Digital camera resolutions increase each time manufacturers upgrade their camera lines. And with this, the storage media also have to increase proportionally. Back when I bought my first digital camera, 128MB is already enough for your vacation photos and day to day use. That was during the time when 2 megapixels were the norm. Today, though, even entry level cameras can give you up to 7 megapixel images. And with lots of adjustments like low ISO shooting, superfine quality (low JPEG compression) and the like, you’re bound to have larger filesizes per image.
While previously, card sizes above 1 GB were limited to the CF and CFII type cards commonly used in digital SLRs, today we’re seeing an influx of postage-stamp sized cards that store several times more than that. For instance, Sandisk has upped the ante with its latest 8 Gigabyte (yes you read that right) SD card. They call it SDHC or SD High Capacity. DPReview has some info:
HANNOVER, GERMANY, Mar. 16, 2007 – SanDisk® Corporation (NASDAQ:SNDK) today introduced an 8-gigabyte (GB)1 SD™ High Capacity (SDHC™) card—the highest capacity now available in the SD format. The new card, which SanDisk is showing in Hall 23, Stand B28, at the CeBIT show here, holds more than 4,000 high-resolution pictures, as many as 2,000 digital songs or up to 15 hours of MPEG 4 video2.The 8GB SDHC card will come bundled with a SanDisk MicroMate™ USB 2.0 reader at no extra charge. SDHC cards require an SDHC-compatible reader, so providing the MicroMate reader with the card ensures that users will be able to connect the card to their computers. The MicroMate reader also works with standard SD cards.
Sandisk has doubled the capacity of its previous 4GB SDHC line, which was introduced less than a year ago.
However, this is just the tip of the iceberg. The SDHC standard supports up to 32 GB! The 8GB SDHC card also adheres to the SD Speed Class 2 rating, which guarantees a minimum data-transfer rate of 2MB/sec. One caveat, though: these SD cards are not backwards-compatible. This means you can’t just plug it into your old camera and expect it to work. SDHC cards will only work on SDHC-capable slots.
The 8 GB SDHC comes bundled with a USB 2.0 reader, so users won’t have to worry about slow file transfers. The bundle will be sold at an SRP of $189.