A memory card is an essential accessory for your digital camera or camcorder. In short, you wont be able to live without one or several given that even if your camera comes with onboard storage or a free card, its likely to hold no more than a few images. As long as you purchase the right type of memory card for your device, youll be able to record and store hundreds or thousands of photos and video clips without having to worry about running out of space. Your memory card can also influence the speed at which your digital camera or camcorder works.
You might have noticed that there are
SD cards and SDHC cards, and then you have other formats such as XD, MMC, CompactFlash and Memory Sticks. So with all these different parameters to keep track of, how can you be sure that youre buying a memory card that suits both your photographic equipment and your needs? Here are some tips to help you clear up the confusion:
Pick a card type
Most digital cameras on sale these days take SD or SDHC cards, apart from some of the high-end dSLRs, which use CompactFlash cards. SDHC cards have a far greater capacity than SDs, and can hold from 4GB to 32GB of data, while an SD can store a maximum of 4GB. There are also
MicroSD and MiniSD cards that work with cellular phones and other portable devices, although some camera models take them too and they are usually supplied with an adaptor that makes them fit into a standard SD/SDHC slot anyway. The other formats are less common nowadays, but seeing how many different card varieties there are you should always check your user manual before buying one.
Check the speed
For each variety of memory card there is a different set of classifications to denote the speed they work at. As you can imagine, this can get pretty complicated given the number of card types on the market. Since most people who own recent model digital cameras will be looking for SDHC cards, well use SDHCs as an example here. If you require a different kind of memory card, check your manual or refer to the manufacturers website before making a purchase.
Each SDHC card shows its class on the front. A class 2 card transfers data at a minimum speed of 2MB a second, while a class 4 will work no slower than 4MB/second. There are also class 6 and class 10 cards that operate at corresponding MB/second speeds. As above, you need to read your owners manual to see which class the manufacturer recommends. For example, although you can, in theory, record HD video onto most class 4 cards, some cameras and camcorders wont co-operate unless you insert a card thats class 6 or above. That said, a class 4 SDHC card is usually perfectly adequate for taking photographs with a pocket-sized digital camera. If you use a dSLR camera, shoot HD video at 1080i or higher, or use high-speed burst mode to take a rapid sequence of photos, you will need a class 6 or even class 10 memory card, though.
Figure out how much storage capacity you need
SDHC cards start at 4GB of storage space, and go up to 32GB. Since theyre not very expensive, especially if you buy them from an online electronic products site, you should consider getting a few cards rather than just a single large one. That way if you misplace one of your memory cards you wont be losing all your photos and videos. As a rough guide, you should be able to fit 1000 JPEG images on a 4GB SDHC card if you have a 10-megapixel camera. If you use a 12-MP camera your photos will have higher resolution, so your 4GB card will only hold around 810 of them.
If you plan to shoot video youll need at least a class 6 card with 8GB of storage. Depending on the compression codec used (and there are many), an
8GB class 6 card should hold around 90 minutes of 1080p HD video. Youll be able to put more than two hours of video on the card if you film in the more common 720p quality, and a lot longer than that if you use VGA/standard definition.
