Panasonic offers big and fast SD card--for $700

Panasonic's 32GB SDHC card, with a 20MB-per-second transfer rate, will cost about $700.

(Credit: Panasonic)

Panasonic announced a new SDHC (Secure Digital High Capacity) flash card on Tuesday that offers both high speed and lots of space for those willing to pay.

The 32-gigabyte card, called the RP-SDV32GU1K, is due to ship in April for about $700. It's a high-speed "class 6" card that can transfer data at speeds of 20MB per second--the world's first at the 32GB capacity, Panasonic asserts.

SD is the dominant format for flash memory, and with the newer SDHC technology that extends capacity beyond 2GB, it's begun spreading into space-gobbling videocameras. SanDisk, a top flash card brand, announced a 32GB SDHC card costing $350 in January, but it transfers data a notch slower, at 15MB per second.

One major flash card alternative to SD, CompactFlash, can transfer data at a maximum of 45MB per second. However, top transfer speeds are often more useful when copying files from a flash card, since cameras and videocameras often can't write data at those top speeds.

[lmasanti]

Now it seems cheap....

With thei " 32GB card... for about $700" the Apple's Air 64GB <br />Solid State Drive at $999- almost seems cheap!

[Leria]

Would make a great Readyboost drive

This would make a KICKASS Readyboost drive, if there is no limit on how much space on a card you can allocate to Readyboost (I'm not sure if there is!).

[rturner2]

Readboost limit...

There is a 4GB limit :-(

[guest86]

Look like Junk

What a waste lot of money. Many people can sue company for that. I refuse to buy this 32 GB SD card. Cost is $700??? Not worth and important to buy. Cheaper I know answer will be $275 Dollars. That all. Need lower price and many people can afford to buy them. High price sometimes can scam people. That what I heard from that. :(

[guest86]

more...

Wait let see again. I saw 32GB SD card is very, very slow. 20MB-per-second transfer rate? Not good think like that. That is pointless. I recommend 50 to 100 MB per second. Save time and not waste your time. It will save your money a lot.

[k2dave]

how is this for a harddrive replacement?

32 mb's seem like a workable number for a harddrive, a bit on the small side, but could easily fit Win XP and have plenty of room for programs as long as you are not into songs, video, or pictures. I would guess that the power requirement of this card would be far less then a harddrive also, it appears like this may be a good technology for laptops. <br /><br />Yes $700 would be a dealbreaker for most people, but those prices historically fall and capacities increase.

[www.hdgreetings.com]

This is the end for HDD based camcorders

Just in the last 2 years large numbers of camcorders with hard drives have been introduced.<br /><br />Also a handful with those awful round DVD holders have been introduced.<br /><br />Mark those all as obsolete and don't buy one.<br /><br />Replaceable flash cards are the future now.<br /><br />Flash memory can't replace computer hard drives yet because it's so expensive to create a high speed device.<br /><br />However even these class 6 SD cards are slow by comparison, meaning the prices will fall quick.<br /><br />And since they hold a decent amount of HD video even at today's capacities, it's a no brainer.