Throw away your external HDD, SanDisk introduces the world’s first 512 GB SD card

The capacities of SD memory cards have been constantly rising in the past years, but due to their form factor one could've been led to assume that there is a limit to how much information they can carry. That appears not to be the case, as SanDisk has just introduced the world's highest-capacity SDXC memory card, and it holds a whopping 512 GB.

That's right -- eleven years after introducing its first 512 MB memory card, SanDisk has upped the maximum capacity an SD card can hold by a thousandfold. Thanks to new manufacturing standards and SDXC technology, your can now put half a terabyte of memory into your camera, if you so desire.

But the new SanDisk Extreme Pro 512 GB SDXC card isn't meant so much for the regular consumer to put into his point-and-shoot camera, but rather for the professional that regularly juggles huge amounts of data. For example, we could imagine that sports and event photographers might find a liking with this memory card.

Another field of application where this card makes a lot of sense due to its high capacity and speed -- it's rated UHS-I Class 3, with maximum transfer speeds of 95 MB/sec. -- is 4K video. And considering how many prosumer camera models already support 4K video capturing, having such a high capacity memory option seems like a good thing.

In addition to the 512 GB model, SanDisk also announced two new 128 GB and 256 GB cards that provide equally fast transfer speeds. All three high speed SDXC cards are available right now and retail for approx. $190 for the 128 GB model, $360 for the 256 GB model and $730 for the 512 GB model.

Considering the price of the half-terabyte card, you may not want to ditch your external HDD yet after all ...