Hasta La Gadget!

Nikon’s D4 is currently the only belle at the XQD ball, and until now, Sony was its only memory suitor. However, Lexar’s just arrived with a new line of cards to compete for the D4’s affections. The Fremont-based company says it collaborated with Nikon to build the PCI Express-based memory, and that they’ll hit the market sometime in the third quarter of 2012 — with no mention of specs or prices so far. Unfortunately, that means we don’t know how Lexar’s offerings will stack up against Sony’s H-series or S-series cards already on the market. That said, while you wait for more details about Lexar’s new cards, feel free to check out the lovely data the D4 will be putting on ’em when they arrive.

Filed under: Digital Cameras, Storage

Lexar XQD memory cards announced, will duel with Sony for Nikon D4’s attention originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 15 Jul 2012 02:04:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Nikon Rumors  |  Lexar  | Email this | Comments

Sony has set a new memory card speed record, achieving a whopping 168MB/s from its next-gen XQD S-Series cards targeting HD video and high-res photographers. The 64GB QD-S64 and 32GB QD-S32 cards use a PCI Express Gen interface to hit an identical 168MB/s read and write rate, meaning it takes just 3.8 minutes to shuttle across 32GB of data to your computer.

It also means a big boost to photographers looking to shoot multiple frames at speed, without hitting a data transfer wall. Sony claims it slotted one of the cards into a Nikon D4 and managed a whopping 108 shots in ten seconds.

Sony doesn’t make any specific claims about what sort of bitrate video you can capture to the S-Series cards, but with 168 MB/s to play with there should be no problem filling it up with high-def footage. You’ll probably need a Thunderbolt card reader to make the most of the transfer rates copying footage back to your PC, the company says.

The new Sony XQD S-Series will go on sale July 11 in Japan, priced at around 60,000 yen ($754) for the 64GB model and 40,000 yen ($503) for the 32GB model. Expensive stuff, but speed costs money.

Sony hits 168MB/s with whippet-fast XQD memory cards is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.