Media Cards & Photos

Heading out on a Geographic shoot, I used to carry two bags on the plane: One held all my cameras, a full set of gear (discussed in depth in Chapter 2) that I needed to get the shoot done, a couple of camera bodies, necessary lenses, and a strobe. The other bag contained film. Lots and lots of film. If I was to be gone a month, this probably meant around 250 rolls of slow emulsions and fast, and possibly a bit of tungsten balance film for indoor

photography. It was a nice balance with the bags resting on either shoulder, about 25 pounds each. Added to the mix was having to get to the airport early to request a “hand check” on this mass of rolls, making sure the film never got too hot, and captioning each and every roll. Plus, I would regularly have to

ship film in, partly to make sure no equipment problems would require a reshoot.

These days, I still arrive at the airport early, but there’s no need to request a hand check on

my digital media, as it will not be impacted by                                        51

the x-rays used at the security check.

Several types of media are available to photographers now: CompactFlash (CF, the professionals’ choice) and Microdrive, xD cards (developed jointly by Olympus and Fujifilm), Sony’s Memory Stick (MS), Secure Digital (SD) cards, MultiMedia

Cards (MMC), and SmartMedia (SM) cards. All these cards serve the same purpose in photography: they store images.

This image of penguins r unning for cover was shot in the

Antarctic , and in the accompanying histogr am, it would appear to be too br ight, as the histogr am is heavily weighted toward overexposure . This is where the histogr am provides relative

infor mation with which you can react accordingly—here , the

whites are not overexposed, and the dar ker areas are proper ly

exposed. 50–200mm lens at 96mm, 1/400 second at f6.3, 100 ISO

52                                             A recent trend in digital camera design is the support of multiple types of media cards— the Olympus E-3 camera, for example, can use a CF or xD card, the newest Nikon D3x holds two CF cards, and the Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III holds a CF and an SD card. This second card allows the photographer to back up or copy an important image and provides additional storage.

A 16GB CompactFlash card

■ CompactFlash Most professional cameras use this old-timer of the digital realm. The early version of CF cards is Type 1, and the next and current version is Type II (2). Type II cards are thicker than Type 1 cards. Be aware that the Type II holder in your camera can handle a Type 1 card, but a Type 1 slot cannot hold a Type II. CF cards are currently available in sizes ranging from 16MB to a 16GB monster, and these cards also are available in different write speeds, which dictate

the speed at which the image is written to the card. The faster the write speed, the better. Upping the speed level, Lexar introduced the Ultra Direct Memory

Access (UDMA) card, and SanDisk created Extreme.

According to Jeff Cable, Lexar’s Director of Marketing, “UDMA technology enables CF cards to reach blazing new speeds. The new Lexar UDMA cards reach speeds of 300x, which translates to 45MB per second. To take full advantage of these cards, you must use the cards in a UDMA-enabled device (camera, card reader, and so on). Many of the new DSLR cameras support UDMA, which means that they can clear their internal buffers faster than ever, and the newer

card readers, such as the Lexar Professional UDMA FireWire 800 Reader or the Dual- Slot USB Reader, are UDMA compatible as well.”

Note Cards of 2GB or larger generally are FAT32 compatible. (FAT stands for the File Allocation Table.) FAT32 supports large drives along with an improved disk space efficiency better than the older FAT technology, which used 16 bits to address each cluster, up to a maximum card size of 2GB versus the 816GB capability of FAT32. Your camera must be compatible with the newer FAT32 system

to be able to use those larger cards. Check out Steve’s DigiCams site at www.steves- digicams.com/high-capacity_storage.html for a more thorough discussion and reference to other great sites. Steve’s site has links to Rob Galbraith’s excellent site on CompactFlash, as well as manufacturers’ compatibility sites.

■     Microdrives While these cards have the same dimensions and physical looks of a CF card, they are actually mini–hard drives used to store images. These cards will fit in a camera that is capable of holding a Type II CF card.

Note While you’ll save considerable money if you buy a 4GB Microdrive versus a 4GB

CF card, the Microdrives do have an Achilles’ heel. The drives are somewhat fragile, due

to the moving parts enclosed, and are sensitive to hard bumps, drops, or other physical mishandlings. However, I do know photographers who do the same kind of work I do and have had no problems with their Microdrives.

■     Secure Digital or MultiMedia Card These two cards are identical physically, but they vary internally.

SD and MMC cards can be used interchangeably in some cameras, while others will recognize only the SD cards. These cards might be the wave of the future, offering connectivity between many devices, fast speed, and potential huge capacity.

■     Memory Stick This Sony card is used primarily in Sony cameras and videocams and is available in sizes up to 4GB.

The Memory Stick Select card allowed older Sony cameras to use a 256MB MS card by using a switch on the back of the card. Memory Stick PRO cards are the latest version, with capacities up to 4GB. However, unless you are using the

Cyber-shot F717 that can utilize both                                             53

types of MS cards, the Memory Stick PRO will not work in cameras that were manufactured before 2003.

■     xD Cards A joint effort between Olympus and Fujifilm, these cards are very compact (about the size of a postage stamp) and have capacities of up to 8GB.

Note When using an Olympus camera, writing to an xD card is the only way to use the panoramic function.

Media Card Tips

A few years ago I was photographing my son, Matt, working through his Eagle Scout project as part of an assignment for Boys’ Life magazine. This was early in my conversion to digital, and I hadn’t had the opportunity to make the big mistakes and learn from those ugly processes. Sure enough, I had a major

hard disk crash, with no retrievable files left of a number of images of Matt and his project— and I had not backed up those files. Learn from my mistake so you don’t lose valuable photos! The following are some storage tips I’ve learned and tips I’ve picked up from talking to other pros:

■     If you’ve bought a camera with 6, 10, 14, or 24.5 megapixel potential, make sure you use it! I hear amateurs say they are going to shoot smaller files on their cameras, SQs (super quality) or HQs (high quality), which will allow more images per card. But those space-saving 640 × 480 photos won’t have the quality

54                                            to print that once-in-a-lifetime photo large. Camera media is relatively cheap; buy as large as you can afford. I always carry at least two additional cards as a minimum. Presently, I’m using 8GB cards in each camera.

■     After you have downloaded images to your computer and to a separate CD or DVD (as part of that redundant storage), and you are ready to erase the card to shoot more, don’t do a simple erase.

Instead, do a format after reinserting the card. Your camera model will write specific data files to the card, and it’s

better to start clean with a card formatted for your camera. An erase leaves the data from prior uses on the card. Also, when placing a new card in the camera, format it immediately.

■     Carry a “digital wallet” to store extra cards, both empty and full. Get into the habit of marking cards that have been shot as well as those that are empty. Lexar makes a great media wallet with mesh pockets topped with red and green flags. The flag with the red side showing

indicates a used card, and the empty cards are flagged with green.

■     Your camera purchase should be influenced by the card type. Is the card technology going to be around in five years? CF and SD are a very safe bet at this point.

■     This sounds obvious, but write your name on whatever kind of media card you’re using. I’ve seen photographers working

together on projects and inevitably media cards will be brought out for

downloading. When five Lexar 4GB cards are lying on the table, it’s a lot of effort

to load, open, and determine which card belongs to whom.

The following definitions are applicable to both film and digital, and any photographer should fully understand them.