Which memory card for your camera?

There has been more response to my recent picture posts of the SuperMoon. (Yes, I got ‘Moon Fever’ and took far too many shots over too long a time). As I mentioned in previous articles, this is the beauty of Digital. I simply picked the ones I wanted to keep and blitzed the rest.

I featured my DSLR which is a Sony SLT A-77. I didn’t really go into that much detail about it, and supplied some useful links instead. One of the most asked questions was ‘what sort and size of memory card’ did I use? Well, I could write about 6 A4 pages on probably just one type of card for this topic, and knowing that the average person like me, who is not a professional photographer simply needs something that stores a lot of photo’s for a reasonable price, I’ll try to do this fairly succinctly.

But what about all those specs printed on the cards? ‘Extreme, SD, SDHC, SDXC, UHS-1, CLASS XX, XXmbs’ etc. What does it all mean? Hopefully, in a quick an concise way, I can help you make a more informed decision about your next card purchase.

Lets get the abbreviations out of the way first:

SD = Secure Digital, SDHC = Secure Digital High Capacity, SDXC = Secure Digital Extra Capacity, UHS = Ultra High Speed, which is the latest Pro-spec. I would also recommend you go to a site such as Wikipedia.com for explanations in detail as well as information on types of file formats such as JPEG and RAW and whether you need to use them or not, and consult your camera manual to see what its capable of. If you have a run-of the mill digital camera, you wont need to research all the top end stuff, and you will find some good capacity cards around at very good prices.

So what do you need to look for in a memory card?:

PHYSICAL APPEARANCE

Hmmmm, didnt think of that one? Well dont worry, lots of people have never taken their card out of their camera to know the difference. Look at this comparison between the many physical formats of memory cards:

• CompactFlash (CF, CFast)
• Express Card
• JEIDA
• MultiMediaCard (MMC)
• Memory Stick (MS, MS-PRO, MS-PRO HG, MS-XC)
• miCard
• Microdrive (MD)
• MiniCard
• P2 (MicroP2)
• PC Card (PCMCIA, CardBus, CardBay)
• Secure Digital (SDSC, SDHC, SDXC)
• SmartMedia (SM)
• SxS
• Universal Flash Storage (UFS)
• USB
• xD-Picture
• XQD

Not much to think about there then(!) Open you cameras memory card bay and take a peek, or see the manual.

STORAGE CAPACITY

Storage and as much of it as you could afford comes to mind first.  This will vary depend on the resolution of the photo settings in your camera. E.g. a low resolution JPEG will be a relatively small file, up to high resolution RAW images which are very large. These obviously take up more space so logically you will fit many more JPEG’s than RAW files on your card. Visit any of the card manufacturers sites and you will usually be able to find a table which explains how many shots a given size Gb (Gigabytes=1000 megabytes) card will hold. They may even have a table which shows your camera’s memory card specifications and how it matches their/your card. Your own camera’s manual should give information on what file formats your camera uses. It will probably give you an indication of how many pictures per Gb it can store. There may be restrictions with your camera as to how big a memory card it can handle overall. The largest cards out at the moment are around 64Gb. At approx $280 per card for the highest specifications, its an investment you need to be sure about. Check and double check your cameras abilities before buying.

WRITE SPEED

Each card whether its 8Gb or 16Gb etc. will have a Write Speed specification. These range from 1 or 2Mbs (Mega Bits per Second) data transfer speed. This basically means, once you have taken a photo, how long does it take the camera to write all those zeros and ones to the card?. In day to day photography, where you take the occasional landscape or family photo etc. you may not need to worry too much about this particular specification. If you take multi-burst shots for sports or trying to capture action on the other hand, you may need to look at the highest Write Speed you can afford.

CLASS

This is one of the more confusing ratings on memory cards. It doesn’t particularly refer to the storage or write speed of a particular card. It actually relates to the Video streaming specification of your card. If you think about it, a photo is a box full of zeros and ones and can be written all at once as fast as your cards write speed. Video on the other hand, needs to write continuously to your card, so speed here is a minor consideration but getting all those zeros and ones onto the card with no mistakes means that Video will not need to write fast, but keep ticking over. The different classes of cards will relate to different Video settings. Where the higher classes come into their own, is in relation to data transfer to a computer. The higher the Class, the faster the card will transfer its contents to a computer. See the YouTube video below for a great demonstration from explainingcomputers.com.

Once again, do your homework on your particular camera and see what its capable of. Then match this to a card with the best specifications and of course one you can afford.

So another big question about to be answered; what did I use in my camera? Well, basically my camera is capable of handling the highest spec cards available – the UHS-1. I researched and found a Sandisk Extreme Pro 32Gb (storage) 95Mbs (write-speed) Class10 UHS-1 was just the trick (wow, what a mouthfull!). I wont even go into how many photos in JPEG it can store (massive) as I shoot almost exclusively in the RAW format. I have yet to fill a card after weeks of taking heaps of shots!. This is also a great format for post-editing, and is able to remember all the changes so down the track you can restore the photo right back to the original shot. More on Wikipedia.com on RAW format.

At the moment you can get a UHS-1 32Gb 95Mbs for $115 on Ebay. Which is a bit strange because the 64Gb cards are around $280. Normally you would expect the larger capacity to be at some sort of discount than half capacity cards x 2!. (So I bought 2 for $230). Bargains can be found as long as you are prepared to do the finger work!

Someone said to me, ‘Dont buy more cards!. Download on to your PC or laptop then wipe the card and start again!’. This is all well and good, but when I'’m out and about I wont necessarily have my Laptop and definately not my PC. If I do take a heap of snaps, all I would like to do is reach into my camera bag for another storage option.

Cheers for now

Got any more questions on cards, cameras, file formats? Email Me

Here’s a fantastic explanation of current SD card formats and ratings. I loved the pure GEEK in the presenters costume and makeup. At least…. I hope it’s costume and makup!…..

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