Anglebird has announced two new CFexperss Type A cards for Sony cameras. Now, this isn’t the first time Anglebird’s done this, having announced a 1TB CFexpress Type A card last year. However, this was pulled from the market.
Now, the company is giving it another go with new Anglebird 160GB ($179.99) and 330GB ($249.99) CFexpress Type A cards. The new cards may be smaller, but they’re VPG200-certified, with transfer speeds up to 820MB/sec.
Anglebird CFexpress Type A 160GB and 330GB
The two new Anglebird cards offer capacities of 160GB and 330GB. This isn’t massive by today’s standards, but it’s still plenty enough for most photographers and filmmakers. At least, it’s still plenty for most Sony photographers and filmmakers.
As CFexpress Type A cards, they’ve been designed specifically for Sony cameras – as they’re the only manufacturer using Type A slots. Anglebird says that the new cards have been tested to be fully compatible with Sony, which includes the VPG200 certification.
As mentioned, AngelBird has released a CFexpress Type A card before. They released a 1TB card last April, but it was pulled from the market and discontinued. While no official statements have been made, and Angelbird has not been named, this might have something to do with the VPG certification controversy.
What’s the deal with VPG certification?
VPG certification is a mark that says the card can guarantee sustained write speeds at a given minimum. VPG200 guarantees at least 200MB/sec (1,600mbps) sustained write speeds. VPG400 guarantees at least 400MB/sec (3,200mbps). It’s essentially CFexpress’s version of the V30/60/90 ratings on UHS-I and UHS-II SD cards.
The Video Performance Guarantee (VPG) is a standard established by the CompactFlash Association to ensure that memory cards can handle the high data rates required for video recording.
The VPG classes marked by the logos on the card (e.g., VPG200, VPG400) indicate the minimum number of megabytes per second (MB/s) that the card can write continuously. Higher VPG ratings are indicative of better performance enabling more demanding video formats like 4K as well as allowing high-frame-rate recordings to be captured reliably.
CompactFlash Association
These VPG speeds might just seem informational and for the user’s benefit. But they are also a technical requirement of Sony cameras. Sony cameras will block certain formats of video from being recorded if it doesn’t detect a card with a valid VPG certification.
This VPG certification is denoted by a flag in the memory card’s settings. It appears that some manufacturers – again, Angelbird wasn’t named – were enabling the flag without testing, telling Sony cameras they were VPG certified when they weren’t.
Basically, it’s a requirement that if you, as a card manufacturer, have the VPG flag set on the card, then it needs to actually be VPG-certified. You can’t just say it and hope for the best. It should be pointed out that the CompactFlash Association does not actually do the testing and certification themselves.
CFA requires a certified and approved tester by CFA to be purchased by each company that intends to release a VPG card to the market. That tester comes with an approved test script that needs to be run on the card. The tester then outputs a report at the end of the test that is tamper proof. The test report then needs to be sent to a lab approved by CFA to check the authenticity of the report. If the report is found to be authentic, then that specific card gets approval by CFA to have a VPG logo on their card. If the VPG flag is set in the card’s firmware, then that card is required to have the VPG logo on it.
Well, now, Angelbird seems to have done the testing, as the two new cards are both VPG200 certified.
Price and Availability
The Angelird 160GB and 330GB CFexpress Type A cards are available to pre-order for $179.99 and $249.99, respectively.
