Storage Capacity
Some of the older cameras - like Polaroid's PDC2000/40 and the Olympus D300L - simply stored images in the camera's internal memory. When you filled up the capacity of such a camera, you were forced to download your files to a computer to free up more space. (Being limited in this way is very rare nowadays... if you come across such a digital camera - one with only internal memory and no capacity for removable storage - my advice is to walk away and continue shopping.
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If you are forced to use such a digital camera, one thing can help you tremendously - an LCD monitor. In fact, this is an essential feature to have, even if you are not having storage problems. Having a monitor on the camera becomes a huge help in such situations because it allows you to view and selectively erase images while you are still out in the field.
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If you can, be sure to buy a camera that utilizes removable media such as a CompactFlash, Smartmedia or other PC card. A PC Card (a.k.a. Flash RAM, PCMCIA Card, etc.) allows you to store photos on an external device and expand the memory of your camera so that it will hold more pictures.
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©Jim Miotke
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Much like a floppy disk, the card is activated as the memory storage area of choice simply by inserting it into the card slot. Two important issues in regard to PC cards:
- 1. These cards can be fairly expensive. Depending on how many megabytes of storage are on the card, it can cost a lot of money.
- 2. When a camera manufacturer invests in a PC card slot, it does not invest much in internal storage. This means that in order to get more than, say, 7-10 high-quality pictures in the camera at any one time, you need to buy an PC card up front and this adds to your initial cost.
There are many different PC card formats out there but the most popular seems to be CompactFlash. There are two types commonly used - the thin Type II flash RAM cards that most consumer level cameras use, and the thicker Type III mini hard drives that most high end cameras use. These Type III drives can be less expensive per megabyte but may also be more fragile since they do have moving parts (a little spinning drive inside).
Whichever way you choose to store your images, both the internal memory in the camera and the memory in a card or drive store information in a way that allows you to free up more memory by erasing files; when you erase an image, regardless of where that file is on the memory space, you are rewarded with more space available for additional images.
Digital Camera Comparison
After you read these pages, remember to try our digital camera calculators or our digital camera comparison charts - which make finding the best digital cameras easy.
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