digital camera buying guide

what are my storage options for digital cameras?

Digital cameras store pictures on some kind of removable media, though most cameras ship with only internal memory or a low-capacity card and leave extra memory purchases to the consumer. Flash-memory cards--which come in various shapes, sizes, and capacities--are the most popular type of storage media. The number of pictures you can store on a memory card depends upon the compression settings you choose when saving the files, as well as on how an individual camera compresses. Higher compression allows you to fit more pictures on a card, although image quality will suffer somewhat.

Before you buy a camera, carefully consider the type of media that it takes, as you may own (or plan to buy) an MP3 player, PDA, or other device that takes the same kind of card. You can save a few bucks by thinking ahead.

CompactFlash Types

0.13 by 1.6 by 1.4 inches

Pros: Comes in very large capacities; fast; competitively priced.

Cons: Larger than other flash memory formats.

Supporting manufacturers: Canon, Fujifilm, Nikon, Olympus, Sigma, and Sony; used mainly in digital SLRs.

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Hitachi Microdrive

0.2 by 1.7 by 1.4 inches

Pros: Large capacities; fast.

Cons: Expensive; CompactFlash capacities have overtaken it.

Supporting manufacturers: Canon, Fujifilm, Nikon, Olympus, Sigma, and Sony; used mainly in digital SLRs.

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Secure Digital; Secure Digital High Capacity(SDHC)

0.06 by 0.9 by 1.3 inches

Pros: Very popular across consumer electronics devices; small; fast; wide range of capacities; competitively priced; small size permits compact devices.

Cons: SDHC not compatible with old MMC or SD slots.

Supporting manufacturers: Canon, Casio, Concord, DXG, HP, Kodak, Leica, Nikon, Panasonic, Pentax, and Samsung.

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Memory Stick Duo; Memory Stick Duo Pro

0.8 by 1.2 by 0.1 inches