Extreme Ducati Edition CompactFlash - 4gb product reviews

Really, when it comes down to it these days the only real differences between cards of the same format are; materials, MCUF (mean [read/write] cycles until failure) and storage capacity. You *could* go and grab some of those cheapo cards you see on sale at the supermarket sometimes or you could go and buy some of the 'bargain stock' ones down at the local chainstore but you would be a fool to do so. If you want something that is going to work all the time, every time, you need to invest in quality gear.
Now though this unit has a high price tag, higher than I think it warrants on just the technical side of things, it is an official branded Ducati product so it must be of the highest standard and you are paying extra for the high-profile name too. If you want that 'style factor' to be there in aces, you could do well with this card. But if you want functional over cosmetic, you would do just as well looking at any of the other SanDisk CF cards.
The biggest thing that makes this one stand out though, apart from the price and styling, is the speed. We all know that the 'optimal conditions' can never really be duplicated out in the real world, where most machines have so much other stuff running in the background you are going to get some system lag, but this card still did a really good job, accepting data at a whopping 41mb/sec and a very respectable 38mb/sec download speed, based on trial files totalling 2gb, with a range of file sizes and types making up the pool.
Size-wise 4gb is about normal for where things are at the moment, especially when you take into account that pretty soon 32gb is going to be on the market, and is actually already available in some global markets, for not much more than the price of this unit. Again, this carries 'the big name' so also carries a 'bigger than normal pricetag'.
Really, it comes down to personal style. Do you like to be seen as having the best and brightest of the new toys, that just happens to be top-notch quality as well? If so buy this.