Lexar launches stainless steel SD cards
Wednesday 11 September 2024, 16:08 by Elja Trum | 2,049 views | 0 commentsThis article was translated from Dutch with the help of AI. Read the original.
Memory cards are usually made from dull black plastic. They do not look particularly special and are not very tough. At IFA 2024 in Germany, manufacturer Lexar has announced stainless steel versions of its SD memory cards.
The cards have an IP68 rating, so they should be able to withstand a bit of water. They are also sealed against dust and should be much harder to bend or break.
Two versions will be released, a 'gold' and a 'silver'. The silver version should be able to write at up to 160 megabytes per second, while the gold version can reach 205 megabytes per second. Both versions will be available in 128, 256, 512 and 1024 gigabytes.
Unfortunately, it has not yet been announced when they will become available or how much they will cost.
I admit that I would be happy to pay a few tens of euros extra for a steel card like this. Simply because it looks cool. I think the practical benefit is small for many photographers. I have never managed to break an SD card myself.
SD 8.0 memory card
The steel cards are not the only thing Lexar showed at the trade show. The company also announced a (plastic) SD card that follows the SD 8.0 specification. This memory card reaches write speeds of up to no less than 1,000 megabytes per second. Reading is even faster, at 1,800 megabytes per second.
Those are impressive speeds for an SD memory card. More than five times as fast as what most fast cards currently achieve. Of course, you will need a camera and memory card reader that can handle these speeds too.
The card also works in slower devices, but obviously it will not reach the top speeds it is capable of there.
The new CFexpress Type B cards from Lexar are even faster. The Lexar Professional Diamond CFexpress 4.0 Type B card reaches read speeds of 3,700 megabytes per second and writes at 3,400 megabytes per second.
No release date or price has been announced yet for the SD 8.0 and CFexpress cards either.
About the author
Elja Trum is the founder of Photofacts and online photography course website Photofacts Academy. He has been writing about photography since 2006. Elja is also the author of (Dutch) books on composition, black-and-white photography, flash photography and portrait photography.
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Elja Trum
Photofacts; everything to do with photography!
Would you like to take better photos and keep up with what is happening in photography? Photofacts publishes articles that teach you something about photography — from a product announcement to a practical shooting tip or a look at a website. Photofacts covers photography every day and is a hobby project of Elja Trum's that got out of hand. The articles are written by a team of volunteer authors. If you would enjoy writing one or more articles for Photofacts, do get in touch.More about PhotofactsPhotofacts is made possible in part by
