Angelbird CFExpress for R5/R5C for (mainly) video

Any anecdotal feedback on Angelbird brand for use with both R5 / R5C for video--mainly 4KHQ and 4K 60/120 fps? I hear that CS with this brand (if/when needed) is not great but lots of YouTubers seem to love it due to incredible price and performance. A 512GB with sustained write speeds of 800+ MBps (more than 2x speed needed for 8K and 3x for 120 4k) is just $180. Competing brands go for $400 to $500.

2nd question, in a pinch can a v60 SD card (for example a Sony Tough M-class) cover 4KHQ @23.98 fps? Canon says data rate requirement at that setting is 58.75 MBps. The sustained write rating on that card is 60 MBps (just at the threshold). I ask as it would pertain to backup . You could put an Angelbird 512 CFExpress in one slot and simultaneously record backup to the v60 in the SD slot.  Yes, v90 would be better but they are also very expensive.   4K capture is an expensive endeavor I suppose....

My video use is pretty minimal, but in my ultra-limited testing, I can say that (after a warranty swap from a defective card) that my Angelbird AV Pro MK2 1TB does not appear to exhibit any issues with recording video (tested full on 8k raw.)  In-camera performance is actually the ONLY performance they actually seem to stand behind, but for many, that is the most critical aspect.
For me, I buy into fast cards mainly for the fast offload to my computer, and that's where the Angelbird CF Express stuff falls flat on its face.  I get FAR better read speeds out of both my Sony and Sandisk cards.  1700MB/s in Sony land vs 700MB/s in Angelbird land.

*IF* that's important to you, I'd probably look elsewhere.

FWIW, their support claimed that the full read/write performance would only work in-camera, and on a Thunderbolt card reader (NOT the otherwise very nice Angelbird reader though) because those both use native PCI Express interfaces.  If you have that, then it could be moot.   I actually have a ProGrade Thunderbolt reader inbound right now (they were out of stock everywhere for a while) and intend to test that claim in the next week or so.  Really hoping it pans out since I've kept the Angelbird stuff buried in the camera bag as emergency-only, last-resort storage ever since discovering the real world transfer performance.

I bought one of these at the end of Feb 2022 and other second at the middle of Mar 2022. The casing is falling apart. I got lucky that the part that fell off for the rightmost card didn't get stuck in my R5. Note that these are the budget cards that go for less than $200 for 512 GB.  And they literally fall apart in less than a year. I have two other 256 GB CFe cards that I bought in 2020 back when I got my R5 and they both still work great and  nothing has fallen apart on those.

Good luck!

I ordered one of their 1TB cards I forget the exact model but it was a mk II model that was supposed to be compatible with the R5. When it arrived neither of my R5’s could format the card so I sent it right back. 
After that experience I wouldn’t buy one of their cards again and I’ll stick with the Delkin and Sony Tough cards that I’ve had no problems with.

Is everyone here referring precisely to the Angelbird CFExpress type B cards (not type II), as having issues? That is the card I've had for nearly 2 years, and, although I've done little video with it so far, I've had no issues with it yet.

For me it was the Angelbird AV Pro Mk 2 CFexpress type B 1TB card. According to their site it was compatible with the R5 and neither of my R5's were able to format it.

KiloHotelphoto wrote:

For me it was the Angelbird AV Pro Mk 2 CFexpress type B 1TB card. According to their site it was compatible with the R5 and neither of my R5's were able to format it.

That's really odd. If you are saying that those cards will not be able to be formatted on your R5, I am mystified, because I have absolutely no such problems with the first gen version of those same cards. It formats with no issue and reads and writes very, very quickly.

Scott Dobry wrote:

Any anecdotal feedback on Angelbird brand for use with both R5 / R5C for video--mainly 4KHQ and 4K 60/120 fps? I hear that CS with this brand (if/when needed) is not great but lots of YouTubers seem to love it due to incredible price and performance. A 512GB with sustained write speeds of 800+ MBps (more than 2x speed needed for 8K and 3x for 120 4k) is just $180. Competing brands go for $400 to $500.

2nd question, in a pinch can a v60 SD card (for example a Sony Tough M-class) cover 4KHQ @23.98 fps? Canon says data rate requirement at that setting is 58.75 MBps. The sustained write rating on that card is 60 MBps (just at the threshold). I ask as it would pertain to backup . You could put an Angelbird 512 CFExpress in one slot and simultaneously record backup to the v60 in the SD slot. Yes, v90 would be better but they are also very expensive. 4K capture is an expensive endeavor I suppose....

I own the Angelbird 512 SX, it works great! At 800 Mbps, it can do 8K without a hiccup. For stills its a little slower than the top of the line but still crazy fast for most folks. I don't do a lot of machine gun shooting outside maybe a dozen or so images in a row on a rare occasion.

Card manufactures seem to be focused on the fastest speeds but really most of us don't need that. We need to be able to shoot 8K for video shooters and we need to keep the buffer clear for stills in rapid shooting. If you shoot stills at 20 or 30 FPS a lot, you may want or need a faster card for 3X the money, but for most of us, it's more than we need. And at the price, its the deal of the year...

Did I mention, its a lot cooler running then most CFE cards...

jckk wrote:

RogerZoul wrote:

I bought one of these at the end of Feb 2022 and other second at the middle of Mar 2022. The casing is falling apart. I got lucky that the part that fell off for the rightmost card didn't get stuck in my R5. Note that these are the budget cards that go for less than $200 for 512 GB. And they literally fall apart in less than a year. I have two other 256 GB CFe cards that I bought in 2020 back when I got my R5 and they both still work great and nothing has fallen apart on those.

Good luck!

This is disappointing. Angelbird had issues earlier with their cases (I think it was the glue failing), but it seems that they haven't fully resolved it yet. While I'm not looking to buy another CFe card, I do check occasionally to see what is out there and at what prices. Exascend has a similar card (512GB, $180, 800MB/s write) and hoping more options come to market.

James

New to the R5 I just got une of those angelbird 512gb cards. 
Ive only used it for some video testing.

I had not prior experience with that brand. The card felt well constructed and solid in the hand and it performed well.

so sad to see what I can expect from it more sooner than later.

jordi

Hello. thought I would bump this oldish thread rather than start a new one. I recently acquired an R5C and based on threads like this (and others) decided to buy some Angelbird AV PRO SE 512GB 1785 MB memory cards. They work and allow me to record 8k video no problem. However I am not able to use anywhere near the full capacity of the cards and im hoping someone else who has these cards and an R5C could share their experience so I can see if the problem is just me or something else

On a recent trip i filled up two of these cards. With both cards this was showing on the R5C in video mode that there were zero minutes of recording time left and the camera would not allow me to record anymore. However I noticed when switching over to photo mode that the cards only had about 384gb of used space and could happily snap away and continue to take photos no problem. When I got home I put the cards into my computer and that was also showing that both cards had about 385gb of data on them. I did a quick test and copied a 90gb file onto one of these "full" cards and it all copied over no problem. So for me the capacity of these cards in an r5c is about third less than I expected. I contacted Angelbird who said its a problem with the r5c and told me contact Canon. I contacted Canon and they basically told me nothing of any use. I asked Angelbird if they could test their cards in an R5C to confirm the issue but they seem unwilling to do this and have stopped replying to me. Hence im hoping someone here could confirm if this is just a me problem or a general problem

I have the latest firmware for the r5c and I shoot with the following settings:
rec format = MP4(HEVC)YCC422 10 Bit, Resolution = 8192x4320 540Mbps, Frame rate 25.00p, C2:Canon Log 3

If someone with these cards and an r5c could record video until the camera says its full and then check how much data that is on their computer that would be greatly appreciated.Thanks

For clarity I do not believe this issue effects a normal R5 nor do I think its a problem for the photo part of an R5C. Its only in video mode.

Thank you mariuss, I really appreciate you taking the time to try that out.

The main difference is the firmware as my camera came with the slightly newer 1.0.2.1 but when i look in the release notes it should not have effected how the camera uses memory cards at all:

Firmware Version 1.0.2.1 incorporates the following fixes and enhancements:

1. Built-in Mic Audio Off
   a. The internal microphone on the camera body can now be turned off. (VIDEO mode)
2. Fixes an issue, in which, in rare instances, the camera cannot be normally operated when operating the REC button with the camera set to the [Continuous Recording] function. (VIDEO mode)
3. Fixes minor issues when using the CINE-SERVO lens. (VIDEO mode)

Seems I will need to do some more tests but at least i know the cards can be fully utilized so its something odd with my set up. Thanks again for the info and testing it will help me narrow down the issue

mariuss wrote:

Hi barnyz.

I made a test with the same hardware with the only difference, i was using a battery grip. Video mode: RAW Standard.

When the camera stopped recording, the left free space was 23 GB. It's not possible to record video in any other modes -> card full.

In Photo-Mode i can take 324 more Raw photos.

Firmware: 1.0.1.1

barnyz wrote:

Hello. thought I would bump this oldish thread rather than start a new one. I recently acquired an R5C and based on threads like this (and others) decided to buy some Angelbird AV PRO SE 512GB 1785 MB memory cards. They work and allow me to record 8k video no problem. However I am not able to use anywhere near the full capacity of the cards and im hoping someone else who has these cards and an R5C could share their experience so I can see if the problem is just me or something else

On a recent trip i filled up two of these cards. With both cards this was showing on the R5C in video mode that there were zero minutes of recording time left and the camera would not allow me to record anymore. However I noticed when switching over to photo mode that the cards only had about 384gb of used space and could happily snap away and continue to take photos no problem. When I got home I put the cards into my computer and that was also showing that both cards had about 385gb of data on them. I did a quick test and copied a 90gb file onto one of these "full" cards and it all copied over no problem. So for me the capacity of these cards in an r5c is about third less than I expected. I contacted Angelbird who said its a problem with the r5c and told me contact Canon. I contacted Canon and they basically told me nothing of any use. I asked Angelbird if they could test their cards in an R5C to confirm the issue but they seem unwilling to do this and have stopped replying to me. Hence im hoping someone here could confirm if this is just a me problem or a general problem

I have the latest firmware for the r5c and I shoot with the following settings:
rec format = MP4(HEVC)YCC422 10 Bit, Resolution = 8192x4320 540Mbps, Frame rate 25.00p, C2:Canon Log 3

If someone with these cards and an r5c could record video until the camera says its full and then check how much data that is on their computer that would be greatly appreciated.Thanks

For clarity I do not believe this issue effects a normal R5 nor do I think its a problem for the photo part of an R5C. Its only in video mode.

I have been using anglebird 2Tb cfexpress card for R5c. I used a Sandisk 512 gb cf express for R5. I have not had any problem with my cards.

I shoot 8k raw 25fps and occasionally 50 fps. Sometimes the recording stopped when the 512 card  was full towards the end of an event. It never reached 512… but might be 497 gb..

As for the 2Tb card, I could record 600 gb for a full day of shooting during travel. I offloaded the card with Angelbird card reader… which was much faster than direct camera to Mac for such size of data transfer per day. 
I tend to offload and reformat the card everyday after shooting. I have not had an issue for the past year of use.

bestzoom wrote:

I have been using anglebird 2Tb cfexpress card for R5c. I used a Sandisk 512 gb cf express for R5. I have not had any problem with my cards.

I shoot 8k raw 25fps and occasionally 50 fps. Sometimes the recording stopped when the 512 card was full towards the end of an event. It never reached 512… but might be 497 gb..

As for the 2Tb card, I could record 600 gb for a full day of shooting during travel. I offloaded the card with Angelbird card reader… which was much faster than direct camera to Mac for such size of data transfer per day.
I tend to offload and reformat the card everyday after shooting. I have not had an issue for the past year of use.

Thanks for the additional info bestzoom. It definitely seems this issue is unique to me. Out of interest what firmware do you have on the r5c?

1.0.2.1

I have Angelbird cf epxress PRO type b and not the PRO SE version.

If you can reproduce the card problem on another cf express card, then the problem is with the camera instead of the card.

I have to provide proof of reproducible focusing problem (footages) to Canon before they will take a look. They have repaired my R5C under warranty and it is good as gold.

Don't be surprised the problem can occur with new camera like R5C even though it maybe rare.

Personally, R5c is a better cinema camera comparing to R5.... and I use both of them..

All the best!

bestzoom wrote:

1.0.2.1

I have Angelbird cf epxress PRO type b and not the PRO SE version.

If you can reproduce the card problem on another cf express card, then the problem is with the camera instead of the card.

I have to provide proof of reproducible focusing problem (footages) to Canon before they will take a look. They have repaired my R5C under warranty and it is good as gold.

Don't be surprised the problem can occur with new camera like R5C even though it maybe rare.

Personally, R5c is a better cinema camera comparing to R5.... and I use both of them..

All the best!

thanks for the extra info.Totally agree the R5C is a dream camera for hyrbid shooters, its the reason i switched from Sony to Canon as i think its the best all rounder for my needs

I actually have 3 cards now and they are all the same... so yeah clearly a camera issue for me.

Angelbird did get back in contact so im trying to arrange a call with them as they also feel certain its an issue specific to me and have offered to help.