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Thursday September 11, 2008
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As I remember it was the great philosopher Roberto Duran who once exclaimed, "No mas. No mas." Is it time to follow Roberto's advice or are we still in need of additional Flash storage? No need to answer just yet, because ready or not, here comes SanDisk doubling CF capacity to 32GB with its Extreme III CompactFlash.
I was all set to explain how 32GB is much too much free space to carry in your pocket until I thought back to my first hard drive--40Mb. That's not a typo! And that 40Mb was on a system which replaced a computer with no hard drive, just a floppy. It seemed like a lot of room at the time just as the 32GB CompactFlash does now. Don't be fooled. Build it and they will come. Though SanDisk was thinking pros when they designed the Extreme III it's mere availability will undoubtedly affect what comes down the pipe for home shooters. I suppose this is living proof you can never have enough closet space.
If CompactFlash means still photography to you, it's time to think outside the box. CompactFlash and its pocket size format siblings are now robust enough to replace videotape in high end applications. 32GB means over 80 minutes of 100 Mbps, 10-bit, 4:2:2 HD video. Until now that was primarily a job for tape whose use brought all the problems associated with mechanical transports. SanDisk touts their temperature specs (minus 13°F to 185°F) because it's a simple way of pounding home, "We're not tape." Trading tape for a card means camcorders are simpler, more climate tolerant and (the real deal maker) the video is randomly accessible at every step of the process!
As nice as 32GB is this would be a Pyrrhic victory for SanDisk without fast transfer speeds. Imagine sitting through a 32GB transfer at the original CF spec 1x or 150KB/s This new Extreme III CompactFlash has a 30MB/s (200x) read and write speed. That is not SanDisk's fastest CF. They already have smaller, more expensive CompactFlash units burning at 45MB/s. It's just the first time this much speed has been paired with this much storage.
Breakthrough technology doesn't come cheap... Well it doesn't come cheap yet. This 32GB CF, scheduled to go on sale in October, lists at $299. Be prepared to need more archive space too!
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