Don’t be a memory cheapskate/Memory card size in Photography
Buy the fastest memory cards you can afford to minimize the time it takes for your camera to write each shot to the media, and how long you’ll have to wait before you can take the next shot. Wait too long and you’ll miss something.
Cards are ranked using a simple class system, where the class number is simply the number of megabytes the card can store per second. So, your camera will be able to write to a Class 4 card at up to 4 MBps, and a Class 10 card at up to 10 MBps. Faster cards are more expensive, so if you’re having trouble justifying to yourself the extra expense, compare them to the speed boost you get from upgrading the memory in your PC or Mac.
Size really is everything
Think carefully about how you want to balance the convenience of carrying fewer large cards with the security of traveling with a larger number of lower capacity ones. On the one hand you’ll spend less time swapping 16GB cards than 2GB media, but if you lose a single 16GB card, or it corrupts, you could lose all of the shots from your trip.
Splitting them across several cards, and locking full cards in your hotel safe so you’re only carrying around empty cards plus the one on your camera means you’ll be taking fewer risks with your digital memories.
Memory cards might not have any moving parts, but that doesn’t mean they don’t wear out. On the contrary they each have a finite life, and every time you write to, delete from or read the card you’re bringing it another step closer to the end of that life. If you don’t want to risk corrupting your pictures far from home, replace heavily used cards every couple of years.
