A Trip Down Memory (Card) Lane

by Mike Zawadzki
Technical Consultant

Many times after helping a customer pick out a brand spanking new camera, I unfortunately have to disappoint them by telling them it doesn't come with a memory card.  I then often hear grumbling that goes something like, "It was only two years ago when I paid $150.00 for a 2GB card!"

Sadly, memory cards rapidly drop in price in comparison to the cameras that use them for storing images.  Still, you really can't have enough storage.  I often get asked why one 8GB card costs $55.00 and another costs $120.00.  Most pros understand that the splurge on a new high performance card comes with the territory when upgrading to a new pro body such as the Nikon D3s or Canon 1D MarkIV, which have blazing fast frame rates and can now record high definition video.  So what about the casual weekend shooters and the advanced amateurs?  How do these high price tag memory cards benefit you?

Well, first let's take a look at the box of a memory card.  I chose the SanDisk Extreme 8GB CF card because it has all sorts of numbers and symbols to confuse us with! So if you can get a grasp on what all the hieroglyphics on this box mean, anything less should be a breeze.

Ok so first let's look at what type of card this is.

We can see based on looking at the picture of the card on the box or at the top of the box that this is a CompactFlash (CF) card.  All professional and semi-pro DSLRs accept CF cards while smaller cameras such as the Nikon D3000/D5000/90 will only take Secure Digital (SD) cards.

The next thing to look at is the size of the card.  This card is 8 Gigabytes and until recently, 8GB was considered to be a large amount of storage for a memory card.  However, full size (Especially RAW) files are increasing as the silly megapixel war continues.  In addition, the feature of HD video recording on DSLRs and camcorders legitimizes the use and need for bigger cards.  Even though 8GB is considered to be an average-sized card now, you can still cram about 1,300 photos onto an 8GB card shooting in large jpeg on a 12 megapixel camera.

There are certainly benefits of having larger 16, 32, or 64GB cards, but again, unless you are shooting HD video, 8GB will be plenty.  In fact, I would rather have four 8GB cards instead of one 32GB card just in case one decided to fail.

So we have our 8GB CF card; what's the next important number/symbol to look at?  Well, the card says EXTREME on the top of it.  No, this doesn't mean that your camera will get up on its own one day and go bungee jumping.  It's just SanDisk's way of differentiating between their line of memory cards.  The "EXTREME" name may sound familiar as it was previously used in SanDisk's "Extreme III" and "Extreme IV" lines of cards.

So why is this card better if it's just an "EXTREME"?  Well, name be damned; the important aspect of the card is the read/write speed.  For all we care, this card could be called the SanDisk Lame XIII.

We can see right here that it says "UP TO 60 MB/S* - 400X".  So that's what makes this card have a $119.00 price tag.  For example, when you are shooting sports on continuous fire mode, eventually the camera will hit a buffer, meaning that the camera has to stop shooting because it is busy recording all of the photos you just took onto the memory card.  So naturally, a card with a higher write speed will allow a camera to hit its buffer much later.

Furthermore, when a high speed card like this is used in conjunction with a high-speed card reader like the SanDisk Extreme (here we go again!) Card Reader, uploading a big batch of  RAW files to your computer will take a matter of minutes instead of hours.  Although it's not essential, the old adage time is money is true and if you are using photography as a means of making money, a high speed card reader will pay for itself very quickly.

You will also notice the camera icon, HD1080p, UDMA, and POWER CORE CONTROLLER symbols on the box.  The camera icon simply means this CF card is optimized to work in a camera!  Ok, now that we're past that bit of brain surgery, the HD1080p indicates that this card has been designed to allow for maximum recording time on a DSLR that supports video.  Next is UDMA.  Unlike its counterpart icons, UDMA actually means something.  To be technical, it stands for Ultra Direct Memory Access.  What this means is that in UDMA enabled cameras, the card will be able to reach it's maximum write speed of 60MB/S.

IF YOU HAVE AN OLDER DSLR, PLEASE CHECK TO MAKE SURE YOUR CAMERA IS UDMA ENABLED BEFORE PURCHASING A UDMA CARD.

A perfect example is the Canon EOS 40D.  It can shoot at a brisk pace of 6.5 frames per second, but it is not a UDMA enabled camera so you will not see the benefits of a UDMA card in this camera.  For example, in a non-UDMA camera, an "old" Extreme IV (266x) card will work just as well as the Extreme (400x) card that I've been using as an example in this article.

Finally, the "POWER CORE CONTROLLER" is SanDisk's way of telling us that this card has been redesigned internally (the way it operates) to be faster and more durable over the course of heavy usage.  Just like all electronic devices, memory cards eventually stop working properly, but SanDisk says this one will last longer!  These cards are very new, so it will take a few years to see how accurate this claim is.

If you are in the market for a SD card, you may see some cards are labeled SDHC like the one to the left (credit SanDisk).  All HC stands for is "High Capacity".  Anything over a 2GB SD card is considered a SDHC card.  So what about the little "C" on the card that has a 10 inside of it??  This indicates that this is a "CLASS 10" card, meaning that the minimum sustained (even though this SDHCis a 30MB/s, it is not always writing at 30MB/s) write speed is 10MB/s.

So what about the other brands out there?

I know up until this point I have only mentioned SanDisk, but that is only because I have always used SanDisk memory cards.  Don't get me wrong, I have used Lexar, Transcend, and other brands in the past too, but I have always bought SanDisk because of their strong reputation.  I have never seen a noticeable difference between similar speed SanDisk or Lexar cards.  Here's an example for the old pros and weekend warriors of the 90's: When shooting on film, you will notice a difference in color rendition between Kodak (warmer) and Fuji (slightly cool/neutral), but the same doesn't apply to memory cards in digital.

Lexar makes great products as well, such as their unique UDMA FireWire 800 Reader (CF cards only).  They also make a dual slot USB High Speed Reader that takes both CF and SD cards.  As I mentioned before, using a high speed card reader has tremendous advantages.

You've sure been mentioning a lot about high speed cards, readers, etc...  What if I just have a little point and shoot and don't want to spend a lot on a memory card??

This is a question I often get after a customer has picked out a digital point and shoot.  The good news is that there are affordable options for photographers who aren't professionals and who would not be taking advantage of a high speed UDMA or huge capacity card.  Transcend makes great memory cards that are very affordable.

Remember, if you aren't using a UDMA camera and you aren't planning on doing a lot of continuous shooting or HD video, stick with a more affordable card.  The money you are saving can be invested in a new lens, flash, or accessory that will help improve your photographs.

Well my card is full, so that's all for now! I hope that this article helped anyone out there who was confused about what all the memory card lingo means.    Check back soon for interviews with reps from some of the bigger imaging companies about new/upcoming products and more!