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____________________________________________________________ Copyright © Dan Feildman 1

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Photo-Related

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Storage Cards, Memory Sticks, CDs For Archiving And More

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Table of Contents

What Is Photo-related Media? ............................................................................ 5 Different Kinds Of Photo-related Media ........................................................ 6 Digital Camera Accessories & Things That Go With Your Camera........................................................................................................................................... 12 Prices Of Photo-related Media ......................................................................... 15 How Many Pictures Can A Memory Card Hold? ...................................... 17 Printing Your Pictures .......................................................................................... 19 Archiving Your Photos And Videos ................................................................ 20 Resources ................................................................................................................... 25

Photo-Related Media


What Is Photo-related Media?

Photo-related media is anything portable that comes with your camera

or that you can buy for your camera for memory storage. Memory

sticks, storage cards, and CDs will all allow you to store your videos

and images to places other than your computer. There are dozens of

supply stores both in your city and online where you can purchase

storage cards and memory sticks and other photo-related media for

prices that range from inexpensive to a little more pricy.

Photo-related media can also be flash card readers to read your

camera’s memory cards, camera storage bags and straps, camera lens

kits, and any other accessories you may find that go along with your

digital camera.

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Different Kinds Of Photo-related Media

Memory cards for your digital camera; the more you have, the better.

Memory cards are tiny disk-like objects that have tons of storage on

them so you can save your photographs. Just like a traditional 35mm

camera needs film, a digital camera needs memory to store your

photographs. As far as media cards go, you need to make sure that

you are buying the proper card for your particular camera, as there

are different types. SD cards are smaller that CF cards, and most

cameras will only take one or the other. Very few accept both. Also,

you may need to invest in a memory card reader as well, which is

basically a USB attachment that you can stick your memory card into

and upload your pictures to your computer. But nowadays, many

computers come equipped with slots for all types of media cards.

The majority of digital cameras that you can buy in stores or online

will come with a memory or storage card, normally 128mb megabytes

or even up to 2 gigabytes (GB) of storage. The more megabytes or

gigabytes your card has, the more photos that you can store on the

card. This memory card can be removed and put into a card reader

that plugs into your computer so you can transfer the images over to

your computer and delete them from your memory card to have more

storage, if you choose to do so.

Almost all, but the most inexpensive, digital cameras have some sort

of removable storage device. However, the digital camera memory

cards are supposed to be used as a temporary device to store your

photos until you can transfer them to your computer and save them

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onto your hard drive or other storage folders. The number of photos

on your storage device cannot exceed the limit, so when your storage

card becomes full, you will have to delete some photographs, stop

taking photos, use another card, or transfer the pictures to your

computer.

Currently, there are a few types of flash memory cards on the market:

the Compact Flash (CF), Secure Digital (SD), xD Picture Card, and

Sony Memory Stick, which can store your pictures or videos on flash

chips like the RAM chips inside your computer.

A CF, developed by SanDisk Corp, is about the size of a matchbook,

while the SD cards are smaller than CF cards. The compact flash was

the first memory card widely used in consumer-level digital cameras,

as well as some of the early professional cameras. They are used in

over half of all digital cameras made between 1999 and 2008 and

many manufacturers still use them to this day. Some of the high-end

newer model cards can store up to 6gigs of photos on a single card.

The CF card reader, and professional cameras that have CF card slots,

can also use Microdrives to store and transfer photos. A Microdrive is

a 42.8mm x 36.4mm x 5mm hard drive that has the same physical

dimensions as a Compact Flash (CF) card. The Microdrive has a much

larger capacity than flash memory and is available in sizes larger than

8 gigs by a wide range of manufacturers from Hitachi to Seagate. The

downside of the Microdrive is the increased power consumption and

slower read and write times. These drives can greatly reduce your

battery life, and are generally only used by professional photographers

using specific cameras suited for microdrive use. Most professional

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camera manufacturers, such as Nikon, Sony, and Minolta, no longer

support these drives and now use Flash-based memory cards.

The second memory card to enter the market for digital cameras was

the MultiMediaCard (MMC) developed by Siemens. The early models

did not have a lot of available storage, so they were mostly used in

lower-end cameras in the late 90’s. Today, the cards are still used in

many camera phones and small portable devices.

Sony introduced the memory stick in 1998. The cards are 50mm x

21.5mm x 2.8mm, which is roughly the size and shape of a stick of

gum. Almost all Sony and Minolta digital cameras use memory sticks

to store photos. Sony has built memory stick ports into all of its

computers and laptops, making it very easy to transfer your images

from a Sony camera to a Sony computer or laptop. Sony also makes a

Magic Gate card reader that can be used to transfer photos from

Memory Sticks to any PC or Mac that has a USB port. There is also a

multitude of multi-card readers that support the memory card. Just

look on the packaging for the Sony Memory card logo to find a

compatible card reader. Sony has released several versions of the

memory stick. The original memory stick had a limited storage size,

and the needs of professional digital cameras required more storage

than that stick could provide. In 2003, Sony refreshed its format with

a new PRO model that could hold up to 8 gigs on a single memory

stick. They soon followed that with Duo models that were ½ the size,

but held up to twice the amount (16 gigs) of information. Since the

new Duo cards are too small for many of the original memory stick

readers, Sony has developed an adapter. You just insert the Duo card

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in the adapter, and you can use any memory stick reader to transfer

your photos to your computer.

Fuji Film and Olympus introduced the xD memory cards in 2002, which

are widely used to this day in Olympus FujiFilm and in some Panasonic

digital cameras. The xD cards are 20mm x 25mm x 1.78mm, making

them very small and compact memory cards. The Type M cards were

released in 2005 and were capable of supporting file sizes of up to 2

gigs; they were soon followed by the Type H xD memory cards that

had faster read times and more storage.

The Secure Digital (SD) card is the most common memory card used

in digital cameras today. Panasonic, SanDisk, and Toshiba created the

format, with countless other manufacturers also producing SD cards.

The SD card is small (32mm x 24mm x 2.1mm) and also comes in two

smaller versions - the miniSD (21.5mm x 20mm x 1.4mm) and the

microSD (11mm x 15mm x 1.4 mm). They do have adapters for the

microSD and miniSD cards so that they can be accessed using a SD

card reader. In 2006, the SDHC format was introduced that supports

larger files and faster transfer speeds. These cards can hold up to 64

gigs of information on a single card, with larger cards released on a

regular basis.

Some of the first consumer digital cameras stored information directly

onto 3.5” floppy discs. Sony, the leader in these models of cameras,

has discontinued these models due to the limited storage capacity and

slow read/write times on 3.5” media. They were replaced by a newer

generation that saves images directly onto CD media.

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Recently, a brand new type of SD card was introduced called the

“EyeFi.” This is a CD card that works with most name-brand digital

cameras that connects to a wi-fi connection to transfer your photos

wirelessly directly from your camera to the Internet or from your

computer onto your network. These cards also utilize standard Flash

media so that you can save images taken when there is no wi-fi

available. These cards can also be utilized with many of the top

photo-sharing websites to automatically upload your photos to an

online photo storage or sharing account.

CDs, or CD-Rs, are another source of image storage. Sony has

produced a line of cameras that save your image directly onto Mini-CD

disks, and some manufacturers produce cameras that write your

images directly to a regular CD-R disk. You can purchase them in

bundles at the store, like 25 CDs for $10, for example. One

inexpensive CD-R can store more than 600 megabytes of information.

However, this isn’t nearly as much as it sounds like, as one disk can

normally store 700 megabytes of data. A word of warning: CD-R discs

can deteriorate over time, and some low-end CDs can lose data in as

little as 5 years. If you want to store or archive your photos on CD-R

media, be sure to buy quality archival or storage quality discs.

Some older professional SLR digital cameras actually had small hard

drives called PC Cards or PCMCIA cards. These cards were basically

laptop computer hard drives that were used as removable storage

devices on professional cameras that produced very large images.

This media has been replaced by Flash-based memory cards and is no

longer used in digital cameras.

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Most of the newer digital cameras also have onboard Flash memory.

This is memory inside your camera that can’t be removed. To get

images off of your internal memory, you will need to use the image

transfer cable that came with your camera.

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Digital Camera Accessories & Things That Go With

Your Camera

After you purchase your digital camera, you may find that you are

missing some items that you’d like to carry with your camera. These

are, for example, a car adapter, battery charger, AC adapter, case,

screen protector, light, battery, camera strap, or more. Remember to

shop for your specific brand of camera or the new items you buy won’t

be able to work with your digital camera. The brands of digital

cameras are Belkin, Canon, Epson, Compaq, Fujitsu, HP, IBM, Kodak,

Lexmark, Minolta, Samsung, Panasonic, Sony, Toshiba, and more.

A memory card reader will allow you to plug in your Flash memory

card or smart card and transfer your images or videos to the

computer. The device has to be plugged into the correct plug-in on

your computer in order for it to work correctly. It will most likely be on

the back panel of your computer – not the screen or monitor – near

where the power cord comes in. Some printers and personal

computers have a built-in card reader instead of a floppy disk drive.

Some memory card readers offer space for only one type of card,

while others have four types of card holes. For example, the Lexar

Flash memory card reader (USB 2.0 Multi-Card Reader) offers

versatility by reading and writing CompactFlash, SmartMedia, and USB

card readers.

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As far as media cards go, you need to make sure that you are buying

the proper card for your particular camera, as there are different

types. SD cards are smaller that CF cards, and most cameras will only

take one or the other. Very few accept both. Also, you may need to

invest in a memory card reader as well, which is basically a USB

attachment that you can stick your memory card in and upload your

pictures to your computer. But nowadays, most computers come

equipped with slots for all types of media cards

If you buy an Advanced Digital or DSLR camera, you may want to

invest in more of a quality carrying case because you’ve probably

invested a good amount of money, so you don't want anything to

happen to it! A bigger bag may be necessary for extra lenses and

gear, like external flashes, tripods, extra batteries, and filters.

Battery chargers are important for when your digital camera battery

runs out. Most digital cameras come with a small battery charger that

plugs into your wall, where you can insert your dead or low battery

and it will charge within hours. A red light will be there when your

battery is charging, and the light will turn green when your battery is

fully charged. The camera battery is stored, normally, in the same

place where your memory card is located, and can be accessed by

sliding over a small panel. Look for the arrows to tell you which way to

slide the panel off. Car adapters let you charge your camera while

driving in your car by plugging the adapter into the cigarette lighter,

or, on newer model cars, into a small wattage power plug in the front

of the vehicle, either in the console or near the dashboard.

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Digital camera cases allow you to protect your camera from scratches

or harm in the case that you drop it on the hard ground somewhere.

Accidents happen all of the time, and a camera case is the best

protection you can have from damaging your camera. There are

dozens of options available, from leather to canvas, with or without

shoulder straps, and with spaces and pockets to store your digital

camera accessories like extra memory cards, card readers, or other

accessories. You can find them in any shape, size, and color, and even

being waterproof for those digital camera addicts who like to take their

camera waterside. They range from soft to hard, with backpack-type

straps and carrying cases with handles and foam interior. Prices are

anywhere from under $20 for the most inexpensive versions to up to

$150 for a rolling carry-on case and up.

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Prices Of Photo-related Media

You can find memory cards for your digital camera at a vast range of

stores and online websites. Most big-box retailers like Wal-Mart and

Target carry memory cards in the electronics area. Electronics stores

such as Best Buy, Radio Shack, and others also carry memory cards

for most brand-name digital cameras. Today, almost all of the camera

shops like Wolf Camera also carry a wide range of memory cards for

almost any digital camera. Often, the best deals can be found online.

Inexpensive brand-name memory cards can be found on hundreds of

websites ranging from Newegg.com, Amazon.com, etc., and even at

camera-specific retailers such as Calumet.com and WolfCamera.com.

Beware of low-priced generic memory cards that may not be of the

best quality. There are good deals to be found on brand-name

memory cards. There is no reason to risk losing your images due to a

memory card problem, when you can purchase quality memory cards

from a manufacturer that you can trust.

Compact Flash cards are available online for under $15 for 1-2 gig

models, while on the high-end, you can get 16 gigs for around $150.

There are several sizes and prices available from a wide variety of

manufacturers to choose from.

Memory Stick cards are available online for under $12 for 1 gig sticks

to around $50 for 8 gig sticks. Sony manufactures most memory

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cards; however, there are some other brands, such as SanDisk, from

some retailers

Secure Digital /SD cards can be found online for under $6 for 2 gig

cards to up to around $150 for 16 gig cards. There are countless

manufacturers producing SD media. The leading brands include

SanDisk, Kingston, Transcend, FujiFilm, and Panasonic. There is even

an SD card called the Eye-Fi that transfers photos wirelessly to your

computer or website. It can be found for $120 or less at several

online websites.

XD memory cards are available for under $25 at most online retailers.

The largest cards on the market are 2 gigs. SanDisk, Olympus, and

Edge are the top brands that produce xD memory cards.

Prices vary widely from store to store and are often more expensive in

retail stores than at online and camera specialty shops. Before

purchasing a memory card, make sure you take the time to shop

around and check prices.

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How Many Pictures Can A Memory Card Hold?

How many pictures your memory card will hold depends on the size of

images your camera takes and the size of the memory card itself.

Most consumer-level point-and-shoot digital cameras will have options

to take small, medium, or large photos. With the low cost of memory

card storage today, it is best to take the highest quality images that

your camera will allow. If you are limited on space and you know that

you will be taking a lot of photos before you can transfer them to your

computer, you can choose a smaller image size to save space on your

memory cards.

Some digital cameras, and virtually all professional DSLR cameras,

allow you to choose from several image formats and compression

levels. The Nikon and Sony DSLR cameras can save the files in the

following formats: RAW, TIFF, JPEG fine, JPEG standard, and JPEG

small. RAW creates the largest file size, but it is the preferred format

for professional photographers. This format saves a huge amount of

image information so that adjustments and corrections can be made

without losing any resolution. TIFF files are much smaller than RAW

files and can still save the images in the very high quality format that’s

ideal for print applications. JPEG is the standard format for virtually all

digital cameras. The standard JPEG files uses compression to safely

shrink the file size without compromising quality. JPEG fine or high

quality saves a larger file, but does not use compression so that the

image quality is preserved. The JPEG small files are highly

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compressed to make the smallest file size; however, the quality of the

picture can be compromised using JPEG small.

If you have a 5-Megapixel camera that saves photos in the JPEG

format, the images will be around 2.5MB. On a 1-Gigabyte memory

card, you could hold around 400 of these images. Four-Gigabyte cards

could hold over 1600 photos of this size, while a 16-Gigabyte memory

card could hold over 6500 photos.

Some of the higher-quality point-and-shoot cameras take images that

are 10 Megapixels. With a 10-Megapixel camera taking images in the

JPEG format, the images will be around 3.8MB each. On a 1-Gigabyte

memory card, you can hold up to 260 photos. Four-Gigabyte cards

can hold over 1072 photos, while a 16-Gigabyte memory card can hold

over 4280 photos.

There are professional DSLR cameras on the market that can take 21-

Megapixel images. These large files, even when saved in JPEG format,

are almost 14MB each. With a 1-Gigabyte memory card you can only

hold 70 images. Using a 4-Gigabyte card, you can hold around 280

photos, while a 16-Gigabyte card will allow you to hold over 1100

photos of this size.

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Printing Your Pictures Many people who want to print their digital photos have color printers

in their homes or home offices where they can do just that. A few

cameras actually have their own color printer and software that comes

with that specific camera where you can simply set your digital camera

on a dock, choose the picture you want to print, and hit a few buttons

to print your image within seconds. Some also allow you to use your

storage memory card from your camera to do the same thing.

However, when it comes to printing photos at home, there is one thing

to note: the ink for home color printers is often more expensive than

printing your photos through a photo-sharing service or a business like

Walgreen’s or Wal-Mart that have photo labs that can process prints

from your digital camera’s media card. It is often a cheaper way to go

by having your photos printed online on sites like Shutterfly,

Winkflash, and Snapfish that offer a range of print sizes with great

quality. Plus, all of your photos can be mailed to your front door or

mailbox with just a few clicks of your mouse. Sites like these often

have tons of extras and photo gifts, like key chains, photo books, and

coffee mugs, among other things. If you sign up for the site’s

announcements, you can get great deals for cheap and free prints with

your account sent right to your email address.

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Archiving Your Photos And Videos

When it comes to saving the photos and movies you’ve taken on your

digital camera’s flash memory drives, there are several ways to go.

You can transfer your files to your computer’s hard drive or specific

folders you’ve set up for photos and movies or you can save them to a

CD-R to file them away.

CD-Rs are Compact Disc-Recordables, a play on the compact disc

invented by Sony and Philips. You can write or save your files to a

CD-R in different sessions or move different photos over to save them

at different times until the disc is full. CD-Rs are highly compatible

with standard computers that have CD drives.

You can save media files to CD-Rs at the following speeds:

•1X Drive Speed=150 KiB/s for 80 minutes writing time on a 700MB

CD-R

•4X = 600 KiB/s data rate for 20 minutes of write time

•8X – 1200 KiB/s for 10 minutes of write time

•12X = 1800 KiB/s for 6.7 minutes of writing time

•32X = 4800 KiB/s for 2.5 minutes write time

•52X – 7800 KiB/s for 1.5 minutes of write time

Your files and tracks are processed more quickly with a higher write

speed.

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Basically, the blank disc has a pre-groove track to write data into, and

your CD recorder writes the data to the CD-R by using a laser to heat

the areas of the disc’s organic dye layer. It permanently dyes the

layers of the CD-R with your information.

The expected lifespan of a CD-R is only estimated at this time and is

based on accelerated aging tests. If you take proper care of your

CD-R, it should be readable 1,000 times or even more, and it should

be able to sit on your shelf for three, four, or even five years.

Sometimes. if you handle your disc too often, it can reduce its shelf life

down to one or two years, which is why it is important to keep your

discs stored properly if the information on the CD-R is important to

you.

Real-life tests have revealed that some CD-Rs lose quality even if

stored properly, unfortunately. The quality of a CD-R has a direct

influence on its longevity and shelf life – ultimately, the amount of

time you’ll be able to read the information off of that specific disc.

Unfortunately, CD-Rs are not the best way to store your photo images,

especially if the discs are cheap and won’t last very long. Brands don’t

matter in this selection, though, because even the best brands make

cheap CD-Rs – you have to look at the components of the CD-R itself.

Colors of the CDs give off hints to its longevity. A white silver that is

less expensive and widely used is more prone to oxidation due to its

reflective surface, therefore resulting in a nonreflective surface. Gold is

more expensive in CD-Rs and do not suffer from this problem. Some

paper paste-on labels have been linked to degradation of the CD-R’s

recording quality and surface, so permanent markers should be used

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to write on the top of your CDs to label them. Often, there are lines

already there to be filled in with your information.

For data archiving, the techie geeks in the CD-freaks forums voted the

best quality CD-R media to be the gold Mitsui discs and Plextor

premium discs. The MAM-A Gold on Gold Archival, rated for 300 years,

tested to be the best CD-R archival method because it’s the most

resistant to accelerated aging according to the Journal of Research of

the National Institute of Standards. The CD-R must be gold on gold,

not gold studio, gold medical, or other variants of gold, because it’s

resistant to temperature, humidity, and UV changes. The combination

of the layer bonding, lacquer quality, and reflective layer corrosion

resistance make this the best disc there is for archiving your

information. However, they are very expensive, and there could be

flaws in MAM-A discs just like there are in other discs.

Another way to keep from losing your memory is to burn two copies of

each file on two separate CDs; that way you can keep one stored

securely, while referring to the other one when you need the files

stored on it. You should keep your files stored in a cool, dark place

that is dry – doing this, they could last 100 years or more.

CD-R prices do correlate with quality, and some cheaper ones fail

within a few months, never even making that 1-3 year range you

expected to get from the CD-R. Perhaps the best thing you can do is

to conduct your own online research about quality CD-Rs. Researchers

use tests to determine accelerated aging, so they aren’t exactly

perfect, but they do provide a pretty good example as a good basis for

comparison. Some websites you may want to check out are

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www.cdrfaq.org, which covers frequently asked questions about

CD-Rs, and www.cdrfaq.org/faq07.html#S7-5, which is a specific

section on how long CD-Rs last.

Another tip is, don’t bother with CD-RWs because these will soon

become unreadable, and therefore, unusable; this will likely happen

right in the middle of something important you are trying to save.

The companies that manufacture CD-Rs are trying to extend the

capacity of the discs, which started out at 650MB or 70 minutes and

are now 700MB or 80 minutes. It may not be the disc quality that is

the problem when it comes to your CD-Rs, though; always check your

CD-R drive to see what came with your computer. You may not even

be aware that you can install better ones into your computer, like

Yamaha, Sony, TDK, Plextor, and Ricoh.

CD Media World names the best brands of CDs to be the following

brands:

HP

Mitsui

Philips

Sony

KAO

Ricoh

Pioneer

BASF

Kodak

3M

http://www.cdrfaq.org/�

http://www.cdrfaq.org/faq07.html#S7-5�

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Pioneer

TDK

Yamaha

3M

Sony

Philips

Boeder & Imation

Taiyo Yuden

These brands are manufactured by the following companies, in no

particular order:

Ricoh

Pioneer Video

Kodak Japan

TDK

Taiyo Yuden

Mitsui Chemicals

Dan Feildman

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Resources Computer And Internet Basics For Digital

Photographers - A Simple Guide That Shows Digital

Photographers How To Use Their Computer, And The Internet,

To Get The Most Out Of Their Camera

This fantastic guide covers all the basics like how to get photos off

your camera, how to make simple edits to them, how to store them

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Online Video Tutorials

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