ReviewsKingston introduces 100X CompactFlash cards.
Kingston has announced the release of their "Ultimate" line of CompactFlash cards. These cards come in one, two and four Gigabyte sizes and have a 100X speed rating. Kingston says that this equates to about 18 MegaBytes per second read speed and 15 MegaBytes per second write speed.
Fast memory cards are highly valued by professional photographers. High-end cameras often have a "burst" or fast sports mode which can shoot several frames per second. These pictures are stored in a buffer until they can be off-loaded into a memory card. If the buffer fills up, no further pictures can be taken. Fast memory cards generally lessen the time to flush the buffer, but it"s unclear if the current batch of cameras can even take advantage of 100X speeds.
Kingston says that the four Gigabyte CompactFlash cards will retail for $289, while the two and one Gigabyte cards will sell for $159 and $89 respectively.