'economy of scale', also affects the cost to the consumer.

Hopefully CFExpress being used in a lot more devices will start to affect the prices to consumers in a positive way as time goes on. But an SD format will always have cost to manufacture advantages with whatever iteration they come up with because they can take advantage of the economy of scale for all parts used in manufacture because they are, and have been, producing cards to a huge user base, and many parts of the components of a SD card will not have changed much over the years. Sony Tough cards aside, I can't say I have seen a change in the plastics used in SD cards for many years for example, so if you can buy that in large quantities you can negotiate to buy it cheaper. Do that kind of thing for every component, and you have the option to pass that onto the consumer. Have multiple manufacturers competing in the market offering cards should also affect prices in positive ways for consumers. Many manufacturers producing cards in competition didn't really happen with XQD, and is only slightly better with CFExpress.

XQD had few manufacturers making cards for a few devices, using more advanced technology, that inevitably equals higher card prices initially. Prices staying high is explained above. Now that a format has replaced it, prices will probably go up as scarcity licks in.

It is up to the individual to choose a device that uses a new format or not, if the device offers benefits worth it to them, or the device added to the new format, offers something attractive to them as package. CFExpress builds on the XQD format, but needs devices to made for that newer format to be able to use the benefits, and unlike SD card changes being backwards compatible to at least use a newer card on an older device, XQD devices need firmware updates(if possible) to enable the use of CFExpress cards.

But why put two different card formats in one device?
I can think of a couple few reasons.
The cost of adding two card slots using a new format may add significantly to cost.

The device may not have the processing power to use two card slots, with all the higher performance simultaneously.

You want to attract users to a device with a new format who may have many cards in a different format that would instantly become useless in the new device, potentially putting people off, having the option to use a different format will at least let users to continue to benefit from the cards they have, even if they may not be able to take advantage of all the devices features when using the newer card format.

There is not the need to initially have to buy more expensive cards in a new format with the new device if you already have carsd that may work with it, unless you want/need to use features which are only available using the newer format.

Until a new format is easily available, pairing it with a format as ubiquitous as SD, enables acquisition of a card almost everywhere in the world if needed. CFExpress, or anything else, will probably never be as successful and widespread as the SD format.

There are probably other reasons too. ;) As it is, it is up to the individual to buy a device with a new format, or multiple formats, or not. :rolleyes:
 
But why put two different card formats in one device? I can think of a couple few reasons.
The cost of adding two card slots using a new format may add significantly to cost.

The device may not have the processing power to use two card slots, with all the higher performance simultaneously.

You want to attract users to a device with a new format who may have many cards in a different format that would instantly become useless in the new device, potentially putting people off, having the option to use a different format will at least let users to continue to benefit from the cards they have, even if they may not be able to take advantage of all the devices features when using the newer card format.

There is not the need to initially have to buy more expensive cards in a new format with the new device if you already have carsd that may work with it, unless you want/need to use features which are only available using the newer format.

Until a new format is easily available, pairing it with a format as ubiquitous as SD, enables acquisition of a card almost everywhere in the world if needed. CFExpress, or anything else, will probably never be as successful and widespread as the SD format.

There are probably other reasons too. ;) As it is, it is up to the individual to buy a device with a new format, or multiple formats, or not. :rolleyes:

But for those of us that like using dual card slots for redundancy it makes for an expensive but useless upgrade since you are bottlenecked by the slower SD card slot. So I'd have to spend all that money for practically nothing or no performance increase but just to be able to use the camera.
Thanks for reminding me, saved me from wanting the R5 :ROFLMAO:
The one UHS-II cards slot and one UHS-I card slot configuration annoyed me equally but at least I didn't have buy and maintain two different card types.
If manufacturers really want to give the options for users to make a slow transition they should put in slots that can take both SD cards and CFExpress cards instead of one of each. That's the only proper solution for that IMO.
 
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But for those of us that like using dual card slots for redundancy it makes for an expensive but useless upgrade since you are bottlenecked by the slower SD card slot. So I'd have to spend all that money for practically nothing or no performance increase but just to be able to use the camera.
Or you don't buy that camera. The card slots, how many there are, and what type they are, are part of the whole. If it irks anyone so much, don't buy that camera! ;) If feedback gets back to manufacturers as that is a reason why sales are down, then they may not do in the future. :)
The one UHS-II cards slot and one UHS-I card slot configuration annoyed me equally but at least I didn't have buy and maintain two different card types.
If manufacturers really want to give the options for users to make a slow transition they should put in slots that can take both SD cards and CFExpress cards instead of one of each. That's the only proper solution for that IMO.
I think the UHS-II and UHS-I slots smacked of penny pinching, though it could have been for technical reasons.

Having two card formats use the same slot is a good idea, but sometimes it is not technically possible. The CFexpress Type B, the same card size as XQD, is larger in every dimension than an SD card. I think if they could have combined SD and CFexpress Type B, there probably would be one. The SD and CFexpress Type A are a closer match physical size wise, and have been put into the Canon R5 as dual format slot. Hopefully that would be in most cameras from now on to solidify and grow the CFexpress market, and bring prices down significantly.

The reduction in size for the CFexpress Type A has impacted the performance to half the read and write speeds of the original Type B card, though that is still almost twice as fast as a XQD (CFexpress Type B sized) card.
 
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Or you don't buy that camera. The card slots, how many there are, and what type they are, are part of the whole. If it irks anyone so much, don't buy that camera! ;) If feedback gets back to manufacturers as that is a reason why sales are down, then they may not do in the future. :)
I think the UHS-II and UHS-I slots smacked of penny pinching, though it could have been for technical reasons.

Having two card formats use the same slot is a good idea, but sometimes it is not technically possible. The CFexpress Type B, the same card size as XQD, is larger in every dimension than an SD card. I think if they could have combined SD and CFexpress Type B, there probably would be one. The SD and CFexpress Type A are a closer match physical size wise, and have been put into the Canon R5 as dual format slot. Hopefully that would be in most cameras from now on to solidify and grow the CFexpress market, and bring prices down significantly.

The reduction in size for the CFexpress Type A has impacted the performance to half the read and write speeds of the original Type B card, though that is still almost twice as fast as a XQD (CFexpress Type B sized) card.

Certainly will refrain from buying such a camera.
Some recent Sony bodies have done just that i.e. done with dual formats with CFe type A and SD cards. The issue I have with type A is there is like half a manufacture who makes them and may be one shop that sells them.

I wonder if it is possible to have a SD (UHS-II) to CFe Type B adapter? You know like how you could get SD to CF card adapters.
Even if it costs £30-40 buy one stick it in your camera permanently and treat it like dual SD card slots instead.

Right now I don't feel like investing in XQD or CF express cards (whatever type that might be). Everyone seems to be doing their own thing with no proper support to extract its full performance.
Also isn't XQD propriety sony thing? I shoot sony and even I don't want any propriety sony cards ever again lol
 
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Certainly will refrain from buying such a camera.
Some recent Sony bodies have done just that i.e. done with dual formats with CFe type A and SD cards. The issue I have with type A is there is like half a manufacture who makes them and may be one shop that sells them.
And that is the Catch 22, until more people buy devices that use a new format, the number of company's that produce them, and the number of places that sell them, may not increase quickly. ;)

I wonder if it is possible to have a SD (UHS-II) to CFe Type B adapter? You know like how you could get SD to CF card adapters.
Even if it costs £30-40 buy one stick it in your camera permanently and treat it like dual SD card slots instead.
I haven't heard of such a thing, and the difference in sizes between SD and CFe Type A does not leave a whole lot of space to incorporate any electronics to convert from one interface to another. There was quite a big difference between Compact Flash and SD.

Right now I don't feel like investing in XQD or CF express cards (whatever type that might be). Everyone seems to be doing their own thing with no proper support to extract its full performance.
Also isn't XQD propriety sony thing? I shoot sony and even I don't want any propriety sony cards ever again lol
I think there was quite a bit more confusion a few years ago with SD ongoing, but evolving. CF coming to and end of life. XQD and CFast cards coming to the market. XQD was a Sony format, but they didn't really support it in photography at least, that was left to Nikon. And if the originator of a format is not going to support it with compatible devices, confidence in the format will not be there by anyone else, be that manufacturers of devices or cards, or places who sell cards. Sony killed their own format.

I think CFexpress is more independent, and built on different technology, which is why XQD devices may be able to read CFexpress cards (maybe after a firmware update) but not take advantage of the full performance of the format. CFexpress certainly has more manufacturers making devices that use the format, which can only be a good thing. :)

Having either dual format card slots, or two card slots with different formats, at least gives people the option not to buy into a format if they don't want to, though maybe having to live with any limitations that choice may impose. Or like you, just not buy in at all. Great to have options. :)
 
I think there was quite a bit more confusion a few years ago with SD ongoing, but evolving. CF coming to and end of life. XQD and CFast cards coming to the market. XQD was a Sony format, but they didn't really support it in photography at least, that was left to Nikon. And if the originator of a format is not going to support it with compatible devices, confidence in the format will not be there by anyone else, be that manufacturers of devices or cards, or places who sell cards. Sony killed their own format.
SanDisk was also one of the developers of the XQD format, but I don't think they ever actually released a card, which says a lot about their confidence in its future. But at least the form factor and socket live on in CFexpress. Are there any XQD cameras that can't be upgraded in firmware to support CFexpress?
 
Without intending to hijack the thread, as someone who has refused to budge from sandisk as a brand (i just trust them having never personally had any go wrong), in CFExpress terms who are the go to companies? Looking through amazon and there is a few brands i have never heard of before that seem to get good reviews and i am just wondering whether it is worth switching it up and saving some money.
 
SanDisk was also one of the developers of the XQD format, but I don't think they ever actually released a card, which says a lot about their confidence in its future. But at least the form factor and socket live on in CFexpress. Are there any XQD cameras that can't be upgraded in firmware to support CFexpress?
According to Wikipedia:
Sony has said their broadcast camcorders (XDCAM and XDCAM EX) will support the XQD cards. For their broadcast products the XQD card will be classified as a secondary media as XQD is based around consumer technology. Nonetheless, the cards will support acquisition in the broadcast quality MPEG HD422 50 Mbit/s format. On 4 September 2013, Sony released the PXW-Z100, a 4K prosumer camera that records onto XQD cards.

Nikon supports XQD cards in its newer high-end DSLR and mirrorless cameras: Nikon D4, Nikon D4s, Nikon D5, Nikon D6, Nikon D850, Nikon D500 and Nikon Z6 & Nikon Z7.

Phase One XF IQ4 camera system (three bodies) supports XQD cards.
I think all the Nikons have been made CFexpress compatible as of the end of last year. And the Phase One cameras had upgrades too. No idea about the video cameras.

Just shows how small a market XQD will have had. :oops: :$ Prices had very little chance of getting to a point to drop in price imho.

For cameras at least, CFexpress already has double the number of camera manufacturers using the format, but the largest brand, Canon getting behind it is possibly the most significant.

I feel sorry for any Canon users who went the CFast card route. :oops: :$ :rolleyes: :LOL:

Again according to Wikipedia, these are the devices that currently use CFexpress.

As of October 2017, there were no CFexpress client devices released. However, in late October 2017 a Lexar employee stated to Nikon Rumors:

CFExpress is essentially the next revision of XQD, and there should be full backward compatibility with XQD, and that getting D4/D5/500/D850’s to work with CFE cards should be a simple software patch.[20]
On 23 August 2018, Nikon announced their new mirrorless cameras, the Z6 and Z7. At launch they only supported XQD cards, but a later firmware update enabled support for CFexpress.

On 13 February 2019, Nikon further confirmed that CFexpress support via a firmware update will also be coming to the D5, D850 and D500. On 16 December 2019, Nikon released firmware version 2.20 for the Z6 and Z7, adding support for CFExpress.

On 28 August 2018, Phase One announced the XF IQ4 camera system (three bodies). Like the Nikon cameras, future support for CFexpress was added in a later firmware update.

On 24 October 2019, Canon announced the development of the EOS-1D X Mark III with dual CFexpress slots.The camera was officially released on 6 January 2020, with availability set for February.

On 12 February 2020, Nikon announced the Nikon D6, which uses dual CFexpress slots.

On 20 April 2020, Canon announced that the EOS R5, a hybrid mirrorless camera, will support CFexpress and SD UHS-II.

On 28 July 2020, Sony announced the α7S III, a mirrorless camera that will support dual CFexpress Type A and SD cards.

On 26 January 2021, Sony announced the α 1, a mirrorless camera that will support dual CFexpress Type A and SD cards.

On 23 February 2021, Sony announced the FX3, a mirrorless camera that will support dual CFexpress Type A and SD cards.

And just for completeness, from December 2020 on DPReview.

Twenty-two months after originally announcing its intentions to do so, Nikon has released a trio of firmware updates for its D5, D850 and D500 cameras that, amongst other updates, brings CFExpress Type B support for to all three DSLRs.

This new support means Nikon D5, D850 and D500 DSLRs, like the Z6, Z6 II, Z7 and Z7 II mirrorless cameras, can now use CFExpress Type B cards, which are now more readily accessible and come in higher capacities than their similarly-designed XQD counterparts.
 
Without intending to hijack the thread, as someone who has refused to budge from sandisk as a brand (i just trust them having never personally had any go wrong), in CFExpress terms who are the go to companies? Looking through amazon and there is a few brands i have never heard of before that seem to get good reviews and i am just wondering whether it is worth switching it up and saving some money.

Funny, I've been the same. Had a couple of Lexars years ago but otherwise have stuck to Sandisk until now as they don't currently appear to make an XQD card for my Z6 so went with Sony. As a result I've just listed 8 Sandask Extreme Pro CF cards in the Classified Section. :oops: :$:ROFLMAO:
 
Funny, I've been the same. Had a couple of Lexars years ago but otherwise have stuck to Sandisk until now as they don't currently appear to make an XQD card for my Z6 so went with Sony. As a result I've just listed 8 Sandask Extreme Pro CF cards in the Classified Section. :oops: :$:ROFLMAO:
With the firmware update on the z6 you could have stuck with sandisk and gone with cfexpress couldn't you??
 
No, CFExpress worked before the update but the prices are simialr to the XQDs.
i am thinking of two things with that one, firstly it would have allowed you to stick with sandisk (probably not the end of the world to change brands i know), but going forwards if you change cameras xqd is a bit of a dead duck now and there is no guarantee new cameras will remain backwards compatible with the format.
 
i am thinking of two things with that one, firstly it would have allowed you to stick with sandisk (probably not the end of the world to change brands i know), but going forwards if you change cameras xqd is a bit of a dead duck now and there is no guarantee new cameras will remain backwards compatible with the format.

TBH, I should have done a bit more research but needed cards quickly. I like the XQD cards and they're more than fast enough for anything I or most others might require, so I'm fine. By the time I even came to sell them they'd be 20% of the current price anyways, so no big deal. And Sony are reliable enough. I think my insistance on Sandisk has been somewhat autistic.
 
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