Compact Flash Memory Cards
The Compact Flash memory card format is a robust memory card used in many digital cameras and devices. It is the largest of all digital memory cards measuring 43mm x 36mm x 3.3mm.

Compact Flash (CF) was introduced in the early nineties and is still a very popular format for Digital bridge cameras and the growing array of Digital SLR's although many prefer the smaller SDHC card. CF cards are the memory card of choice for professional photographers mainly due to their high capacities and varying choices of speed. Sandisk currently produce one of the fastest CompactFlash cards on the market - the Extreme Pro. This card has a combined read/write speed of 90MB/s (600X).

The speed of a memory card determines how quickly the card processes data whether it be between shots or uploading information to a computer. Compact Flash users benefit particularly from high speed cards as they tend to use cameras which have multiple shot taking functions. A high speed card is crucial for this purpose as it processes the data at a high rate.

The largest capacity available at the moment is 64GB which will allow the user to store over 15500 hi-res images on a 12MP digital camera.

CF cards are probably the most robust out of all memory cards and can cope well in extreme conditions where temperature changes occur. Data should also be safe in cases of the memory card being dropped from low heights. This again is a reason why the CF card is still popular with today's professional photographers.

The high speed ranges of Compact Flash memory cards from Lexar and Sandisk are the memory card of choice for most professional photographers.