Panasonic, a leader in High Definition technology and market leader in Flat Panel HDTVs announced today that the company will release a 16GB Pro High Speed SDHC* Memory Card. The new card, designated RP-SDV16GU1K, featuring both high capacity and high speed, will be globally released in November 2007 with an estimated retail price of $319.99. The arrival of Panasonic’s 16GB model further strengthens its Pro High Speed line-up which now offers five models: 1GB, 2GB, 4GB, 8GB and 16GB card sizes with the Class 6 Speed specification.

“As more and more people become engaged in the High Definition lifestyle, there is a growing demand for recording High Definition video and high resolution digital still images,” said Zoe Susice, Panasonic’s national marketing manager. “A key part of the High Definition lifestyle is the expansion of HD camcorders and high-resolution digital still cameras demanding card-based recording media with larger capacity and higher data transfer speeds. Our new model meets this demand with a massive 16GB data storage capacity and a high data transfer speed of up to 20MB/s.”

The 16GB high data storage capacity is ideal for AVCHD High Definition recording. When used with Panasonic’s newly released High Definition SD video camera (HDC-SD5), the card can record approximately 4 hours of High Definition video in AVCHD normal mode, and approximately 2 hours 40 minutes of 1920 x 1080i full High Definition video in AVCHD fine mode.

The data transfer speed of up to 20MB/s is fast enough for professional and broadcast-use digital devices, providing superb performance and high quality recording. Even when using the card with a professional digital SLR camera, consumers can enjoy full performance of consecutive shooting without worrying about overflow of buffer memory.

Panasonic remains committed to playing a leading role in the development of both SDHC compatible devices and SD Memory Cards. The company is planning to expand the usage and application of SDHC Memory Cards by further increasing memory capacity and improving data transfer speeds.