Digital Photo Tips

Buy at least 256 megabytes of storage. For most cameras, don’t consider a card smaller than 256 MB, which can hold 100 to 200 JPEG images, depending on image content and camera settings. (Although memory cards come in different shapes and sizes for different cameras, such as CompactFlash, xD, SD, and Memory Stick Pro, the type of card doesn’t affect how many images it holds.)

Allow more storage for more demanding uses. For a 6-megapixel camera shooting at maximum resolution and the highest quality level, consider a 1-GB card, which costs about $55 and can hold a few hundred JPEG images. Also factor in the demands of any video you may shoot. Allow roughly 1 GB of storage for each hour of MPEG-4, 30-frames-per-second, 640×480 video, if the scene isn’t very dynamic, or 1 GB for each half-hour for a rapidly changing scene, such as a basketball game.

Don’t pay more for high speed. High-speed cards touted by some manufacturers are overkill for most point-and-shoot cameras, which can’t take advantage of them. They aren’t worth buying for video, either. But they are worth considering for some new SLRs.

There might be one reason to consider these higher-end cards, however: Some of them come bundled with software for recovering corrupted image files. So if, for example, you corrupted files by opening your camera’s battery compartment while the camera was turned on or, worse, while it was saving an image to the memory card, the software should be able to get those photos back for you. (It’s especially risky to open the compartment if you’re using AA batteries, since they shut off immediately.)

Vary resolution and compression to suit your needs. It’s all too easy to leave a camera on the default storage settings, which may sometimes be more than you really need. Lowering a camera’s resolution setting or increasing its compression, even temporarily, increases the number of images that fit on a card.

Most cameras let you set resolution and compression. For example, if you set a camera to its highest resolution, you might also be able to select from among two or even three levels of compression.

(read the full report here)

I own one 512MB SD card and one 512MB CF card. Usually, if we go on outstation trips, I bring along my laptop and download all the photos over to the laptop. I once lost my 256SD card at home, so I wouldn’t dare to invest in a 1GB card. Very easy to misplace a tiny piece of thing like that.

If I don’t have my laptop, then, I compromise by setting lower resolutions and can take up to 800 shots which is really a LOT of photos.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 6th, 2006 at 1:27 pm and is filed under Camera. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.