Storage Media – Uses and Types
These days digital cameras are coming with slots for inserting external memory cards. Most of the camera manufacturers do not provide the storage media while purchasing the camera. Thus the consumer is the one who needs to decide which one is the best type of memory card to be purchased. Of course the list of compatible memory cards for each digital camera is specified in the manual. The major types of memory cards and its features are mentioned below:
Table Format for two columns and a row
 |
CompactFlash Types I and II: - Compact Flash (CF) is a type of mass storage device that is used mainly in portable type of cameras. For storage purposes this one mainly uses flash type of memory in a standardised enclosed format. The main advantage of this storage media is that it comes in large capacities, is fast and it is widely supported along with being competitively priced. Many manufacturers such as Canon, Nikon, Kodak, Minolta, Konica and Pentax support this one. The only possible disadvantage is its large size. |
| Hitachi Microdrive: - These ones comes with large capacities and deliver high performance. It also consumes low power as compared to the others. The major drawback however is that it is very expensive. Thus it is mainly supported by the professional camera manufacturers. |
 |
 |
Secure Digital/MultiMediaCard (SD/MMC) : - The SD is a non-volatile type of storage device mainly for portable devices. The MMC card is a flash memory card that is of the size of a postage stamp. Both these types are very popular in most of the portable types of electronic devices. They are small, fast and come with a variety of capacities. They are also small in size along with being budget friendly. The main manufacturers who support this type of storage device include Casio, Canon, HP, Konica, Kodak, Kyocera, Pentax, Panasonic and Toshiba. |
| Memory Stick Duo : - Memory Stick Duo is a form of removable flash memory form that was launched by Sony. It is thus compatible with almost all Sony devices and is slowly gaining popularity amongst the others. The demerit of this storage device is its storage capacity, which is limited to 128MB only. Konica Minolta and Sony are its supporting manufacturers. |
 |
 |
Memory Stick Pro Duo: - This one is similar to Memory Stick Storage media, however it is smaller in size and thus can be used with compact devices. It is used in most of the tiny electronic products, however it is only supported by Sony. |
| xD-Picture Card : - xD-Picture Card stand for extreme Digital and it is a type of flash memory card that is mainly used in digital cameras, it was originally developed by Olympus and Fujifilm. The major merit this one has over the others is that it is the smallest available storage device. This means that it can be used with very small devices with ease. The downside of the xD-Picture Card is that it is still new as compared to the others. The manufacturers supporting this format are Olympus and Fujifilm. |
 |
Different storage devices are available in different sizes, shapes and capacities. The number of picture you can store in each one generally depends on the camera's compression settings that can be used for saving files. Although, higher compression settings allows you to save more files the image quality may suffer in some cases. Thus depending on the type of storage media supported by your camera you can choose one of the devices listed above.
Comments
