PhotoFast GMonster CompactFlash 533x and 533x Plus Review

Introduction

For about a month now, I’ve been leaving my trusty Transcend 300x CF cards at home and putting the safekeeping of my personal and review work in the hands of PhotoFast’s GMonster 533x and 533x Plus CompactFlash cards. I have not been disappointed. If the name PhotoFast sounds new to you, it’s because they are indeed relatively new to the U.S. marketplace, but the Taiwan based company already has a popular following in Japan, where they also supply camera manufacturers with memory related products. They are currently in the process of spreading the word here in the U.S. and you may have already seen some of the great feedback on their GMonster 533x cards as well as their SD cards at well respected sites like Luminous Landscape, Rob Galbraith, and Photography Bay.

Performance

So what’s all the excitement about? Well there’s the size of the cards for one. The GMonster 533x CF cards come in 16GB, 32GB, and 64GB varieties. The GMonster 533x Plus CF cards come in 8, 16, and 32GB flavors. Then there’s the performance. You may not have heard of PhotoFast before, but trust me they’re a well named company. The GMonster 533x 64GB card is rated at 90MB/s read and 60MB/s write, while the GMonster 533x Plus 32GB card is rated 90MB/s read and 90MB/s write. What about real world results you’re wondering? In the past month I’ve used nothing but PhotoFast cards in Nikon’s D300s, the Canon EOS 7D, and the Canon EOS 5D Mark II, three cameras known for either fast continuous shooting or capability of filling large amounts of storage very fast (like HD video). I’ve had nothing but improved results with the PhotoFast cards. Continuous shooting has been more responsive, lasted longer, and transfer speeds are thankfully faster. For example, the Canon EOS 7D is spec’d at 15 consecutive RAW files at 8 FPS, but I was easily able to acquire 20-plus RAW files with the PhotoFast 533x Plus. Improvements like that could mean getting a shot you wouldn’t have otherwise got.

If you’re anxious for additional real-world results, then you’ll want to check out Rob Galbraith’s comparison of the PhotoFast GMonster 533x Plus cards with the likes of Sandisk’s Extreme Pro, Transcend’s new 600x CF cards, and the Lexar Professional 600x series of CF cards. On the in-camera write speed test the PhotoFast GMonster 533x equals or comes extremely close to the vastly more expensive and brand new Lexar Professional 600x in tests on the Nikon D300s and the Canon EOS 7D, with a tied for best 58 RAW/JPEGs recorded in that test. In the card-to-computer test the PhotoFast GMonster 533x Plus again comes very close the new Lexar card, and easily better than the rest of the group.

Finally the aspect of PhotoFast’s cards you might like the best: their value. The PhotoFast GMonster 533x cards check in at much lower prices than Sandisk, Lexar, and even Transcend, and that’s while offering similar or even better performance. Yeah, we get that rated speeds don’t necessarily mean anything, but in actual real world results the PhotoFast offers near equal, or better performance than cards substantially higher in price. To make better sense of the their value check the chart below with the leading contenders.

Card Model	Rated Read/Write	Price
Lexar Professional 600x CompactFlash Card 16GB	90MB/s	$249
SanDisk Extreme Pro CompactFlash Card 16GB	90MB/s	$209
Transcend 600x CompactFlash Card 16GB	90MB/s	$199
PhotoFast GMonster 533X Plus CompactFlash Card 16GB	90MB/s	$149

Those prices are just on the 16GB cards, so the value increases dramatically as you look into getting 32GB and even 64GB cards.

Verdict

We’ve used the cards for about a full month now, with likely thousands of photos taken and tons of video as well, and have been happy with the performance and reliability of the PhotoFast cards. We haven’t encountered a single issue with any of the cards, and I don’t tend to be as careful with things as I should. Countless reformats, wet shooting conditions, card exchanges, removals, etc. and no problems. Given their very competitive performance and affordable pricing, I can easily “Highly Recommend” PhotoFast’s GMonster 533x line of CompactFlash cards for consumers looking to get great value with no compromises.

Availability

To find out more about PhotoFast and their line of products, please visit their website at http://www.photofastssd.com. PhotoFast also offers blazing SDHC Class 10 cards, again at very compelling prices, in addition to selling the only commercially available CFAST card,  a CompactFlash card with a SATA interface.

PhotoFast’s products, including the GMonster 533x Plus and 533x CompactFlash cards are sold at DVNation.com.

You can also order PhotoFast’s GMonster 533x line of CompactFlash cards through Amazon:

• GMonster 533X 16GB Compact Flash CF card: $99
• GMonster 533X 32GB Compact Flash CF card: $149
• GMonster 533X 64GB Compact Flash CF card: $299
• GMonster 533X Plus 8GB Compact Flash CF: card $94
• GMonster 533X Plus 16GB Compact Flash CF: card $149
• GMonster 533X Plus 32GB Compact Flash CF: card $249
• PhotoFast’s Class 10 SDHC memory cards at Amazon

Finally, you can also find PhotoFast’s memory products on Ebay.

Additional benchmark tests on the GMonster 533x CF cards can be found here.

Continue the Discussion

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1. 

   Al says:

   November 28, 2009 at 7:47 am

   Hi – great review. I’ve been thinking of getting the Photofast CF cards and I now think I will.

   Quick question – do you know what is the maximum size CF card that will work in a Canon 7D? I can’t find this answer on Canon’s website.

   Thanks
   Al.

   reply
   • 

     Patrick says:

     November 30, 2009 at 11:20 pm

     Al,
     Interesting question that I don’t know the answer to. I know 64GB goes in though.

     reply
     • 

       Al says:

       December 3, 2009 at 1:59 pm

       Thanks for letting me know that 64GB works – because I was only hoping for 32GB!

       Cheers
       Al.

       reply
       • 

         Patrick says:

         December 6, 2009 at 12:42 am

         Al,
         Yeah, I like the 32’s, 64 is a lot of info just in case something terrible happens.

         reply
2. 

   mario says:

   January 27, 2010 at 11:48 am

   Well is there an issue in formatting the Photofast cards. I have heard the 32 and 64 gb cards only registar 7.65 gb when formatted. so how did you resolve this issue

   reply
3. 

   Rick says:

   June 18, 2010 at 12:48 pm

   Quick question!
   I ordered one (GMonster 533X Plus 80/90) off Ebay, and I’m not getting the speeds I thought…
   I used Flash Memory Toolkit which runs a test and the fastest “write” speed I got was 21mb/s, and read 30mb/s.

   I suspect I got a counterfeit UDMA card… happens a lot on Ebay.

   Do you know if there are any other tools to test out CF card speed? Perhaps the software I’m using is wrong. It does feel fast in my 5D Mark II, but given of the buffer, it’s hard to tell!

   Thks.

   reply