AN INTRODUCTION TO DIGITAL STORAGE MEDIA


Digital camera memory is an essential and often overlooked piece of digital photography equipment. There are many types of memory and it's a good idea to consider what type of memory a camera uses before you buy your first digital camera. It's also important to make sure you have enough memory before you take pictures of an important event or leave for vacation. Although memory cards are reusable, they don't have a limitless capacity and it's always good to have more than you actually need.

Most digital cameras come with very low capacity memory cards. If you're shopping for your first digital camera be sure to budget for an additional card. It's a safe bet that the card that comes with your camera will be inadequate. With the larger resolutions of most cameras today,  higher capacity memory cards become a necessity.

Most camera manufacturers publish tables on their Web sites and in their camera manuals to show how many images you can save on their included memory card. There’s no fixed rule for the number of photos you can put on one card because different image file types, different amounts of compression, and image content all affect the size of each file. But the manufacturer's site is a good place to start when you decide how much memory you want.

Depending on the megapixel resolution of your camera, you should purchase at least a couple of 1 or 2 GB memory cards. It's also a good idea to not save all of your photos on one card. Also, you should not regularly use extra large 32-64 GB cards. There's always the possibility that cards can get corrupted, lost, or stolen. Using more than one and switching during a shoot protects your valuable photographic data.

The camera manufacturer determines the type of media card each camera uses. So the only thing you have to consider is which size and brand to buy. All brands of media cards are good, and all are made by third-party manufacturers, even if you see cards with the name of a camera manufacturer on them.

As for size, you’ll ideally want to purchase several cards of different sizes. DO NOT purchase one very large card and think that will do the trick. As mentioned above, they can fail at any moment, and when one of the big ones fails, that usually a photographic disaster. Consult the chart in your camera manual to see how many photo files each size will hold at your maximum resolution.

Types of Media Cards
The following are the most popular media cards that camera manufacturers use in their cameras:

Secure Digital Cards
Secure Digital cards are the most popular card in use today. The come with a built-in switch with which you can manually lock your card.

xD Picture Cards
Introduced by Olympus and Fuji in 2002, the xD Picture card is used mostly in Olympus digital cameras. It's tiny size, just 0.97" x 0.98" x 0.67," means it can be used in very small cameras. Since it was developed and introduced by Olymous and Fuji, most current compact digital cameras from those manufacturers use the xD Picture Card media.

Sony Memory Stick
Memory Stick was developed by Sony for their CyberShot digital cameras. With the exception of a very few cameras, Memory Stick is only compatible with Sony digital cameras. That means if you have Memory Stick media for a camera and you decide to buy another brand of camera, the Memory Stick cards you own are not likely to work with the new camera. On the other hand, if you own other Sony devices, there might be benefits to owning Memory Stick. Sony MP3 players, PDA's and selected Sony Vaio computers also accept Memory Stick media.

Card Readers
Next to connecting your camera directly to your computer via USB cable, card readers are the most efficient way to download your digital photo files and a highly recommended digital camera accessory. Card readers plug into your computer via one of its USB ports and allow you to transfer your files without using your camera's batteries or dealing with cables. You install the card reader as you would any other USB device and plug the card into the reader when you want to transfer your images. The memory card will show up on your computer as a separate, removable drive when it's plugged into the reader. Card readers are available in inexpensive internal and external models with USB connections. However, avoid buying a multi-card reader since they can be unreliable. Instead, stick with a single-type card reader.