Just shortly after I convinced myself that microdrives are a cost-effective storage media for digital cameras, SanDisk apparently listened to the pricing concerns as the currently most powerful is also the most expensive flash memory. Microdrives until recently had a significant price advantage ... but then SanDisk slashed prices beyond expectations for their Extreme III series and opened up a new battle. Best offer right now is the 2 GByte model near $100 -- a solid argument to ditch the still cheaper microdrive and rely on the solid-state flash memory -- at least for professionals and enthusiasts.


Extreme III

Even more than 1 year after its introduction, SanDisk's Extreme III is still the undisputed champion with an advertised minimum of 20MB/sec sequential write and read speed (Based on 1 MB = 1,000,000 Bytes.) Kingston recently released a 15 MB/sec (100x) memory, but that's about as close as competition has come so far. (Not counting the announced Hoodman PPO memory which is rated at 155x read and 133x write.)

Sandisk's "ESP Technology" (Enhanced Super-Parallel Processing) ist cited to be responsible for the lofty speed, and unlike WA (Lexar's proprietary Write Accelleration), ESP applies to both read and write.

Beyond speed, Extreme III also stands for an extended temperature ranging from -13 to +185 Fahrenheit (-25C to +85C), with significant improvements in the cold range. This is to allow usage and maintain storage in virtually any weather condition, way beyond your camera's ability to work under those extreme conditions. If nothing else, this is the main quality that earns the "Extreme" label.

For your peace of mind the Extreme III is backed by a lifetime warranty, which doesn't help your pictures should they get lost, but at least you get a commitment that's stronger than most other models. Should the "unthinkable" happen despite all warranties and specifications, the included mini-CD for data recovery software might be able to help in many cases (even accidentally deleted pictures). The software is called RescuePro and normally costs about $50 (for Ultra II etc.).

As most CF cards, the Extreme III is a CF Type I and that ensures usability in pretty much every CF based device (mostly cameras, PDAs and some mp3 players). It can be used to its full capacity in both FAT16 or FAT32, though the latter is preferable.


Test w/ Canon's 20D

Capacity: Two GByte are roughly equivalent to eight 36-exposure rolls of film when using the RAW format in the Digital Rebel (6.3 MPx) or six rolls for the EOS 20D (8.2MPx). That's an interesting capacity range even for some professional photographers and allows 280 pictures or 200 pictures respectively in maximum quality and versatility (6.3 MPx RAW, 8.2 MPx RAW). However, that is reduced significantly in higher resolution cameras like the new EOS 5D.

Speed: With 20 MB/s data transfer from and to the card, the Extreme III is promising to break records. Unlike microdrives, there is no difference in write density that possibly could affect performance based on different sizes (as seen in hard drives). Nevertheless, many devices are unable to use speeds over and above 40x these days anyway, and the true improvement by the Extreme III is limited to a select few "professional" cameras.

Write Performance: Based on the relatively "fixed" write speed for RAW files in my EOS 20D, I altered my typical test and recorded both RAW (roughly 9.3 MB each) and best quality JPEG (roughly 3.4 MB each). Then I measured the time it took from pressing the trigger until the write LED stopped blinking. Capturing the 10 + 10 pictures resulted in a total of 124 MB and took about 19 seconds. That averages to about 6.5 MB/s data transfer.

10x RAW (9.3MB) + 10x JPEG (3.4MB) pictures
- Sandisk Extreme III (133x): ~19 sec. [6.5 MB/s]
- Lexar Pro 80x WA: ~26 sec. [4.7 MB/s]
- Hitachi microdrive (14x): ~32 sec. [3.8 MB/s]

This is significantly better than I previously determined by just recording RAW (in that case both Lexar and SanDisk tied at 16 seconds.) It also shows that this is not pure write time and the Camera sure has its part in the time. (Oddly, even the microdrive performed much better than even the Card Reader test would indicate.)


USB 2.0 CARD READER

Contrary to cameras, A USB2.0 reader are easy to benchmark with tests like Sandra 2005. Bearing the 480 Mbps, such reader should be able to take advantage of the "mind numbing" speed of the Extreme III, right? However, this just stands for the USB 2.0 speed and despite its nearly 3 times the speed of the Extreme III, the reader hardware in itself often is much slower. For my YD8V07 media reader, the rated speed of a card steps in the background once it crosses the 60x speed rating. High-performance memory finds this reader to be the weakest link ...

Sandra2005: maximum Read / Write [MBps]
- SanDisk 2 GB Extreme III: 8.7 / 6.5
- Lexar 1GB CF Prof. (80x): 8.7 / 6.5
- SanDisk 512MB CF Ultra II (66x): 8.7 / 6.5
- Lexar 256MB CF Prof. (40x): 5.5 / 4.3
- Seagate 8 GB microdrive: 7.2 / 2.5
- Hitachi 4 GB microdrive: 5.25 / 2


SUMMARY

Flash memory's rated speed is only half the truth and especially high-speed memory often finds the limits of the electronic device rather than its own. In my case, I have no device that can take advantage of the provided 133x speed (nor will I buy an external ESP reader from SanDisk just for kicks). In my camera, the improvements over the Lexar 80x are significant, but in my typical application inconsequential since I barely exceed the buffer.

While the speed improvement is real, the major argument for getting the Extreme III is the extended temperature range as my recent trip on the Brocken (a mountain near my parents) proved. My older Ultra II somehow had trouble in the harsh condition when left out unprotected. This reflected in one write error, that went away upon the second try. (Nothing major, but I wasn't in Antarctica either.

I am not sure who really needs the Extreme III as even professionals may not have to rely on it, but with the recent price cut it's a recommendation nevertheless. It's the same or lower priced as even significantly lower rated performance memory (80x / 60x) and the extended temperature range as well as the included recovery software are solid reasons to give the Extreme III a try. Currently the 2 GByte model has the best price per gigabyte in the line-up.

With 2 GByte cards one might consider a media storage device like the Epson P-2000 to store your pictures on a trip and eliminate the need for a lot of additional CF cards (though it's always a good idea to have a spare).

© 2006, theuerkorn


Recommended: Yes