Photokina 2006 Show
Return to:
Previous Page
Photokina 2006 Index

The following is an unedited press release, shown as received from the company represented. We've elected to present selected releases without editorial comment, as a way to provide our readers more information without further overtaxing our limited editorial resources. To avoid any possible confusion or conflict of interest, the Imaging Resource will always clearly distinguish between company-provided press releases and our own editorial views and content.

SanDisk's Extreme III 16GB CompactFlash card. Courtesy of SanDisk, with modifications by Michael R. Tomkins. PRESS RELEASE: SanDisk Introduces The World's Highest Capacity Card For Professional Photographers-The 16-Gigabyte SanDisk Extreme III Compactflash


Large Capacities, High Reliability and High Performance Ideal For Digital SLRs & Broadcast-Quality Camcorders

COLOGNE, GERMANY, Sep. 26, 2006 - SanDisk® Corporation (NASDAQ:SNDK) today introduced the 12- and 16-gigabyte (GB) SanDisk Extreme® III CompactFlash® cards to its award-winning 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 SanDisk Extreme III CompactFlash cards can also be used with the Grass Valley™ Infinity Series Digital Media Camcorder, the first camcorder introduced in the broadcast industry that uses non-proprietary, removable, solid-state flash memory cards as recording and playback media.

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. The announcement was made at the Photokina trade show where SanDisk is demonstrating products in Hall 6, Stand D78/E79.

"The beauty of using large capacity cards like the 12- and 16GB SanDisk Extreme III cards is the freedom to shoot without worrying about filling up the card," said Jonathan Torgovnik, contract photographer for Newsweek magazine and international freelance photographer. "I shoot in RAW mode almost exclusively and the large files can fill up a card very quickly. Having a large capacity card lets me focus on what I love to do-take pictures."

Tanya Chuang, SanDisk's senior retail product marketing manager, said, "The SanDisk Extreme III line combines exceptional performance and reliability with large capacities to provide an ideal storage solution for professional photographers that meets their shooting and workflow requirements. We believe that SanDisk will continue to be the preferred choice by professional photographers based on our capacity and performance advantages as well as our commitment to the digital photography market as a whole."

SanDisk Extreme USB 2.0 Readers Improve Workflow
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.

SanDisk's Extreme III 16GB CompactFlash card. Courtesy of SanDisk, with modifications by Michael R. Tomkins. Click for a bigger picture!
SanDisk's Extreme III 16GB CompactFlash card. Courtesy of SanDisk, with modifications by Michael R. Tomkins. Click for a bigger picture!


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$ Euros, Ex VAT Availability
SanDisk Extreme III 12GB $779.99 €475 December
SanDisk Extreme III 16GB $1049.99 €633 December
SanDisk Extreme USB 2.0 Reader   $24.99 €22 November


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.

SanDisk is the original inventor of flash storage cards and is the world's largest supplier of flash data storage card products using its patented, high-density flash memory and controller technology. SanDisk is headquartered in Milpitas, CA and has operations worldwide, with more than half its sales outside the U.S.

SanDisk, the SanDisk logo, SanDisk Extreme and RescuePRO are trademarks of SanDisk Corporation, registered in the U.S. and other countries. SanDisk is an authorized licensee of the SD trademark. Memory Stick PRO Duo is a trademark of Sony Corporation. Other brand names mentioned herein are for identification purposes only and may be trademarks of their respective holder(s).

[i] 1 gigabyte (GB) = 1 billion bytes
[ii] Performance based on SanDisk internal testing.

This press release contains certain forward-looking statements, including expectations for new product introductions, specifications, applications, markets, pricing, customer acceptance and customers that are based on our current expectations and involve numerous risks and uncertainties that may cause these forward-looking statements to be inaccurate. Risks that may cause these forward-looking statements to be inaccurate include among others: market demand for our products may grow more slowly than our expectations or there may be a slower adoption rate for these products in new markets that we are targeting, and the other risks detailed from time-to-time under the caption "Risk Factors" and elsewhere in our Securities and Exchange Commission filings and reports, including, but not limited to, Form 10-K and our quarterly reports on Form 10-Q. We do not intend to update the information contained in this press release.

SanDisk's Extreme III 12GB CompactFlash card. Courtesy of SanDisk, with modifications by Michael R. Tomkins. Click for a bigger picture!
SanDisk's Extreme III 12GB CompactFlash card. Courtesy of SanDisk, with modifications by Michael R. Tomkins. Click for a bigger picture!


(First posted on Wednesday, September 27, 2006 at 00:34 EDT)

Return to:
Previous Page
Photokina 2006 Index

Powered by Coranto