Review of the new OWC Atlas Pro 4.0 CFexpress Type A

Shawn C. Steiner from Explora tested the new new generation of CFexpress Type A cards from OWC:

Shawn writes:

Looking at OWC’s documentation, you will see that the Atlas Pro cards are tested to offer 400 MB/s sustained write speeds. That is more than enough for all the cameras that currently support Type A cards.
There is one note with speed. Technically, the Atlas Pro cards are only rated to VPG200. This is more than enough for even the top high frame rate options of the FX3 and FX6 even though they might not be rated at the top speeds of competing cards. The CFexpress 4.0 technology more than makes up for this with real-world performance. Per OWC, these cards are designed for sequential writes since that is how cameras operate.
Testing it myself through my go-to tool Blackmagic Disk Speed Test and using a USB4 reader on an M3 MacBook Pro, I was able to get consistent results of >1500 MB/s for both write and read speeds. Using the same test for a last-gen CFx Type A card I was only getting half that. You will potentially halve the amount of time it takes to get your media off your cards and onto your drive.

New Black Friday deal: 20% off on all reconditioned Sony gear at Amazon US

Amazon is now offering up to 20% off on all reconditioned gear. You can find all electronics deal on this page and all Sony related deals on this page. Some special mentions:

BLACK FRIDAY deals at Amazon, BHphoto, Adorama. Amazon DE, Amazon UK, Amazon FR, Amazon IT, Amazon ES, Amazon NL, Amazon AUS.

PetaPixel: Grading Every Camera Maker: 2024 FINAL Review

This has been a relatively slow year for Sony. With only 2 cameras announced (ZV-E10II and Sony A1II) and 5 lenses (28-70GM, 85GM, 16-50PZII, 16-25G and 25-50G). By comparison in 2023 we got:
Cameras: A9III, A7cR, A7cII, ZV-E1, ZV-1II
Lenses: 300GM, 16-35GMII, 70-200GII, 50GM, 20-70G.

It has happened in the past that Sony has had a weak year, usually followed by a year with numerous camera announcements… so we have high hopes for 2025 and I will soon write an article (and a Youtube video) about what we can expect.

But back to 2024: Petapixel-TV tried to rank the camera/lens releases of 2024 for each company. Sony still managed to score well, mainly because of their great lens releases. They also review the Sony A1II, which they say is a very solid release whose only ‘problem’ is the camera’s high price.

Let me know in the comments section if you agree with the reviews. My task now is to buckle up for the 2025 rumor era. With the Sony A7V and the new FX9 successor coming out very soon, we’re going to have a lot of exciting things to talk about!

Black Friday deals: Don’t miss the up to 30% off on Nextorage SD and Type A card deals!

You save up to 30% on all kind of Nextorage cards sold by Amazon, and BHphoto!

BLACK FRIDAY deals at Amazon, BHphoto, Adorama. Amazon DE, Amazon UK, Amazon FR, Amazon IT, Amazon ES, Amazon NL, Amazon AUS.

Deals selection:

SD and CFexpress cards:

Storage deals:

  • 25% off on the WD 22TB Elements Desktop External Hard Drive at Amazon and BHphoto.
  • 39% off on the Crucial X10 Pro 1TB Portable SSD sold by Amazon and BHphoto.
  • 47% off on the SAMSUNG T7 Shield 2TB Portable SSD sold by Amazon and BHphoto.
  • 29% off on the SanDisk 8TB Desk Drive SSD at Amazon and BHphoto.
  • 36% off on the SanDisk 4TB Extreme Portable SSD at Amazon and BHphoto.
  • 20% off on the LaCie Rugged Mini 2TB External Hard Drive at Amazon and BHphoto.

Software deals:

Sony Camera Holiday deals:

Sony Lens Holiday deals:

Third party E-mount lenses:

Sony manager explains why the Sony A1II has the same A1 sensor

Sony general manager Masanori Kishi explained in a BCN interview why the Sony A1II kept the same Sony A1 sensor:

The sensor used in the α1 has a fast readout speed comparable to a global shutter, and has very little image distortion. It was a sensor with high potential to begin with. This time, we improved the image processing algorithm to improve image quality. The α1 II has evolved to be worthy of a new flagship camera.” The sensor had a lot of “room for growth”, so it was reused.
The highlight of this model is the inclusion of AI. By increasing the subject recognition rate, the focus accuracy has been greatly improved.

The journalist from BCNranking added some speculations:

It is said that it is difficult to achieve high pixel count and high image quality with a global shutter, so this may be one of the reasons why it was not used this time. If I were to speculate, for example, resources may have been taken up in the development of a sensor equipped with a global shutter, and there may not have been room for the development of a new sensor to be installed in the α1 II.

I agree that the original Sony A1 sensor was and still is fantastic. The limitations of the Sony A1 were in other aspects, some of which have been addressed with the new A1II (some others, like the lack of 8k60p, have not).

It’s also perfectly normal for Sony to “reuse” previous generation sensors. My own Sony A7rV still uses the 61MP sensor from the older Sony A7rIV released in 2019. I can’t say that this has disappointed me. That said, I’ve never found a Sony sensor to be a limitation in any of their models. If we want to criticize Sony, then we can talk about the high price, the less than spectacular firmware support strategy and so on.

What do you think about my take?

Preorder links:
Sony A1II at  BHphoto, Amazon, Adorama, BestBuy, FotoErhardt, FotoKoch, Calumet, WexUK, Clifton, CameraPro. Sony Australia.
Sony 28-70mm f/2.0 GM at BHphoto, Amazon, Adorama, BestBuy, FotoErhardt, Fotokoch, Calumet, WexUK, Clifton, CameraPro. Sony Australia.