How to choose SD memory card for your camera

Digital Camera these days come with lot of features, higher mega pixel and some of the basic cameras even have HD recording capabilities. Choosing the right SD memory card for your camera might be a tough one as there are too many brands and to many specifications in it.

Usually when you buy a camera, manufacturers give average or low capacity SD memory card free of cost. These memory cards are might be just enough to store some b'day party photos or some small events but are not good for high end DSLRs as these SD cards have lower storage space and lower transfer capacity. Choosing the right SD memory card plays an important role when you go for HD video recording and also when you use your camera for sports or wildlife photography where you will be clicking 4 to 8 shots per second. Each JPEG image might be around 1 to 4 MB where as each RAW image will be around 10 to 25 MB. So, if you have a DSLR which has higher fps (around 4 to 8 shots per second) then the data transfer rate or the write image data to your SD cards should be very high. And if you have a SD card with low data transfer rate then you might see delay between each click and there are chances that you might miss out some interesting shots.

I recently bought a memory card (from SanDisk) for my camera and I recommend the following memory cards for your digital cameras. Before buying, check for the SD memory cards (like SDHC or SDXC) supported by you camera.

• If you are using the very basic camera with no video recording or more like your mobile mobile phone camera then the standard SD memory card should be fine. All that you need is capacity. Just increase the capacity if you need. 


• For point & shoot cameras with higher mega pixel and HD recording, you can go for the same standard or to be on better side go for Ultra cards. More mega pixels means larger files, so a card with read-write speed of 30 MBps  and 8 to 16 GB should be more than enough.


• For entry to mid level DSLRs or basic full frame cameras you can go with the Ultra or to be on better side go for Extreme cards which has around 45 MBps read-write rate, has more capacity from 32 to 64 GB and SDHC cards.


• HD Video and higher fps means more data per shot, so its always better to go for Extreme or Extreme Pro for high end pro cameras  which has a a capacity of 95 MBps and 128 GB storage and SDXC cards.

Extreme Pro cards might be expensive but I'm sure when you spend so much for a high end camera this should be nothing. The name mentioned might be different for different brands. Note that these are my views and my recommendations. Please check the company website for more details on each of the memory cards that you buy.