Digital Camera Memory Card Reviews

Today’s cellular phones and digital camera possess an overlapping characteristic between them: they can both take pictures! The similarity between the two e-gadgets does not end there; it literally goes a little deeper inside in the attachment called the digital camera memory card!

The camera memory card is where you store the images (and videos) until you can transfer them to your computer. There are different types of digital camera memory cards such as the CompactFlash (CF), Memory Stick (MS), MultiMediaCard (MMC), Secure Digital (SD), SmartMedia (SM) and xD-Picture Card (xD). The newest type of card is the Secure Digital High Capacity (SDHC) card.

It was only recently that the storage capacities of cards have gone beyond the 1GB mark. A 1GB memory card used to be enough for amateur photographers however, the advancement in optics, digital technology and the encroachment of cellular phones into the field of digital photography, digital camera memory card capacity now boasts of storage capacities that used to be the domain of hard drives!

Transcend’s 32 GB SDHC Class 6 Flash Memory Card TS32GSDHC6, which retails for $97.25 sits at the top of the heap of SDHC because customers rate it highly ahead of the others due to the affordable price and high capacity combination. The only drawback reported on the product is that older SD cameras, phones and card readers may not accept the new 32GB SDHC digital camera cards. However, the card is also available in lower capacity configurations, which means lower prices as well and backward compatibility with older products.

Olympus and Fuji are the only two manufacturers that use the xD card, which has a smaller form factor at 25mm x 20mm. There are three variants of xD cards, the standard, and the M and H versions. The M and H versions have bigger storage capacities while the H version has native high speed transfer capability making it suitable for high speed photography.

Rated highly by consumers is the Olympus M 2 GB xD-Picture Card Flash Card 202170 available at most online stores for $14.95. With native support for the panorama function of most Olympus cameras, the card can also be used in non-xD compatible devices because of multi-function card adapters designed for the card. However, its main drawback is that it can only shoot 10 seconds of video! If pictures and video are your game, then the newer (and more expensive) Type H card is the one you want.

Sony on the other hand uses its own type of camera card, the Memory Stick. There are two versions of Sony’s Memory Stick, the original Memory Stick in 50mm x 20mm form factor and the newer, smaller and thinner Memory Stick DUO with a form factor of 30mm x 20mm. The new version is now the memory card of choice for Sony’s new line of digital cameras.

The Lexar Platinum II 8 GB Memory Stick Pro Duo Flash Memory Card is hailed as a highly compatible replacement for Sony-made digital camera memory cards and sells for a lower price of $26.87. Lexar’s version works without a hitch in a variety of applications, Sony MP3 players, video cameras, televisions, and computers with a Memory Stick PRO Duo slot and ideally suited for Sony Ericsson mobile phones.

Rounding out the lineup is the large CompactFlash card, measuring 42mm x 36mm. The CF card is used in only a select few of today’s most advanced digital cameras.

Kingston’s Elite Pro 32 GB 133x CompactFlash Memory Card CF/32GB-S2 priced at $78.95 is the most popular and in-demand CF digital camera memory card in the market. Professional photographers prefer and recommend the Kingston Elite Pro CF card because of its fast minimum sustained write speed of 133X.

The type of camera you own and the resolution of the lens as measured in megapixels dictate the type and storage capacity of digital cards you use. One drawback of digital camera cards is that they are not interchangeable due to differences in physical properties and size. The number of images and photos you can store in a card is dependent on the camera’s lens resolution as measured in megapixels.

The higher the megapixel rating of the camera lens, the lower the number of images you can store. Majority of digital cameras are compatible with only one type of memory card however, there are camera models compatible with two or more types of memory card.

The most widely used digital camera memory card is the SDHC card because of its small size (approximately 30mm x 22mm). The SD card is commonly found in Canon, Casio, Kodak, Nikon, Panasonic and Pentax digital cameras.