LAS VEGAS--Lexar plans to introduce faster, higher-capacity CompactFlash cards using a new generation of the flash memory technology, a company executive said Wednesday.
Lexar's top-end 300X cards will be outpaced by new models shipping later this year.
(Credit: Lexar)Lexar's current top-end 300X-rated CompactFlash cards use a standard called UDMA (Ultra Direct Memory Access) to transfer data at 45MB/second, and their capacity tops out at 16GB. But using a new generation of the standard, UDMA 6, Lexar will release cards that have significantly faster transfer speeds and larger capacity, Jeff Cable, director of marketing, said in an interview here at the Photo Marketing Association (PMA) show here.
Cable wouldn't be pinned down on precise details, but he said the new cards' capacity "probably" would be 32GB, and their transfer speeds likely would "pretty close to" UDMA 6's threshold of 100MB/sec, which is more than double that of today's UDMA.
Only newer SLR (single lens reflex) cameras support current UDMA technology, but it's spreading, and there are benefits. For example, cameras can take longer continuous bursts of photos, and photographers can zoom faster to check focus when reviewing shots on the camera LCD. Video, which is arriving in new SLRs, also can saturate data-transfer pathways.
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(Credit:
Lexar)
Photo enthusiasts take note. This morning Lexar announced that its Professional UDMA 300x CompactFlash Card will be available in late September in a 16GB version for $349.99 MSRP. By comparison, B&H has the 8GB card for $154.95 with an $80 mail-in rebate, which means buying two of those would be the better deal at this point. Of course, you can expect the 16GB card to street for less than its list price.
Here's what Lexar's marketing team has to say in its press release:
Designed for professional photographers and photo enthusiasts, this lightning-fast card is UDMA-enabled (Ultra Direct Memory Access), resulting in exceedingly fast performance. Speed-rated at 300x, which represents a minimum sustained write speed of 45MB per second, the new Lexar Professional UDMA 300x 16GB CF card dramatically reduces post-production time thanks to an improved card-to-computer transfer rate when working in conjunction with a UDMA-enabled device. In addition, the very high capacity of the card allows photographers to store more images and shoot for longer periods without interruption.
The release also adds:
When paired with a UDMA-enabled device, such as the Lexar Professional UDMA FireWire 800 Reader or the Lexar Professional UDMA Dual-Slot USB Reader, the Lexar Professional UDMA 300x 16GB CF card significantly improves the digital imaging workflow by accelerating the download of captured images to a destination computer.
Correction January 27 7 p.m. PST: I messed up the photo-capacity math. A 32GB card can hold more than 10,000 3MB photos.
PNY's 32GB CompactFlash card should cost about $400 when it emerges in the second quarter of 2008.
(Credit: PNY)Jumping the Photo Marketing Association trade show gun by a few days, PNY Technologies announced several new 16GB and 32GB flash cards for cameras and video cameras on Thursday.
The 32GB SDHC card can keep up with high-definition video captured at 9 megabits per second, the company said. And the Optima Pro CompactFlash card, has a 266X transfer speed, or 40 megabits per second, using a UDMA interface.
Both cards will be available in the second quarter. The SDHC card should cost about $250 and the CompactFlash card about $400, though the company cautioned prices could change given volatility in the flash memory chip market. PNY purchases its flash memory chips from Toshiba, Samsung, Intel, and others, the company said.
Capacity of 32GB may sound like overkill for digital photography--that's enough to hold more than 10,000 3MB images--but there are reasons it's useful. Raw files, especially newer 14-bit files, have moved well beyond 10MB apiece, shooting in combination with JPEG adds even more, and trigger-happy high-end cameras that shoot 5, 6.5, 9, and even 10.5 frames per second chew through memory in no time. And, of course, flash memory-based video cameras need all the capacity they can get.
Transcend's 32GB CompactFlash card
(Credit: Transcend)PNY plans to show the cards at PMA along with new 8-inch and 10.2-inch digital photo frames and a 32GB USB flash drive, the company said.
Another company that's taking on better-known flash card brands such as SanDisk and Lexar is Transcend. It announced a 133X 32GB flash card earlier this month that includes support for ECC (error-correcting code) that can catch and fix some errors that sometimes occur when reading and writing data.
The Transcend card also supports UDMA access. (UDMA lets cameras write to a memory card faster, but only newer and higher-end cameras include the feature right now.)
Lexar's new Professional UDMA Dual-Slot USB reader.
(Credit: Lexar)Lexar is about to start shipping a new reader to complement its line of 300X Professional UDMA CompactFlash cards. First announced back in February, the reader features two slots: one UDMA-compatible CompactFlash slot and one SDHC-compatible SD card slot. The reader's slick design includes an integrated cover for the card slots. If you press buttons on the sides of the reader, the middle portion pops up and the slots become accessible. When you're done, just push the middle part down and the slots are covered, so you don't have to worry about dirt or dust getting inside the slots while you're toting the reader from one shoot to the next in your bag. A mini USB jack on the back lets you connect it to your computer with the included mini-to-full-size USB cable.
Lexar was kind enough to loan us a sample of the Professional UDMA Dual-Slot USB Reader, along with a 4GB 300X Professional UDMA CompactFlash card, to try out. When I hooked the card and reader up to a high-end Mac Pro desktop, I was able to get an average write speed (copying JPEG and various RAW image files from the computer to the card) of a little over 20 megabytes (MB) per second. On a not-very-high-end Windows PC I got an average write speed of 15MB per second. In both cases reading from the card and transferring images to the computer happened significantly faster; 35MB per second on the same Mac and 30MB per second on the same PC.
While those speeds might not seem impressive if you know that a 300X card comes with a claim of a top write speed of 45MB per second, if you've ever tested some of these cards, you'll know that the claimed speeds are always much faster than what you can expect in regular use. This reader/card combination's performance puts it among the fastest you can get right now. The Lexar Professional UDMA Dual-Slot USB reader is expected to hit stores around November 15 with a suggested retail price of about $45.
On Sale Now: $30.79 - $37.99
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