Essential CFexpress Type A
Exascend’s Essential series CFexpress Type A memory card combines cinema-grade performance in the compact CFexpress Type A form factor. Optimized for professional photography and cinematography, the Essential CFexpress Type A card features patented technologies to ensure top-level stability without dropping frames.

Form factor
Certified
Up to
Storage capacity
Up to
Sustained read
Up to
Sustained write
ESSENTIAL STORAGE.
PURE CINEMA PERFORMANCE.
True CFexpress performance
The Essential series unlocks the true performance of CFexpress, delivering enterprise-level performance in a minuscule card format.
Cinematography-level stability
It's finally time to forget about frame drops. With Exascend's exclusive stability-enhancing technologies, stable top performance is here.
Ready for the real world
Exascend's CFexpress cards are built to last and provide top-level performance in even the most demanding environments.
Optimized for your camera system
We work closely with camera manufacturers and creators to engineer cards that bring out the best of any system – for any shoot.
Description
Exascend Essential series of CFexpress Type A cards comes available in 480 GB, 360 GB, 240 GB, 180 GB and 120 GB capacities, offering performance of up to 900 MB/s read and 800 MB/s write.
Series highlights:
- Sustained performance-enhancement with Exascend’s SuperCruise™ technology
- Protection against shocks, vibrations, magnetism and more with a rugged product design
- Fully compatible with all existing camera systems utilizing CFexpress Type A currently on the market, including Sony a1, a7S III, A7 IV, FX3, and FX6.
- Generous five-year global warranty
If you’re ready to take your cinematography to the next level, place an order directly with our retail partners or send us a product inquiry if you want to learn more.



Recommended products
- UHS-II interface
- V90 & V60-rated SDXC
- Up to 256 GB capacity
- 300 MB/s maximum read
- 280 MB/s maximum write
- UHS-I interface
- V30-rated SDXC
- Up to 128 GB capacity
- 180 MB/s maximum read
- 150 MB/s maximum write
- PCIe 3.0 (NVMe 1.2) interface
- CFexpress Type B
- Up to 2 TB capacity
- 1,800 MB/s sustained read
- 1,400 MB/s sustained write
Advanced technologies
Afterburner™
Afterburner™ is a performance-enhancing Exascend technology that leverages SLC cache to boost sequential read and write speeds in storage devices with 3D TLC NAND.
Adaptive Thermal Control™
Our unique Adaptive Thermal Control™ technology tackles the issue of overheating and thermal throttling that is unavoidable in high-performance PCIe NVMe flash storage devices.
Unlimited Over-Provisioning
Exascend offers unlimited over-provisioning (OP), allowing customers to set the ideal level of OP to match their application’s exact demands. No artificial limitations. Unlimited flexibility.
Power Tuning
Our unique level of control over hardware, firmware and manufacturing enables us to provide unmatched tuning services. By tuning the performance of our product specifically for your applications, we can achieve the highest possible performance to thermals and performance to power ratios.
SuperCruise™
SuperCruise™ is a signature Exascend technology that optimizes write performance for stability – ensuring unbeatable stable write performance even in the most demanding applications.
...and many more
The Essential CFexpress also supports AES-256, data retention, firmware encryption, RAID ECC, TCG Opal, multi-image firmware backup, and other Exascend technologies.
Product information
Image | Model Name | Form factor | Capacity (GB) | Max. seq. read (MB/s) | Max. seq. write (MB/s) | TBW (max.) | Inquiry |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
![]() | EXPC3EA480GB | CFexpress Type A | 480 | 900 | 800 | 300 | |
![]() | EXPC3EA360GB | CFexpress Type A | 360 | 900 | 800 | 225 | |
![]() | EXPC3EA240GB | CFexpress Type A | 240 | 800 | 700 | 150 | |
![]() | EXPC3EA180GB | CFexpress Type A | 180 | 800 | 700 | 115 | |
![]() | EXPC3EA120GB | CFexpress Type A | 120 | 800 | 700 | 75 |
Essential CFexpress Type A | |
Edition | Essential |
Physical information | |
Form factor | CFexpress Type A |
Interface | PCIe 3.0 (Supports NVMe 1.4) |
Capacity | 120–480GB |
Flash type | 3D TLC |
Input voltage | 3.3V±5% |
Power consumption | Active <1.75W; Idle <0.5W |
Performance | |
Maximum sequential read (MB/s) | 900 |
Maximum sequential write (MB/s) | 800 |
Max. 4K random read (IOPS) | 65,000 |
Max. 4K random write (IOPS) | 155,000 |
Reliability/endurance | |
Operational temperature (°C) | -0–70 |
Storage temperature (°C) | -10–70 |
UBER | <1 sector per 10^17 bits read |
TBW (max.) | 300 |
MTBF (hours) | 2,000,000 |
Warranty (years) | 5 |