SanDisk announced Thursday a new, 32-gigabyte CompactFlash card that it said can record more than 80 minutes of high-definition video. Called the Extreme III CompactFlash card, it is described as targeted “to meet the demands of professional digital videographers and photographers.”
SanDisk said that many such cards increase storage capacity at a cost to speed, but the Extreme III offers a fast data-transfer rate of 30 megabytes per second.
50 Percent Increase
The company said it is upgrading data speeds for all its SanDisk Extreme III cards. The entire Extreme III line, from the 4GB to the new 32GB cards, now feature a data speed increase to 30 MB/s. For some of the cards, this is an increase of up to 50 percent.
The company said the new 32GB card will allow field producers and camera crews, working under tight deadlines, to transfer content such as video or photos quickly. To emphasize this use, the card was to be shown in the Thomson Grass Valley booth at the International Broadcasting Convention, which began Friday in Amsterdam.
A spokesperson for Thomson pointed out that, for up to 80 minutes of recording time, the Extreme III CF card can handle 100MB per second in 10-bit, 4:2:2 video.
SanDisk also noted that all Extreme III cards have the widest guaranteed operating temperature in the industry, another factor of interest to field crews. It works in temperatures ranging from 13 degrees below zero to 185 degrees Fahrenheit.
The card’s capacity for high-resolution photos is also being promoted. SanDisk noted that photographers often shoot in RAW format, which requires up to 10 times as much storage space as JPG images, and a high-capacity card can be what they need. Sports photographers, for instance, can take a high-speed stream of RAW images during sporting events.
Diminishing Returns
At $299.99, the new…