Atech’s new Blackjet CFast 2.0 card reader is built for durability and speed
Mar 7, 2018
John Aldred
John Aldred is a photographer with over 25 years of experience in the portrait and commercial worlds. He is based in Scotland and has been an early adopter – and occasional beta tester – of almost every digital imaging technology in that time. As well as his creative visual work, John uses 3D printing, electronics and programming to create his own photography and filmmaking tools and consults for a number of brands across the industry.
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Since the demise and maybe-rebirth of Lexar, the memory card news has been quite interesting. We’ve had world’s fastest, world’s biggest, world’s fastest again, and an entirely new company, ProGrade Digital has risen from the ashes of Lexar & SanDisk execs. With the race to bring out newer, faster, larger memory cards, though, also comes the race to bring out faster memory card readers.
And with that in mind, Atech Flash Technology has now launched a “premium line” of products under the “Blackjet” brand, the latest being a new CFast 2.0 card reader. The Blackjet VX-1C is a USB 3.1 Gen 2 CFast 2.0 card reader with a rugged metal enclosure for maximum durability.
Aimed at video professionals, the VX-1C is designed for daily use. As a portable unit with a metal enclosure, it should stand up to the rigours of needing to back up cards regularly on location during filming. But it should work equally well in a studio, too. To dissipate heat, the enclosure is vented to allow warm air to escape and cool air to enter.
It utilises a USB 3.1 Gen 2 Type-C interface, it is compatible with both Mac and Windows. The VX-1C offers an ingest speed of up to 525MB/sec. Of course, that will potentially be limited by the card you’re using, as well as the host system it’s connected to.
It would be interesting to see how this one compares to the upcoming ProGrade Digital CFast/SD card reader in terms of speed. Especially given that ProGrade’s cards offer 550MB/sec transfer rates (slightly more than the VX-1C claims to provide).
The Blackjet VX-1C is available to buy now for $99.
John Aldred
John Aldred is a photographer with over 25 years of experience in the portrait and commercial worlds. He is based in Scotland and has been an early adopter – and occasional beta tester – of almost every digital imaging technology in that time. As well as his creative visual work, John uses 3D printing, electronics and programming to create his own photography and filmmaking tools and consults for a number of brands across the industry.
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