Lexar Professional Silver CFexpress Type A Card 2TB

The CFexpress Type A card is aimed directly at Sony Alpha and FX cameras, and it’s now pushing the limits of video production for small-format systems. While CFexpress cards are fast, Type A has traditionally not been as quick as Type B, the one most manufacturers have adopted.

Now, with this latest release, we’re seeing speeds much closer to Type B cards, with read/write speeds approaching the 2000MB/s mark, more than enough for most Sony cameras, even those shooting high-resolution and high-bit-rate footage.

The card is directly aimed at the professional market, as most enthusiasts wouldn’t need the speed, transfer rate, or capacity that this card offers. With a VPG200 rating, it means it can write a minimum of 200MB/s for video capture, beyond the needs of most enthusiast cameras.

There are other Type A cards out there with similar capacity and transfer rates. Because this falls into Lexar’s Silver range, it’s considerably cheaper than the Gold range, offering a slightly more affordable option.
Throughout this test, I’ve used it with the Sony A7 IV, and on all camera settings, resolutions, and frame rates, the card was more than capable of recording the data needed. To be honest, it was well in excess of what this particular camera was capable of delivering.

When it comes to the build quality and handling of most memory cards, checking out size, dimensions, and weight is a little bit pointless because they all have to adhere to certain specifications to ensure they fit in all cameras and readers you pop them into.

Sure enough, the Lexar Professional Silver 2TB measures up perfectly. It feels like a high-quality CFexpress Type A card with the usual metal and plastic exterior, a row of contacts, and everything feels good and solid.

Because of the size of these cards, there’s no real space to write anything on them. When it comes to size and dimensions, they all match the usual specifications. If you’re interested, the weight is roughly 2.5g, and the dimensions are 20 × 28 × 2.8mm, ensuring it fits perfectly into the Sony A7 IV.

The card comes pre-formatted, but it’s always good practice to format the card in whichever body you’re using. Before starting the test, I ran a quick format to ensure the Sony file system was in place.

The card sees a major upgrade from previous generations, jumping from PCIe 3.0 to PCIe 4.0. Essentially, this is a fourth-generation card offering far faster transfer rates than its predecessor.

This means you’re now able to get transfer rates closer to USB4 speeds. Through this test, it was more than capable of keeping up with the demands of the Sony A7 IV. That speed also means you can transfer your data to your computer much faster, and this card has been designed to work with CFexpress 4.0 Type A readers, enabling a maximum offload speed of 40Gbps through the USB4 interface.

A quick check through the features, this is a CFexpress Type A card designed to work with Sony cameras. That’s different from Type B cards, which are used by most other manufacturers, including Panasonic, Canon, and Nikon.

Type A cards are smaller and lighter but have slightly slower transfer rates than their Type B counterparts. However, this hasn’t really been an issue as current cameras don’t need the maximum transfer rates many cards can supply. That is changing, though, with the latest Sony Alpha and FX cameras pushing higher resolutions and frame rates, requiring cards with high capacity and bit rates to support all file formats and data demands.

This card switches from PCIe 3.0 to 4.0; essentially, Gen 4 enables those faster transfer rates, with a maximum read speed of 1750MB/s and a write speed of 1650MB/s.

In terms of capacity, this also takes a leap, with options from 256GB to 2TB – the version I’m reviewing here.

One key feature to account for when buying any CFexpress card is whether it meets the specifications of the camera you’re going to use. This card is rated at VPG200. That certification ensures the card can sustain write speeds of 200MB/s, ideal for recording high-resolution video over longer periods.

It’s also designed to cope with the latest 8K video capture and 4K at 120 frames per second, making it one of the few cards built for the demands of Sony Alpha and FX ranges.

For this review, I broke testing into two sections: the first to see how the card operates in the Sony A7 IV, and the second to test read/write speeds via benchmarking.

Starting with the A7 IV, it was clear from the start that this camera wouldn’t fully push the card’s limits. I took it out for a full day’s filming and was impressed by how well it kept up. The only real issue was the camera itself; recording 4K caused a few heat build-up problems due to its ability to record for extended periods.

Recording HD and 4K footage wasn’t a problem for the card, and whether I was capturing direct footage or using Sony’s log modes, the card’s data transfer rates were more than sufficient for the camera’s demands.

I’ll revisit part of this review when I get my hands on one of the FX cameras to really push the card’s capabilities. But suffice it to say, for both video and stills at an enthusiast level, the Sony A7 IV didn’t even begin to test this card’s limits in speed or capacity.

Switching to benchmarking, again, I was impressed by the transfer speeds. I tested it with various benchmarks and got solid results, with read speeds around 1500MB/s and write speeds well over 1000MB/s – proving it’s more than capable of high-performance workflows when tested on both MacBook Pro and Mac Studio.

AJA System Test Lite

Read: 1508MB/s

Write: 1144MB/s

Blackmagic Disk Speed Test

Read: 1511.7MB/s

Write: 1798.7MB/s

AmorphousDiskMark

Read: 1665.90MB/s

Write: 837MB/s

At the end of the test, it was obvious how good the Lexar Professional Silver 2TB CFexpress 4.0 Type A card is. For the latest generation of Sony Alpha and FX cameras, this card delivers both the speed and capacity needed for high-resolution, high-frame-rate, and high-bit-rate video files.

While using the card with the Sony A7 IV, I was genuinely impressed with the speed on offer. Although a lighter-weight card might suffice for now, looking at this as a long-term investment, knowing my A7 IV will eventually be upgraded, having a card with this speed and capacity makes sense and future-proofs the setup.

I was, once again, impressed with Lexar’s build quality. These cards feel a step above many other options out there. In terms of durability, it stood up to extensive shooting sessions with no issues.

If you’re a high-end enthusiast or professional shooting high-resolution stills and video, then the 2TB Lexar Professional Silver makes a lot of sense. For the price, it offers an excellent balance of capacity and speed. Few cameras will push this card to its limits, and if you need a step up, there’s always the Gold version – but for most, this Silver edition is absolutely spot-on.