SanDisk Wins Speed Tests In Digital SLRs

SanDisk's Extreme and UltraII line of Compact Flash cards have been rated as the fatest in 9 out of 13 tests with professional digital SLR cameras.

From SanDisk’s press release:

SanDisk Corporation announced today that its Extreme and Ultra II CompactFlash and SD cards took top honors in speed and performance tests in 9 out of 13 professional digital single lens reflex (SLR) cameras from Canon, Fuji, Kodak, Nikon and Pentax. According to performance tests conducted by Rob Galbraith, a renowned photojournalist and industry consultant, the Extreme and Ultra II cards earned the fastest speed rating in the majority of cameras actively being tested including the Canon EOS-1D Mark II, which can record 8.2 megapixel images at up to 8.5 frames per second, and the EOS Digital Rebel, 10D, and 1D. SanDisk’s cards also received the highest scores on the Nikon D70, D100 and D2H models.

Details of these comprehensive tests can be found at http://www.robgalbraith.com/.

“Rob Galbraith is a definitive resource for digital photographers and we are very proud to have the SanDisk Extreme and Ultra II cards consistently take the top positions on speed and performance,” said Tanya Chuang, a SanDisk retail product marketing manager. “He performs real-world tests that focus on the things that matter most to professional photographers and is very well respected within the entire photography industry.”

Rob Galbraith’s CompactFlash Performance Database is a compilation of write and read speed tests results that are designed to aid serious and professional photographers in selecting the most effective flash storage cards for a digital SLR. The database also includes card-to-computer transfer rates, an increasingly important metric for large capacity cards. The tests were independently conducted and used both JPEG and RAW images, the two most common file formats used in digital photography.

SanDisk Extreme and SanDisk Ultra II cards are targeted primarily at the professional digital camera and ‘prosumer’ market where 4 megapixel or higher resolution digital cameras require significantly faster memory cards. Each card features a minimum write speed of 9 megabytes per second (MB/sec.) and a minimum read speed of 10MB/sec1.

SanDisk Extreme CompactFlash
Sold exclusively through photo retail channels, the 2 gigabyte (GB) SanDisk Extreme CompactFlash is the industry’s fastest and largest capacity Type I CompactFlash card. In addition, Extreme cards are designed to operate in a wide temperature range from –25 to +85 degrees Celsius, making them ideal for harsh shooting environments and punishing conditions.

Each SanDisk Extreme card includes a protective carrying case and RescuePROä software to allow photographers to easily recover accidentally deleted images, lost digital images or data. RescuePRO is compatible with both Windows and Mac and requires no driver download or special card reader. Every SanDisk Extreme owner also gains access to a dedicated, priority 1-800 tech support call line.

SanDisk Ultra II CompactFlash
SanDisk Ultra II cards are available in consumer electronics stores and other retail channels. The cards are compatible and interchangeable with CF digital cameras, card readers and adapters.

Availability and Suggested Retail Prices

SanDisk Extreme
CompactFlash: 256MB to 2GB capacities; $74.99 to $599.99 (2GB capacity will be available in late May)
SD: 256MB and 512MB; $119.99 and $209.99

SanDisk Ultra II
CompactFlash: 256MB to 2GB capacities: $69.99 to $579.99 (2GB capacity will be available in late May)
SD: 256MB and 512MB; $109.99 and $199.99

The SanDisk Extreme and Ultra II cards are also available in the Memory Stick PRO format that was released after these speed tests were conducted. These cards match the corresponding performance of the SD Ultra II and Extreme cards and come in similar capacities.