Dave, the thing to remember about SanDisk is that its expertise is in design and not in production. That's why SanDisk partners with Toshiba in jointly owning and operating a factory. That's why SanDisk partners with Tower Semiconductor (along with Intel and others) for a fabrication facility in Israel. SanDisk is a small company that has done very well by forming strategic alliances with companies that have complementary skills that SanDisk lacks. This is a very healthy strategy to pursue in what is turning into a commodity business.
On the read/write speed of various cards, I have been unable to find measureable differences, even using the Lexar high speed cards. I guess the reason has more to do with a particular camera and resolution than anything else. On my old Nikon 950, it took about 30 seconds to write a TIFF image. On my Canon S50, I can take either a raw image or high resolution jpg. I haven't had a need to use or test for write speeds on raw images, but on the highest resolution jpg image, the write speed is about 1 second, and the camera is ready for another shot in about 1 - 5 seconds, depending on whether I'm using the internal flash.
I think that the write speed capabilities of these newer model flash cards are greater than what the average camera demands. I assume that there might be a difference in what a particular card could do with, say, an 11 mpixel image, but I haven't reached that portion of the stratosphere yet.
Art |
