SanDisk ships 16GB 300x Extreme IV CompactFlash card

If you're jonesing for the quickest, most nimble CF card this planet has to offer, you'll be hard pressed to find one quicker and more nimble than this. Following up on Pretec's launch, SanDisk has started shipping its 16GB 300x (45MB/sec) Extreme IV CompactFlash card, which marks a 12.5% increase in speed and 50% boost in capacity compared to its predecessor. Oh, but then there's the $399.99 price tag. We know, right?

[Jash Sayani @ Sep 23rd 2008 1:32PM]

Thats expensive! What do you do with a 16Gih card? Most hi-end cameras have decent memory supplied.

[ehisforadam @ Sep 23rd 2008 1:40PM]

Use it for embedded applications, HD video, or high frames per-second shooting. With 20MP+ cameras you need the speed and capacity.

[Dan @ Sep 23rd 2008 1:46PM]

You don't "need" this for a 12 megapixel DSLR camera, why would you need it for a 20?

[MR @ Sep 23rd 2008 1:46PM]

Nothing new with the price. You always pay the premium as an early adopter.
Besides, I don't know what 'hi-end' cameras that you're talking about that would include a decent memory card.
And do you know that the upcoming Canon 5Dmk2 can do video recording at almost 40Mbps?
That's about 4GB in 12 minutes. 16GB doesn't sound too much after all.

[G. Tom @ Sep 23rd 2008 1:51PM]

Huh?

Which high-end cameras are you talking about? None I know of come with supplied memory. This is obviously for people with cameras that produce really big pictures. The Canon 1DsMkIII creates files that are something like 25MB each. That seems miniscule when you make the jump to medium format cameras with 40, 60, 125 megapixels!

[MR @ Sep 23rd 2008 1:53PM]

Dan,

I hope you realize that the card needs to be speedier to keep up with the camera shooting 20MP than the one shooting 12MP. That's 66% increase in data throughput in order to maintain the same fps in continuous drive mode.

[n @ Sep 23rd 2008 2:17PM]

You need this if you are a serious photographer. Most days I take around 500 images at 10.2 mp. I also use RAW format for the images and that is about 20 mb per image. If you do the math that is about 9.7 gb of pictures in a single session. That is why you need a 16 gb card that is fast like this one.

[Kimleng @ Sep 23rd 2008 1:43PM]

This is what they'll use to ship Crysis: Netbook Edition on. No other card can provide fast enough speeds to keep up!

[ACEY RIOT @ Sep 23rd 2008 1:45PM]

but can it play crysis?.............not funny anymore?

[Bernhard @ Sep 23rd 2008 2:10PM]

no

[Alex @ Sep 23rd 2008 2:00PM]

This isn't actually a speed boost from its predecessor considering its predecessor is the 45MB/s 4GB and 8GB SanDisk Extreme Ducati Edition and not the Extreme IV. SanDisk must have just decided to eliminate the Ducati branding for the higher capacity 45MB/s card.

[Barry @ Sep 23rd 2008 2:00PM]

Wow, this costs 5x as much as a SD card with the same amount of memory.

[Kimleng @ Sep 23rd 2008 2:03PM]

Unfortunately, those said SD cards aren't as fast as this, and aren't used in pro SLR bodies :(

[Michael Brown @ Sep 24th 2008 7:07PM]

Nearly £300 more expensive than the Lexar 300x 16GB CF card
http://www.mymemory.co.uk/Compact-Flash-Cards/Lexar/Lexar-16GB-300X-Pro-UDMA-Compact-Flash-Card

also around the £110 for a 300x Transcend card

[supersp33d @ Sep 23rd 2008 2:35PM]

WOW expen$ive! but anyone who needs it will buy it. Any current 6-14MP DSLR really won't "feel" any faster while shooting with this card vs another branded card w/133x speeds.

The benefit I experience with having with these faster cards are in the extremely noticeable download speeds when you transfer whatever is on the card onto your computer.. I get FULL read/write speed out of my UDMA 300x Lexar CF and 266x Ridata using my Lexar firewire 800 card readers (it's backward compatible with firewire 400). I travel and bring along my Lexar Dual-Slot USB Reader which is one of the fasts USB readers.

Either way, these cards need FAST readers. Don't get fooled by those "high speed" USB readers.. you get what you pay for.

[Todd M. @ Sep 23rd 2008 2:41PM]

That would be a 100% increase in capacity from the 8GB.

[Taylor @ Sep 23rd 2008 5:05PM]

Yeah, what's with engadget editors not being able to understand percentages? Last time it was when a new version of a product gained a USB port and they claimed it had "100% more USB ports", which is wrong, and now there is this 50% more thing being wrong.
Balls.
-Taylor

[Lou @ Sep 24th 2008 11:48PM]

Exactly...Engadget should feel pretty silly about this kind of thing. Come on...you write about tech...open calculator once in a while if you're not sure. Sheesh.

[AlphaTeam @ Sep 23rd 2008 2:42PM]

Yeah I don't plan on shooting burst for 10 minutes straight; sounds really bad for the shutter.

But nonetheless it's good to have for those burst shots considering my Extreme III can't keep up.

[Rickard @ Sep 23rd 2008 2:50PM]

Wouldn't that be 100% boost in size?

[Christian @ Sep 23rd 2008 7:01PM]

Where's the 32GB MicroSD for my phone? Extreme this....

[Andre @ Sep 25th 2008 1:42AM]

Cameras aren't the only things you can use these with. You can also put them in your PC as a SSD --> you need at least 266x to actually be equal as fast as a 7200rpm HDD. And if you actually want to put something besides winXP and maybe Office on that nifty do-it-yourself SSD, you need the storage too.

see: http://www.engadget.com/2008/09/23/pretec-breaks-records-banks-with-100gb-64gb-and-ultra-fast-32/

Only to bad Sandisk has that "removable bit" turned on, that you have to treat first, before you can have the card recognized as a non-removable drive.

AND before you ask "why would you do such a thing?" --> Call Lenovo and ask them how much a replacement 5400x 80GB HD for a x40/x41 costs. You either burst out laughing (like me), drop the phone or worse when they tell you it costs 750$! (special formfactor 1.8" sata drive with an IDE connector on its side)