Quick Review: OWC Atlas Pro CFExpress Type A Stuns With Speed in Sony A7R V

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In CFexpress Cards Go Mainstream in Digital Cameras, I discussed how CFExpress camera cards are becoming the norm in digital cameras.

The full-frame 60-megapixel Sony A7R V has two high speed CFExpress Type A slots (one slot can be used for SDXC if desired). Sony specifies impressively high burst rates as follows:

No. of recordable frames (approx):
JPEG Extra fine L: over 1000, JPEG Fine L: over 100, JPEG Standard L: over 1000
RAW: 583 frames
RAW & JPEG: 184 frames
RAW (Lossless Compressed): 547 frames
RAW (Lossless Compressed) & JPEG: 159 frames
RAW (Uncompressed): 135 frames
RAW (Uncompressed) & JPEG: 88 frames

In this article, I set out to test burst speed with three RAW formats using the new 960GB OWC Atlas Pro CFExpress Type A.

Way better than Sony specifications!

The Sony A7R V is rated for 10 fps for 583 frames (Hi+, mechanical shutter, Compressed RAW).

So, how does the 960GB OWC Atlas Pro CFExpress Type A card perform in this beast of a camera? WOW!

The Atlas Pro card hits 835 lossy compressed RAW files at 10.0 fps with no variation right up to the end of the test. Far exceeding the Sony specification and writing a whopping 61.0GB of data.

At no point was there sign of any stuttering or slowdown with the Atlas Pro Type A.

I don’t know how long the captures could have kept going, but not wishing to put excessive wear on the mechanical shutter of my personal camera, I ended the test at ~83.4 seconds (835 frames at 10.0 fps).