Lexar UDMA-7
While not the first to release a UDMA-7 CompactFlash card – that honor belongs to SanDisk and their $800 (street) 128GB Extreme PRO card – Lexar was the first to bring an affordable UDMA-7 card to market in the form of their Professional 1000x cards
. With some caveats, I can say that UDMA-7 delivers on the promise of greater speeds – if you have the right gear.
The catch, as usual, is that you need UDMA-7 equipment to pair the card with, whether it is a camera for recording images or a reader to download them.
Currently, the only cameras with UDMA-7 support are the Canon EOS-1DX, Nikon D4, and Nikon D800. Canon offers a firmware upgrade for some other cameras. Cameras without UDMA-7 support can still expect good speed out of this card, but not appreciably better than current UDMA-6 (500x-600x) cards.
As for readers, the Lexar USB 3.0 Dual-Slot reader, with proper firmware, supports UDMA-7. Read speeds with this card and my Lexar reader before the firmware upgrade were hellishly slow — we’re talking USB 2.0, non-UDMA speeds of less than 20 MB/sec. But with the easy firmware upgrade, the card notched a blazing 102 MB/sec, a solid 50% increase in download speed over any other card I’ve tested in this reader.
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Lexar 16GB CompactFlash Memory Card Professional 1000x UDMA (B&H – $155)
Lexar 16GB CompactFlash Memory Card Professional 1000x UDMA – 2-Pack (B&H – $255)
Lexar 32GB CompactFlash Memory Card Professional 1000x UDMA (B&H – $285)
Lexar 32GB CompactFlash Memory Card Professional 1000x UDMA – 2-Pack (B&H – $470)
Lexar 64GB CompactFlash Memory Card Professional 1000x UDMA (B&H – $485)
Lexar 128GB CompactFlash Memory Card Professional 1000x UDMA (B&H – $800)
Lexar Professional USB 3.0 Dual-Slot Reader
(Adorama – $35)
Lexar Professional USB 3.0 Dual-Slot Reader (B&H – $35)
5 responses so far ↓
1 Steve // Feb 25, 2012 at 12:19 PM
It’s interesting to see the Lexar single card price for the 32 GB UDMA-7 is significantly higher than the Sony 32 GB XQD card format that will be required for one of the card slots on the Nikon D4. The UDMA-7 card only approaches the XQD card price on a per card basis if you buy a “2-pack”.
We seem to be in a tweener stage now. Getting a D4 and using it to its maximum advantage requires both types of these cards.
2 The Doc // Feb 26, 2012 at 3:30 AM
There seems to be a compatibility issue between the Lexar UMDA 7 firmware and the SanDisk 16GB Extreme Pro card, giving very poor read speeds (less than write). It does not appear to impact the Lexar or Transcends cards. I have raised the issue with Lexar support. Anyone else having the issue?
3 The Sports Photo Guy // Feb 26, 2012 at 9:35 AM
I was planning to test the other cards – now I’ll do that sooner rather than later.
4 The Doc // Mar 5, 2012 at 5:15 AM
Look forward to your results.
5 The Doc // Mar 5, 2012 at 5:16 AM
Almost forgot, save your money and do not buy the 8ware USB 3.0 reader.
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