The Wise CFexpress 4.0 Type A Mk-II cards are available in 256GB, 512 GB, and 1TB capacities. All three cards bear the VPG400 logo, making them compliant with Video Performance Guarantee established by the CompactFlash Association.
The Wise CFexpress 4.0 Type A Mk-II looks to be good option for use with any of the Sony alpha series cameras that utilize CFexpress Type A cards as they are capable of supporting all resolutions, video codecs, and frame rates.
The Wise CFexpress 4.0 Type A Mk-II utilizes a PCIe Gen 4 interface that doubles the bandwidth to 2GB/s. This makes the CFexpress 4.0 Type A Card twice as fast as their predecessors.
The Wise CFexpress 4.0 Type A Mk-II joins the 256GB and 512GB capacities in the series. It is one of the latest CFexpress Type A cards to hit the market. It took quite a long time for companies other than Sony to start making CFexpress Type A cards, but now we have Exascend, Pergear, Angelbird, ProGrade, Delkin Devices, and Lexar providing third-party solutions.
As far as I am currently aware, the Wise CFexpress 4.0 Type A Mk-II, Exascend Essential Pro CFexpress 4.0 Type A Card, OWC 960GB Atlas Pro CFexpress 4.0 Type A Memory Card, ProGrade Digital 960GB CFexpress 4.0 Type A Iridium Memory Card, are the only CFexpress 4.0 cards currently on the market that have a similar capacity.
It isn’t a huge surprise that there are not a ton of options when it comes to CFexpress Type A cards, because you can currently only use the cards in Sony cameras such as the Sony a1, a7S III, A7 IV, A7V, FX30, FX3, and FX6. No other manufacturer, apart from Sony utilizes this type of recording media.
When CFExpress Type A cards were first announced they were only available in smaller-sized capacities, and initially, the highest capacity was limited to 160GB, but in the last year or so we have seen higher capacities being introduced.
In April 2023, Angelbird announced its AV PRO 1TB card, which at the time was the highest capacity available on the market. Unfortunately, in a lot of places around the world, it has been back ordered or out of stock ever since its launch. It is now listed as being discontinued.
The largest capacity currently available is the Sony 1920GB CFexpress Type A TOUGH Memory Card ($1,398 USD).
In some ways, CFexpress Type A is a strange format because there are limitations to the capacities that can be made, and only a handful of cameras, which are all made by Sony, use this type of media.
Ok, let’s get back to the Wise CFexpress 4.0 Type A Mk-IICard.
Key features
- 1TB Storage Capacity
- PCIe 4.0 x1 Bus
- Max Read Speed: 1865 MB/s
- Max Write Speed: 1750 MB/s
- Min Write Speed: 400 MB/s
- Captures Raw Content
- Records 8K, 4K, and Full HD Video
- Captures Continuous Still Images Bursts
- Resists Moisture, Dust, X-Rays & Magnets
- Can Withstand Extreme Temperatures
Features
The card is moisture, dust, X-ray, and magnetic resistant and it can also withstand extreme temperatures.
Fast Speeds?
The Wise CFexpress 4.0 Type A Mk-II has claimed write speeds of up to 1865 MB/s and the sustained write speed is stated as being 400MB/s, which makes it VPG-400 compliant.
So how do these claim speeds compare to the Exascend 1TB Essential Pro, OWC 960GB Atlas Pro CFexpress 4.0 Type A Memory Card, ProGrade Digital 960GB CFexpress 4.0 Type A Iridium Memory Card? I have also included some of the 1TB PCIe 3.0 cards as well.
| READ SPEED | WRITE SPEED | |
| Wise 1TB CFexpress 4.0 Type A Mk-II | 1750MB/s | 1865MB/s |
| Exascend 1TB Essential Pro | 1800MB/s | 1650MB/s |
| OWC 960GB Atlas Pro CFexpress 4.0 | 1850MB/s | 1850MB/s |
| ProGrade Digital 960GB CFexpress 4.0 Type A Iridium | 1800MB/s | 1700MB/s |
| Exascend 1TB Essential | 900MB/s | 800MB/s |
| Sony 1920GB CFexpress Type A TOUGH | 800MB/s | 700MB/s |
| Sony 960GB CFexpress Type A TOUGH | 800MB/s | 700MB/s |
| Angelbird AV PRO 1TB | 820MB/s | 730MB/s |
What you clearly need to be aware of is that these listed speeds are largely irrelevant in the real world and you are not going to see maximum read or write speeds. The most important speed to try and find out is sustained read and write speeds which are generally a lot lower than maximum speeds. Unfortunately, some manufacturers don’t quote sustained speeds.
So what are the minimum sustained write speeds of the cards? Well, below you can see the ones that I was able to find information about.
| MINIMUM SUSTAINED WRITE SPEED | |
| Wise 1TB CFexpress 4.0 Type A Mk-II | 400MB/s |
| Exascend 1TB Essential Pro | 400MB/s |
| OWC 960GB Atlas Pro CFexpress 4.0 | 400MB/s |
| ProGrade Digital 960GB CFexpress 4.0 Type A Iridium | 200MB/s |
| Exascend 1TB Essential | 200MB/s |
| Sony 1920GB CFexpress Type A TOUGH | 200MB/s |
| Sony 960GB CFexpress Type A TOUGH | 200MB/s |
Please note that this is the minimum guaranteed write speed and it is not necessarily as high as what you will get in the real world.
Capacity
I had a look at the capacity of the card on a Mac and it showed 1.02TB.
If you were recording UHD 4K (3840 x 2160) at 59.94 fps in H.264/XAVC S-I 4:2:2 10-Bit on the Sony a7R V a 1TB card would allow you to record for about 4 hours.
If you were recording UHD 4K (3840 x 2160) at 23.98p in H.265/XAVC HS 4:2:2 10-Bit the card would allow you to record for more than 45 hours.
Record 8K
The Wise 1TB CFexpress 4.0 Type A Mk-II is more than capable of recording 8K and 4K high frame rate material from the Sony a1 and Sony a7V.
Above you can see the recording data rates listed by Sony for the a1. The maximum bitrate is 520Mb/s (65 MB/s). As the minimum sustained write speed is listed as 4000MB/s, the card should be easily capable of recording 8K XAVC HS 4:2:2 10-bit material without breaking a sweat.
Above you can see the recording data rates for the Sony FX6. The max. bitrate on the FX6 is 600Mb/s (75MB/s) when recording 4K DCI XAVC-I. Again, the Wise 1TB CFexpress 4.0 Type A Mk-II card can easily handle all of these requirements without breaking a sweat.
Having a high capacity card also allows you to record for long periods of time. On the highest quality 4K setting on the Sony FX3 you could record 8 hours and 24 minutes of 4K 25p material.
Fast Media Offload
What you clearly need to remember, and this goes for any type of media, is that transfer speeds will vary depending on both the read and write speeds of your card, your card reader, your computer, and what type of hard drive you are transferring to.
If you are using a CFexpress Type A card and transferring to an HDD drive, you won’t be getting fast transfer speeds. If you are transferring to a very fast SSD/NVMe then you will see lightning-fast offload speeds.
The Wise RD-40CXA CFexpress 4.0 Type A Card Reader ($99.99 USD) lets you take full advantage of the card’s fast speeds when offloading material.
Real World speed tests
I did a few tests to see what the sustained read/write speeds of the Wise 1TB CFexpress 4.0 Type A Mk-II were. For the test, I was using a M1 MacBook Pro and a Wise CFexpress 4.0 Type B card reader.
Wise 1TB CFexpress 4.0 Type A Mk-II
Above you can see the results for the Wise 1TB CFexpress 4.0 Type A Mk-II card with the stress set to 5GB. I got a sustained write speed of 1399.7 MB/s and a sustained read speed of 1523.9 MB/s.
Exascend 1TB Essential Pro CFexpress 4.0 Type A
As a comparison, above you can see the results for the Exascend 1TB Essential Pro CFexpress 4.0 Type A card with the stress set to 5GB. I got a sustained write speed of 1,398 MB/s and a sustained read speed of 1514.1 MB/s.
Exascend 1TB Essential
As another comparison, above you can see the results for the Exascend 1TB Essential card with the stress set to 5GB. I got a sustained write speed of 451.7 MB/s and a sustained read speed of 779.5 MB/s.
Wise 1TB CFexpress 4.0 Type A Mk-II
16GB Load 
256MB Load
I also tested the Wise 1TB CFexpress 4.0 Type A Mk-II using the AJA System Test Lite software under a 16GB load to see what the read and write speeds were. The sustained write speed was 1210 MB/s and the sustained read speed was 1525 MB/s. The minimum write speed recorded was 760 MB/Sec.
I also tested it under a 256MB load and the sustained write speed was 1424MB/s and the sustained write speed was 1617 MB/s. The minimum write speed recorded was 1326 MB/Sec
16GB Load 
256MB Load
Above you can see how many frames per second it could handle when recording 8K DCI in ProRes 422HQ under the same test conditions.
16GB Load 
256 MB Load
Ok, so many frames per second of 4K DCI ProRes 422HQ could it handle? Well, above you can see.
The results I obtained during all of these tests clearly show that the card is easily capable of recording 8K 29.98p H.265/XAVC HS 4:2:2 10-Bit. The maximum data rate when recording 8K 29.98p on the Sony a1 is 520 Mb/s. It can also easily handle 8K from the Sony a7V.
16GB Load 
256MB Load
Let’s do one more test with the loaded-up card with recorded files (about 73% full) and have a look at how it performs with the test file size set to 256MB and then 16GB? As you can see the average write speed did drop when tested with a 16GB load. What was interesting is that the min. write speed recorded was 1288 MB/Sec when the test was done at 256MB and 575 MB/Sec when it was set at 16GB.
You can use a CFexpress Type A card in a camera that takes CFexpress Type B cards
What the? You may be asking how this is possible. Well, another company, Exascend, makes a CFexpress Type B to Type A adapter, I simply put the Wise 1TB CFexpress 4.0 Type A Mk-II in that adapter and placed it inside a Nikon Z9.
I could record 5.4K 25p in ProRes RAW without any issues, as well as 7680 x 4320 30fps in H.265 4:2:2 10-Bit.
I tried recording 8.3K 60fps in N-RAW (12-bit), but the recording would only last for a few seconds. This is because the minimum sustained write speed of the card wasn’t high enough.
Price & availability
The Wise 1TB CFexpress 4.0 Type A Mk-II is available to purchase for $549.99 USD.
How does the price compare to the competition?
| PRICE | |
| Wise 1TB CFexpress 4.0 Type A Mk-II | $549.99 USD |
| Exascend 1TB Essential Pro CFexpress 4.0 Type A | $699 USD |
| OWC 960GB Atlas Pro CFexpress 4.0 | $519.99 USD |
| ProGrade Digital 960GB CFexpress 4.0 Type A Iridium | $599.99 USD |
| Exascend 1TB Essential | $499 USD |
| Sony 1920GB CFexpress Type A TOUGH | $998 USD* |
| Sony 960GB CFexpress Type A TOUGH | $548 USD* |
*Currently on special at B&H as of the 20th September 2024
| PRICE per GB | |
| Wise 1TB CFexpress 4.0 Type A Mk-II | $0.55 USD |
| Exascend 1TB Essential Pro CFexpress 4.0 Type A | $0.69 USD |
| OWC 960GB Atlas Pro CFexpress 4.0 | $0.52 USD |
| ProGrade Digital 960GB CFexpress 4.0 Type A Iridium | $0.62 USD |
| Exascend 1TB Essential | $0.50 USD |
| Sony 1920GB CFexpress Type A TOUGH | $0.52 USD |
| Sony 960GB CFexpress Type A TOUGH | $0.57 USD |
Above you can see how much the cards cost per GB.
Conclusion
The Wise 1TB CFexpress 4.0 Type A Mk-II offers a good capacity and great performance and it would be a good choice if you own any of the Sony cameras that utilize CFexpress Type A cards. The sustained read and write speeds were excellent and the card can handle anything you can throw at it without breaking a sweat.
The card worked as advertised in all of the cameras I tried it with. Yes, you could certainly make an argument that you don’t need those CFexpress 4.0 card speeds just yet, but it does make offloading your media a lot faster (with a 4.0 card reader). In the future, there are bound to be new cameras that will be able to utilize the increased speeds.
