Watch Out For The New SD Cards!
10, 12 and 14 Megapixel cameras have put the storage squeeze on
standard one and two gigabyte SD storage cards. Newer cards
have
been created with four or more gigabytes of storage space. However,
in order to do this, some new inner workings were developed.
These new cards will
not work on older cameras, even though
the
cards look the same! You need to note the HC in front the of
the SD to tell them apart.
Your camera must have the SDHC imprint on or near the card door in order to benefit from the new high capacity cards. These cameras will use the older cards as well.
While Windows, Vista, Mac and Ubuntu (Linux) systems can all read these new cards, some of the oldest card readers may cause false errors. I found one eight year old reader that caused the computer tell me that the card was not formatted, and would I like to format it! Another "all in one" printer/scanner with built-in card readers also could not read the new HC card. You may have a few card slots built in to your PC and the SD one may only read the older cards. Blaim it on progress!
Do you need the new HC card?
In my tutorials, I suggest "not keeping all your eggs in one basket." Cards fail or get accidentally erased. I'd personally rather have two cards of two GB each and then change them as needed. Or perhaps two 4 GB cards versus one 8 GB monster!
However, I must admit it was quite a sight to see the counter on my little 7.1 MP camera tell me that it was ready to take more than 1,200 shots! Now if the batteries could only last that long.
Even my 12 MP card offered more shots than I care to take on one card! And there lies the danger. You could end up with a year's worth of shots on one card and nothing backed up to an hard drive or other device. Aside from having to sort out all those shots, a hurt card could lose a lot of memories!
One group of photographers is really enjoying the higher capacity cards. Shooter who select the larger TIF or RAW formats for shots welcome the extra space.
Prices for a HCSD (on sale) start at $19.95 for four gigabytes. Cards with faster transfer speeds (need for some burst modes or video shooting) will be more.
Back to Main Content Page
Your camera must have the SDHC imprint on or near the card door in order to benefit from the new high capacity cards. These cameras will use the older cards as well.
While Windows, Vista, Mac and Ubuntu (Linux) systems can all read these new cards, some of the oldest card readers may cause false errors. I found one eight year old reader that caused the computer tell me that the card was not formatted, and would I like to format it! Another "all in one" printer/scanner with built-in card readers also could not read the new HC card. You may have a few card slots built in to your PC and the SD one may only read the older cards. Blaim it on progress!
Do you need the new HC card?
In my tutorials, I suggest "not keeping all your eggs in one basket." Cards fail or get accidentally erased. I'd personally rather have two cards of two GB each and then change them as needed. Or perhaps two 4 GB cards versus one 8 GB monster!
However, I must admit it was quite a sight to see the counter on my little 7.1 MP camera tell me that it was ready to take more than 1,200 shots! Now if the batteries could only last that long.
Even my 12 MP card offered more shots than I care to take on one card! And there lies the danger. You could end up with a year's worth of shots on one card and nothing backed up to an hard drive or other device. Aside from having to sort out all those shots, a hurt card could lose a lot of memories!
One group of photographers is really enjoying the higher capacity cards. Shooter who select the larger TIF or RAW formats for shots welcome the extra space.
Prices for a HCSD (on sale) start at $19.95 for four gigabytes. Cards with faster transfer speeds (need for some burst modes or video shooting) will be more.
Back to Main Content Page