SanDisk 1TB SDXC Card Announcement From Photokina

Announced at Photokina, Western Digital developed a SanDisk 1TB SDXC card prototype, because the 512GB model unveiled at Photokina 2014 clearly wasn’t big enough. Western Digital being the current owners of Sandisk after the buyout in May of this year. If the 512GB card is any indication it cost $800 at the time of it’s release and the 1TB card should be even more expensive.  So what is the one card to rule them all good for? Beyond just storing photos we’re in a world now with 4K video, video surveillance, and 360 video. Not to mention large Megapixel cameras like the 50MP's coming out lately or the 250MP CMOS sensor Canon has in development. This expands options for videographers and photographers while not needing to change out cards as often.

 As for us mere mortals shooting with more affordable cameras on paper a 1TB card is a great option if you could afford the price tag. As an example the Canon 80D has RAW files about 34mb on average which would be just under 30,000 photos. As for 4k video it would be just shy of 15 hours of footage before the card filled up finally. Great for someone in Toby’s case going to Tanzania as while shooting photo and video he came back with 1.7TB of files, almost filling two of these cards.

 

So that said, in practice vs paper, you ARE putting all your eggs in one basket. Having worked in the automotive industry using thousands of these there is a failure rate and you will see it working with that many cards. Not to mention between dust and wear the card goes through in it’s life cycle they do get worn out. It’s recommended when shooting to exchange 32GB or 64GB cards so not all your photos are in one place. Even personally I’ve had a card die while shooting and managed to save half an event as it was on another card. Compared to previous years they are quite cheap, you can pick up 32GB cards in the $20 range, cheaper during sales.  Playing devil’s advocate the failure rate of SD cards is mostly in the first month or two of ownership with a 25% drop off after this period. Also overall your higher end cameras have dual card slots protecting you from data loss if you were doing 4K video professionally. Even with Sony cameras you can pull the card while it is writing. Because it creates a database every time you stick the card in Toby’s never lost a single image, even ones writing to the card when removed. Having a large card does have it’s benefits but you have to weigh that with the risk and importance of what your shooting.                    In the meantime no price or release date as of yet for the 1TB card but based on the 512GB it’ll be pricey for sure. You can use the links below to pick up a slightly less expensive 32GB or 64GB SD card from Amazon or B&H. 

Fun fact: Sixteen years ago Sandisk created a 64MB SD card. Today’s 1TB card could store over 15,000 of them.