Are all digital memory cards made the same? Right? Costco has a sale this week, so if it fits my camera I should just grab it right? This question is one I get all the time from people getting into photography. The answer, no. All memory cards are not made equal and as far as which memory card is best for you depends on your camera’s make and model. This subject of memory cards can be a bit confusing I know as there are dozens of types, brands and other specs of memory listed for all these cards. Confused yet? Well don’t be, it’s not that confusing when you break it down. Let’s take a look at the basics. At the end of the day, the fastest CF and SDHC are the way to go for most DSLR cameras. Why get the fastest card you can afford? Quite simply because they are not that much more expensive (they are within a few dollars usually) and they allow your camera not to be slowed down by the media (not to mention faster upload speeds when you want to copy the photos back up to your PC or MAC.) Another good rule to live by with any memory card is don’t buy one massive 32GB card and call it good. It’s better to buy a few smaller 4-8GB cards and swap them out as you fill them up. This way if you happen to be on vacation with a camera full of all your precious memories and oops. You take a spill and dunk your camera into the water. Ouch! There go all those memories. Granted you can replace the camera, but nothing is going to get those pictures back. But if you had split your photos across a few smaller cards, you would have some of your pictures safe back at the hotel room. This tip is a technique that many pros use when on assignment and can’t afford to lose an entire assignment’s worth of pictures. I’m sure I might have left out a thing or two so feel free to drop a comment with questions or feedback below! About the Author: Although the usual hangout for sharing his photography is www.brickmonkey.com, you will also find brickmonkey as an occasional groovyContributor here @ groovyPost.com for photography tips and tricks. BrickMonkey One thing you SHOULD keep an eye on is the SPEED of the memory card. I only buy SanDisk ULTRA or EXTREME because of the speed of the cards. I think it’s 15meg read/write vs. 30megs read/write. Yeah, you can goto FRYS and buy a 16gig memory card but it’s so slow you can’t use it anywhere. I fell for that one time and bought it for my HD Video Carema (canon). I put it in and it said: Sorry, to slow…. Had to return it and get a faster memory card. Comment Name * Email *
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