Memory Card Types
Introduction
A memory card is your film, and the bigger the memory card, the more pictures you can fit on it, but what type do you need? How large and how fast is the right one? Who makes the best brand for your camera?
These are all questions you have to answer before you start taking pictures with your digital camera.
The five main types of digital camera memory cards include, SD, xD, CompactFlash, SmartMedia, and Memory Stick. That list might sound confusing, but it is usually rather easy to tell what type of memory card you need.
Before I go into the specifics of each type, regardless of the memory card type, the size is one of the most important factors these days. The memory card you get with the camera will probably be too small, and won’t even take the “normal” twenty-four images we are used to from our film cameras, unless you reduce the quality of the images. I recommend getting a one gigabyte card these days, as more and more digital cameras also allow for some limited movie capture mode, and being able to take more images is never a bad thing.
The prices of memory cards are also at a fairly low price, and so it is just easier to buy one or two larger sized cards than a few smaller ones that you might misplace.
If you can’t afford a full gigabyte for storage, than at least get a half-gigabyte (512MB) memory card.
Anything less and you start to get into not being able to hold enough high quality images, and that is really what you bought your digital camera for right?
Secure Digital – SD Cards
Some of the smallest and thinnest memory cards are the Secure Digital and MultiMediaCard memory and so they are usually seen in smaller digital cameras, PDA’s, cell phones, and MP3 players.
The only difference between the two memory types is that Secure Digital cards have a write-protect switch for added data security.
xD Cards
The first digital camera I had used xD Picture cards, they were introduced by Olympus and Fuji in 2002, and are the newest type of memory. Its tiny size of only 0.97” x 0.98” x 0.67” means it can fit into tiny cameras.
The xD Picture Card can also be used in any CompactFlash compatible camera with the available CompactFlash adapter.
Since it was developed and introduced by Olympus and Fuji, most current compact digital cameras from those manufacturers use the xD Picture Card media.
CompactFlash Cards
One of the most common types of digital camera memory is CompactFlash. More higher end digital cameras, and digital SLRs, are CompactFlash compatible.
There are two types of CompactFlash, just to confuse you even more. They are both physically different, thus some cameras can’t take both. There are Type I and Type II, and Type II is thicker. So check to make sure that if you buy a Type II that your camera can hold it. Type II CompactFlash is usually a higher capacity card, so if you are buying a 512MB or 1GB card, it is currently most likely that it is a Type II card.
One of the main reasons so many camera makers adopt the CompactFlash standard is that the cards have a controller chip that allows for higher transfer rates. Most cameras can’t take advantage of this, as they need to have large internal buffers. Most digital SLRs can take advantage of this though.
Inexpensive, easy to find, and work in a large variety of digital cameras, CompactFlash is one of the more desirable types of digital camera memory. The only complaint, it is a bit bigger than most other types, and so to save room, it seems like there has been a big shift towards other types of memory.
SmartMedia Cards
SmartMedia used to be one of the most common types of digital camera storage media. It was used in most Olympus and Fuji digital cameras until the introduction the xD Picture card, in 2002. SmartMedia is being phased out for newer memory types.
If you buy a camera that uses SmartMedia it might be a good idea to stock up on memory cards as they might not be available for too much longer.
Memory Stick
Sony developed the Memory Stick technology for their CyberShot digital cameras and other Sony electronic devices. You are unlikely to see their Memory Stick technology compatible with any other cameras other than Sony, so if you have a Sony, you probably need to buy a Memory Stick.
What Else?
Well, other than the size of the memory card, and the type, you also need to worry about its speed, and brand. Sometimes camera makers have it set up that you need to use their memory card, be it Olympus for an Olympus camera, to be able to use all of the features inside the camera. Usually this is just a recommendation, and you can use other companies memory cards just fine.
Sticking to brand names, SanDisk, Lexar, Kingston and other big brands is always your best bet. Not saying the memory you could get from a lesser known name won’t run as well, but the warranties and failure rates on brand name memory is less, though you do pay a little more for that piece of mind.
Don’t let their “pro” and “platinum” names confuse you, as sometimes one companies “pro” line is not even as good as the basic line of another company. Always look for the fastest transfer speed rating. A camera with 80x will be able to write the image to the memory card much faster than a camera with a 32x rating, meaning a faster cycle time for more pictures. You might not notice much of a difference when taking pictures, but being able to move through pictures on your camera, transferring them off the camera, and cycle times are all effected by memory card speed.
So my final advice, buy a brand name memory card, that works with the type of camera you have, get it as large and as fast as you can afford, and you should be able to enjoy your camera that much more.
Related Posts:Digital Photography: Things you Need to Get Started
Canon Powershot S1 IS Review: Part 2
Understanding SD Flash Memory Card Speeds
Highly Compatible Kingston USB Card Reader
New Technology to Double Memory Card Capacities
No Comments »
No comments yet.
RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URI
Leave a comment
|
Categories
- No categories
Recent Posts
- Kodak EasyShare C743
- HP Photosmart M437
- NIKON Coolpix S200 silver
- Canon Digital Ixus 70
- SONY Cyber-shot DSC-W35
Related Blogs
E-mail Subscription
