Memory cards: All your questions answered

By Randolph Ramsay on 27 February 2009

Secure Digital (SD) / Secure Digital High Capacity (SDHC)
The postage stamp size Secure Digital (SD) card is the most popular type of memory card on the market. Its small size, large capacity and robust design has made it common in everything from cameras to MP3 players. Other advantages include relatively high speed data transfer, a mechanical write protect switch to protect data and built-in copyright protection technology.

Size 32 x 24 x 2.1mm
Capacity Available from 32MB to 2GB (SD), 4GB to 32GB (SDHC)
Typically found in Digital cameras, PDAs, mobile phones, camcorders, MP3 players, televisions, DVD recorders
Manufacturers Lexar, SanDisk, Kingston Technology, Verbatim (Pretec), Panasonic, Kingmax, Fujifilm

miniSD
miniSD cards use the same technology as SD cards, meaning users get all of the advantages of an SD but in a smaller package. These smaller SD cards are used in smaller devices such as mobile phones and MP3 players. minds cards are usually sold with an adaptor which allows you to use the card in a normal SD slot.

Size 21 x 20 x 1.4mm
Capacity Available from 32MB to 2GB
Typically found in Mobile phones that offer storage-intensive multimedia features
Manufacturers Lexar, SanDisk, Kingston Technology, Verbatim (Pretec), Kingmax

microSD (TransFlash)
An even smaller SD variant, the microSD format is currently most popular with mobile phone manufacturers due to its extremely small size. They're almost too small to comfortably hold and swap in and out of devices - be careful when you're handling these little units.

Size Approximately 15 x 115 x 1mm
Capacity Available from 16MB to 2GB
Typically found in Mobile phones that offer storage-intensive multimedia features
Manufacturers SanDisk, Kingmax.

SmartMedia
SmartMedia was once the dominant card format when it came to digital photography, but it has been superseded in the past few years by more recent formats like SD. Part of fall could be attributed to its low capacity -- SmartMedia peaked at 128MB in its heyday. While new devices mainly support other card formats, manufacturers are still making SmartMedia cards for use in older equipment.

Size 45 x 37 x 0.7mm
Capacity Available from 64MB to 128MB
Typically found in Older model digital cameras and PDAs
Manufacturers Lexar, SanDisk, Kingston Technology, Verbatim (Pretec), Kingmax, Fujifilm

xD-Picture Card
The xD-Picture Card is yet another proprietary memory card format, this time developed by Olympus and Fujifilm for use in their digital photography products. xD-Picture Cards have been designed to minimise power consumption and therefore save battery life.

Size 20 x 25 x 1.78mm
Capacity Available from 32MB to 2GB
Typically found in Digital cameras from Fujifilm and Olympus
Manufacturers Lexar, SanDisk, Olympus, Fujifilm

Topics: storage, xd, formats, mmc, duo, sd, pro, media, flash, memory, sdhc, cf, compactflash, memory stick

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Comments (163)

  • mudpuppy commented on 01/07/2009 18:09 Report abuse

    I bought a 4 GB SD card for a Nikon 4600 and the Camera will not work with the SDcard. Anyideas on how to fix this?

  • pegcove@comcast.net commented on 29/06/2009 13:50 Report abuse

    I INSERTED 1GB INTO SLOT INSIDE MY COMPUTER. WHERE IS THERE ANOTHER SLOT TO INSERT ANOTHER 1GB.

  • Steph commented on 21/06/2009 15:25 Report abuse

    I have a XD memory adapter and when I put my SD card in it and plug it into the computer nothing happens..it used to bring the pictures straight up onto my computer...does anyone know why it might not be working

  • lefthook604 commented on 07/06/2009 03:04 Report abuse

    I bought a bigger memory card for my psp. Can I move downloaded games from my old card to my new one?

  • alyssa commented on 30/05/2009 18:01 Report abuse

    i deleted all the pictures from my olympus and it says i only have 35.8 mb when i have a 1 gb memory card, and now i cant take as many pictures as i would like.... how come when i deleted the pictures from my camera the memory didnt turn back to 1 gb.... or any more than 35.8 mb

  • summerbreeze commented on 24/05/2009 21:25 Report abuse

    i have a samsung g600 (or something). anyway, it has the memory card that it came with, but for some reason its stopped working. it comes up with "not allowed" when i try to enter it. helpp!

  • libbyh commented on 24/05/2009 07:40 Report abuse

    Hi, I am new to this site. I stumbled upon it while trying to figure out why I can no longer upload pictures to my PC from my memory card. I hope that someone can help, I see a lot of very knowlegeable people are here so maybe it is the right place:) Here is my problem, I have a Sony Cybershot DSC-H7 my dog ate my old memory card which I just used and uploaded pics from a week ago. It was a San Disk Memory Stick Pro Duo 2.0 I went to Walmart and bought the verys same one except it is 8GB. I put it in the camera, it works fine and it takes pictures and keeps them. But, when I put the card into my computer the box that used to pop up does not appear. I use Adobe photoshop, so I go in there and hit, get photos. A default box pops up and I select "From Camera, Mobile Phone or Card Reader. Then a new box pops up and gives me 2 options F:\< camera or card reader is one of the options and the other is I:\< camera or card reader. I can select either one and I get a default pop up code that says: Failed to obtain thumbnails from the devise. The devise is not connected or is busy. Also in the other box where it asks me to select a devise it says: Location C:\...\2009-05-23-1631-03 Does anyone have any idea what the heck I can do? This is driving me nuts. Thanks in advancefor reading this book and for any help you can offer:) Libby

  • Carolyn commented on 22/05/2009 07:31 Report abuse

    I have a Nikon CoolPix P90 and am using a 4G memory card. My computer cannot read it. Is there a way I can make my computer support this size card?

  • dimitarse1 commented on 11/05/2009 05:55 Report abuse

    i have nokia 6131 with 512mb microsd memory card,i put password on it a longgg time ago and i have forgotten it,now i cannot access my memory card,can anybody tell me if there is a way to crack the password thx

  • rose commented on 29/04/2009 14:20 Report abuse

    it looks good to use it.

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