'ProGrade' Experience - S1R bodies and CF Express

[incompatible]

I bought in to the L-mount system early, and use multiple Panasonic bodies. I originally bought all ProGrade CF Express and SD cards, and have since moved on after total failure early on with the CF Express product with no support. I read about a new iterations of their recovery software (3.1) and downloaded a trial only to find it was "Expired" upon installation. I then went on to purchase a license only to find that I cannot activate it. Is there possibly a worse alternative to ProGrade for the S1R and S1 bodies? I suppose so, but I hope someone here can share anything positive about recovering failed cards. I changed to Sony to 2021 and have had a very positive experience without failures, and even with my V90 Tough series SD I sent in on a recalled cards program (that still worked) and I was sent new cards AS WELL AS my original cards that were part of the recall, and they all still work without failure two years on. Even with serial and purchase information Prograde gave me the brush-off from the start, and the software gimmick is just adding to the insult. If you have found any solutions with failed Prograde cards, please let me know, and if not beware. Each of the cards failed in both my S1R bodies, I shoot raw on SD, and video to CFE.

 

[Lsake]

I’m not sure if your beef is with prograde or Lumix… but I use prograde UHS-II and Sandisk UHS-I SD cards in my S5 since 2020 release. Same ones for years and so far no failures or corruptions. I also use a prograde USB3 card reader which has been 100% reliable and very fast with my UHS-II cards.

Possibly you just had cards from a bad batch?

 

[incompatible]

I’m not sure if your beef is with prograde or Lumix… but I use prograde UHS-II and Sandisk UHS-I SD cards in my S5 since 2020 release. Same ones for years and so far no failures or corruptions. I also use a prograde USB3 card reader which has been 100% reliable and very fast with my UHS-II cards.

Possibly you just had cards from a bad batch?

I have four GH5 bodies, a G9, two S1R, two S1, LX100, AG-CX350.... all on Lumix professional membership, and I have no issue with Lumix. I thought I made clear that Sony has worked out well for a couple of years with CFExpress but I missed my point obviously. Yeah, it is a bad batch of cards, clearly. I figured someone with CF Express prograde might chime in. I gave away my Prograde SD cards for a youth project, they were very pleased to get a handful of 256gb v60 cards for the video projects. Thanks for the feedback.

 

[Matt_S]

Been using prograde 128GB V60s SD's for a few years now no issues. Their card readers are great also. Ive had great customer service from them when my old iMac built in card reader had issues reading the newer cards hence the purchase of their card reader.

 

[pdk42]

I’ve been using Sony Tough SD cards for many years now and am extremely impressed with them. They are so far ahead of anything else in terms of physical construction and I’ve had no issues with them electrically or software wise.

 

[incompatible]

I’ve been using Sony Touch SD cards for many years now and am extremely impressed with them. They are so far ahead of anything else in terms of physical construction and I’ve had no issues with them electrically or software wise.

What I am getting from the responses is that no one here uses CF Express cards from Prograde on their L-Mount bodies, which is the main concern I raised. I have been a member [here] since January 2021 waiting for a representative sample of users in the interim. My issues with Prograde were raised directly with the manufacturer two years ago during the pandemic lockdown, same cards brought forward now from my e-waste recycle bin. I had hoped there were some experienced users of L-Mount/CF Express, however I can tell form the negative feedback and continued comments about SD cards from a bygone era [before CF Express and L-Mount] are the points of reference. My apologies for offending the group, and I will leave the forum now some two-years plus from joining and avoid further discord.

 

[Pete_W]

I had hoped there were some experienced users of L-Mount/CF Express, however I can tell form the negative feedback and continued comments about SD cards from a bygone era [before CF Express and L-Mount] are the points of reference. My apologies for offending the group, and I will leave the forum now some two-years plus from joining and avoid further discord.

I don't think you've offended anyone, @ragsn_old_iron and I don't think there has been any discord?

It looks like no-one among the membership here has used Prograde CF Express cards. I don't have a camera with a CF Express slot so can't comment.

Anyway, there's no need to leave the group!

 

[RichardC]

What I am getting from the responses is that no one here uses CF Express cards from Prograde on their L-Mount bodies, which is the main concern I raised. I have been a member [here] since January 2021 waiting for a representative sample of users in the interim. My issues with Prograde were raised directly with the manufacturer two years ago during the pandemic lockdown, same cards brought forward now from my e-waste recycle bin. I had hoped there were some experienced users of L-Mount/CF Express, however I can tell form the negative feedback and continued comments about SD cards from a bygone era [before CF Express and L-Mount] are the points of reference. My apologies for offending the group, and I will leave the forum now some two-years plus from joining and avoid further discord.

I have not seen anything to be offended about!

I'm new here and have a Prograde CF Express card in my Lumix S1R. I've had it for a few months - I didn't think that was enough to offer an opinion.

Observations are:

• I'm blown away by the speed compared to SD cards.
• My Mac/Lightroom treats CF Express cards as removable drives.
• It seems to get hot when plugged into my Integral branded card reader. Perhaps this is normal?

Otherwise - no issues at all. Glad I bought it.

Don't go.

 

[pdk42]

What I am getting from the responses is that no one here uses CF Express cards from Prograde on their L-Mount bodies, which is the main concern I raised. I have been a member [here] since January 2021 waiting for a representative sample of users in the interim. My issues with Prograde were raised directly with the manufacturer two years ago during the pandemic lockdown, same cards brought forward now from my e-waste recycle bin. I had hoped there were some experienced users of L-Mount/CF Express, however I can tell form the negative feedback and continued comments about SD cards from a bygone era [before CF Express and L-Mount] are the points of reference. My apologies for offending the group, and I will leave the forum now some two-years plus from joining and avoid further discord.

I don't see anyone here feeling offended, so no need to leave!

If you have experience of CF cards, then I think that is valuable input. It does seem that most of us are using SD cards. I did use XQD cards on a Nikon Z7 a few years back and for my use case (photography, not videography), I found them to offer no real advantages, esp given the significantly higher price point.

I think for photography UHS II SD cards are plenty good enough and the availability of readers (often built in) makes them more convenient too.

But I know almost nothing about videography so I fully accept that CF probably offers a lot that is relevant.

 

[kbouk]

According to this test , and also this , the fastest UHS-II capable SD memory cards are just about 25% slower than the fastest XQD card for bust speeds on S1R ,

so my desicion was easy to use the fast UHS-II cards I already have and don’t buy a more expensive CF express card