Digital Camera Cards

How to Choose a Digital Camera Cards

Executive Summary about Digital Camera Cards By Kristine Knight & Victor Epand

Selecting memory cards for digital cameras can be tough. The quality and number of images depends on the type and size of digital camera memory cards you choose.

Capacity

Digital cameras store images on thin, stamp-size memory cards. How large a digital camera cards you need depends on how many megapixels your camera has and whether you’re shooting RAW or JPEG.

You need a high-capacity digital camera cards to store a reasonable number of images. Cards are relatively inexpensive. Small cards, such as 512 MB, should be used only for low megapixel cameras and JPEG files.

You need to buy the right type of card for your camera. If it did come with a card, that card is likely way too small. Cards do have speed ratings that indicate how fast they can store and retrieve data, but only the high-end pro cameras can really support the fastest cards.

Speed writing

The other difference is in the read write speed. The higher the read write speed, the faster your cards will offload onto your CPU, as well as write to your camera (allowing less time to get ready for additional photographs).

The fastest I have seen so far is 80 xs. Through a USB port, a 1g memory card takes about 10-15 min to offload at this (80x) speed. It also supports the IBM micro drive, but I would stay with the SanDisk ultra II which is rated perhaps the fastest compact flash card available. I’d opt for at least a l gig card which will give you about 160 Raw images with a small jpeg imbedded. You should be very happy with the purchase.

Cards type

If you are going to do model shots then you must get a Digital SLR because other types have a shutter lag (that means that the moment you press the shutter the camera takes 1/2 - 1 second to actually take the image). You can consider canon , Nikon , or pentax for this.

A D50 or Canon Rebel would work. I use and prefer compact flash memory cards as they are lots less expensive than SD memory. Megapixels are a measure more of the initial image capture file size. Once you pump the image through Photoshop you make the corrections and adjustments for whatever you are going to do

Other Memory Card Tips

- If you transfer lots of images to your computer, purchase a card reader. These will allow you to transfer the images to your computer at a much faster rate than using your camera’s connection.

- Contrary to popular opinion, airport x-ray machines will not damage your camera’s memory cards. If you’re really worried, remove them from your bag and ask the screeners to inspect manually.

- Turn off your camera when inserting or removing memory cards. Taking the memory card out while the camera is writing to the card could wreck both your card and camera