Finding the Right SDHC Card for Your Flash Camcorder
If you’re contemplating the purchase of a flash memory camcorder, you’ll probably want and extra flash memory card to go with it. Most flash camcorders these days use what’s called a SDHC (Secure Digital High Capacity) card. They’re about an inch and a half by an inch long and about as thick as a credit card. They’re not all the same though so lets take a look at 3 things you need to look at in a SDHC memory card.
The first thing is type. If you have a camcorder that uses SDHC make sure the card you by is SDHC and says that. There are older cards SD cards that aren’t high capacity they’re only available under 2 gigabytes. The high capacity card will be at least 2 gigabytes (or more). There are also several different card formats out there and although they look very similar they aren’t the same. For example Sony uses a compact flash card on some models that will need an adaptor to work, some models use and SDHC card, but some still use their own proprietary card, the memory stick. The Memory Stick and an SDHC card look fairly different but the SDHC and compact flash card look very similar. If you get the compact flash card then you’ll also need an adaptor. If you’re looking for a still Camera then Olympus also uses its own proprietary type of media, so make sure you get one you know will match.
The next thing to look for is memory speed. SDHC cards come in different classes, class 2 is common for still cameras, but isn’t fast enough for a camcorder. Think about what a still camera does, it takes pictures periodically, when a video camera in effect takes up to 30 pictures a second. All those pictures need to be written to the card quickly or you create a bottleneck. Think about it like this: if you send a car or two down a 1 lane road, you’ve got no problems, the road can handle it, but if you send a thousand cars down the road you’ve got a traffic jam. The card has to be quick enough to store every frame of video before the next one comes. For a flash camcorder you’ll need at least a Class 4 card depending on your camera, but a Class 6 is even better, and specified for most flash memory video cameras.
The third thing you need to look for is size. A 2 gigabyte card will work, but you’ll have to be changing it often especially if you use full quality video. Go for at least an 8 Gig card, as of this writing it’s probably the most cost effective. The 16 Gig cards can be a little pricey, and usually an 8 Gig will be enough. Again make sure it’s an SDHC card, a regular SD card will be under 2 gigs (remember the HC means High Capacity).
It’s not too hard to find the correct card for your flash camcorder, the regular SD cards are slowly being phased out in favor of the new high capacity cards. The most important thing for you to check is the speed. Your camcorder should tell you what speed (Class) you need, and the card should have the class on it. Don’t try to save money y getting a lower class of card than you need.
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