Sunday, June 24, 2012

What’s the Difference: Memory Cards & Prices

 

I’m sure by now you’ve got a digital camera, tablet, phone, camcorder etc etc etc that probably uses SD/SDHC cards but you probably don’t understand why there are so many different types of memory cards and what the point is of buying anything besides the very cheapest one for your needs… well let me make it simpler for you so that you not get the cheapest card, but the best value for your usage.

 

Capacity

This refers to the size of the memory card and how many pictures/videos/data it can hold. Typical sizes on the market will range from 4Gigabytes to 128Gigabytes doubling in size with each increase (4, 8, 16, 32, 64, 128). This will determine how much it will take to fill up the card before you need to empty it off to a secondary device.

 

leica-m9-memory-card-issue

 

Just so you better understand what your needs may be the symbols got from Kilobytes(KB) to Megabytes(MB) to Gigabytes(GB) (1024KB = 1MB, 1024MB = 1GB). This way you can make a basic determination of what the minimum size you want to have is based off what you are using it in.

 

Speed

This an area that most people have NO IDEA about and is probably the most important in a practical sense for people dealing with cameras/camcorders and they don’t even realize it. The speed of the memory card refers to the Read/Write capabilities, in laymen's terms, how fast the information can be created and/or accessed. lower speeds will actually slow the performance of you device which has to slow down because it gets backed up during use.

 

ex. You ever took a photo with your camera or cellphone and had to wait 2 - 3 seconds in between each picture? in most cases its not the camera itself but the memory card that’s the problem. When you take a photo/video or even save something to the memory card, if the card itself is too slow, the device has to slow down to account for it. amazingly simple right? I know.

 

The simplified manner in which to determine the speed of the memory card is called the Class which is notated on the card itself with a small number within a circle (Typically ranging from Class 2 and Class 10).

 

16gb

Now while getting the highest speed is the fastest, keep in mind the device you have, Technically faster and actually faster are not one in the same. A typical smartphone needs nothing more than a Class 2/4 speed while a digital camera should be no less than 4 if its more than 8Megapixels. For any device taking Hi-definition video or SLR camera should be Class 6 or 10 to ensure optimal use and speed.

 

So hopefully this has made it a tad bit simpler to understand the dozens of differences between the options available at the store. Make sure you aren't just getting the cheapest option, but the most valuable to suit your needs.