8GB SDHC card for high-performance digital cameras

With transfer speed of 20MB/second and the ability to perform at high altitude and in temperatures ranging from -13 to 185 degrees Fahrenheit, SanDisk's 8GB Extreme III SDHC card has been specifically designed with high-performance digital cameras in mind.

Although the company has recently released Flash cards with more storage capacity, this is its largest memory offering in an SDHC card.

The 8GB card can store more than 4,000 high-resolution pictures or up to 16 hours of MPEG 4 video2 (based on compressed JPEG images on a 5MP camera and Super Fine MPEG 4 video at 320 x 240). The card also has a read/write speed of 20MB per second, providing rapid downloads to a personal computer.

Tanya Chuang, SanDisk’s director of retail product marketing said that with “the introduction of more cameras that can use SDHC, including the Nikon D80 and the Canon EOS-1D Mark II, the SanDisk Extreme III card is an ideal choice for those who want maximum dependability, durability and fast download speeds.”

The SDHC format is designed to allow for capacities greater than 2GB, but devices must be SDHC compatible in order to work with SDHC memory cards. For video applications, SanDisk Extreme III SDHC cards have a speed rating of Class 6, the highest available SDA speed class, meaning that they have a minimum continuous data transfer rate of 6MB/second.

The cards also feature RescuePRO® software to recover accidentally deleted files and images.

The SanDisk Extreme III 8GB retails for US$179.99 and will be available from US and European retailers within the next month. The card will be bundled with a SanDisk MicroMate USB 2.0 Reader with a value of $20, which enables transfer of images from SD as well as SDHC cards.