12 June 2006] Kingston Technology, the world’s leading independent memory manufacturer, today announced the launch of a new high-capacity 8-GB CompactFlash Elite Pro card - further expanding its CompactFlash product range. Aimed at professional photographers and enthusiasts working within the studio, catalogue or portrait fields, the new CompactFlash Elite Pro card is designed to offer greater storage capacity - enabling professionals to produce larger files and optimise the performance of their high-end digital equipment for commercial purposes. The new 8-GB CompactFlash Elite Pro card is the latest addition to Kingston Technology’s line of Flash Memory card solutions - which include 512 MB, 1-GB, 2-GB and 4-GB CompactFlash cards. Kingston Technology's Elite Pro line has been created to meet the increased demands of today’s professional photographers by delivering reliable and flexible memory solutions to match their specific capacity needs. Jim Selby, Product Marketing Manager EMEA, Kingston Technology comments, "Photographers rely on Kingston Technology’s range of Flash Memory cards to deliver high performance and consistent results. The latest 8-GB Elite Pro card offers a larger capacity, allowing professional photographers and serious digital enthusiasts to capture more images on a single card and to better manage their workflow." The new 8-GB card enhances the performance of power-hungry imaging applications used by both advanced amateur and professional photographers. When used in conjunction with matching high-performance digital devices, Kingston Technology’s line of CompactFlash Elite Pro cards provide ultra-fast transfer times, with read speeds of up to 8 MB/sec and write speeds of up to 6.75 MB/sec. Kingston Technology’s 8-GB Type / CompactFlash Elite Pro card (part number: CF/8GB-S) has a Manufacturer’s Suggested Retail Price (MSRP) of £212. All Kingston Technology CompactFlash products come with a lifetime warranty and free technical support. For more information about Kingston Technology’s complete Flash Memory product line, visit www.kingston.com/uk.
Interesting, afaik Lexar has had an 8GB CF card availible for at least 2+ years . Though this price point is pretty nice.
wow expensive...."you play, you pay" but should be nice for those who have a mini itx based system if they arnt using a lappy hd -hobbs
Crud, I paid $200 USD for a 2 GB last year. I can't see myself needing one of these, but on the other hand one never knows. You'd sure hate to lose it though!
Useful as all hell, though, when you have an Axim with a CF slot. I had a seagate model that they gave me at CES, I gave it to Geoff...I now regret that, as I got the new axim about 3 weeks ago
You sound like Bill Gates. I have a 2GB, I got it a couple of months ago for less than $100. I want to see these flash cards in MP3 players, I don't like HDDs.
Ok, the price is great, but it's no 12GB That's been out well over a year, but did cost nearly $500 per GB when first launched, IIRC.
I plan on getting a 1gb Flash drive as the OS drive of my next pc and storing my files/games on a seperate server linked by GB ethernet to reduce the size of my main rig and the noise level.
I'm not getting excited just yet. Sandisk's high capacity Ultra III range that seemed great prior to launch turned out to be useless if you had a Canon camera. I'll see if I can borrow one before I buy one.
In what size and what body PH? I'm using a Sandisk Extreme III 2GB with an EOS 20D (5fps) with no problems. In fact, it's bloody good. Was looking at getting a 4GB to add to that but you've got me worried now.
2Gb and EOS350d I think they've resolved the problems now, but when the III came out, there we're real problems. My worry is that anything new will have problems now. I'll just watch the photography forums to see if I hear of anything before I buy. If you're Ultra III is recent it will probably be OK, as this was back when the ultra III was new. (Damn... sorry for editing your post..'twas an accident)
That might be fine for the consumer market (and a lot of consumers might be looking to piss away money on that sort of thing), but any professional isn't going to spend their money on that. For that money, I can get two 6 GB Microdrives, which happen to be faster. In the professional market, it's all about speed.
Microdrives are slower, more prone to failure since they have moving parts, and they're more power hungry.
my only worry (and I worry currently with my 2gig cards) is that if the card suicides I will lose an entire day's worth of shooting. with an 8 gig it could be as much as a weeks.
The microdrives aren't nearly as slow as you think. Initially, their speeds are actually faster than this new 8 GB CF card, they just can't sustain them. I don't notice a difference in battery life between Microdrives and CF's, either. I've also dropped my microdrives plenty of times and they've not broken yet, even after more than a year of travelling, concerts, school, etc. That's not the point, though. If they're selling this as a professional card, then they also need to have rofessional speeds as well. My Ultra III's run at 133x or just shy of 20MB/sec. This Kingston runs at 6.75, which is even slower than my cards from 2 years ago. Professionals use cameras like the 1D Mark II N, which shoots at 8.5 fps or the 1Ds Mark II, which cranks out 20 MB picture files 4 times every second.
