Extreme III hits 32GB

In the exciting lead up to Photokina, SanDisk has announced a 32GB version of its Extreme III CF card. DPreview reports that "it offers a read and write speed of 200x (30 MB/s), supporting the new generation of high-resolution DSLRs. Priced at $299; it will be available in the month of October."


This storage capacity bump is targeted more at video professionals than photographers. Who the heck would keep 32GB worth of photos in a single card, even if it is in raw?

This announcement is compelling, but I suggest that photographers do not buy these cards once out on the market. My recommendation with memory cards is always to avoid buying the largest cards.

There are 2 reasons for this: firstly, these cards are too new and have not been extensively tested in real-world use. Thus, there is a higher chance that these cards may fail you. We can't be certain about its reliability. Also, the bigger the capacity, the more likely it will have a file allocation error and crash.

Secondly, it is the issue of placing all your eggs in one basket. If there are thousands of precious images in that 32GB card and it crashes, there goes everything. The best 32GB card is four 8GB cards, even if it means bringing more cards and changing them more frequently.

Buying a camera soon? Wait for after Photokina!

Photokina, the world's largest biannual trade fair for camera manufacturers and imaging companies, will be taking place this coming September. This is an extremely massive fair with all major manufacturers taking part. Hence, these manufacturers will be announcing new cameras and products in time for Photokina so that they have something to show off then.

So if you're intending to purchase a new camera before September... STOP! and wait till after Photokina when all the manufacturers have announced their new stuff before making your decision. Already there are some major announcements. Canon has announced the EOS 50D SLR, a superzoom 18-200mm EF-S lens, a new Selphy compact photo printer and a couple of point-and-shoots, while Olympus also has a few point-and-shoots and one 20X prosumer camera. I'm still waiting to hear the big announcements from Nikon and other major companies.

What this translates to for us consumers is to hold up spending that cash and wait and see first, as you don't want to buy into old technology.