1 GB for $267?

[Redcrown]

I was cleaning out old paper files today, found an invoice from NewEgg.

Jan 27, 2004, Lexar 40X 1GB Compact Flash Card - $267

There's no typo there. It's One Gigabyte, it's $267.00, it was 11 years ago.

I'm pretty sure it was one of the first 1GB cards in an era when 256MB was a lot. Needed it for one of the first full-frame digital cameras, a Canon 1Ds that made a whopping 10.1 megapixel image.

So I got curious and dug around some more and actually found it. And it still works. I'd hate to part with it, but I'm willing to sell for half price.

And a side note - I'm currently shopping for a new car. Same make, model, and trim level as one I bought in 2006 is now 9 inches longer, 350 lbs heavier, and cost 35% more. Dosen't go any faster, but does get 2 MPG better mileage.

[bill t.]

Shucks, I still have the honkin' 8MB CF card that came with my Kodak DC280 camera, which took jpegs that looked just like Kodachrome II, and could wear down a $10 set of disposable Lithium batteries in 30 minutes.  Not for sale.

I could easily fit 1/6 of a D810 raw file on that card.

[Jonathan Wienke]

I still have my 1Ds also.

[Ken Bennett]

The first 1GB cards were $1500. The 1GB micro drives were $500. Not that long ago, either.

[Phil Indeblanc]

I loved the 1Ds, but it was just sitting, so I got rid of that tank.
I still have the Kodak D-SLRc. Great color, no AA, and down to ISO-6(no not 60). Beautiful files!
But put that in front of strobes and all hell breaks loose.

I was just looking at upgrading my NAS HDD from 4x2TB to 4x4TB. I have 4 of these boxes, so I'm waiting for the 5TB to gain popularity so they can finally drop the 4TB prices down to $100 or less. Right now the 5400 are $129. I want 7200rpm

Honestly, I never got into buying Lexar cards, EVER. Nor their readers. Waste of money.
Even SanDisk markets to shooters as something superior and overcharges (unless there is some sale).
Over 10 years with probably over 25 cards with other makes with as fast or fast enough write speeds and have no regrets.

But boy do prices drop with time! That 1Gb would work well in the Olympus c2500L I still have :-) That was a cool camera for the time!

[DeanChriss]

My first 1GB CF cards were around $300 each! I still recall how painful it was to buy three of these tiny things even though savings in film and processing would quickly pay for them.

[langier]

2001, 128MB were about $100 and 4x to 8x.

For my America 24/7 shoot in 2003, 1GB cards were about $650 and I bought one. Probably a 16x to 24x at that.

My last 32GB cards were less than $20 each just a couple of months ago. Each was at least 400x-600x in speed besides.

Faster, cheaper, bigger.

Soon, we'll all have cameras with built-in memory that will be plenty for their lifetime of many years and then archive and "retire".

With a 512 GB card in each of two cameras, I would never have to change my digital film for a month or two… but if I were to loose one...