Hot
off the Press "Release"
7/30/02
Keith Benicek, Editor
xD-Picture, another new Digital Camera Flash Card?
Fuji Photo Film
Co., Ltd, and Olympus of Japan announced today the joint development
of the xD-Picture ("eXtreme digital") Card. This new card type of memory
media is an eXtremely (pun intended) compact design is about the size
of a postage stamp and will have an image storage capacity of up to
8GB. The card offers compatibility with different digital camera brands
and prices that will be comparable to current SmartMedia cards as Fuji
and Olympus claim.
This new flash form factor has a volume of 0.85cc and a weight of 2g, the xD-Picture Card will be the smallest of any digital memory card, according to John Knaur, the Olympus' product manager for Digital Consumer Products Group. "Plus, its small size will enable development of even smaller digital camera", he said in our interview.
Toshiba Corp. in
Japan will produce the
xD-Picture Card on consignment and Olympus reports that it will be introduced
in
the Americas this fall
along with new digital cameras from Olympus and Fujifilm that support
the media. With a Compact Flash adapter they will be producing, the xD-Picture
Card can be used with any Compact Flash compatible device. There will
also be a USB Reader/Writer that provides computer connectivity, as does
a PCMCIA PC Card adapter for laptops.
Initially four types of cards will be available : 16MB, 32MB, 64MB, and 128MB. Due in December are 256MB cards, with 512MB, 1GB and 8GB versions planned for 2003.
The question is, will there be room for another proprietary "Digital Film" Flash card type? With Compact Flash (most established), Smart Media, MultiMedia and Memory Stick (only used on Sonys and a very few other cameras), what is the chance it will be accepted? Smart Media has gained on Compact Flash and Sony's brut marketing strength has kept Memory Stick on store shelves even though no other major camera maker has employed it.
Time will tell.
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