There are so many different types of Digital Memory Cards on the market, what are the choices?
Whether you're just about to purchase a digital camera or maybe even a digital photo frame or digital camcorder, what types of digital camera memory cards are on the market, and is one better than another?
There are several different types of digital memory cards on the market. The type of memory card you'll need is determined by which digital camera, digital photo frame, digital music player, or digital camcorder you buy and the type of digital card that particular device uses. The first thing to know is that the market for types of digital memory devices is changing rapidly, as is their storage capacity size.
Memory card types
The most common types of memory cards are: CompactFlash, SmartMedia, Memory Stick, MultiMediaCard, SD memory card (Secure Digital) and xD-Picture Card.
The removable digital memory cards are inserted into the digital device and used for different purposes. For a digital camera or digital camcorder, you can take pictures until the digital memory card is full, then remove it and replace it with another card or download the digital photos and digital video to a computer to edit and store. No matter what digital camera or digital camcorder you have, make sure you have more than one digital memory card. Read more on this in the article “What is the Right Digital Camera Memory Card Size for you?”
With the digital picture frame, you can load your important digital pictures onto the digital memory card, and then insert it into the photo frame and enjoy a unique display of digital photos. And when you are bored of any of the digital photos, you can easily replace them with other digital photos from your computer.
Summary of each:
The extra advantage of digital memory storage media is that you can selectively erase any of the digital photos from the memory card. The digital camera memory card can be reused. Here's a summary of digital memory cards available on the market today:
SmartMedia digital memory cards, about 1/3 the size and the same thickness as a credit card, are available in a range of capacities to fit your needs. The highest-capacity SmartMedia cards hold 128MB. These are slowly being superceded by the xD Picture Card.
CompactFlash digital memory cards are slightly larger than SmartMedia and offer greater storage capacity. The highest-capacity CompactFlash cards hold 4GB. Due to their popularity in digital cameras and handheld computers, CompactFlash digital memory cards are among the cheapest of the digital memory card formats.
The Sony digital camera memory card is small and narrow, and actually called a Memory Stick(resembling a stick of chewing gum) and has a variety of storage capacities. Unlike SmartMedia and CompactFlash cards, the Memory Stick can be locked and the stored images copy-protected.
MultiMediaCard digital memory card (MMC) is approximately the size of a postage stamp and weighs less than two grams. With their tiny size, the MultiMediaCards are popular in cell phones, pages, mp3 players, and digital camera. Less than a 1/4 size of CompactFlash memory card, and currently has storage capacity up to 512MB.
Secure Digital (SD memory card): SD memory cards are also postage stamp size memory cards, based on MMC card technology. The difference to MMC cards is they have a write protection tab to protect the data on the SD memory card. The Secure Digital memory cards range in capacity from 8 MB to 512 MB.
xD-Picture Card: an ultra-compact memory media designed to replace the SmartMedia memory card. The tiny xD-Picture Card, about the size of a penny, and weighing less than one-tenth of an ounce, currently has storage up to 512MB, and fast read and write speeds. The xD-Picture Card is expected to have capacities up to 8GB in the near future. Watch this one.
In the end, the type of digital camera memory card you get will be dependent on the digital camera, digital photo frame, or other digital device you use. The memory capacity of digital memory cards is increasing rapidly, so even the maximum stated here might soon become the minimum! Just be sure to buy extra memory cards of the same type, and care for them properly.
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