The Life and Times of the Memory Card
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Today’s cameras are excellent. We see very few technical issues with any of them. When there are gripes, they often related to what we call a CODE6 which means problem exists 6 inches behind the viewfinder. Folks don’t like reading manuals.
One area that we should be aware of is the memory card. They use static memory which simply means that they can hold data without power being applied to sustain it. High quality memory cards, use high quality static memory. Low quality memory cards (read super cheap, or house brand) use less expensive static memory that has failed the tests that would qualify it as high end memory. Low end memory may come from the same factory as high end, but because it does not pass the high end QA gets sold off in lots.
Don’t Lose Images
The first rule of not losing images, is do not leave them on a card. Download them from the card to some other storage, hard drive, SSD, NAS whatever as soon as is convenient and CHECK them for integrity after doing so. Often the process of importing the images to your computer does both steps for you. Easy peasy.
The corollary to this is that a memory card is not a long term storage device. You may read opinions to the contrary. Opinions are everywhere, and in this case, the actual data shows that the opinion that it is ok to use a memory card as long term storage is wrong.
Static Memory Ages
While the quality of static memory has gotten better over the years, the reality is that it goes bad over time. Best practice is to pick an interval that is comfortable for you and to replace your memory cards on that interval. I choose three years. Some folks choose four years. Based on current technology, going longer is possible but the risk of data loss increases.
It’s pretty simple. I have a silver Sharpie pen. When I buy a card, I write the year and month on the card itself in silver sharpie. When three years has passed, that card gets broken with pliers and goes in the trash. I replace it with a new card. My new card typically costs about the same as the old card and stores up to four times as much information. A very fair exchange of value.
In Summary
We spend lots of money on our cameras and it is false economy to load them up with cheap cards. Choose whatever card maker you like. I prefer a card maker that gets only high end memory and so for me, I only buy SANdisk cards. My choice. I buy them through Amazon because the price is favourable and they keep stock. It is my experience that camera stores often focus on margin (house brand cards or third party cards have much richer margins) or price the name brand cards ridiculously high. While a good memory card is not yet a commodity, you aren’t getting something better by paying more for the same thing.
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I'm Ross Chevalier, thanks for reading, watching and listening and until next time, peace.
