Memory Cards Guide
A memory card or flash memory card is a solid-state electronic flash memory device used with digital cameras, and other electronics for easy, fast and reliable storing and transferring digital files. They offer high re-recordability, power-free storage, small form factor, and rugged environmental specifications. The main advantages of a memory card over a portable hard disk drive are its flash memory technology, much smaller form factor and solid state.
A great variety of memory card types and manufacturers available today may confuse a common customer. There are three main facts to consider, when shopping for a memory card:
- storage capacity
- transfer speeds
- compatibility (digital camera defines the type of your memory device).
Let’s take a closer look at the most popular flash memory card formats for use in digital cameras.
- Secure Digital Cards (SD). It is probably the most popular flash memory format for digital cameras this year. Their storage capacity ranges from 16MB up to 4GB and they mostly offer ~2Mb/s speed. Though, there are also SD cards capable of 20Mb/s, which are usually marked with “High Speed” or “Ultra High Speed”.
- Compact Flash Cards (CF). It is another common format used in digital cameras. There are two kinds of CF cards: Type I and Type II. The max storage capacity of the Type I is 256 MB, while the Type II is capable of up to 1GB (and probably 2GB). There are also CF cards available with over 2 GB capacity, but not every digital camera will be able to read them. The plus of a CF card is that this format is supported by most digital camera manufacturers, such as Canon, Nikon, Casio, Minolta and HP.
- Memory Stick (MS). This type of memory cards was designed by Sony, and today all Sony products can use this format. They can store up to 128MB. There are also several varieties of Memory Stick cards, the MS Selection, which offers 256 MB of storage and MS Pro with the capacity of up to 2GB and a transfer speed of up to 15 Mbps. The latter is compatible only with digital cameras produced after 2003. There is also an MS DUO, which is 1/2 the size of regular Memory Stick cards and which requires an adapter to transfer data in a card reader or Memory Stick card slot.
- XD Flash Memory Cards (xD). Developed by Olympus and Fujifilm, these ultra compact cards are the most recent and most advanced memory devices that offer up to 2 MB of storage capacity. They are compatibility with different digital camera brands, and their prices are comparable to current SmartMedia cards.
- SmartMedia Cards (SM). These cards have max capacity of 128MB, but they have no controller. So when buying a SM card for your digital camera made before 2001, check to see if your camera can accomodate it.
These are only the most common types of memory cards currently available on the market and used by digital camera manufacturers. Overall, there exists more than a dozen of memory card formats today, and they are often not compatible with each other. More information:
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