Here is something interesting: A Transcend CF card at 600X (the fastest now is 300x which about
45MB/s transfer)
Take a look here: http://www.transcendusa.com/Products/ModDetail.asp?ModNo=252&SpNo=1&LangNo=0

I wonder.... A 600x card has transfer rate of about 80BM/s, if I'm not mistaken, the limit of
USB 2.0 is about 50MB/s so we won't see much of a difference in performance between
600x and 300x cards. The card initialization, formatting and seek time however will be reduced.
Anyway, 16GB 300x costs now $250. I can't image price for 600x

I think USB 3.0 is around the corner. I don't know if it will have better speeds, but I'd imagine so.
If so, I always welcome speed reductions when talking about computers.

Big question is - can the cameras handle it? I coudn't care less how long it takes to get from card to computer - I like fast cards so I can empty my buffer quicker. 2x as fast would be amazing!

Firewire and express card readers are faster. We will have eSata card readers in the near future as well.

As Steve mentioned, which camera can handle that speed?

no the big question is will the actual product really deliver what the advert suggests. transcend has pretty much been long on hype and short on delivery and reliability. they are not on my "mission critical product" list.

Hmm, never heard a complaint like that before... and my 32 GB of 300x cards have performed just fine for the last three years, thank you. Well enough that I just bought another 32 GB this week. I've also had good results from Kingston, Sandisk, and Lexar so I won't say any of them is "better"; but at least the Transcends have been good troupers at all times, and I have not experienced nor heard of any troubles.

For pricing, good 266x/300x UDMA cards right now should cost about $140-$150 for 16GB. That's what Kingstons, Transcends, and Sandisks (after rebate) cost if you shop around at B&H, Adorama, and Amazon.

In real-world performance for card readers and other external devices, USB 2.0 maxes out at 20 MBps or so. Firewire 800 goes to around 40 MBps, roughly the max that current CF cards can deliver. And I've consistently seen 90-150 MBps from external drive arrays on eSATA, so I'm sure that eSATA won't be the bottleneck in the system for some time to come.

Given that the D3/D300 were just recently the first cameras to really take advantage of 300x UDMA, it's going to be awhile for everyone or anyone to grow into 600x.

sounds over priced, i got a trancend 16gb 300x umda before xmas for 105 sterling.

I expect we will see a SanDisk Extreme 5 as well.

EBH

louis fusco wrote:
sounds over priced, i got a trancend 16gb 300x umda before xmas for 105 sterling.

Louis, what sounds overpriced? 105 pounds sterling is a little over $210 now, isn't it? Why is $140-$150 too high for the same product?

EB-1 wrote:
I expect we will see a SanDisk Extreme 5 as well.

Which might be why they're doing rebates right now, to clean up some inventory. Then again, it could just be seasonal marketing.

We'll eventually see the same technology from all the reputable companies.

sjms wrote:
no the big question is will the actual product really deliver what the advert suggests. transcend has pretty much been long on hype and short on delivery and reliability. they are not on my "mission critical product" list.

Yes, that is always the concern. Some brands use better controllers with less overhead and better speed negotation. Sandisk optimizes for the cameras, Transcend not always.

EBH

Rodolfo Paiz wrote:
louis fusco wrote:
sounds over priced, i got a trancend 16gb 300x umda before xmas for 105 sterling.

Louis, what sounds overpriced? 105 pounds sterling is a little over $210 now, isn't it? Why is $140-$150 too high for the same product?

haven't needed to buy any kit lately so haven't been keeping an eye on currencies. at the time it was cheaper to buy a 16gb udma from the uk than the US. not supplied you guys on the other side of the pond are complaining about price increases.