Sonnet Introduces CFexpress and XQD Pro Card Reader with Thunderbolt 3

The market of professional memory cards has shrunk in the recent years as many cameras shifted to more compact SD cards, but there are still a good number of high-end cameras that use CFexpress or XQD media. This week Sonnet unveiled the industry’s first card reader with a Thunderbolt 3 interface that supports CFexpress and XQD.

The Sonnet SF3-series CFexpress/XQD Pro Card Reader (SF3-2CFEX) comes in a rugged aluminum enclosure, it supports CFexpress 2.0 Type B and XQD cards, and can read files concurrently from two CFexpress cards at up to 2,600 MB/s or two XQD cards at up to 800 MB/s. The reader has two Thunderbolt 3 ports to enable daisy chaining with other Thunderbolt 3 devices or connect a display.

The Sonnet SF3-2CFEX card reader measures 147 mm × 88.3 mm × 35.6 mm and is compatible with Apple macOS as well as Microsoft Windows PCs.

The Sonnet SF3 CFexpress/XQD Pro card reader is now available directly from the company for $199.99. At present the SF3-2CFEX media reader is the only one to support both CFexpress and XQD (at least according to Sonnet).

Sonnet’s SF3-series of professional card readers includes readers for CFast 2.0, XQD, SxS, and RED Mini-Mag cards. All of them feature a similar rugged yet compact design and are meant to be stacked and daisy chained.

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Source: Sonnet (via Hermitage Akihabara)