SanDisk today expanded its SanDisk Extreme III pro line with a 4-Gigabyte SDHC (SD High Capacity) Class 6 memory card and a 4-Gigabyte Memory Stick PRO Duo card. As an added bonus, the SDHC card will be packaged with a SanDisk MicroMate USB 2.0 Reader - a $20 value - so that users have a one-stop solution for capturing, storing and transferring their images. A 4GB SanDisk Extreme III card can store more than 2,000 high-resolution pictures or up to 8 hours of MPEG 4 video.

"The SanDisk Extreme III line has become a best-of-class standard for professional photographers who demand speed, durability and reliability," said Tanya Chuang, SanDisk's director of retail product marketing, global imaging market. "Now we're raising the bar again with these new cards. And by including an SDHC-compatible reader with each SDHC card, we're enabling users to easily transfer images from their cameras to their computers."

The SanDisk Extreme III 4GB SDHC card has a sequential read/write speed of 20 megabytes per second, while the SanDisk Extreme III 4GB Memory Stick PRO Duo card has a sequential read/write speed of 18 MB per second. Both cards are designed for shooting in extreme temperatures (-13 to 185 degrees Fahrenheit or -25 to 85 degrees Celsius), high altitudes and other demanding situations.

Both cards have speed rating of Class 6, the highest available, meaning that they have a minimum continuous data transfer rate of 6MB/second.