2022 has been a great year for photographers looking for newer and faster memory cards for their cameras, and Lexar in particular has continued to ship some of the best cards out there.
So far we’ve had the CFexpress type B Diamond card, the fastest CFexpress Type B card to date, a new midrange 512GB 1800X UHS-II Gold card which is great value for videographers and currently the fastest V60 card that I’ve tested, and now this new CFexpress Type A card which is yet another of the fastest card in its class.
With all the new competition out there, it looks like Lexar has been taking it all very seriously and really showing their 25+ years of experience. All fantastic news for us consumers as this new CFexpress space has been quite a mess these last few years and it’s nice that finally one brand is standing out and doing everything right.
Note: Lexar, as well as some other brands, do send me samples of their products from time to time, and they were very prompt at sending me this new CFexpress Type A card so I could benchmark it in the Sony A7IV. This is very helpful so thank you Lexar!
Highlighted Features – Lifetime warranty, currently the fastest card, VPG 400 certified, 800MB/s write speed with a 700MB/s minimum sustained.
Lexar CFexpress Type-A – Amazon / Adorama / B&H
Is the Lexar CFexpress Type A really the fastest?
So far for the new Lexar CFx A card, I was only able to benchmark the Sony A7IV and saw great performance hitting the speed limit of what that camera can output.
For USB-C 3.2 tests I run the cards through the AJA System Test to get an idea of how they perform with real video codecs. I use 5120×2700 5k Red for the resolution, 16bit RGBA for the Codec Type, and anywhere between 4GB to 64GB depending on if I’m running to card for speed, or for heat load.
While usually the top brands often make cards that are all very close in performance, the speed test with the new Lexar CFx A card shows quite an improvement over the competition.
Here we see a write speed of 825MB/s and a read speed of 886Mb/s. The closest card was the Prograde card running at a write speed of 691MB/s, so that’s quite a nice improvement from Lexar.
| Card Name | Speed Class | USB Write | USB Read | Check Price | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sony Tough 640GB | CFx-A | -- | -- | B&H | ||
| Sony Tough 320GB | CFx-A | -- | -- | B&H | ||
| Sony Tough 160GB | CFx-A | -- | -- | B&H | ||
| Sony Tough 80GB | CFx-A | 641 MB/s | 852 MB/s | B&H | ||
| Lexar 320GB | CFx-A | 837 MB/s | 885 MB/s | B&H | ||
| Lexar 160GB | CFx-A | 825 MB/s | 886 MB/s | B&H | ||
| Lexar 80GB | CFx-A | -- | -- | B&H | ||
| Delkin Black 160GB | CFx-A | -- | -- | B&H | ||
| Delkin Black 80GB | CFx-A | 639 MB/s | 852 MB/s | B&H | ||
| Delkin Power 160GB | CFx-A | -- | -- | B&H | ||
| Delkin Power 80GB | CFx-A | 641 MB/s | 847 MB/s | B&H | ||
| ProGrade 160GB | CFx-A | 691 MB/s | 845 MB/s | B&H |
Only a few cameras currently support CFexpress Type A cards and in cameras like the Sony A7sIII, the FX3 and the A7IV, you pretty much get a bottomless buffer when shooting stills. However, the CFexpress Type A card is necessary for some video formats in the FX3, A7IV, and A1. With the Sony A1, the camera can benefit from faster cards when shooting continuous burst photography but I have yet to test all the latest new cards in that camera.
In the Sony A7IV Memory Card Speed Tests you can see how CFexpress Type A cards compare to UHS-II cards.
| Card Name | Speed Class | USB Write | USB Read | In Camera Speeds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sony Tough 80GB | CFx-A | 641 MB/s | 852 MB/s | 325 MB/s |
| Lexar 160GB | CFx-A | 825 MB/s | 886 MB/s | 325 MB/s |
| Delkin Black 80GB | CFx-A | 639 MB/s | 852 MB/s | 326 MB/s |
| Delkin Power 80GB | CFx-A | 641 MB/s | 847 MB/s | 325 MB/s |
| ProGrade 160GB | CFx-A | 691 MB/s | 845 MB/s | 326 MB/s |
| Sandisk Extreme Pro 300MB/s | UHS-II | 252 MB/s | 279 MB/s | 217 MB/s |
| Lexar 2000x | UHS-II | 219 MB/s | 256 MB/s | 208 MB/s |
| Lexar 1800x | UHS-II | 176 MB/s | 242 MB/s | 174 MB/s |
| Lexar 1667x | UHS-II | 99 MB/s | 242 MB/s | 101 MB/s |
| Toshiba Exceria Pro | UHS-II | 213 MB/s | 244 MB/s | 213 MB/s |
| Transcend v90 | UHS-II | 175 MB/s | 263 MB/s | 180 MB/s |
| Sony G Tough v90 | UHS-II | 239 MB/s | 275 MB/s | 222 MB/s |
| Sony M Tough V60 | UHS-II | 155 MB/s | 268 MB/s | 143 MB/s |
| Sony E v60 | UHS-II | 142 MB/s | 252 MB/s | 137 MB/s |
| Delkin Black v90 | UHS-II | 253 MB/s | 278 MB/s | 225 MB/s |
| Delkin Power v90 | UHS-II | 240 MB/s | 275 MB/s | 215 MB/s |
| Delkin Prime v60 | UHS-II | 98 MB/s | 275 MB/s | 89 MB/s |
| Fujifilm Elite II | UHS-II | 158 MB/s | 277 MB/s | 165 MB/s |
| Adata v90 | UHS-II | 229 MB/s | 268 MB/s | 203 MB/s |
| Hoodman Steel 2000x | UHS-II | 155 MB/s | 249 MB/s | 156 MB/s |
| Hoodman Steel 1500x | UHS-II | 99 MB/s | 273 MB/s | 97 MB/s |
| ProGrade V90 | UHS-II | 229 MB/s | 270 MB/s | 217 MB/s |
| ProGrade V60 | UHS-II | 98 MB/s | 155 MB/s | 78 MB/s |
| Amplim 2000x v60 | UHS-II | 136 MB/s | 253 MB/s | 131 MB/s |
| Amplim 1900x V60 | UHS-II | 97 MB/s | 275 MB/s | 95 MB/s |
| Angel Bird V90 II | UHS-II | 257 MB/s | 271 MB/s | 218 MB/s |
| Angel Bird V60 II | UHS-II | 144 MB/s | 243 MB/s | 135 MB/s |
| FreeTail Evoke Pro V60 | UHS-II | 96 MB/s | 272 MB/s | 95 MB/s |
| Kingston Canvas React V90 | UHS-II | 256 MB/s | 274 MB/s | 216 MB/s |
| Kodak V90 64GB | UHS-II | 260 MB/s | 272 MB/s | 218 MB/s |
| Ritz Gear VideoPro V90 | UHS-II | 258 MB/s | 273 MB/s | 229 MB/s |
| Wise V90 Pro | UHS-II | 256 MB/s | 275 MB/s | 229 MB/s |
Lexar CFx A Memory Card Review / Bottom Line
Should you buy it?Â
Right now Lexar CFx A card is a no-brainer, it’s quite a bit faster than all the competition and priced similarly. However, in some cameras like the Sony A7IV or the video-centric Sony cameras, it might not make a noticeable difference in-camera, but you will still benefit from better USB-C performance with an improvement of 30-40MB/s in reading speeds and over 120MB/s in write speeds if you have a computer and drive that can support these faster speeds.
