Sintech DIY CFexpress Type B Card,CFe Card to M.2 nVME SSD,Compatible with Nikon Z6 Z7 Z9 D6 D850,Canon R3 R5C

CFexpress cards are ridiculously expensive, so this is an amazing money-saving alternative that actually works. NVMe drives use a PCIe interface, which is the same interface used by CFexpress cards, with the primary difference being that CFexpress is a generation 3.0 interface while current M.2 NVMe drives are on PCIe 4.0 (which is backwards compatible with the 3.0 interface).In plain language, you can stick a solid state drive of the right size and interface into this Do It Yourself kit and make your own CFexpress card for a lot less than buying an official card.I recommend getting a high quality M.2 SSD (not a SATA SSD) like a Samsung for best results. Make sure you create it as an active partition with MBR , not GPT, with exFAT as the file system. From there, format it in your camera before using.The kit itself is pretty simple to use. Simply take the tape off the interface and insert the SSD drive into it. Slap the heat transfer pad onto the SSD; this also helps to keep the SSD in place. Then peel off the sticker over the metal cover and press it on. There's a label included as well that allows you to note the size of the drive inside. That's it--the physical construction part is done, and the rest is just configuring the drive properly. This is when you'll want to create the active partition, MBR with exFAT, before inserting it into the camera for formatting.In camera, I had no problem. I took my Nikon Z7 and shot it on high speed FPS settings with no problems with shooting or writing. I easily took 25 images and had them write to the drive. My SSD was a used 512GB Samsung picked up off eBay for $60. So for just over $100, I got storage that would be $400 otherwise.Bottom-line: this works. I can't vouch for long-term reliability, but Samsung makes top tier solid state drive/memory, so I have every expectation that this will last a while. The case itself is easy to put together and use.

It works at full speed in my Blackmagic Cine 6k just fine without getting stuck in the camera.Only downside is that although it comes with thermal paste, the paste was almost dry and I don't think any of this adapter is metal at all. It actually feels like plastic chrome.

Just got my drive and adapter. Put the drive in a nvme USB enclosure and formatted it with exFAT. Put it in the adapter, which is all aluminum. Four screws, not plastic tabs as mentioned in some of the reviews.Before I inserted it, I used a digital caliper to measure the thickness and width of the adapter+drive. It's actually slightly smaller on both dimensions than my XQD memory cards. I didn't have any CFExpress cards. It fits into the Z8 smoothly, and pops right out with no extra resistance.Functionality seems to be fine. I did a few x5 and x30 boosts in the camera and it took less than a second for the card to complete writing to the card. I need to give it a longer trial, but it looks like a good solution so far.The pair was about $100 shipped, which is about $50 less than a Sabrent or Lexar 512GB card. I'm not sure if that is enough of a saving for this solution.

I just bought the third enclosure on SinTech’s Amazon store. I bought the first two enclosures directly from SinTech’s Chinese website in February 2023 & April 2024 after I bought a Fujifilm X-H2s, which uses CFe Type B cards (I call them CFeB cards). I learned how to “roll your own” CFeB card from The Complete Guide to Fujifilm’s X-H2 & X-H2s by Tony Phillips (he’s British/Australian (?) & writes excellent guides for Fujifilm & OM System camera owners).Before buying the first SinTech enclosure & Kioxia/Toshiba MVMe M.2 2230 SSD I did some research online into CFeB card components & about which CFeB cards work with which mirrorless cameras. CFeB cards have 3 components: an NVMe PCIe M.2 2230 SSD; and an enclosure in the XQD/CFeB form factor, which includes a controller, into which you plug the NVMe PCIe M.2 2230 SSD. NVMe PCIe Gen 3 x4 M.2 2230 SSDs are used in PC gaming devices (e.g. Steam Deck) so they’re widely available. And they are often stripped out of unsold gaming devices to be re-purposed in other devices such as CFeB data storage cards.CFeB card manufacturers don’t tell you what NVMe PCIe M.2 2230 SSD are used in their CFeB cards. If it’s an NVMe PCIe Gen 3 x4 SSD you’ll get read/write speeds of around 1,700/1,200 MBps (that’s Megabytes, not megabits). That dwarfs USB throughput speeds. You can get even faster throughput in a CFeB card by using an NVMe PCIe Gen 4 SSD, but that they run much hotter than Gen 3 SSD cards & cost more. The XQD/CFeB enclosures have almost no room for heatsinks. A little thermal paste is all you can add & is of little benefit.Bottom Line: heat is the enemy of mirrorless cameras. Most camera buyers think faster data storage cards are better. So they pay high prices for CFeB cards with even faster throughput speeds than NVMe PCIe Gen 3 x4 SSDs (R/W about 1,700/1,200 MBps). Mirrorless cameras already generate significant heat shooting high resolution video. Most mirrorless cameras aren’t designed to exhaust that waste heat effectively. So when you add a CFeB card with an NVMe PCIe Gen 4 SSD in it (R/W speeds 2,700 MBps & above) you’re making your mirrorless camera even hotter, shortening it’s life & possibly damaging your video files. NVMe PCIe Gen 3 x4 SSD cards, which generate little waste heat, are the OPTIMAL solution for CFeB cards which are fast enough to clear your camera’s buffer without damaging the camera or the video files you’re shooting.Back to SinTech’s “roll your own” CFeB solution. SinTech points out that some NVMe PCIe M.2 2230 SSD cards work better in some brands of cameras than they do in others. SinTech recommends Kioxia/Toshiba NVMe PCIe SSDs for Nikon & Fujifilm cameras. So that’s what I bought. SinTech recommends other NVMe PCIe SSD brands for other mirrorless camera brands (e.g. Canon). You need to do your research!My experience with SinTech CFeB enclosures & Kioxia/Toshiba NVMe PCIe Gen 3 x4 M.2 2230 SSDs:1. They work in my Fujifilm X-H2s. They record video. I have no trouble uploading the video to post-processing apps on my Mac.2. SinTech has quality control issues with their CFeB enclosures, which are made out of machined aluminum.Like most camera data storage cards CFeB cards are spring loaded. You push it in to mount it in the camera. To release the card from the camera, you push it in, it partially pops out, then you pull it the rest of the way out with your thumb & forefinger. The first Sintech CFeB card I bought in February 2023 catches on one side edge after I push to release it, while I’m pulling it out of the camera slot. The second SinTech CFeB card I bought in March 2024 works flawlessly. I push to release it, it pops out partway, then I pull it out; doesn’t catch in the slot; smooth as butter. The third SinTech CFeB card I just bought on their Amazon store works just like the first card - it catches on one edge as I’m pulling it out. I can insert & remove all three cards. But one side edge of cards 1 & 3 definitely rub against the side of the X-H2s card slot every time I remove them. I worry that, over time, that friction might damage the camera’s card slot.Looking closely at the 3 SinTech CFeB enclosures I’ve bought I see small but noticeable design differences in the edges of the enclosures & around the opening of the enclosure where it seats into the camera card slot. I won’t go into it in detail here. Clearly their engineers are revising the design to make it better. But that noticeable catch on releasing enclosures 1 & 3 tells me they need to refine the design of their product or they have a problem with quality control with their production machinery. As noted, enclosure no. 2, which I bought several months ago, works flawlessly. It’s a small sample size, but 2 out of 3 enclosures I bought catch in the camera slot on release. It doesn’t keep their product from working but it may pose a long-term risk to the camera. They need to address that issue.3. Kudos to SinTech for including a packet of thermal paste & a spudger in their most recent product package. That wasn’t included with the earlier purchases. Having said that, the effectiveness of thermal paste varies widely. The only thermal paste I would use on a CFeB card like this is Kryonaut Ultra High Performance Thermal Grease, a German product sold on Amazon. Even then there’s so little space available in the CFeB enclosure that its usefulness is doubtful. Sticking with an NVMe PCIe Gen 3 x4 M.2 2230 SSD is the most important factor in limiting waste heat damage to your camera.P.S.: The best available NVMe PCIe Gen 3 x4 M.2 2230 SSD for CFeB cards for use in Nikon & Fujifilm cameras is the Kioxia/Toshiba BG4 Series. I bought Kioxia/Toshiba KBG40ZNS512G SSD cards. They come in several sizes but the 512GB size is widely available. Kioxia makes a BG5 series, which are NVMe PCIe Gen 4 SSDs. It’s a good product but will run significantly hotter in your camera, so I wouldn’t use it.

Edit - I double checked, and the housing I got is indeed made of aluminum. I installed my NVME drive, and it now happily lives in my camera. I cannot tell at this time how the card will behave under heavy load, but it certainly works fine for my typical use.Original review, very misguided: "The product I got was 3D printed with what looks like PLA. Considering that NVME drives produce a fair amount of heat, I am not sure how fast the DIY CF express card would shut down due to lack of cooling. Plus. more than $30 for a small 3D printed piece of plastic? I am going to send this back"

Made my own memory and saved a lot. While I think it’s a little overpriced, did the job and works well.

With this adapter and a seperately purchased ssd I was able to assemble a 512 Gb cfexpress card for my Nikon for about the same price as a 128 Gb brand name card. It's nice to save money once in a while.

As advertised, it took a 2230 PCIe 3 SSD of 1 TB, quickly went together, and went into my Nikon Z9 without issue. It formatted quickly and indicated that 11.4 K pictures could be taken (which really means about 17 K). My card reader had no problem reading the card either so all is good.The Z9 states a buffer of 80 shots @ 20 shots/sec before the buffer slows down (about 4 seconds) but with the SSD in this adapter I kept the button down and the buffer NEVER filled so I stopped after 20 seconds. As the camera interface is with this adapter and not the SSD, I'd say the throughput from the adapter to the SSD is pretty good. Even shooting jpgs at 120 shots/sec, I got 13 seconds before my buffer slowed. My SSD is rated at 3200/2800 MB/s while the adapter is rated 1800/1500 MB/s for the 1TB so both well in excess to what the camera can provide. By the way, if shooting jpgs in the 120 picture mode, it indicates that it can take over 210 K pictures (again really about 300 K+). Transfer to the computer via card reader was about 375 MB/s but your results will vary depending on your hardware. Mine is older but I did transferred 27 GBytes of files in under a minute.I'm going to an airshow this weekend so this will be great for me. I can put this adapter/SSD in my primary card slot with my slew of 128 GB CFexpress-B cards in the secondary slot. As my CFexpresses fill up, I can swap them out while continuing to shoot to the 1 TB SSD in this adapter. If the SSD goes bad, then I have the smaller cards for backups. If one of the CFe's goes bad, I haven't lost all the pictures because they're spread out over the several smaller cards and the lost pictures will be on the adapter/SSD.It's too early to tell if everything will work in the long term as I just got everything today. However, assuming it does, then this is a huge boon for people having to use CFexpress cards as the 1 TB SSD and this adapter I got today cost about the same as my 128 GB CFexpress cards did (and they're not name brand). If I were going on a safari, I'd load up on these adapters and buy a few 2230 SSDs.

The case screws together, and I like that better than the ones that snap together. It fits nicely in the card reader and in the camera. Paired with a 512 gb samsung 991a ssd it went right into my D850, formatted, and is ready to go. I didn't use thermal paste because I mostly shoot stills. It was a bit surprising that the assembly instructions show applying the paste but none is included in the package. Overall, I am satisfied. I got a diy solution for about 1/3 less than a budget CFexpress B card.

The media could not be loaded.  I followed the instructions to remove the stickers and apply thermal paste, but this enclosure fails to shoot video for longer than 20 seconds before it overheats. Tried using this in a Canon R5. Disappointing. Also, the spudger mentioned in the listing to spread thermal paste was not included. 👎