For Sony shooters, most trendy our bodies provide a selection: cheap SD playing cards or the pricier Kind A playing cards that provide far greater efficiency. Pergear’s newest Kind A card is designed to supply a lot of the efficiency of the Kind A type issue, however at a extra budget-friendly value per GB. On this assessment, I’ll check out the 256 GB mannequin to see if it actually delivers on the worth promised.
The Stats
Pergear has proven each 256 GB and 512 GB models of this card. In right this moment’s testing, I’ve acquired the 256 GB mannequin within the studio. I might count on solely minor variations between these fashions, as Pergear’s advertising supplies present the 512 GB solely coming in about 20 MB/s quicker than the smaller mannequin.
These playing cards are CFexpress Kind A, a type issue usually related to Sony’s trendy our bodies just like the a7R V, a7S III, A1, A9 III, and FX cameras. In comparison with SD playing cards, Kind A playing cards are somewhat thicker, usually with a steel casing. Kind A playing cards even have far quicker speeds when each studying and writing. This may help your digital camera’s buffer clear quicker when taking pictures lengthy bursts, in addition to speed up imports.
Efficiency
The Pergear 256 GB card is rated at 780 MB/s learn and write. Whereas I’ve not too long ago seen some quicker Kind A playing cards, doing over 750 MB/s and 350 MB/s sustained nonetheless places these playing cards far past SD playing cards. For reference, very quick SD playing cards will do 300 MB/s and solely 90 MB/s sustained.
One factor producers have gotten higher about is aligning their listed efficiency figures with real-world outcomes. In testing, I used to be getting writes round 765 MB/s and reads at 756 MB/s, with offloads of uncooked pictures and video coming in round 750 MB/s.
Total, I’m very happy with these numbers. These outcomes translate into half the time spent importing, or an enormous extension of your digital camera’s buffer when taking pictures prolonged uncooked bursts. For some Sony cameras, it additionally interprets right into a broader selection of video body charges and codecs.
Nearly the one factor lacking is a VPG certification. The Video Efficiency Assure is actually a firmware flag telling the digital camera the cardboard can do a assured stage of write efficiency. VPG200, as an example, means the cardboard can do 200 MB/s sustained. To my data, present cameras aren’t actually checking this, but when they’re sooner or later, this card might not qualify for no matter is locked behind that ranking.
Worth
Total, the Pergear 256 GB is a very strong worth. For the lower cost, you continue to get virtually all the advantages of the costliest Kind A playing cards: quick imports, much better buffer efficiency, unlocked video modes, and the higher bodily sturdiness of Kind A over SD. Pergear additionally lists a 5-year guarantee, a beneficiant interval for a reminiscence card.
Kind A playing cards are robust to suggest to everybody. It’s robust to push SD playing cards to the restrict, even with right this moment’s cameras. Beneficiant buffer sizes have saved up with the exceptional advances in body charges, that means you need to actually be hammering your digital camera to run right into a buffer challenge. In the meantime, most photographers aren’t beneath a good sufficient deadline to make import speeds actually matter.
Nonetheless, with Pergear’s Kind A card coming in at a value of simply $129, it’s rather a lot simpler to justify the acquisition. At simply 50 cents per GB, these playing cards are far cheaper than competing Kind A playing cards and are in some way even cheaper than many high-performance SD playing cards (regardless of SD playing cards being about half as quick in a best-case state of affairs).
Should you’re concerned about including the Pergear Kind A card to your bag, they’re available for purchase now from Amazon.
What I Preferred
- Excellent value per GB
- Competent efficiency for Kind A playing cards
- Robust guarantee phrases
What Could possibly be Improved