Where Does the "FILM" go? |
The most common types today are:
Compact Flash, Memory Stick (Sony only), Smart Media, XD and SD.
Compact Flash is by far the most commonly used among major manufacturers, although the newer SD cards are becoming increasingly popular as cameras tend to get smaller and smaller.
One great advantage all these types of media have over film is that they are not subject to X ray examination. So traveling with them is a lot less troublesome than traveling with film - which can easily be fogged if your film must go through security equipment at the airport.
In fact, digital media generally is very durable. I've known more than one person who's accidentally put a Compact Flash card through their washer and dryer and discovered that it suffered no damage whatsoever and that the images stored on it were still intact. Try THAT with a roll of film!
Another great thing about digital media is that it's so small when compared to the amount of traditional film it can replace. One 512 MB card, for example - if you're shooting with a 5 MP digital camera - can replace more than 8 24-exposure rolls of film!
And, of course, it's reusable. Once you've downloaded your pictures to the computer or stored them on a CD or DVD, you simply put the card back in the camera and erase all the images. It's also a good idea to "format" the card every now and then. I do this about every two weeks. Think of formattting the card as being something like de-fragging the hard drive on your computer. It puts everything back in order and refreshes the computer's little "brain."
STORAGE CAPACITY
Most new compact digital cameras come from the manufacturer with a small "trial-size" card. Higher end SLRs generally do not.
Cards can have a storage capacity of 8 megapixels, 16, 32, 64, 128, 256, 512 etc. - all the way up to several gigabytes.
The question I hear quite often is "How big a card do I need?" And the answer is - "It depends."
My preference is to have a couple of cards - in my case, two 1 gigabyte cards, which give me a total capacity of about 600 images when I'm shooting at my usual quality setting of "High JPG."
A couple of years ago we thought that one 512 megabyte card was plenty for anyone shooting with a compact camera. But the growing popularity of compacts that can also shoot video makes the need for more storage even greater. Video clips eat up a lot of memory - fast! And the size of your card determines how much video you can shoot.
So buy big! The cost of these cards has plummeted recently and will probably continue to drop.
Another good reason to carry more than one card is that if you lose one, or a card gets corrupted, you'll have another one to use.
When it comes to brands I have two suggestions: Lexar and SanDisk - the ones used by most professionals. Sandisk is what I use, and I particularly like the Extreme III SanDisk cards because they come with a mini CD containing image recovery software. In most cases - if your card gets damaged (or just confused ...) - you can recover a lot of the information you may have thought was lost forever. I know it's saved me several times!
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