It’s been a long time coming, I guess this might well coincide with their announcements of pro-level cameras.

You wouldn’t find many pro’s putting up with the tiny fiddly Memory Sticks that Sony likes to force on it’s users.

So why not capitalise on that and use Compact Flash! Easier to handle and more rugged too.

Sony has announced that is moving away from manufacturing just Memory Sticks and started to offer Compact Flash cards for digital camera users.

The new card range will be compatible with a wide range of products featuring the Compact Flash slot, including many digital cameras, printers and other imaging and PC devices.

Interesting eh?

We’ll have to wait and see if their prices and reliablity are on par with Sandisk.

Sony will launch a range of three 66x transfer speed cards with capacities of 1GB, 2GB and 4GB as it tries to prove itself as an option for professional photographers using Nikon, Canon and of course its own Alpha range launched last year.

In addition, two higher-end, value added 133x transfer speed cards with 2GB and 4GB capacity, which are supported by Sony’s image recovery service.

Source: Photography Press

Ah lovely fast CF cards!

Now might be a good time to pick up some Extreme III cards.

SanDisk Corporation today introduced the new SanDisk Extreme IV line of CompactFlash digital film cards for professional photographers. The line is targeted at photographers who require the highest possible performance and the largest capacities for their medium format and high-end digital single lens reflex (SLR) cameras. The SanDisk Extreme IV cards are available in capacities of up to 8-gigabytes (GB) and deliver minimum read and write speeds of 40 megabytes per second (MB/sec.) making these the fastest flash memory cards in the world. This exceptionally fast card speed is critical when shooting large numbers of high-resolution images.

SanDisk also introduced the new SanDisk Extreme FireWire reader that can transfer images from the SanDisk Extreme IV cards to a computer at up to 40MB/sec. for significantly improved workflow efficiency. These new products were announced at a press conference held today at the NASDAQ Market Site in New York City.

The SanDisk Extreme IV cards are targeted at the professional photographer who needs the absolute highest performance and maximum reliability. The company will continue to offer the SanDisk Extreme III and SanDisk Ultraâ II lines.

More details here.