ProGrade Digital has announced several new products during NAB 2024. The headliners, of course, are the company’s new Iridium CFexpress 4.0 cards, which come in both Type B and Type A (buy here) flavours. The latter also sees the release of a new CFexpress 4.0 Type A reader.
There’s a new CFexpress 4.0 Gold card, along with an increased capacity for ProGrade’s UHS-II microSD cards (buy here). There’s also Ingest Pro, ProGrade’s new software for helping you to keep your media backed up and organised.
ProGrade Digital Iridium CFexpress 4.0 Type A & B Cards
The new Iridium CFexpress 4.0 memory cards from ProGrade are the company’s fastest memory cards to date. The CFexpress Type A cards already top out at 1,800MB/sec, but its Type B cards max out at 4,550 read speeds. That will make for some very quick ingestion (we’ll get to that).
When it comes to write speeds, the Type A cards boast a sustained write speed of 1,450MB/sec with the VPG200 logo and up to 1,700MB/sec burst write. The Type B cards only see a slightly faster 1,500MB/sec sustained write speed, but the burst speed goes up to 3,000MB/sec, and they bear the VPG400 logo.
Not all cards in the range share those maximum speeds, though. So, here’s a quick table.
ProGrade Digital Iridium CFexpress 4.0 Type A & B Specs
| ProGrade Iridium | CFe 4.0 Type A (480GB) | CFe 4.0 Type A (960GB) | CFe 4.0 Type B (400GB) | CFe 4.0 Type B (800GB) | CFe 4.0 Type B (1.6TB) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Capacity | 480GB | 960GB | 400GB | 800GB | 1.6TB |
| Max Read | 1,800MB/s | 1,800MB/s | 3,550MB/s | 3,550MB/s | 3,550MB/s |
| Max Burst Write | 1,700MB/s | 1,700MB/s | 3,000MB/s | 3,000MB/s | 3,000MB/s |
| Sustained Write | 800MB/s | 1,450MB/s | 850MB/s | 1,500MB/s | 1,500MB/s |
| MSRP | $479.99 | $679.99 | $229.99 | $449.99 | $949.99 |
Price and Availability
The ProGrade Iridium CFexpress Type A cards are available in two capacities, 480GB and 960GB. Each capacity is also available in a single or twin pack.
The 480GB single and double packs are available to pre-order now for $479.99 and $863.99, respectively. The 960GB single and double packs are also available to pre-order now for $679.99 and $1,223.99, respectively.
ProGrade Digital Gold CFexpress 4.0 Type B 256GB
ProGrade has also announced a new capacity in their Gold CFexpress 4.0 Type B card lineup. The new 256GB capacity card joins the previously announced 512GB, 1TB and 2TB capacities (buy here). Now, there’s a smaller, less expensive card for those who don’t need the higher-capacity ones.
Video might be chugging up the most data, but a 256GB card is going to be quite adequate in most cameras for photography. Of course, you’ll still get the benefits of fast unloading once you’re back at the computer.
ProGrade Digital Gold CFexpress 4.0 Type B 256GB Specs
| ProGrade Gold | CFe 4.0 Type B (256GB) |
|---|---|
| Capacity | 256GB |
| Max Read | 3,400MB/s |
| Max Burst Write | 3,000MB/s |
| Sustained Write | 850MB/s |
| MSRP | $169.99 |
Price and Availability
The ProGrade Digital Gold CFexpress 4.0 Type B 256GB cards are available to pre-order now for $169.99 in a single pack or $305.99 in a twin pack.
CFe 4.0 Type A reader, 512GB UHS-II microSD, Ingest Pro
The new Iridium CFexpress 4.0 Type A cards have meant that ProGrade needs to release a new card reader. It’s a single slot reader, so one card transfer at a time. But it utilises the USB 4.0 interface and is compatible with Thunderbolt 4 and Thunderbolt 3 sockets up to 40Gbps.
The new ProGrade PG-09.6 card reader is backwards compatible with CFexpress 2.0 cards, and it’s available to pre-order now for $99.99.
Something unexpected is the increase in capacity of the company’s Gold UHS-II microSD cards. There are a number of companies with UHS-II microSD cards on the market now. But I’ve never actually seen a device that utilises UHS-II cards. Certainly not in the world of photo and video.
Is anybody else a little disappointed that the likes of DJI, GoPro, Insta360, etc. haven’t jumped on this to record higher bitrate footage? They’re not exactly new cards anymore. Anyway, if you need one, they’re now available in 512GB capacity, to pre-order now for $165.99 in a single pack or $299.99 in a twin pack.
And finally, there’s Ingest Pro, the company’s new software for data backup and organisation. ProGrade says that it effectively copies, backs up or archives your files and lets you organise efficiently by adding metadata.
It has built-in duplication detection to help reduce the amount of space being wasted on your storage. It transfers files based on MDF, XXH and SHA1 checksums to ensure no corruption.
It’s available for both Windows and macOS as a free trial. But once the trial’s up, it’s $99.99 per year. You can find out more about Ingest Pro on the ProGrade Digital website.
