Other World Computing (OWC) has announced a set of new SD and CFexpress Type B memory cards, which expands its support to photographers beyond just the computer accessories which it is most well known for.
OWC has historically produced memory, external drives, SSDs, docking accessories, network attached storage, and performance upgrade kits for computers, but today has expanded into SD and CFexpres memory cards under the new Atlas Pro brand.
OWC Atlas S Pro SD Memory Cards
Diverging from the norm, OWC lists what it calls “truthful” speed ratings for its SD cards and rates the new UHS-II V90 cards for 276 MB/s write and 290 MB/s read speeds. The company says this is enough speed for burst photo shooting as well as up to 8K video. OWC says it uses “advanced pseudo-Single-Level Cell (pSLC) flash memory to deliver ten times higher durability” than “ordinary” SD cards and offers fast speeds across the entire card capacity for even performance regardless of how much footage has been captured or photos taken.
The Atlas S Pro SD cards are impact, bend, shock, UV ray, and X-ray resistant and are covered by OWC’s five-year limited warranty. The new cards are available in 32, 64, 128, and 256 GB capacities and start at $49 and tops out at $299.
OWC Atlas Pro and Atlas Pro Ultra CFexpress Type B Memory Cards
OWC is producing its own line of CFexpress Type B memory cards: the Atlas Pro and Pro Ultra CFexpress Type B memory cards. The company says that the Pro Ultra cards can deliver a sustained 1,400 MB/s transfer speed to support rapid-fire burst shooting and 8K video capture, but both the Pro and Pro Ultra cards support 1,500 MB/s write and 1,700 MB/s peak speeds. Basically, the Pro Ultra cards guarantee high sustained read and write speeds, while OWC doesn’t promise any specific sustained speeds for the Pro cards.
The cards are impact, bend, shock, UV ray, and X-ray resistant, are fully compatible with Canon, Nikon, and Panasonic cameras, are backwards compatible with XQD devices, and fully meet CFexpress Type B 1.0 and 2.0 specifications. Just as was the case with the SD cards, the CFexpress cards are covered by OWC’s five-year limited warranty.
OWC did not provide pricing for either the Pro or Pro Ultra CFexpress cards, but the Atlas Pro CFexpress cards will be available early Q2 2022 in 256 GB, 512 GB, 1 TB, and 2 TB capacities while the Atlas Pro Ultra cards will be available early Q2 2022 in 320 GB and 640 GB capacities.
Thunderbolt CFexpress Type B Card Reader
To accompany the new CFexpress cards, OWC has also announced the Atlas FXR Thunderbolt CFexpress card reader. It allows any Thunderbolt or USB-C connected computer to access CFexpress memory cards at over 1,500 MB/s speeds. It is bus-powered and OWC says it is about the size of a standard debit card, which the company says makes it the smallest CFexpress Type B reader on the market. It ships with a Thunderbolt cable with a tethered USB-A adapter and is supported by OWC’s two-year limited warranty.
Pricing was not disclosed, but it will be available in Q2 of 2022.
