SanDisk Corporation has introduced the SanDisk Extreme III 8-gigabyte (GB) SDHC (SD High-Capacity) flash memory card.

The benefits of the new cards are more capacity and fast transfer speeds. The 8GB SDHC card will be packaged with a SanDisk MicroMate USB 2.0 Reader - a $20 value - so that users have a one-stop solution for capturing, storing and transferring their images, said a SanDisk official.

The bundled card and reader are expected to be available in the Middle East in December at a suggested price of $179.99.

An 8GB SanDisk Extreme III SDHC card can store more than 4,000 high-resolution pictures or up to 16 hours of MPEG 4 video.  The card has a read/write speed of 20 megabytes per second, thus providing rapid downloads to a personal computer.

 "With the introduction of more cameras that can use SDHC, including the Nikon D80 and the Canon EOS-1D Mark II, the SanDisk Extreme III card is an ideal choice for those who want maximum dependability, durability and fast download speeds," said SanDisk's director of retail product marketing for global imaging Tanya Chuang.

"Also, since many of these cameras have extended video capabilities, the 8GB capacity provides users with storage for longer movie clips," Chuang added.

The SDHC format is designed to allow for capacities greater than 2GB, but devices must be SDHC compatible in order to work with SDHC memory cards.

For video applications, SanDisk Extreme III SDHC cards have a speed rating of Class 6, the highest available SDA speed class, meaning that they have a minimum continuous data transfer rate of 6MB/second.

"While the storage capacity is vital, we made sure that the speed of the SanDisk Extreme III SDHC was adequate to meet the high standards demanded by the consumers," said SanDisk's sales director MEA Tareq Husseini. "The read and write speeds are among the fastest and the product saves users a lot of time while transferring their data and ensures the best result for daily use."

All SanDisk Extreme III cards offer ESP Technology to streamline data transfer, RescuePRO software to recover accidentally deleted files and images, a dedicated technical support telephone hotline and a limited lifetime warranty.

The cards are designed for shooting in extreme temperatures (-13 to 185 degrees Fahrenheit or -25 to 85 degrees Celsius), high altitudes and other demanding situations. 

SanDisk's ultra-portable, high-performance MicroMate SDHC Reader can rapidly move images from an SDHC card to a personal computer. It also reads standard SD as well as SDHC flash memory cards. The reader is being bundled with the 8GB SanDisk Extreme III SDHC card at no extra cost.
 
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, California, and has operations worldwide, with more than half of its sales outside the US. - TradeArabia News Service