Gear

How to Choose a Digital Camera Memory Card

Choosing Memory Cards For Digital Cameras Can Be Tough. Arm Yourself With Valuable Information.

In 1997, I demonstrated the Minolta DiMAGE V digital camera to Microsoft’s Bill Gates during a closed-door meeting at the Photo Marketing Association trade show. As I recall the event, Mr. Gates wasn’t overly impressed by the $649 VGA-class digital camera, despite its detachable zoom lens. He did hum in amazement, however, while examining the camera’s wafer-thin SSFDC memory card (better known as SmartMedia). “Two megabytes,” he said, and shook his head in a gesture that I took to indicate surprise.

Eight years have passed, digital SLR camera bodies are selling at prices lower than Minolta’s original 0.3-megapixel model, and memory cards of 2 GB and larger are common. A 2 GB digital camera memory card has 1,000 times greater capacity than that SSFDC had. Now, that’s progress!

SmartMedia is still with us today, but new cameras aren’t being designed around the format. Camera makers have followed two separate approaches to the adoption of one type of storage media over another: standardized or proprietary. Companies like Fujifilm, Olympus and Sony follow the proprietary route and produce cameras that use their own type of memory card (although there are exceptions); the other manufacturers have stuck with the standard formats. Each philosophy has its advantages and disadvantages, and each format has its advocates as well as its detractors. All told, four types of memory cards dominate the field for digital camera usage.

Memory Card Types
SecureDigital (SD) is the most popular format. Its small size makes it the card of choice for camera designers and has enabled the development of super-compact models. For most camera applications, it’s fully interchangeable with Multi-MediaCards (MMC), but because MMC doesn’t have exactly the same electronic interface, it can’t be used in certain other handheld devices. If you plan to swap data between a camera and, say, a Palm Pilot, you have to use genuine SD.

CompactFlash (CF) is a favorite in cameras that produce large image files. Available in two physical variations, Type I is 3.3mm thick and usually will function in devices that call for Type II, which is 5mm thick and rarely is seen in consumer-level cameras. Simple, isn’t it? Microdrives are the same size as Type II CF cards, but record images on spinning media instead of flash memory. Because they’re, in fact, miniature hard drives, they require reasonable protection from impact. On the bright side, they often offer higher capacity at a lower price than their solid-state cousins. It’s also possible to use SD cards in CF Type I slots by means of an adapter, so if your D-SLR uses CF, you do have options.

Cameras that use Memory Stick, and the derivatives Memory Stick Pro and Memory Stick Pro Duo, are virtually exclusive to Sony. Shaped like a baby stick of gum, Memory Sticks are a little bit larger than SD cards and, therefore, a bit harder to misplace. In the past, they suffered a bad rap because their maximum capacity lagged behind other formats, but the two largest manufacturers, SanDisk and Sony, appear to have resolved that issue.

The xD-Picture Card is the smallest popular memory card and easily can hide beneath a first-class postage stamp. Newer Fujifilm and Olympus cameras use this card (if you own an older model from these two brands, you may require a SmartMedia card). While the development road map for this format promises higher and higher capacities, they’ve yet to be realized.

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