Panasonic shipping first SDXC cards next month for ungodly amounts of cash
By Darren Murph 
posted January 6th 2010 7:26PM
posted January 6th 2010 7:26PM
PANASONIC INTRODUCES NEW 64 GB* AND 48 GB* SDXC MEMORY CARDS, AVAILABLE GLOBALLY IN FEBRUARY 2010
LAS VEGAS, NV (January 6, 2010) – Panasonic today announced the availability of the company's first 64 GB* and 48 GB* SDXC Memory Cards. The new SDXC Memory Cards, the RP-SDW64GE1K (64 GB) and RP-SDW48GE1K (48 GB) are Panasonic's largest-sized GOLD cards with Class 10 speed specification. Featuring new advanced Super Intelligent Controller helps to improve the reliability of the card and extend its lifetime. The new 64 GB and 48 GB SDXC Memory Cards will be globally introduced in February 2010 with suggested retail prices of $599.95 and $449.95, respectively.
SDXC is the next generation SD Memory Card, a new standard for storing data more than 32 GB and up to 2 terabytes. The Panasonic 64 GB SDXC Memory Card features a massive 64 GB of capacity, making it ideal for recording AVCHD High Definition video, high-resolution, or even RAW still photos. When used with Panasonic's newly-released camcorders, such as the Panasonic HDC-TM55, the 64 GB SDXC Memory Card can record up to 8 hours and 30 minutes of video, while recording in the highest video quality in HA mode. Or when recording in 1920 x 1080i in HE mode, the SDXC Memory Card can hold approximately 27 hours and 30 minutes of video. The 48 GB SDXC Memory Card will have nearly the same capacity as a dual-layer Blu-ray Disc, and can hold 6 hours and 20 minutes of HD video content recorded in HA mode and 20 hours and 20 minutes when recorded in HE mode.
With the Class 10 speed specification and maximum data transfer speed of up to 22MB/s, the new Panasonic SDXC Memory Cards allows users to enjoy superb performance when using with an HD camcorder or a digital interchangeable lens camera, such as the Panasonic LUMIX DMC-GF1, for high-speed burst shooting when taking still photos.
The 64 GB and 48 GB SDXC Memory Cards, along with other Panasonic GOLD line Memory Cards, provide longer lifetime, thanks to the adoption of Panasonic's newly-developed Super Intelligent Controller, which evolves the current Super Intelligent Controller used in the Silver line Memory Cards. With the new Super Intelligent Controller, flash memories are automatically refreshed with error corrections, thus preventing data damages and providing longer lifetime.
The new SDXC Memory Cards include a new technology designed to minimize accidental corruption caused by a power interruption, such as the Memory Card being removed while data is being transferred. Panasonic's SDXC Memory Card robustness is reliable even under severe temperature condition from -13°F to 185°F**. For more information, please visit www.panasonic.com/CES2010.
YES! Now I finally have a use for all that money I was going to spend on food and shelter 8D
thats...cool...I...guess
...........whatever
I bet Amazon will be shipping it in a paper thin envelope.
Oh my Lord.... six hundred dollars?
@Yoda
no, it's only $599.95.
@Yoda
that's what people will be saying when these are $50 on newegg in 2-3 years.
@daytripper
Haha, probably 1.
@daytripper Yep. Soo true!
@Yoda If it follows the trend of SDHC cards it'll be under $100 by mid to late summer!
@Yoda
I see this as a shadow of things to come... Panasonic is only dropping these now to make sure people know the SDXC card format does exist, and to put some fire under the toes of other manufacturers so that they start making SDXC compatible devices.
However, I suspect the real reason Panasonic is scoping out SDXC at all is for the professional video market, for use with codecs like AVCIntra100, which records at 100Mbit/sec, or 12.5Mbps. This adds up to a whopping 1Gb per minute of video, which makes 16Gb cards kinda worthlessly small. Throw a 128Gb, much less a 1Tb SDXC in the same camera, and you have record times worth actually using. Then once Eye-fi gets their hands on them...
NOW i can take all the pics and vids of the ugly faces i made when i saw the price
Fuck that !!
i could buy several similar 60GB SSD in that price...
@Keanedi
Can you get them in that tiny size?
Not that I endorse that ridiculous price.
@Yoda No but the average person will at least be able to use them i think if u pay this much for a card i cant imagine how much ur camera cost it probably has a build in ssd drive or at least should
@Yoda no, but he could 7 or 8 32GB SD cards.
This is just... wow
@Yoda
Who cares about the size, an SSD will run laps around this thing in a device that's actually useful, like a laptop. And you can get the current best 160GB for nearly $150 less than this in the Intel X25-M G2, which will improve every aspect of using it. What's doubling the capacity of an 32GB SSD? You can take another 5000 hi res pictures on top of the 5000 you already took?
Umm I the decimal point one too many places to right for my liking.
haha and they think this will sell f*cking idiots ssd are cheaper and better performing than this.
WHAT!!!!!!!!!
How can they expect people to spend that much on those!!!!!!!
If they where talking in the hundreds of gigabytes then ok, but $450 for freaking 48GB!!!
@theevil
Its for people buying that $21k 3D camcorder ha
You joke but it's sort of true, only the high-end stuff supports these cards, so digital cameras the networks use and such, and those can afford to throw 600 at it I guess, they probably have accountants that manage to write it off tax in such a way that they make a hundred profit from it (by listing retail and buying OEM bulk for instance)
what about microSD, no 32GB memory cards yet? Or skip to 64GB, just bring it out. Though those prices are higher than the best weed could get you;(
@Wesley
There have been 32 gb SD cards for a while SDCH or something...
@Yoda
We'll I haven't seen any for sale yet, even if they exist.
@Yoda He's asking about MICRO sd, not regular sd. I too am wondering where the 32gb microsd cards are. Maybe manufacturers think no one wants them?
You guess seem to think it's completely normal that you can squeeze 32GB + controllerlogic in a thing 1/6th the size of only one chip on a standard 2GB dimm in your computer.
guys I meant to say
Fuck that!!!
what's the advantages of this over ssd?
@dedparrot
its smaller in size so it can fit into a camcorder/digital camera. Or those people who take intense RAW pictures and want to take them in succession.
FTS!
These SDXC cards require Microsoft's new proprietary filesystem for flash (ex-FAT), don't they? And the number of cameras, camcorders, etc that support this filesystem is...
Way to spend $450 on something you can't actually USE anywhere.
Since the SD group made it the standard it's not that propriety anymore and members that pay the SD license can use it obviously.
Also what stops you from formatting it with something else? as long as it can handle large sizes, and is speedy.
You'd still need the hardware to support it though that is true, and if they do they logically also support the exFAT filesystem since it's part of the license package anyway I expect.
@tamasrepus I still don't understand why in the world they didn't just make SDHC up to 2TB so they didn't need to come out with yet another new, incompatible standard.
That's what I paid for a 1GB CF card in 2003. The price will come down eventually.
Why are some of you guys comparing these to SSDs?!
I guess I must have missed the memo where all new cameras will be twice as large to incorporate an SSD slot... Someone care to link me? -.-
I'm not denying these prices aren't crazy, but you do realise you can't use SSDs for everything...
Well with pro cameras, that are largish anyway, they could just add an USB3 or eSATA port, and then you'd put the SSD in your pocket or strap it to it and voila, or you can have those ports simply empty a regular SD in the camera to the SSD and continue shooting, like the old switching film days, only after way more shots.
And they do make portable drives with SD slots where you put in an SD and it automatically copies the content to the HD and you can start re-using the SD card, although I'm not sure they have those in SSD style yet.
@Wwhat Lack of device support is what stops me or anyone else from using something else, obviously.
It's proprietary if Microsoft requires a (minimum) $300k licensing fee. Having an license from the SD group does not entitle you to an exFAT license, just the SD logo. For everyone that is using FAT for free, the several hundred thousand dollar fee is a big sticker shock.
I see one (or both) of two things happening:
(1) Manufacturers ignore the SD group's recommendations, eschewing the SD group and exFAT.
(2) Manufacturers stick with SDHC and the 32 GB limit because, realistically, most people don't need more than 32 GB in a single card, especially when it's slow (even at class 10 speeds).
The SD group has gimped adoption of SDXC by going with a proprietary filesystem requiring exFAT licensing (it doesn't help that the prices on the things are insane). It's going to take half a decade, if not more, till we see these things in the mainstream and at reasonable prices.
WHAT?
22MB/s??
IS THIS A JOKE
i thought the SDXC is meant to do WAY better than that
@(Unverified) This is the first generation of SDXC's.
@3c4ea5de
and it costs... of course..
*sigh
@(Unverified)
I was also waiting for 35MB/s write and 60MB/s read!
http://www.engadget.com/2009/08/04/toshibas-capacious-64gb-sdxc-card-sampling-this-december-thril/
My butt clenched faster than the speed of that card when I saw the price.
well it was not that long ago I was sporting a new HP Ipaq with a biometric scanner and an upgraded SD cad of 248MB wondering what I would ever do with all that storage. This was at a cool $1099 for the Ipaq and $249 for the card. Sheesh - this is nothing.
I didn't cry at the price. I laughed.
64GB SDcard or Nexus One...
64GB SDcard or Nexus One...
64GB SDcard or Nexus One...?
Or neither.
Yeah, prices for those have to drop before anyone can start talking about mass market. That said 'large capacity' hard drives, RAM, SSD, USB Flash drives all had insane prices when first released. Let the early adopters pay for R&D, I'll get mine a bit later.
great! this would go great with my 152 inch Panasonic 3D TV!