How About Memory Cards?
While there are many varieties of memory cards, there are four basic types of memory cards that are used in digital cameras; CompactFlash, Secure Digital, Memory Stick, and xD-Picture cards. While the first two are the most commonly found, I will examine all four types.
CompactFlash
CF is a mass storage device that is popular for storage in digital cameras. There are generally two varieties. The thinner (3.3 mm) flash only based Type I drives which are available up to 100 GB, and the thicker (5.0 mm) mostly Microdrive based Type II drives which are available to 12 GB.
Secure Digital
SD is a non-volatile memory card format that was developed by Matsusita, ScanDisk, and Toshiba for use in portable devices. Standard SD Cards can hold between 1 MB to 2 GB. High Capacity card begin at 4 GB and go to 32 GB, and a new SDXC has been announced that could allow for up to 2 TB.
Memory Stick:
Memory Stick
Memory Stick is a removable flash card format from Sony and is used to describe the whole family of Memory Sticks. While the Memory Stick Pro has a theoretical size of 2 TB, the largest currently available is 16 GB. The Memory Stick is used with Sony products.
xD-Picture Card:
xD-Picture Card
xD-Picture Card is a type of flash memory card used in digital cameras. This memory was developed for use by Olympus and Fujifilm. xD cards are now sold under other brands including Kodak. Most of the original players that used the xD are moving away in favor of the SD type of memory.
The type of card that you will use is dictated by the kind of camera that you purchase. DSLR’s tend to use the CompactFlash card whereas the smaller compact computers many times use the SD style of memory.
The question arises on should you have more, smaller size cards, or fewer, larger sized cards. First the question becomes how many pictures do you take at one time and what format do you shoot in JPEG, RAW, or both? I will go into these differences in a later article.
For the sake of argument let’s say that you have a 12 MP camera and you shoot in JPEG. A 1GB card will hold 200 images, a 2 GB card 400, and a 4 GB card 800. My recommendation would be for more, smaller cards. The reasoning is that in shooting in JPEG, these are mostly family photos and chances are that at the birthday party you won’t be taking more than 200 images and in case the day after the birthday, you are going to your child’s recital and may not have the time to process the party before the recital. You can leave the party pic’s at home and take a new card for the recital.
The other reason is that although these cards are reliable, they sometimes can get corrupt and by having multiple cards you eliminate the potential for lost images. The same goes for the camera being stolen, or losing the memory card. To reduce your risk for corruption, never fill the drive completely. You should always leave at least two or three images unused on the memory card.
The other thing is that once you have secured your images from your card and are ready to reuse the card, you want to reformat the card in your camera. Never format it in the computer or another camera. It is also my philosophy that I reformat my cards twice in the camera. I do this to make sure no ghost remnants remain on the drive
Return to “Where Do I Start”
- Video Training Review – Rick Sammon’s Canon EOS Digital Rebel Personal Training DVD With Rick Sammon
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- Book Review: Mastering Digital SLR Photography by David Bush
- Light: Science and Magic – Introduction to Photographic Lighting Third edition by Fil Hunter, Steven Biver, and Paul Fuqua
