Pretec, SanDisk kick CompactFlash capacities up to 16GB

You're probably already aware that CompactFlash cards in 32GB and 64GB capacities exist in prototype form, but currently no sizes larger than 8GB have been available to the gigabyte-hungry public. Enter SanDisk's Extreme III and Pretec's 16GB CF cards which will go into mass production later this year. Pretec's remaining mum on the price of its card, but SanDisk has admitted that the Extreme III will have a hefty suggested retail price of $1,049, and €633 in Europe. Fortunately for SanDisk and Pretec, the target market for these kind of cards, Digital SLR owners (read: paparazzi), likely won't care: more capacity means that many more compromising shots of Paris Hilton, price be damned.

Read - Pretec
Read - SanDisk

[Robert @ Sep 26th 2006 4:14PM]

now pda's can compete with ipods to the point of no return mr. ipod... Soon ill have the ultimate MP3 player my Ipaq w/ full screen video (like 3.5 in wide) and long battery and a kick butt 64gb CF card and my wireless noise canceling headphones

[HughJass @ Sep 26th 2006 5:06PM]

32GB and 64GB CF cards do not exist in prototype form. They exist in theoretical form, which is to say they only exist on paper. Your own article and Samsung's press release you linked to in your previous article attest to that.

[Taylor @ Sep 26th 2006 5:19PM]

Umm... I feel like they probably do have some working 64gb card somewhere in their labs... And anyway, I'm stoked on the falling memory prices; my housemate just picked up a 4Gb CF card for his camera for $60, and it works in my old digital rebel! I was told they couldn't address that much memory, but it works fine! It could be my hacked firmare though, i dunno...
-Taylor

[Dheera Venkatraman @ Sep 26th 2006 5:21PM]

1. the real statement should probably be that we don't know if they exist in prototype form. they may very well exist and the companies are just keeping hush about their R&D.

2. imho sandisk's card looks way better and pretec needs to hire a better graphic designer from high school for $10.

[HughJass @ Sep 26th 2006 5:41PM]

You're correct. We can't absolutely say they do or don't exist; I posted my comment because they are citing their previous article as proof, which contains no such information.

[scott @ Sep 26th 2006 5:26PM]

Those DSLR owners wont ever see the end of the at much memory as most (read: all) camera's dont have the battery capacity to make it to the end...

eh, i can still see why you would want it though, never worry about filling it at all would be an awesome feeling...

you could use one of these as a comfotable boot-drive for vista though, i would assume it would be very fast...

[mb @ Sep 26th 2006 9:59PM]

I beg to differ. I've shot over 1k of photos on my 20D in a day on one battery; especially if I'm using AEB for HDR merging.

[Jeff Foster @ Sep 26th 2006 7:34PM]

why is the paparazzi considered the majority of the DSLR owning public?

that's silly.

[chua @ Sep 26th 2006 7:52PM]

My Rebel XT can't even show how many pictures I cant take on my 8gb CF card. It holds something like 2300 full quality jpegs, and the LCD will just show "999". This is just... unnecessary for DSLRs. Unless your shooting on a Hasselblad or whatever...lol

[AG @ Sep 26th 2006 10:41PM]

Yea, Id have to agree with MB.

Ive gone through hundreds of photos in just a few hours with my 10 MegaPixel D-SLR And with no place to offload photos.

My 4 GB CF is great, but a larger capacity CF card would be nice for those situations where one cannot offload their photos right away

[Bernard @ Sep 26th 2006 11:15PM]

As a DSLR shooter, I don't think i'd buy this card. I'd be too afraid of CF card failure. That's like putting all my eggs in one basket. I'd kill myself if I lost all the images for a wedding I'm shooting for a client.

[R2 @ Sep 27th 2006 12:55PM]

For the price I would rather just buy a 20, 40 or 60 gb portable storage device or just keep switching 4gb cards and save the $500 to $600 extra it would cost to buy this new 16 gb card. But give it a little while, the price will certainly drop.

[Raul @ Dec 1st 2006 7:11AM]

I'm going to take this one at a time.

Whomever said there are no CF card over 8GB? Utter BS! There has been a 12GB out for some time now, and I see ads for 16GB card are now being put up... ie...

flashmemory-store.stores.yahoo.net/qmemory-compact-flash-150x-16gb.html

I do find the above listed ad a little questionable though, the price seems a little to lite.

Now I do agree that at this time 12GB and 16GB cards money wise is a bit expensive... read (buy yourself a fuel economical car instead).

(RE: owner of Rebel XT) As to some people's little snit about only paparazzi's being the only DSLR owners around or to other's snits about their personal camera's inability to utilize larger capacity CF cards... well Nikon's newer DSLR are 35mm and they can handle the larger capacity cards just fine (so speaks a Nikon DSLR owner!!!).

As to people chatting about their IPOD killing piece of junks soon to be able to compete.... heh, hardly! I do however enjoy my NEXBlack which has FM tuner AND UTILIZES compactflash cards for music storage... which means I can not WAIT until the larger capacity CF cards come out, the idea of being able to carry my ENTIRE music collection inside four 64GB compactflash cards just really makes me drool!!!

As to those who love their limited encoded music jukeboxes which have built-in drives, HAH, thry getting more modern... NEXBlack is put out by Frontier Labs.

---------

Getting back to 16GB and larger capacity CF cards, the ONLY drawback is that equipment manufacturers (like the Rebel XT) small mindedly and STUPIDLY limit their products, the rebel XT only allows 999 pictures no matter the resolution, that is like Laptop manufacturer making laptops these days which only allow you to connect 8GB drives... they purposely self-limit their products so you have to BUY MORE and NEWER PRODUCTS!!! They KNOW compactflash cards are going the same way hard drives have gone for so many years now, manufacturer's KNOW that capacities and speeds and reliability and other specifications will ALWAYS GET BETTER, but they have learned that if they LIMIT their products to only use what is currently available then they assure themselves of hostages to their design limitations... like the older and reliable Nikon F2AS to only capturing images to ASA100 film.

For those of you with manufacturers who refuse to deal with technological facts, then it is up to you THEIR CUSTOMERS to get on their backs and demand they stop asininely limiting their products!!!

Mr. rebel xt owner, look at their website and email them for a fix, as it is stupid to limit picture counts in a format which POTENTIALLY has little to limit picture counts.