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buy memory cards
Types of memory card
There are several different type of memory card and none of them are interchangeable. So beware when buying a new digital camera, the replacement may not use the same cards as the old camera.
It is easier to generalise here, most digital SLR cameras use Compact Flash cards because at the moment they can be manufactured with greater capacity and they can transfer data from the camera faster than the alternatives. These are important considerations for camera manufacturers particularly with 10, 12 or more megapixels cameras which produce bigger and bigger images. The physicallly smaller memory cards also allow compact cameras to be , well more compact.
Some digital SLRs use two memory storage cards such as some Olympus models that have a compact flash card and an XD card, this is useful if the photographer happens to own an Olympus compact camera also as the XD card could be used in both cameras.
Memory cards and printers -
If you intend to buy a printer and want to print from the memory card, make sure your choice of printer has a slot for your cameras type of memory card.
Buying advice -
the speed of a digital camera to take a photo save it to the memory card and be ready for the next photo is all decided by the write speed of the memory card. So beware very cheap cards may be slow, look for 40x plus write speeds.
compact flash card
Used by most digital SLR manufacturers with the exception of Nikon D40,D40x,D60
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| XD cards
Used by two manufacturers at the moment Fuji and Olympus
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| SD (Secure Digital) cards
The most popular type of card used by almost all other manufacturers not already mentioned ( except Sony) including these SLR models from Nikon D40,D40x,D60
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| The Sony Memory Stick
As always Sony had to do thing differently and have there own card format which will not fit anything else.
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How many pictures can I fit on a flash card?The file size for one photo depends on a number of different factors: Resolution: The higher the resolution, the bigger the file will be- Take a look at your cameras menu, they often have a file size option of something like "best, high, medium" etc etc. The best being the biggest file size and less number of photographs you can fit on a memory storage device.
- Compression: Your camera might give you the option of choosing a compression format (such as JPEG or TIFF) or taking uncompressed photos. Uncompressed files are the largest, and compression formats vary in size.
- Colors: RGB photos (format for viewing on a monitor) are three times as big as black-and-white photos, and CMYK photos (format for printing) are four times as big as black-and-white.
- Your camera model and the shooting conditions: Each camera gives slightly different results, and you might even get a different number of photos per card depending on the subject you are shooting and the current light conditions. Taking those factors into consideration, the following charts can give you some general guidelines for how many pictures average users can fit on various sizes of flash cards
By default, most digital cameras will use their highest possible resolution with best possible image quality. While this produces the best possible photos, it also means each image takes up more space on the flash memory card, decreasing the number of images you can save on your card.
8 megapixel camera (3264 x 2448)
File size: 4.2MB | Card size | Number of photos | | 128MB | 29 | | 256MB | 58 | | 512MB | 116 | | 1GB | 232 | | 2GB | 464 | | 4GB | 929 |
7 megapixel camera (3056 x 2296)
File size: 3.7MB| Card size | Number of photos | | 128MB | 33 | | 256MB | 66 | | 512MB | 132 | | 1GB | 264 | | 2GB | 527 | | 4GB | 1054 |
6 megapixel camera (2848 x 2136)
File size: 3.2MB | Card size | Number of photos | | 128MB | 38 | | 256MB | 76 | | 512MB | 152 | | 1GB | 305 | | 2GB | 610 | | 4GB | 1219 |
5 megapixel camera (2,592 x 1,944)
File size: 2.5MB| Card size | Number of photos | | 128MB | 49 | | 256MB | 98 | | 512MB | 195 | | 1GB | 390 | | 2GB | 780 | | 4GB | 1560 |
Portable storage devices -
If you travel a lot and have no means of either downloading your photos to computer or disc, then considerbuying a portable hard drive with a memory card slot. You simply charge your device, put your memory card in the appropraite slot and press a button to transfer you photos to the hard drive, making your memory card available for use once more. Dont forget to make sure the portable hard drive accepts your type of memory card. If your not sure remove the card from your camera, and like the examples above it will usually tell you if its an SD card or otherwise. Also look for a screen so you can see that your photos are on the device.
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