Matsushita Introduces New Digital Camera That Uses SanDisk's CompactFlash Cards as the Digital Film; New CF-Based Camera Will Be Sold Under Panasonic Brand Name; A CompactFlash Card Will Be Bundled With Every Camera Sold.

SUNNYVALE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 16, 1997--Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. (MEI) today became one of the world's first companies to introduce a digital camera that uses small CompactFlash(TM) (CF(TM)), solid-state storage cards developed by SanDisk Corp. (NASDAQ:SNDK) as the digital film in the camera.

The digital camera will be sold under the Panasonic brand name as the Panasonic Card Shot (model NV-DCF1).

MEI selected removable CompactFlash cards over alternative, small storage cards because easy-to-use CF cards are rugged, reliable, forward and backward technology compatible, use the industry-standard ATA storage interface and offer the largest capacities of any small storage card on the market. The cards are compatible with all significant software operating systems.

Panasonic will OEM SanDisk manufactured CompactFlash cards and sell the cards under the Panasonic label. Every Panasonic Card Shot digital camera sold will include a 2MB CompactFlash card making it the world's first digital camera where every unit is sold with a digital film CF card.

The camera has a specific slot for CF cards, which are the size of a matchbook. The cards, which are easy to remove and can be replaced with larger capacity cards, will serve as the camera's sole storage as the camera has no internal memory.

Nelson Chan, SanDisk vice president of marketing, said, "Panasonic Matsushita has started a trend that we expect will become pervasive as more and more digital cameras are introduced this year and in 1998 with no internal memory and removable CompactFlash cards serving as the only digital film. Panasonic will bundle a 2MB CompactFlash with every camera sold.

"Panasonic is the world's largest consumer electronics company, and we are very pleased that a company of Panasonic's stature has endorsed CompactFlash and is totally committed to CompactFlash products."

With the Panasonic camera and CF cards, users will be able to take pictures and then later move the card with the captured images to a PC where the images can be inserted into newsletters, reports and other documents, faxed, transmitted over the Internet or be printed out as standard, hard copy pictures.

A 2MB CF card will store 47 images in the camera's economy mode, 23 higher quality images in the normal mode or 11 highest quality images in the fine mode. CompactFlash cards are economical because they can be reused repeatedly for decades to take hundreds of thousands of digital pictures.

With the worldwide support of the CompactFlash Association, which includes a membership of 61 leading computing, imaging, communications and semiconductor companies, CF is the global, de facto standard for small storage cards. CompactFlash is an open industry standard -- the cards are based on flash semiconductor technology -- and a number of major companies have announced that they will be second sources for CompactFlash cards. SanDisk currently sells CF cards in capacities ranging between 2 and 20MB.

The Card Shot, Panasonic's first digital camera, is the size of a floppy disk and less than two inches thick. Pictures taken have a standard VGA resolution of 640 x 480 pixels and can be viewed immediately on the camera's 1.8-inch color liquid crystal display. The camera, bundled with a 2MB CompactFlash card, is priced at $600. CF cards with capacities of 4, 10, 15 and 20MB are available from SanDisk.

SanDisk Corp., the world's largest supplier of flash data storage products, designs, manufactures and markets industry-standard, solid-state data, image and audio storage products using proprietary, high-density flash memory and controller technology. SanDisk has strategic alliances with Seagate Technology, Matsushita Electronic Corp., NEC Corp. and LG Semicon. Seagate holds a 25 percent equity stake in SanDisk. The company is based in Sunnyvale, Calif. -0-

Note to Editors: CompactFlash and CF are trademarks of SanDisk Corp. SanDisk's website/homepage address: http://www.sandisk.com .

CONTACT: SanDisk Corp.

Nelson Chan, 408/542-0456

Bob Goligoski, 408/542-0463