Digital Camera Memory Media Announced at Photokina

There have been several announcements regarding memory media during the Photokina imaging trade show in Cologne, Germany this week.  Announcements from Sandisk and Pretec make up the highlights.

SanDisk Announces 4GB Ultra II SDHC Card

The new SanDisk Ultra II SDHC card features write rates of 9MB per second and read speeds of 10MB per second.  SanDisk will also be bundling the MicroMate reader along with the card.  The SDHC cards can only be read by card readers that can handle the SDHC format.

The 4GB Ultra II SDHC Card plus USB 2.0 MicroMate Reader will be available in October for $219.

SanDisk Announces 12GB and 16GB Extreme III CompactFlash Cards

For those that really need the space (and your camera still takes CompactFlash), Sandisk has come out with 12GB and 16GB versions of their Extreme III CompactFlash cards.  The new cards have minimum read and write speeds of 20MB/second.

Cards in both capacities will be available in December.  The 12GB model will retail for $779 and the 16GB model will retail for $1049.

Pretec 16GB CompactFlash Card

Pretect has also announced a 16GB CompactFlash card.  They were actually the first company to announce this capacity.  Their 80x model has transfer rates of 12MB/second and the 133x model can transfer at 20MB/second.  They will be starting mass production in the last quarter of this year.

Pretec 8GB SDHC Card

Pretec has also announced their 8GB SDHC model.  The card fully complies with the SD 2.0 (SDHC) specification.  Your camera has to be able to read SDHC media, so don't run out and get one of these unless you know your camera can handle it.  Virtually all of the newest cameras to be introduced that take SD-sized media will accept SDHC format cards and some manufacturers are releasing firmware updates to allow slightly older cameras to handle the new media.

The Pretec 8GB SDHC card will also start mass production in the last quarter of this year.