Beginner Digital Camera Memory Cards
The memory storage capacity of a beginner digital camera is a crucial part of your photographic exploits. Just think what it does for a beginner digital camera user - it lets the best digital camera for beginner go on a shooting spree, taking as many shots as you like and more. Film camera buffs or professional photographers in the past could not imagine the kind of numbers a beginner digital camera user can shoot today, and store the images in a detachable memory card, the digital equivalent of film.
A 1-GB memory card can let you shoot hundreds of photographs everyday with a beginner digital camera, all for a small one-time cost. In film terms, the cost of film and processing itself would be hundreds of dollars. And once the card is full images can be downloaded and deleted from the card, which can be used again.
The versatile memory card is one of the major reasons why the digital camera for beginners can do so many things with their cameras. In fact, the age of digital photography really took off when digital camera memory card capacities began to skyrocket. However, this is one crucial piece of equipment that does not get the attention it deserves!
One thing about memory in a beginner digital camera: you should always have sufficient memory at your disposal. In fact more than your requirement is a better idea. The last thing you want is to fall short when you go on vacation, or at the birthday party of a near one. Also there are different kinds of camera memory, and you need to give a thought to the kind of memory a camera uses before buying a beginner digital camera.
Capacity
Camera manufacturers rarely supply even moderate capacity memory cards in their cameras. A beginner digital camera generally includes a 16 MB or 32 MB card. You have to provide for buying extra cards when you buy a beginner digital camera. As compacts and point-and-shoots sport higher resolutions by the day, factory fitted memory cards are becoming insufficient for storing a reasonable number of images. How much additional memory you need will depend on a number of factors.
The size of an image file would hinge upon the resolution of the beginner digital camera in megapixels, the type of file, the degree of compression, and the nature or contents of the image and the resolution at which it is shot. Images in highly compressed JPEG files take up less space, while TIFF or RAW files occupy many times the space of their JPEG counterpart.
Apart from the user manual, the beginner digital camera manufacturer’s website usually contains tables showing how many images of different file types can be saved on the supplied memory card. From these you can figure out how much memory you need in addition to the card included in the beginner digital camera you have or are going to purchase. As a thumb rule, a card should be able to store about 100 to 200 images shot at highest resolution in JPEG (Joint Photographic Experts Group) format. Advanced users must of course go in for greater storage capacities to if they want to accommodate uncompressed TIFF or RAW format images.
With a 5-megapixel beginner digital camera you would be safe with 512 MB, but if your camera has options for shooting in TIFF or RAW format and you intend to use them often, you would need up to 1 GB. Again, saving all your images in one memory card is like putting all your eggs in one basket; if it gets corrupted or misplaced you’ve had it! So using more than one card would help you spread out the risk of data loss.
Format
You can get memory cards in an assortment of formats. Some of the popular ones are CompactFlash, Memory Stick, Secure Digital, xD Picture Card, SmartMedia, and MultiMedia Card. A beginner digital camera usually accepts a single type of memory card only.
Image quality is more or less the same in all formats, but they differ in speed and actual memory available. CompactFlash is by far the most popular with beginner digital camera manufacturers. They also come in the largest size – you could easily find a 2 GB card in this format. With Fuji and Olympus switching to xD cards from SmartMedia, the former is becoming quite popular. Proprietary formats are best avoided, like Sony’s Memory Stick, unless of course you decide to buy a beginner digital camera model from Sony. However, it doesn’t really make too much of a difference between one format and the other unless you intend to use the memory card with other devices like a digital video camera.
Brands
There are a large number of brands in the market for memory cards. Some beginner digital camera manufacturers make them too. Price varies with the speed and brand name, but there is not really a large difference in quality. In any case, prices are falling every day, and I can safely say that today you’ll get a 1 GB card at the price of last year’s 512 MB card.
Speeds
Just like megapixel counts in the beginner digital camera, memory card speed is growing exponentially these days. Newer and faster versions cost a bit more, but offer a great advantage to digital camera for beginners and the advanced user alike. The time required to send an image to the memory card is much less with the faster cards, and this significantly cuts down the time lag between two photographs. The beginner digital camera user would hardly notice it unless they are shooting in continuous mode or taking fast action shots of sports or children.
High speed memory cards are available at relatively fewer stores, but are definitely worth finding if the faster speed is important. Some of the popular brands in this category are Lexar high speed, SanDisk Ultra, and SimpleTech ProX cards.
Memory Card Reader
Memory Card Readers can be plugged into a computer for transferring images from a memory card, permitting a much easier and quicker download. With a laptop, the card reader can be directly plugged into the PC card slot. Starting at prices below $ 30, this is one accessory that will be useful to all beginner digital camera owners. Visit our online store for a large selection and bargain prices on the cheapest digital camera for beginners.
