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When SanDisk announced the Extreme Pro CompactFlash card, it rapidly became clear from the technical specifications sheet, these cards were not for consumer type dSLRs. With the Extreme Pro range of CompactFlash cards, SanDisk is clearly targeting the professional and semi-professional photographer. After having tested a 32GB version with a Sony Alpha 900, I can only conclude in areas some technological advance can still knock you off your socks.
The SanDisk Extreme Pro range of CompactFlash cards comes in three capacities: 16 GB, 32 GB, and a giant card that may even not be supported by some dSLRs of 64 GB. The two top of the bill cards are especially useful when your dSLR is capable of shooting video.
All three sizes use the same UDMA 6 enabled technology that provides these CompactFlash cards with an unprecedented throughput speed of 90MB/sec. This is actually faster than what FireWire 800 is capable of, which is why SanDisk currently offers an ExpressCard converter that’s capable of exploiting the Extreme Pro’s highest transfer rates.
SanDisk invented a couple of new technologies for these Extreme Pro CompactFlash cards; the Power Core Controller and “Enhanced Super-Parallel Processing aka ESP”, to increase the card’s performance level.
The Extreme Pro cards have shock protection and RTV silicone coating added inside for protection against moisture and humidity, and as with all SanDisk Extreme cards, the cards can withstand temperatures of -25 degrees Celsius to 85 degrees Celsius. Moisture levels may be 90% before the cards risk giving up.
All this should translate into a transfer/throughput speed of 90MB/sec. I was very curious to see if the Extreme Pro would really deliver on this promise, and so I tested the card in a Sony Alpha 900. What I saw was stunning. I tested the card with the dSLR high speed burst mode on the Alpha 900. That did what it’s supposed to do: fill up its buffer with nine images before starting to offload to the card inside the camera.
I measured the time it took before the card was ready to accept another series of nine images. I did this with an Extreme IV and a Lexar 300x CompactFlash card. The difference was very noticeable: the camera was ready writing its buffer to the Extreme Pro in half the time (48% to be exact) it took to write to the UDMA 300 cards.
I repeated my test three times to make sure the results were correct. I also tried testing the Extreme Pro with a FireWire reader, and it was faster (of course), but due to the limitations of FireWire 800 and the reader I couldn’t tell for sure how fast the card really would be. For that to test, you’d really need a Sonnet QiO, an eSATA high-speed reader that’s due to be released in December, and which will cost something like 900.00 USD.
The SanDisk Extreme Pro CompactFlash UDMA 6 cards are extreme good value. Photographers should realise that a good card can make their dSLR perform better and faster. While the Extreme Pro seem to targeted at Canon and Nikon cameras with video capabilities, Hasselblads and other medium-sized cameras will benefit from this high-performance cards too. The only thing I think SanDisk should improve is the jewelbox the card is shipped with: mine was so difficult to open I was worried about bending or even breaking this gem of a card inside.
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