Are You Using The Best Type Of Memory Card?
I’m sure you’ve seen SD, CF and SDHC mentioned before. Do you know what these letters actually mean? There is a great article on Craftsy about the most important things to consider when selecting a memory card for your DSLR.
Here are the specs you need to keep in mind when selecting a memory card.
Format
First, you need to find out what kind of card your camera uses. The two important formats are Secure Digital (SD) and Compact Flash (CF). Most cameras use a version of SD cards, either plain old SD, SDHC or SDXC. SDHC stands for High Capacity—meaning between 2 and 32 Gigabytes. The SDXC allows an even higher capacity in the same size card—up to 2 Terabytes. Compact Flash cards are much bigger in physical size and, these days, are typically only used in higher-end cameras and video cameras.
Memory size on the card
Depending on the capacity of the card you could hold a few dozen images or a few thousand images. If I’m photographing something important, I prefer to use several smaller cards. On the outside chance one of the cards becomes corrupt, I won’t lose ALL of my images. 8GB cards hold about 300 images for my camera. Every 300 or so images I’ll change cards.
Speed
Cards are assigned a class based on their write speeds, either 2, 4, 6 or 10. Class 10 cards are able to write at least 10 MB/sec, while Class 6 cards can write at least 6 MB/sec. In addition to the class, memory cards will have a speed rating. This is the maximum write speed. Some are 30 MB/sec and some are 45 MB/sec, etc. The faster your card can write data, the more photos you can take in a row, and the higher definition of video you can continuously record.
Read the full article to get all the information you need for choosing a memory card.
Source: Craftsy
