Shooting with a digital camera is becoming easier to easier, but many cameras have different storage capabilities for these pictures. Understanding the different formats can help you choose your next camera and the best memory to purchase. Understanding the memory cards can also help with data conversion and uses of the memory cards in other products.
Compact Flash Card
The Compact Flash Card or the CF card is one of the biggest camera memory cards. This card originated for use in holding large amounts of data and is commonly found in larger cameras like the Canon Rebel XT. The card features over a dozen pin holes that connects to the card reader in order to process information.
Secure Digital Card
One of the most commonly found camera memory cards is the Secure Digital card, commonly referred to as the SD card. The SD card can be found in Canon, Panasonic, Kodak and Nikon cameras, among others. It is convenient for its small size and storage. The SD card is so popular that other electronics use it, such as the Nintendo Wii and Video Cameras. The card is shaped like a rectangle with one of the corners slanted. The bottom side features 9 gold areas used for data downloading and uploading. SD cards are commonly blue in color as well.
Memory Stick
Sony camera users have to use their patented Memory Stick. The Memory Stick has many different forms, including the Memory Stick Duo, Pro and original memory stick. They look a lot like an SD card, except they are longer in size and used with Sony digital cameras, video cameras and other Sony electronics like the Sony PSP.
XD Cards
Like Sony's memory stick, the XD card is exclusive to the Fujifilm Company. XD cards are about half the size of the SD card and are pretty much obsolete, except those found in older cameras. Fujifilm has begun replacing their cameras with SD slots instead, but multiple card readers can still read XD cards and some manufactured cameras can use them.
Size
Camera memory cards should always be kept in the camera because of their small size. Even though all types of cards may look the same, the insides can be vastly different. A high speed camera memory card will provide faster picture data to the card and allow you to snap more pictures quickly. The amount of the pictures stored on these cards depends on the mega pixels of your camera, but a multiple gig card should easily hold over 500 pictures.
Tags: memory cards, Memory Stick, camera memory, camera memory cards, commonly found, Compact Flash, Compact Flash Card