Help a noob out

[nick1985]

So I am looking at getting a memory card for my GF's digital camera for a gift. The problem is, I dont own a digital camera and I know nothing about them. I started to browse amazon for memory cards Text


Are they all compatable, or do certain ones only fit certain cameras? Im not sure what she has, but I want to say its a Canon of some sort. Also, which is a good bang-for-the-buck?

thanks

 

[AndrewR]

You definitely need to know the exact model of the camera because you're right in stating that certain cameras only take certain cards. Canon will likely either use SD or CF, but you need to find out to be sure.

For the vast majority of consumer cameras, you don't need to worry about high speed cards of any sort. Also, even for a high megapixel camera (>7), the really high capacity cards are overkill. I have a 512MB for my 7.2MP Sony point & shoot camera, and it can hold around 100 pictures at the highest setting. Getting a 4GB card would mean about 800 pictures on one card -- which is really too many especially because if you lose the card, you lose a LONG series of pictures at one time.

Bottomline: 1GB is probably enough for most consumer cams. High speed isn't necessary. I always use Sandisk and Lexar, but others have reported good things for Transcend, A-Data, and several other "off brands". Find out what format you need: SD, CompactFlash (CF), xD [Olympus], Memory Stick/Memory Stick Duo [Sony].