A good CFexpress Memory Card (Type B) for my Nikon Z6 III?

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Hello there,

I hope you're all doing well.

I've been using the LEXAR CFEX PRO B SILVER 512GB, but sometimes it feels a bit slow e.g. when I capture a video and then I try to playback, it becomes unresponsive. I've read that the issue could be my memory card.

So I'm looking at alternative memory cards and I thought it might be best to go for a Nikon brand card, however the MC-CF660G 660gb seems to be unavailable anywhere (I've found a couple but they're ridiculously expensive). Can anyone recommend a good alternative?

Thanks in advance.
 
Most cards are pretty much equal these days. The only criteria I am looking for is the sustained speed. The higher the better but price will go up as well. My other 512gb card has less sustained speed but it is good for backup and good enough for 4k 120fps video. The higher capacity the card is the better sustained speed they will get.
 
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robinsslee said:
Most cards are pretty much equal these days,
Click to expand...

Thats not strictly true. Sustained speeds vary considerably (mainly depending on generation of card, but also many manufacturers have two sustained speed ranges). One factor that is often overlooked is the running temperature of the card, this can vary widely and a card that runs at high temperature can cause a significant build up of temperature within a camera, triggering temperature warnings (or even temporary shutdown) within the camera on hot days (or in warmer climates) - some info here https://bcgforums.com/threads/cf-express-card-heat-test-yourself.27180/
 
I can't comment much on a card's video capability. Most of the cards I have are not on the 'recommended' list but that does not matter much to me as they do perform as well as I expect them to. But consider this, the card you have would have been, not so long, ago equivalent to the highest performing card in Lexar's range; or put it another way, this year's GOLD Lexar card will be next year's SILVER.
 
Mr Perceptive said:
Thats not strictly true. Sustained speeds vary considerably (mainly depending on generation of card, but also many manufacturers have two sustained speed ranges). One factor that is often overlooked is the running temperature of the card, this can vary widely and a card that runs at high temperature can cause a significant build up of temperature within a camera, triggering temperature warnings (or even temporary shutdown) within the camera on hot days (or in warmer climates) - some info here https://bcgforums.com/threads/cf-express-card-heat-test-yourself.27180/
Click to expand...
applicable if you are recording video, for photography it is negligible.
 
There's a long thread for the Nikon Z cameras which may be useful to ask what cards people are using:


What you've described doesn't really sound like it's a slow card issue to me because I've used video on my Z8 with an SD card (not even a UHS-II version) and not had the issues you've mentioned. Given card prices are going higher at the moment I'd do a bit more checking to ensure the issue you're seeing is definitely down to card speed and not something else.
 
I don't yrt do video, but are you playing back in the camera on on a laptop/PC?

If in the camera did you format the card before recording the video.
If it's with a Laptop or PC, it may well be the card reader is not up to spec.

With loads of Cards which show just one speed, that will be the readback speed with very specfic criteria.
The recording speed may be much lower.

I use sony tough uhs2 cards which have near equal read and write speeds
 
Thank you for all your responses, much appreciated. I will see if there are any software/firmware updates missing. I'm also considering this as an additional memory card: sony CEB-G512. Do let me know if you've had a good/bad experience with it.
 
seaodyssey said:
If in the camera did you format the card before recording the video.
If it's with a Laptop or PC, it may well be the card reader is not up to spec.
Click to expand...
Yes I'm sure I formatted before recording, but I will try again. I'll consider purchasing a Sony Tough series card. Thanks.
 
snap_snap said:
Hello there,

I hope you're all doing well.

I've been using the LEXAR CFEX PRO B SILVER 512GB, but sometimes it feels a bit slow e.g. when I capture a video and then I try to playback, it becomes unresponsive. I've read that the issue could be my memory card.

So I'm looking at alternative memory cards and I thought it might be best to go for a Nikon brand card, however the MC-CF660G 660gb seems to be unavailable anywhere (I've found a couple but they're ridiculously expensive). Can anyone recommend a good alternative?

Thanks in advance.
Click to expand...
Nikon have a list of supported cards for the Z6III (link below) but it's not an exhaustive list e.g. lots of people seem to use and recommend Delkin cards, which Nikon, as far as I am aware have never listed, but it seems a useful starting points. I have Delkin Cards, which work fine on my Z8, but I have no experience of any other CFExpress cards.


They also have a list for the Z8, which was updated in February this year (the Z6 III list was last updated 2025)

 
Thanks I hadn't come across Delkin, and they have 1TB options (although they'd have to be bought of Amazon US). AngelBird also seems to be an option worth exploring.

I'm wondering if the Z8 is capable of hiring higher performance CFExpress Type B cards - maybe that's why it lists different seemingly higher capacity options?
 
I think I have about 10 CF Express Type B cards of various makes and sizes which I use in my R3. I've not had any issues with any of them taking still photos, even at 30fps. I do quite often take 4k 100fps slo-mo videos, and a couple of the older smaller cards (64Gb) have complained after a few seconds that the write speed isn't sufficient for the volume of data being written.

I use one of the Lexar silver 256Gb cards, and not had any issues with that at all. for video or stills. I've also got Sony Tough, Prograde Digital (various models and sizes), Angelbird SE (512Gb x 3), Nexstorage and Lexar.

If you do a lot of video, look at the latest Nextorage B3AE 4.0 cards, which have a sustained minimum write speed of 400MB/s and are designed for video. They do sizes up to 2Gb: https://www.nextorage.net/en/cards/cfe-b/b3ae/ You can get them from Amazon UK. CEX has a second hand 2Tb example for a good price at the moment.

I've not had any issues with reading content from the cards. I think the Z6III also takes an SD card, so read and write speeds in camera might be limited if you also have an SD card in place and reading/writing from both.

If you encounter the issues whilst scrolling through captured content and then pressing play quickly, then it's possible that the camera is playing catch up. Typically as you scroll through, it will load the images into internal memory very quickly, but for video content it will likely also try to load as much into memory as possible (at least a few seconds worth). If you are moving from quickly one video to another, the camera may be trying to load several seconds of video whilst you navigate to the next and it has to clear the memory and move onto the next video. This isn't instantaneous.
 
snap_snap said:
Thanks I hadn't come across Delkin, and they have 1TB options (although they'd have to be bought of Amazon US). AngelBird also seems to be an option worth exploring.

I'm wondering if the Z8 is capable of hiring higher performance CFExpress Type B cards - maybe that's why it lists different seemingly higher capacity options?
Click to expand...
That's possible, though I don't know. I could probably look it up.

Nikon has always had this kind of subtle differentiation between the pro-bodies (Nikon Z9, Z8, D6 and D5) and the Pro-am bodies like the Z6/Z7 D750 series.
 
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