Angelbird AV Pro Mk 2 V90 UHS-II - Very Poor Write Speeds in Canon R Series

[Tim Mayo]

I was just wondering if anyone here is using the Angelbird AV Pro Mk 2 V90 UHS-II memory card in any of the R Series bodies?

If you are, how quickly do they clear a full buffer of RAW + JPEG L images when shooting in Hi+ ?

I've tested three of these cards (two 64GB and one 128GB), all purchased from authorised dealers not third-parties on Amazon or eBay.

In all of the cameras I have tested them in so far the 64GB card has been incredibly slow, slower even than the V60 version of the same card. Yet in my Sony cameras they all work as I would expect. I've only tested the 128GB version in the R6 III and R5 so far and this is performing as I'd expect it to.

Sometimes the read and write speeds vary by capacity, although this is generally more common with CFexpress cards than SD cards. But according to the specs both the 64GB and 128GB have a minimum sustained write speed of 260 MB/s.

The 64GB is also still V90 rated for video, so it should sustain a write speed of 90MB/s or higher, but it's actually writing slower than 70MB/s in-camera.

Here are the cameras that I have tested them in and the buffer clearing times. I've included the times for the Kingston Canvas React Plus V90 UHS-II card for comparison. The Angelbird has a claimed max write speed of 280 MB/s and the Kingston 260 MB/s.

Camera	Angelbird Buffer Clearing Time (RAW + JPEG L)	Kingston Buffer Clearing Time (RAW + JPEG L)
R3	79 seconds (64GB)	17 seconds (64GB)
R5	41 seconds (64GB), 14 seconds (128GB)	13 seconds (64GB)
R6	42 seconds (64GB)	10 seconds (64GB)
R6 II	37 seconds (64GB)	12 seconds (64GB)
R6 III	78 seconds (64GB), 27 seconds (128GB)	25 seconds (64GB)
R7	27 seconds (64GB)	8 seconds (64GB)
R8	26 seconds (64GB)	9 seconds (64GB)
R10	10 seconds (64GB)	2 seconds (64GB)

As you can see, the Angelbird V90 64GB card is typically around 3-5x slower. These speeds will really cripple your shooting, especially if you are using them in a camera like the R6 III with a CFexpress card and writing to both slots.

I did inform Angelbird about this a couple of years back but was told that they could see no issues.

It would be helpful to know if I'm the only person seeing these poor performance figures or if others are as well.

I'll probably buy a new card just to see if anything has changed since I last purchased them. But I've not read about any updates or firmware changes with these cards and they are still branded the same.