SanDisk Announces 512GB SD Card
SanDisk announced a breakthrough in SD technologies with a 512 GB memory card which is the highest possible capacity currently achieved. The IBC 2014 convention in cultural hotspot Amsterdam was where SanDisk chose to make the announcement.
The card is officially known as a 512GB SanDisk Extreme PRO SDXC UHS-I. It is directed towards people who are shooting video and taking pictures in resolutions like Ultra 4K with a maximum resolution of 3840 x 2160p, as well as Full HD video common in many smart phones today of 1920 x 1080p.
The advent of burst modes in top of the line smart phones and digital cameras is also known to use up much more storage space until photographers have had a chance to check the resulting shots and delete the ones that are not needed.
This new SD card will not be accessible to tablet and smart phone owners which are commonly restricted to 64 GB or 128 GB capacity microSD slots.
2003 to 2014: What A Leap Forward
This latest full-size SD card with 512 GB capacity is just slightly more than a decade after SanDisk released their first 512 MB SD card in 2003. This Extreme Pro SD card uses the UHS Speed Class 3 (known as U3) which can perform write speeds of 90 megabytes per second. Transfer speeds to copy data across to a PC or Mac for editing is also high at 95 megabytes per second too.
The latest SD card can withstand cold temperatures to -25°C and hot temperatures up to 185°F. It is also water proof, shock proof and can withstand x-rays at the airport as well.
The card is not expected to be cheap with prices around $800 expected when the Extreme Pro SD card reached the October 15 shipping date, but sites like Amazon.com are likely to be aggressively discounting to attract buyers.
Data Loss Risk
One area of concern could be with a photography and video enthusiast who shoots everything on the single 512 GB SD card and then it fails on them. For this reason, SanDisk confirm that they'll be offering their SanDisk RescuePRO Deluxe data recovery package (PC and Mac information) via a download offer to buyers of their Extreme Pro SD card.
