Choosing the Best Memory Card For Your Digital Camera

Which brand of memory card should I buy? Does it make a difference? How big of a card do I need? Is one large card better than multiple small cards? Does the speed rating of the card matter? This article was written to help answer these exact questions.

Choosing the Best Memory Card For Your Digital Camera

Choosing the Best Memory Card For Your Digital Camera

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Choosing the Best Memory Card For Your Digital Camera

Choosing the Best Memory Card For Your Digital Camera

Cameras and lenses can be easily replaced, especially if they are insured. Those images from the three-week safari, your relatives wedding, or your summer long European tour, simply can't.

Memory Card Reliability

The first thing to look at is the memory card itself. Most entry level and amateur level cameras use SD (Secure Digital) memory cards. Most professional and prosumer cameras use CF (Compact Flash cards). In general,Compact Flash cards tend to cost more, but offer higher read/write speeds, larger capacities and be less prone to failure than the Secure Digital Cards. This article will focus on those two card types.

While there are many manufacturers of memory cards out there, the top tier, and the choice of the vast majority of pros, SanDisk and Lexar are. These are also the only two brands than Nikon tests with and recommends.

SanDisk claims to MTBF (Mean Time Before Failure) of over 1.000 .000 hours-that's almost 115 years before the average card fails. Their cards are rated for over 10.000 insertions. A sophisticated defect and error management system can rewrite data from a defective sector to a good sector on the fly. SanDisks built inCode Error Detection and Error Correction Code to try to recover corrupted data automatically.

The regular (blue) SanDisk CF card has an operating temperature range from 0° C to 70° C (32° F to 158° F). The Extreme III cards are rated with an operating range of -25° C to 85° C ( -13° F to 185° F). They can withstand a shock of 2, 000 g (or about a 10 ft drop onto a concrete floor). Hard-drives can only withstand a 200-300 g shock--a drop of less than 2 foot.

SanDisk shares less than 1 non-recoverable error in every 10 ^ 14 bits read (or one error for every 12.5 terabytes of data-or one out of every million 12.5 Mb RAW files, or one out of every three million End JPEGs).

Overall the reliability from their Compact Flash cards issignificantly better than even the best hard drives on the market today.

One important note: there are many fake SanDisk cards in the marketplace. Some of these are cheaper manufacturers SanDisk cards with stickers and packaging. Some are custom made with no quality control and put into SanDisk looking boxes. Our best advice is to only buy from a reputable retailer like Amazon.com or BHp Laptop with me so I can backup my cards every evening. Some days I may only take a dozen shots, butit's also not unknown for me to take several thousand shots in a day if I'm at an event with a lot of action.

On a Nikon D200 containing a blank 8 GB SanDisk card, the camera claims 480 shots are available for RAW shooting. This number is usually conservative, as the size of the RAW file varies. My Nikon D300 regularly gets around 700 shots on an 8 GB card using Lossless Compressed NEF files. If you switch the D200 to Fine JPEG, it shows 1.300 shots available. If you select RAW plus JPEG Fine, it shows 354 shots available. Your cameras manual will contain a table showing similar data for your particular model.

There are conflicting opinions as to if one large card is better, or if many smaller cards are. The argument for smaller cards ISA,that if your card fails or you drop your camera in the ocean, you lose less data. The argument for larger cards, is card failure is very rare, and largely recoverable. You also risk a much higher chance of dropping a card, getting it wet, sitting on it, losing it, accidentally erasing it, forgetting it or leaving it in your hotel room if you are managing multiple cards.

There are other things to consider also. Uploading to computer can take a long time-putting in one large card and leaving it to upload is a lot less work than multiple smaller swapping cards and uploading each one manually. A 4 GB size card is ideal if you back up to DVD-it's the largest card size that will completely fit onto a DVD, makingthe back up a simple drag and drop.

There is no right or wrong answer, we've standardized on 8 GB Compact Flash cards -mainly because they hold a decent number of shots and usually offer the best price per gigabyte. I'll carry up to ten of them with me when I'm traveling. As larger cards become more common and prices drop further, we'll go to larger sized cards. The most important thing is to make sure you have enough memory card space to last you until you can upload them to a computer-it's better to have more than you need than not enough.

Card Speed: How Fast Do I Need?

Memory cards come in a wide range of speeds, and the faster the card, the more expensive. How fast of a card you need depends ona number of items:

Is how long it takes for the images to upload to computer is important to you? If you are uploading via cable from your camera, your upload speed is limited by the camera. If you are using a CF of SD reader, you are limited by the speed of that. For the absolute fastest uploads, use a card that supports UDMA (like the SanDisk Extreme IV Ducati 's, SanDisk, and Lexar 300 x) in a FireWire reader. For example, the SanDisk Ultra II 8 GB card claims to 15 Mb/second read speed, so that would take almost 9 minutes to upload on an optimally configured system. The 8 GB Ducati card claims to 45 MB/second speed, so would take less than three minutes to upload.Which camera do you use? The Nikon D200 does not support UDMA, so even though an ExtremeIV is faster on it than an Extreme III, the card is much slower than it is in the D300-the D300 can handle a much faster data transfer rate. How likely are you to fill the buffer room? If you shoot landscape or take several minutes to compose each shot, then you don't need a fast card. If you are shooting non-stop action and taking sequence after sequence at 8 FPS, you'll need as fast a card as possible. Cameras like the D200 and D300 have a big enough onboard buffer to store about 17 shots if you are shooting RAW. Once you've taken a picture, the camera writes it to the memory card and erases it from the buffer as soon as it can. Once the buffer is full, the camera won't let you take another picture until it's written an image to the memory> card and made room in the buffer. If you are using an Ultra II card in a Nikon D300, this means you may only be able to take a shot every 2-3 seconds when the buffer is full. If you are using a Ducati card, you may still be able to manage a couple of frames a second. Then if you stop shooting, the Ultra II may take a minute or so to get the buffer is cleared and all written to the card. The Ducati card will allow the camera to write the images to the card and clear the buffer in seconds.

If you take your time to compose each shot, and upload speed isn't important to you, then memory card speed isn't important. If you are shooting action or sports and use a rapid frame rate frequently, then you want the fastest card, andthe room, that you can afford.

Data Recovery Whether you've accidentally removed your memory card while the camera was still writing, deleted or formatted the wrong card, or the card has developed an error, it's usually possible to retrieve some, if not all of the lost data.

The higher end cards from both SanDisk and Lexar as with their respective data recovery software packages on the CD. SanDisk's RescuePro is called, and Lexar's is called Image Rescue. Both are reputed to be very effective. A third part solution called PhotoRescue is also widely used and reputedly better than both SanDisk and Lexar's offerings, fortunately we've not had the need to find out.

In Summary

Choosing the Best Memory Card For Your Digital Camera

What is EDI?

"Have you heard someone mention EDI (Electronic Data Interchange) or eCommerce
and wondered what it was? Simply put, eCommerce is the exchange of information
about trading goods, services, or money from computer to computer. For example,
the purchase of a widget (s) over the internet, paying a bill, tracking an overnight
package delivery, or receiving a paycheck electronically.

What is EDI?

What is EDI?

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What is EDI?

What is EDI?

Now imagine you're a company. You want to do the same transactions, but
thousands of times a day. That is where EDI steps in. EDI is an agreed upon
standard message that exchanges information from one computer application to
another with the minimum of human intervention. And 95% of all eCommerce uses
EDI to exchange that information. It can be done withspecial software via email,
across the Internet, or by customized connections. And it goes beyond just
purchasing goods and submitting invoices. A company can request information
about inventory levels in it's suppliers ' and customers ' warehouses, receive an order
status; and send funds electronically along with automatic notification that an
invoice was paid. These are just a few of the many types of automated transactions

EDI is not something new. As a matter of fact, it is much older than you might
think. Yet to some industries it is only a few years old. And the health industry of
the United States had to be mandated by the Federal government before they dared
venture into EDI.

Who uses EDI? And how and where did it allstart? What are the benefits? What are
the costs? What are the legalities? And why, with all the apparent advantages, do
some industries balk at switching to EDI? Well let's start at the beginning to see
how it all came about.

Who uses EDI?

About 90% of the fortune 1000 companies currently use EDI. Companies such as
American Airlines, BMW, Coca-cola, Dunkin Donuts, Eastman Kodak, Federal
Express, Gordmans, Heinz, InFocus, JCPenney, Kohls, Macys, Lowes, Nike,
Openheimer, Prudential Insurance, Queens City Government, Radio Shack, Staples,
Texaco, United Airlines, Verizon, Wachovia, and Yokohama Tires to name but a few.
EDI is widely used in manufacturing, shipping, warehousing, utilities,
pharmaceuticals,construction, petroleum, metals, food processing, banking,
insurance, retailing, government, health care, and textiles among other industries.

Any company that buys or sells goods or services can potentially use EDI. Because it
supports the entire business cycle, EDI can streamline the relationship that any
company has with its customers, distributors, suppliers, and so forth. According to
a recent study, the number of companies using EDI is projected to quadruple within
the next six years.

History of EDI

The first recorded EDI dates back to the 1850s when the railroads and Western
Union used the telegraph to communicate business information. Starting there,
Samuel Morse's patented code was the single method used to communicateacross
the lines.

In 1948 during the Berlin Airlift, thousands of tons of food and consumables were
needed to be air-freighted. The task of coordinating these consignments (which
arrived with differing manifests, languages and numbers of copies) was addressed
by devising a standard manifest.

In the late 1950 's and early 1960 's the rise of computer enabled companies to store
and process data electronically, companies needed an expedient "method to
communicate the data. This method was realized by the widespread use of
computer telecommunications. Using telecommunications, companies could
transmit data electronically over telephone lines, and have the data input directly
into a trading partner's business application. These electronicinterchanges
improved response time, reduced paperwork, and eliminated the potential for
transcription errors. Computer telecommunications, however, only solved part of
the problem.
Early electronic interchanges were based on proprietary formats agreed between two
trading partners. Due to differing document formats, it was difficult for a company
to exchange data electronically with many trading partners. What was needed was a
standard format for the data being exchanged. In 1968 the United States
Transportation Data Coordinating Committee (TDCC) was formed, to coordinate the
development of translation rules among four existing sets of industry-specific
standards.

In the mid 1970 's, it was clear that the TDCC standards were notenough, and work
began for national EDI standards. The Electronic Data Interchange Association
(EDIA), a non-profit organization set out to serve as an administrator for several
different industry groups. Each industry served has a committee to determine new
standards, modify existing ones, and pass the information on to the EDIA for
publication and distribution. EDIA was asked to develop a set of standards
applicable to the grocery industry. The first such standard is The Uniform
Communication Standard (UCS) which was applied to an actual transaction by the
Quaker Oats Company in 1981.

In 1979 the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) Accredited Standards
Committee (ASC) was formed. It included representatives fromtransportation,
government & computer manufacturer industries, The committee's first meeting
took place in Rosslyn, Virginia with the goal to create a set of standard data formats
based on the TDCC structure that:

-were independent hardware;

-were unambiguous, such that they could be used by all trading partners;

-reduced the labor-intensive tasks of exchanging data (e.g., data re-entry);

-allowed the sender of the data to control the exchange, including knowing if and
when the recipient received the transaction.

In 1982, Version 1 of the ANSI ASC certified release of X 12 standards draft was
published.

At about the same time, the U.K. Department of Customs and Excise, with the
assistance of SITPRO (the BritishSimplification of Trade Procedures Board), was
developing its own standards for documents used in international trade, called
Tradacoms. These were later extended by the United Nations Economic Commission
for Europe (UNECE) into what became known as the GTTO (General-purpose Trade
Data Interchange standards), and were gradually accepted by some 2.000 British
exporting organizations.

Problems created by the trans-Atlantic use of two different (and largely
incompatible) sets of standardized documents have been addressed by the
formation of a United Nations Joint European and North American working party
(UN-JEDI), which began the development of the Electronic Data Interchange for
Administration, Commerce and Transport (EDIFACT) documenttranslation
standards.

Early on, Value Added Networks (VANs) served as an "electronic post office" for
buyers and suppliers that needed to exchange data. For example, Company A could
send an electronic purchase order to the VAN and Company B could go to the VAN
to pick it up. If Company B claimed it did not receive the purchase order, the VAN
would serve as a third-party intermediary and would validate whether the purchase
order had in fact been picked up or not. That is the type of "value-add" these
networks provided.

Despite the benefits, EDI VAN had limited adoption because it was cost-prohibitive
for most companies to deploy. Before Internet EDI became available, approximately
80% of the suppliers in any given supply chain werecommunicating with their
customers manually via fax, telephone and snail mail because they could not afford
the investment required for EDI VAN. This resulted in inefficiencies throughout the
supply chain including: lost or mis-keyed purchase orders, late invoices, out-of-
stocks, etc.

With the advent of secure Internet EDI, companies of every size are now able to
transact electronically with their trading partners. And VAN services such as
"Message Disposition Notifications (MDNs) are built right into the software
products.

Benefits of EDI

Consider a very simple non-EDI-based purchase: A buyer decides he needs 365
widgets. He creates a purchase order, prints it out and pops it in the mail. When
the supplier gets theorder, she types it into her company's computer system. The
inventory guy pulls the order and ships out the widgets. Next, the supplier prints
out and mail an invoice. It's not hard to imagine that this process could take
several days. EDI has the potential to cut massive amounts of time out of the
process. Sending documents, such as purchase orders or invoices, electronically
takes minutes, not days, and shipments can often go out the day the order comes
ins.

Moreover, the electronic format does not need to be re-keyed upon arrival. And
that is the part of the biggest benefit of EDI. This saves a tremendous amount of
labor time, and means that no data entry errors are introduced into your system by
your staff. Cycle times arereduced, and data entry backlogs are almost completely
eliminated. This allows for very quick order processing. A proper system can easily
handle receiving an order and shipping that order with its invoice the same day.
Studies indicate that the average reduction in turn around time is about 40% for
most business functions like order fulfillment, procurement, manufacturing,
logistics and finance.

This often allows a company that first implements EDI to handle far greater volumes
without adding personnel and other costs. This means increased sales and
increased revenues once the initial investment in EDI is recaptured.
These savings come from:

or No data entry errors from your operators

or No mail time

or Reduced laborprocessing costs and time

or Reduced lead times

or Reduced order cycle time

or Reduced inventory carrying costs

or not filing and other processing of paperwork

EDI improves margins by meeting customer demands and consequently
strengthening relationships. It also allows time and effort to be focused on other
internal priorities.

Studies have shown that processing a purchase order or invoice costs most
companies about $ 5 in paper, postage, handling, direct labor and other such odds
and ends of direct costs. With EDI this can be reduced to about 50 cents;
sometimes as little as 13 cents, depending on how the EDI document is transmitted.
If your direct handling costs are greater, the savings is greater.

Another benefit isthe implementation of Just-In-Time (JIT) order process
methodology. With Just-in-Time, a company can avoid stock-outs and/or obsolete
inventories, reduce lead times on ordering from suppliers and reduce inventory
carrying costs. Whether implementing a subset or the whole of the JIT process
methodology, EDI is what makes Just-In-Time possible and allows it to be feasible.
With the proper agreements between trading partners, a manufacturer can
determine the current sales of their buyers and their buyers ' current inventory
levels. Therefore the manufacturer can forecast probable future sales and plan
production and their own purchasing accordingly. Obviously there will occasionally
be wild fluctuations that will disturb this scenario, but it doeshelp the manufacturer
to accurately plan production, and the purchaser to know that their needs will more
likely be met by their suppliers.

Just-In-Time helps the manufacturer communicate quickly and inexpensively with
their suppliers, who may be using the same forecasting to meet the requirements of
their customers.

Disadvantages of EDI

The biggest disadvantage implementing EDI is it reveals inefficient business
practices. If a company's business process was inefficient before EDI, they will be
multiply with the implementation of EDI. The original purpose of EDI was to save
money and time. When used improperly, EDI does neither, and actually wastes both.

Costs of EDI

What is EDI?

How to Recover Photos Deleted From Disk Or SD XD Card

Digital cameras have become an integral part of our lives; we use them on regular occasions in order to store our precious memories. The days of taking photos on film and then having them developed are a thing of the past and these days all our photos are stored on a memory card such as an SD Card, XD Card, MMC Card etc. Digital Cameras have many advantages over normal cameras, however the one major problem with them, is what do you do if you accidentally delete a picture from your memory card? Is there any way to recover deleted photos from a SD Disk or XD Card?

How to Recover Photos Deleted From Disk Or SD XD Card

How to Recover Photos Deleted From Disk Or SD XD Card

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How to Recover Photos Deleted From Disk Or SD XD Card

How to Recover Photos Deleted From Disk Or SD XD Card

Well if you somehow managed to delete a picture off your SD card that you really needed, I think you will be pleased to know that inmost cases your file hasn't been permanently erased and it can still be retrieved and restored. Even if the memory card has been damaged, corrupted or formatted, it is still possible to restore the photos; with the aid of a good photo recovery tool you can get your photos back very easily. However you must act fast!

The reason you must act quickly is because, when you delete a photo from your memory card it isn't actually permanently erased, all that has happened is that the space occupied by that photo is now available for re-use space. So until that space is King-used and overwritten by new data (new photos) your pictures are still there and can be easily restored. Hence you must act quickly and not take many new photos, because the new pictures you take mayoverwrite the old space occupied by your deleted photos.

Here are some common situations that occur to most digital camera users who wish to recover deleted photos from their SD Card-

They see the message:

1. "Media is not formatted would you like to format now?" or "Memory Card Not Formatted"

This a common error among many users and if you have a lot of pictures on your storage device which you would like to recover then don't panic! All your pictures can be restored, all you need to do is grab a hold of a good photo recovery program and you will be home and hosed.

2. "They wish to recover photos after they format SD Card or accidentally hit the Delete-All Button"

If you have accidentally used the Delete-Alloption on your camera or formatted the memory card, you can still recover your deleted photos from the SD Card if you act quickly. The reason the files are still recoverable is due to the fact that the Memory device won't overwrite the data immediately, so until you take any new pictures or download new data all of your old pictures will still be there.

Therefore if you wish to recover deleted photos from SD Disks or XD Cards then you must obtain a good picture recovery software, and you should have all your favorite photos back within minutes. The good news is that most recovery programs offer a free download, so you can try and see if your photos are recoverable at absolutely no cost.

How to Recover Photos Deleted From Disk Or SD XD Card