All About Memory Cards For Cameras: The Advantages

By Rick Newman


Available in various sizes and shapes, memory cards for cameras are compact, efficient and are primarily used to store images. A camera can support a variety of chips depending upon the number of slots or by the variation of the format.

These chips are based on flash memory, a non-volatile form of memory that stores data without the aid of power. They have a large capacity of recording print-quality high resolution images. The card design and the capacities depend largely on the camera being used.

Speed is the most puzzling factor while selecting memory chips for cameras. It is seen that many manufacturers state the speed in MBPS while others use the suffix 'x' where 1x equals 150kbps. Card system is used in the SD card formats. For instance a class 2 card gives a minimum speed of 2MBPS.

The main types of memory chips are Standard Digital (SD). The majority of cameras record the images and movies in one or more varieties of SD memory card. They are small postage stamp sized chips and are cheaply available. Today they are being displaced by the SDHC format (HC meaning "high capacity").

This comparatively latest variant of memory chips has capacities from 4GB to 32GB, alongside a high speed and performance, despite keeping the same older dimensions. Another variety is the SDXC chips. These chips not too common have their capacities from 32GB to 64GB which is set to rise to a whooping 2TB in the coming couple of years. They are demanded in high definition (HD) video capture mainly in the DSLRs and other HD- cameras.

Although many DSLR cameras have adopted the SD formats but the professional DLSRs maintain support for the Compact Flash media cards for cameras. They are larger, stronger than SD chips and more suitable to use in adverse conditions.




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