# Lexar 256GB Professional 1066x Compact Flash Memory Card (UDMA 7)



## expatinasia (Mar 14, 2014)

As I have just bought myself a new CF card, I was surprised to see they now have 256GB 1066X cards! Just for a bit of fun, how much do you think the price will drop over the period of a year?

The Lexar 64GB Professional 1066x Compact Flash Memory Card (UDMA 7) is US$263.66 at the moment, but normally newer tech such as the 256GB carries a premium when it launches.

What do you think?


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## Drizzt321 (Mar 14, 2014)

This is likely using smaller sized NAND, possibly even TLC NAND and those are all fairly new. Might drop a bit over the next year, but probably not significantly. We probably won't see a 512MB card for 1 1/2 to 2 years is my guess, and by that time we'll all want them in CFast cards since the new top end cameras are going to start to have that interface. That's all speculation on my side, but at that top end of capacity, you need to go through another whole generation of NAND shrinkage before they really can boost that capacity any further, and it's starting to slow down a bit as they get down to smaller and smaller processes. They're actually basically at the leading edge of node size, and as they get smaller and smaller there are more and more concerns with longevity and read accuracy.


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## fatmanmedi (Mar 15, 2014)

Drizzt321 said:


> This is likely using smaller sized NAND, possibly even TLC NAND and those are all fairly new. Might drop a bit over the next year, but probably not significantly. We probably won't see a 512MB card for 1 1/2 to 2 years is my guess, and by that time we'll all want them in CFast cards since the new top end cameras are going to start to have that interface. That's all speculation on my side, but at that top end of capacity, you need to go through another whole generation of NAND shrinkage before they really can boost that capacity any further, and it's starting to slow down a bit as they get down to smaller and smaller processes. They're actually basically at the leading edge of node size, and as they get smaller and smaller there are more and more concerns with longevity and read accuracy.



i think 512GB cards will be here by the end of the year, but i don't know if they will stay with CF interface as it seems that they are coming to the end of what the format will cope with, i know they are talking about the XQD format but my money is on the future of SD.

Fats


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## Drizzt321 (Mar 15, 2014)

fatmanmedi said:


> i think 512GB cards will be here by the end of the year, but i don't know if they will stay with CF interface as it seems that they are coming to the end of what the format will cope with, i know they are talking about the XQD format but my money is on the future of SD.
> 
> Fats



Perhaps they will be here, but they didn't go ahead and create XQD or CFast (CF replacement from same standards group) on a whim. SD cards just won't cut it, especially for top end photography that needs high write speeds to keep up with the high burst rates. Think sports & action photographers and the like. They need cards that can quickly clear the buffers of their 10+fps cameras. I highly doubt SD cards will ever become the standard format on the top tier (I'm including 5d3 level in here as well, possibly 7D replacement as well) cameras.


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## expatinasia (Mar 15, 2014)

Woah, 512 GB cards! Do we even need that much? At a busy sporting event I can easily take 2-3,000 pics a day - even more sometimes - but they all get downloaded and deleted from the CF card pretty promptly. Nothing gets stored on the CF card at all and each day starts fresh.

Do we need such high capacity? And if a 256GB 1066X card costs US$ 999 how much is a 512 GB card going to cost?

Wow! I found one of my old 48MB CF cards the other day, and am pretty sure that was quite high capacity at one stage!!


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## dolina (Feb 10, 2016)

All on Amazon

512GB 800x


$599.95 - Lexar

256GB 1066x


$352.22 - Lexar
$318.80 - Sandisk

I would like to see how much these cards will cost by 2020 when all new SLRs switch to CFast and UHS-II SD cards.

Using a 50MP 5Ds with either lens will yield these many RAWs at 80MB/file.


6,400 images @ 512GB
3,200 images @ 256GB

Comes out as roughly 10 cents an image.


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## tpatana (Feb 10, 2016)

dolina said:


> I would like to see how much these cards will cost by 2020 when all new SLRs switch to CFast and UHS-II SD cards.



Better question would be how much equivalent (or faster) speed cards costs in 2020. If CF goes extinct, the prices might go up plenty.


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## dolina (Feb 10, 2016)

tpatana said:


> dolina said:
> 
> 
> > I would like to see how much these cards will cost by 2020 when all new SLRs switch to CFast and UHS-II SD cards.
> ...


256GB CFast 3500x cards may cost as little as $100 by then.

With a declining SLR market the 5Ds and 5D series bodies by 2020 may end up merging. 100MP or 50MP at 10fps, anyone?

CFast 2.0 spec allows for speeds up to 4000x. That's a read & write speed of 600MB/s.

CFast 3.0 spec may incorporate SATA revision 3.2 allowing for 1969 MB/s. 

That's 13,126x.


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