12GB CompactFlash Cards Coming Soon

Anonymous Photographer writes "As Digital Photography Review reports, Pretec will release a 12 Gigabyte CompactFlash card by the end of the year... for just $14,900. Of course, you could save $14,300 by purchasing three Creative Labs Nomad MuVo 4 GB MP3 players and removing the Hitachi 4 GB microdrives to get the same amount of CompactFlash storage. Heck, I'll do the CF removal for you, at the low price of only $10,000. Think of the money you'll save." And for those seeking a different sort of windfall, VL writes "With MuVo 2 shells going on the cheap now, now is as good a time as any to pick one up and installing your own Compact Flash card to get it running again."

Comments

Ummm

[MikeXpop]

Except the ones in MP3 players are Compact Flash compatible hard drives, not flash drives.

Re:Ummm

[loyalsonofrutgers]

Read/Write speed.

Re:Ummm

[dfghjk]

and power consumption.

Re:Ummm

[spazoid12]

Yeah, that is a slight difference. So slight, who cares?

So the guy skipped a step... you take the CF compatible drive and install it into a CF card. Not a big deal. That's the kind of literal-geek-talk that annoys people. Here's an example:

Jim: My 302 is faster than your 351!
Ned: No it's not! Your 302 isn't in a car!

Blah blah blah

As for the 3 cards versus 1 card? I suppose, somewhere, somebody wants to snap a single picture that is larger than 4GB. Lucky he can spend $15,000 to get that one picture.

Even if the pictures he's recording are 1 byte over 4GB, that 12GB card would only afford him the ability to capture 2 at a time. That is awesome. I wonder if any CF-compatible camera even exists where this is a concern.

Re:Ummm

[EvanED]

"So the guy skipped a step... you take the CF compatible drive and install it into a CF card. Not a big deal."

No, actually the difference is larger than that. The single 12 GB card is flash media; it's a solid state device. The three 4 GB microdrives are very small hard drives. There's the difference. The flash media would probably be more reliable as there are no moving parts to wear out/break, should read and write at a higher speed, and should consume less power.

Re:Ummm

[DrEldarion]

And moving parts.

Who's gonna buy em?

[Exiler]

Really, I know there are a few niche applications for that much space in compact flash, but where's the real market for these? Aren't most pros still using film, making the ammount of people willing to spend that much money on a CF card even smaller?

Re:Who's gonna buy em?

[Stevyn]

Media photographers are going digital. When you're posting photos to a news paper or news website from the field it becomes a lot cheaper. The news photographers in Iraq use satellites to send the photos back. But 12gb? I don't know that's a lot. I'd shy away from it because then you can get lazy and not upload the pictures as often as you normally would and run the chance of losing them all.

Keep in mind though, a few years ago 40gb of computer storage space seemed like too much. Storage has always had that. When new drives come out people say "who needs that?" but then later on it becomes "I need more!"

Microdrive vs. flash

[aussersterne]

Thing is, even though microdrives are rugged (I have several and have never had a problem with them), they are still filled with moving parts.

A lot of pro photographers are in really tough assignment areas (i.e. war zones, etc.) with digital gear like Nikon or Canon's professional offerings... These cameras can run $4-8k easily and are ruggedized, waterproof, dustproof, etc. If you're going to be hopping through ditches and onto freight trucks and getting your gear submerged in mud and water every five minutes, there might be a distinct advantage to storage with no moving parts...

Space program

[SilentChris]

Considering the space program essentially used flash memory to store just about everything on the Mars missions, I imagine they're a prime candidate. They'd have to wait for cards that are radiation and durability tested, which may take years.

Hard drives are a liability in space: one more gizmo that can fall apart from vibration, not to mention dust. Flash memory is far more reliable.

Holo cameras from Voyager

[Anonymous Coward]

Everybody thinks this is a waste of space. But just you wait until those Holo cameras the doc used on Voyager go on sale. Then we will see who thinks 12GB is too much. Same thing went for my 10GB Hard Drive I got several years ago....never thought I would need more space.

The technology comes first, they we wait for it's applications. Same thing goes for that smelling device in an article earlier which seems pretty useless to most now.

Expensive today...

[nurb432]

But tomrrow it will be cheaper, and drive down the costs of smaller CF card..

This is a good thing for all, even those that dont have the cash for a 12gb card...

Re:Price will come down.

[torinth]

I love geeks and gadget freaks. For the most part, you can be a great and successful professional photographer without relying on $100,000 of equipment. In fact, you can get away with about $4000 for a good camera, flash, lens, reflector, and some storage.

Of course, if you like gadgets, there's a world of stuff out there for you. It's all too easy to turn the art of photography into a geek's paradise of analysis, formulas, and techniques. But I guess that kind of flexibility is just the beauty of the medium.

Re:pros and digital

[ennuiner]

I think you need to define what you mean by "pro." Certainly most photojournalists and news photographers are using high-end digital SLRs, but there are plenty of portrait photographers (above the level of a Sears Portrait Studio) still working with film-based medium-format cameras. And art photographers, which you may not regard as "pros," work with a variety of cameras, from crude pinhole cameras to expensive single-plate box cameras. Moreover, much art photography still involves chemical processes in the darkroom.