Taking A Look At A New Generation Of Digital Memory Cards
In this article, I would like to address the Memory Card used in today's cameras.
The de facto standard these days is the SD memory card.
This stands for Secure Digital.
SD cards are endorsed by most of the worlds electronics producers, and increasingly, in digital cameras.
Not so long ago, there were a number of competing standards, with Sony in particular trying to push their Memory Stick format.
However, the SD format has really won the day, and even most Sony cameras now support SD cards.
Not long ago, the capacity of these cards was quite limited by the then technology.
Cards were measured in Megabytes, for instance, 256 Megabyte cards.
Just a few short years ago, a 512 Megabyte card was considered fairly big.
But as the technology progressed, so did the capacity of the memory cards.
Today, a 1 Gigabyte card is considered small.
It is not uncommon now to use cards between 2 and 4 Gigabytes.
And, the cost of these cards has dropped significantly.
In fact, SD cards are now available up to 32 Gigabytes.
Wow.
That is a lot of memory for a digital camera.
The standard SD format tops out at 32 Gig, while a newer SDHC or Secure Digital High Capacity, card tops out at 64 Gig.
At that capacity, you can take a lot of digital photos, or hours of High Def video on just one card.
But, technology doe not rest.
We now have a new SD card format, the SDXC or Secure Digital Xtreme Capacity.
This new version will allow cards to have a capacity of up to 2TB, yes, 2 Terabytes!!! Wow.
Amazing.
A card of that size will allow you to make a feature length High Def movie all on the one card.
Or perhaps a hundred thousand still images, or maybe a few years worth of music.
But, one of the main concerns will still be your need to back-up and properly treat and store these cards.
If you were to take a few thousand photos on one of these cards, and then have the card become corrupt and lose all those images, can you image the angst you will suffer.
So, even with these new capabilities, it is more important than ever to treat them right.
Firstly, make sure you have a case to store these cards away from any harsh environments, especially liquid environments.
Also, I would suggest that you not purchase a single large card, but rather several smaller ones.
This will help to ensure that if you have a failure of a card, you will have another card with at least some of the same information or photos from the same event.
I would not want to be the photographer, who shoots an entire wedding on one SDHC card, and then has to tell the bride that the memory card is corrupt and all the images of her special day are lost.
For that reason, here are some important requirements you should master before shooting any special event.
1.
For any memory card, make sure that the camera supports the card capacity format.
In other words, if you would like to purchase a high performance SDHC card, make sure that your camera supports the SDHC format.
2.
Always format the memory card in the camera, not on the computer.
It is always advisable to format the card you are about to use in the same camera you will be using.
Especially important to be sure that if the card was used in another camera, that it be formatted first in the camera you will be using to take photos.
This will ensure that the card is properly formatted.
If there is a problem on the card, the problem will usually surface when you try to format the card in the camera.
Sometimes, it may be possible for the computer to format a card, and not detect problems that may surface when used in the camera.
3.
Always format the memory card before each event.
After you have securely backed up all the files of course.
Formatting before each event will maximize the reliability of the card.
The new SDXC format is now just becoming available.
It is important to realize that this new format is only supported by a handful of new cameras just now becoming available.
So, do not buy more that you need.
If you were to try and put a SDXC card into a SDHC device, the unit will ask if you want to format the card.
Doing so could ruin a valuable memory card and make it unusable for future use.
And lastly, always take along several memory cards, and switch them out during the event, so that not all the photos you take are on the one card.
This will help ensure that you always have at least some images if the worst were to happen.
The de facto standard these days is the SD memory card.
This stands for Secure Digital.
SD cards are endorsed by most of the worlds electronics producers, and increasingly, in digital cameras.
Not so long ago, there were a number of competing standards, with Sony in particular trying to push their Memory Stick format.
However, the SD format has really won the day, and even most Sony cameras now support SD cards.
Not long ago, the capacity of these cards was quite limited by the then technology.
Cards were measured in Megabytes, for instance, 256 Megabyte cards.
Just a few short years ago, a 512 Megabyte card was considered fairly big.
But as the technology progressed, so did the capacity of the memory cards.
Today, a 1 Gigabyte card is considered small.
It is not uncommon now to use cards between 2 and 4 Gigabytes.
And, the cost of these cards has dropped significantly.
In fact, SD cards are now available up to 32 Gigabytes.
Wow.
That is a lot of memory for a digital camera.
The standard SD format tops out at 32 Gig, while a newer SDHC or Secure Digital High Capacity, card tops out at 64 Gig.
At that capacity, you can take a lot of digital photos, or hours of High Def video on just one card.
But, technology doe not rest.
We now have a new SD card format, the SDXC or Secure Digital Xtreme Capacity.
This new version will allow cards to have a capacity of up to 2TB, yes, 2 Terabytes!!! Wow.
Amazing.
A card of that size will allow you to make a feature length High Def movie all on the one card.
Or perhaps a hundred thousand still images, or maybe a few years worth of music.
But, one of the main concerns will still be your need to back-up and properly treat and store these cards.
If you were to take a few thousand photos on one of these cards, and then have the card become corrupt and lose all those images, can you image the angst you will suffer.
So, even with these new capabilities, it is more important than ever to treat them right.
Firstly, make sure you have a case to store these cards away from any harsh environments, especially liquid environments.
Also, I would suggest that you not purchase a single large card, but rather several smaller ones.
This will help to ensure that if you have a failure of a card, you will have another card with at least some of the same information or photos from the same event.
I would not want to be the photographer, who shoots an entire wedding on one SDHC card, and then has to tell the bride that the memory card is corrupt and all the images of her special day are lost.
For that reason, here are some important requirements you should master before shooting any special event.
1.
For any memory card, make sure that the camera supports the card capacity format.
In other words, if you would like to purchase a high performance SDHC card, make sure that your camera supports the SDHC format.
2.
Always format the memory card in the camera, not on the computer.
It is always advisable to format the card you are about to use in the same camera you will be using.
Especially important to be sure that if the card was used in another camera, that it be formatted first in the camera you will be using to take photos.
This will ensure that the card is properly formatted.
If there is a problem on the card, the problem will usually surface when you try to format the card in the camera.
Sometimes, it may be possible for the computer to format a card, and not detect problems that may surface when used in the camera.
3.
Always format the memory card before each event.
After you have securely backed up all the files of course.
Formatting before each event will maximize the reliability of the card.
The new SDXC format is now just becoming available.
It is important to realize that this new format is only supported by a handful of new cameras just now becoming available.
So, do not buy more that you need.
If you were to try and put a SDXC card into a SDHC device, the unit will ask if you want to format the card.
Doing so could ruin a valuable memory card and make it unusable for future use.
And lastly, always take along several memory cards, and switch them out during the event, so that not all the photos you take are on the one card.
This will help ensure that you always have at least some images if the worst were to happen.