By Shutterbug Staff

October 31, 2006 — SanDisk Corporation has introduced the 12- and 16-gigabyte (GB) SanDisk Extreme III CompactFlash cards to its Extreme III performance line, making these the highest capacity cards in the world. The new high-performance, large-capacity cards are ideal for professional photographers who shoot RAW or high-resolution JPG files and need the performance, reliability and capacity to capture these large files.

The new cards will have minimum write and read speeds of 20 megabytes per second (MB/sec.) and will ship to photo retailers by the end of the year. While the speed of the card is important for in-camera performance, card-to-computer transfer rates are becoming an increasingly important workflow consideration. The time it takes to transfer images to a computer can be a bigger bottleneck now that card capacities have expanded into the multi-gigabyte range. The SanDisk Extreme USB 2.0 reader is designed to transfer images as quickly as possible.

SanDisk Extreme III cards use SanDisk-developed ESP (Enhanced Super-Parallel Processing) technology that combines advanced NAND flash memory chips and controller designs, 32-bit RISC processing and leading edge algorithms for an architecture that streamlines every aspect of read and write data transfer operations. In addition, SanDisk works closely with major camera manufacturers to ensure speed and compatibility. The ESP architecture effectively removes the card as the bottleneck in data storage applications.

SanDisk Extreme III cards have the industry’s widest guaranteed operating temperature range from a minus 13F (minus 25C) to a 185F (plus 85C). The cards also include RescuePRO software that allows photographers to easily recover accidentally deleted images, lost digital images or data.

Pricing and Availability
SanDisk Extreme III cards are available in CompactFlash, Memory Stick PRO Duo and SD card formats. Suggested retail prices for the two new capacities are:

Capacities US$
SanDisk Extreme III 12GB $779.99
16GB $1,049.99
SanDisk Extreme USB 2.0 Reader $24.99

SanDisk Extreme III cards carry a 10-year limited warranty in Europe, the Middle East and Africa but will have a lifetime limited warranty in the rest of the world. Photographers who purchase the cards also will have access to a dedicated toll-free number for technical support questions. The RescuePRO image recovery software on the cards is compatible with both Windows and Mac and requires no driver download or special card reader.

www.sandisk.com