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SanDisk this week announced a series of CF (CompactFlash) cards that double the read and write speeds of its fastest flash cards available today, as well as an 8GB version of its Ultra II CF Type 1 flash memory card.

CF cards are widely used in cameras, video cameras, and camera phones to store and transfer data. The new Extreme III CF card, available in storage capacities between 1GB and 4GB, has a read and write speed of 20 MB per second, double that of SanDisk's fastest Ultra II CF cards, according to the company.

Both cards are designed for cameras with resolutions of 4 megapixels and higher, says Mike Wong, a SanDisk spokesperson. Professional digital photographers typically shoot images in an uncompressed format, which needs more storage space, he says. "With an 8GB card, you can store hundreds of such images without changing the card."

The Extreme III cards will start shipping worldwide in November at prices ranging between $140 for the 1GB version and $560 for the 4GB version, the company says in a statement.

The new 8GB Ultra II CF flash card will become available at retail outlets worldwide starting in November. In the U.S., it will be priced at $959. Current Ultra II cards, available in CF and Memory Stick versions, are available in storage capacities ranging from 256MB to 4GB.

With the new flash memory cards, SanDisk is trying to keep a balanced product mix by adding some high-end products to its entry-level products, according to Stephen Baker, an analyst at NPD Techworld.

"There's a big and growing market for digital photography, and going after those customers is a big part of any [flash card] manufacturer's strategy," he says.

Past the PC

As part of an effort to reduce the dependency of digital photography on PCs, SanDisk Wednesday also announced the SanDisk Photo Album, a device that can bypass a PC and display digital media stored on a flash card--images, audio, or movies--on any TV set with an audio/video input. It supports JPEG images, MP3 audio, and MPEG-1 video.

It can also serve as an eight-in-one memory card reader and has two USB 2.0 ports--one to connect to a PC and one to accept USB-based flash drives or storage devices that contain multimedia files. The $50 device comes with a remote control and will become available worldwide in October.

"If you focus on the digital photography business, a lot of time and effort is being spent on trying to avoid going to a computer. Whether it is digital printing directly from a docking station, or printing and saving at the retailer, manufacturers are trying to divorce digital photography from the PC," Baker says.

New Readers

The company also announced three new media card readers--the SanDisk ImageMate 12-in-1, SanDisk ImageMate 5-in-1, and SanDisk ImageMate CF, which supports both CF Type 1 and CF Type 2 cards.

In addition to supporting new flash card types, the readers include a new button that can transfer files on the flash card with a single push. The button cuts down on the number of steps involved in transferring files from a flash card to a computer, Wong says.

All the readers have USB 2.0 ports. The $34.99 ImageMate 12-in-1, $19.99 ImageMate 5-in-1, and $19.99 ImageMate CF will become available worldwide toward the end of October, Wong says.

The announcements were made at the Photokina digital imaging show being held in Cologne, Germany, from September 28 to October 3.