Memory Cards: Size Does Matter!

Memory Cards: Size Does Matter!

" Memory is the treasure house of the mind wherein the monuments thereof are kept and preserved." - Thomas Fuller


     Sometimes, there can be so many different specifications to your camera gear, it's hard to keep track of it all, and even harder to make confident decisions about which gear to purchase. Most of the time, we lean on the "bigger is better" mantra to see us through our decision making: bigger body, longer telephoto, wider aperture, bigger memory card, brighter mono-light. However, that can often lead us to spending bigger money...and that's definitely not better. So, what should you do? Who do you listen to when making these decisions? Me! Me! Me! Listen to me!

     Just kidding. Though, I can help with this one. Deciding what size of memory card to purchase is pretty easy when you understand how you'll be using the card. For example, which of the following scenarios fits you best?

    * You'll probably just use it in a point and shoot to make pictures every couple of months when a birthday comes around...
    * You're a hobbyist or blogger with a decent SLR that also likes attending local events
    * Your a professional wedding or sports photographer
    * You shoot a lot of high definition video

     Scenario 1: If your not really into photography that much (why would you be reading this?), then you could certainly get by with a point & shoot camera on a regular basis with a standard memory card inside. There's nothing wrong with point & shoots, I have one too because they do a great job at what they were designed for: taking great photos quickly and easily. In fact, that concept alone is what gave Kodak so much fame & fortune. For these cameras, a standard memory card will suffice, though with everything shooting video these days, and mega-pixel numbers climbing Mount Everest, "standard" isn't really what it used to be. Look for a 2 - 4 GB card, 8 GB if they're cheap enough, and don't concern yourself with speed. The recent advances in memory card design have almost eliminated the chance that a card will be too slow for a point & shoot.

     Scenario 2: So you've got yourself an SLR ay??? Well aren't you a fancy pants... I have good news for you if you use it for strictly still photos 90% of the time: You're in the point & shoot group. "WHAT? I just spent all this money on a fancy new DSLR & I think I need to have a fancy memory card too to trick it out & feel like a pro!" You can if you want to, but it really isn't necessary. Again, the recent improvements to memory card design have made the "standard" read/write speeds so high, the chance of a card being the bottleneck for stills are rather slim. *I'm making a silly assumption that you'll be purchasing a decent brand name card, not a generic POS from who knows where that's been sitting on a warehouse shelf for 6 years. Also, eBay purchases can be trickery; a dishonest seller may place a new sticker on an old memory card. Always purchase cards from authorized retailers to avoid this.* If you must choose a speed class, go with Class 4, 6 or 10.

     Scenario 3: Professional wedding & sports photogs, I think you have it the worst. Not because you need the biggest & fastest cards (although you might in some cases), but because you panic so much about losing the images, you have to buy 3 backup cards for every one you plan to actually use! $$ CHU. CHING.$$ Not to say that "better safe than sorry" isn't something every wedding photographer should have tattooed on themselves somewhere... Anyway, You super-pros are going to be purchasing the top of the line stuff: 8, 16, 32, 64, 128, or even 256 GB in size, UHS-II+ speeds. For the sports photographers, your burst mode shooting is going to necessitate a high speed card. And all those extra pictures eat up space quick when your shooting a 36 MP Nikon D800. *I still think that camera is ridiculous* Wedding warriors, you need space and speed for sure, but more importantly, you need reliability. These big, fast cards are made by companies that know their stuff and that's why your investing $400 per memory card. A sports photographer may be employed by a company that bought the camera gear. If the gear fails, not his fault. Besides, there's 500 other photographers at the event to cover the action, so there's no shortage of people to borrow a memory card from. As a wedding photographer though, your likely working for yourself, and likely haven't asked a bunch of other photographers to back you up. If your $20 memory card fails and you lose the pictures of the bride doing bride stuff, she'll probably turn into a giant *zilla like creature, eat your head and then sue what's left of you for all the money your children will ever earn. Please invest heavily in the hardware that's responsible for storing your digital photographs.

     Scenario 4: The video people need to know one thing: Ultra High Speed. Preferably UHS-II or UHS-III.

     One more thing for the still shooters to keep in mind is that sometime it's best not to put all your eggs (pictures) in one basket (memory card). Yeah, I know, this idea started out back in the beginning when memory cards were crap and failed on a regular basis and photographers were constantly losing their work. BUT, a card can still fail, and even more likely, it can be lost or stolen. I personally have lost cards at major events even though I was very careful and had a great labeling system, different pockets and cases for certain cards, etc. I guess it's probably harder to lose a card if you only have one and it's in your camera all the time. Then again, I've also had memory card read errors multiple times, even with proper & regular formatting techniques. So, I think this one is a tough choice. One gigantic card, or several small cards?

     With that looming question, I will leave you. Hope the article made some sense and helped out some. I know this one was a bit late, there's lots of life to live that gets in the way sometimes. Anyway, thanks for reading, and please let me know if theres anything you'd like me to write about or add or remove or whatever! Don't forget to share!



Also...

You absolutely MUST watch this video. This is how Lexar makes their memory cards.