Memory cards come in many different physical sizes and shapes. Memory capacities also come in many different sizes ranging from 512MByte/s to 128 GByte along with data transfer rates (DTR) 2MByte/s to 90MByte/s. That is about to change with the news of the Secure Digital Extended Capacity memory card, due 2010.
Most of all the major manufactures make all today's memories cards with their own brand names and tiles of the cards such as, Extreme, Ultra, ProMac, Ducati Edition. The cards come in different capacities along with different data transfer rates (DTR ), but all these manufactures keep to within the SD and CF format.
Sony products the memory stick because Sony haven't chosen to support SD and CF formats, but they are the only one.
Not being able to list them all but just to give an insight into the cards available.
The names of some of the major manufactures
SanDisk, Toshiba, Kingston, Hitachi, Lexar, Wintec, Transcend. (To name but a few)
Listed below some of the memory cards in use in today's market.
SECURE DIGITAL (SD).
SD, MINI SD, MICRO SD
SECURE DIGITAL HIGH CAPACITY (SDHC).
STANDARD SDHC, MINI SDHC, MICRO SDHC
SECURE DIGITAL EXTENDED CAPACITY(SDXC).
STANDARD SDXC, MINI SDXC, MICRO SDXC
SDIF (SDIO).
SDHC ULTRA II.
SDHC EXTREME II.
SDHC EXTREME III, SDHC EXTREME IV
SDHC EXTREME PRO.
VIDEO HD.
SD VIDEO FD
COMPACT FLASH (CF).
CF TYPE I, CF TYPE 2, MICRODRIVE, SD ULTRA II
SD EXTREME II SD EXTREME III
XD PICTURE CARD (XD).
STANDARD XD, TYPE M, TYPE M+, TYPE H
MULIT MEDIA (MMC).
STANDARD MMC/MMC PLUS
MEMORY STICK (MS).
The Memory Sticks are used only by SONY products.
STANDARD M/S, M/S PRO, M/S PRO DUO, M/S PRO HG D, M/S MICRO M2
VIDEO CONSOLES.
PLAYSTATION 2, NINTENDO, WII
MINI DV CASSETTE.
MINI DVD.
Looking at the listed memory cards above along with the different manufactures brand names, it may seem like a mine field. Different sizes, knowing which card to choose? How do I choose the right card? And is one better than the other? That will come with experience, using a well branded card will certainly help. Future pages will be on selecting the right card, watch this space.
