Sony unveils compact flash line up

Sony today revealed its compact flash line up, following its surprise announcement in January that it would begin production of the format after years of doggedly making only the Memory Sticks that are used in its devices.

In reality, the decision wasn’t such a surprise. It entered the digital SLR camera market last year with its Alpha D100, and the Memory Stick simply wasn’t going to cut it with photography enthusiasts. So, if it was already selling a product that supported compact flash, why not make the damn things as well.

The biggest surprise in its compact flash line up is the lack of an 8GB capacity, it’s sticking with 1GB, 2GB and 4GB cards, with transfer speeds of 66x and 133x. They are available to buy from May.

“Our first product line-up is designed to handle the demanding speed and performance requirements of ambitious amateur and semi-professional photographers,” said Renaud Isnard, from Sony Europe’s Network Media division.

The slower 66x transfer speed cards have a data transfer read rate of 10MB/s and 9MB/s for writing an image to memory. The 133x cards have a read/write rate of 20MB/s. This means it is quicker to save an image to the card, allowing you to take more photos in for instance continuous shooting mode, although most people would be unlikely to notice any difference in the speeds.

The cards come with a five year warranty, but enter a crowded, very price competitive market.