The technological advances in digital devices in the last couple of years have been nothing short of staggering. New cellphones are capable of (slowly) taking 8 megapixel photos and point & shoot digital cameras have added burst modes, sweep panoramic capabilities and the ability to shoot HD video. DSLR's like the Canon 7D can shoot up to 8 frames a second along with HD. Fortunately, memory card manufacturers have kept up with the camera Joneses by reformulating their cards to keep up with these new innovations. But it'll help you to know that all memory cards are NOT the same! We've found that many box stores and other electronic retailers have been selling memory cards with a inexpensive price tag to make their kit outfits attractive. Fair enough, but the card that you get may not handle the high speed and video features of the new crop of cameras. You'll need an SDHC card with a class rating of at least "4" for the newer cameras to work properly. From our friends at the SD Association (a cooperative of memory card manufacturers) comes this explanation:  "The SD High-Capacity (SDHC) card provides more removable storage power than ever before. With a capacity range starting at 4GB and going up to 32GB, developers have the choice to specify three data-writing speeds at guaranteed minimum data transfer rates. We have has established a new specification rating for the minimum data transfer for standard and high-capacity cards, as well as both types of host products. With the new Speed Class specifications, the host product can check the fragmented state in the card and calculate the write speed in each part of the card.  The host can then determine where to write the data according to its speed requirement.  The three most common SDHC speed classes - Class 2, Class 4 and Class 6 - transfer data at least 2, 4 and 6MB per second". We've found that these new cards "preserves photographic integrity and raises the memory performance bar by guaranteeing minimum — more important than maximum — performance rates. This large capacity is essential for use with a variety of digital content types — especially with high-quality video".   We're proud to be a PROMASTER Dealer & exclusively sell PROMASTER SD & Compact Flash cards to our customers. Today's professional digital cameras capture the highest resolution images ever, at lightning fast speeds. The large images they produce, however, can load your cameras buffer and ultimately make you wait to take the next picture. PROMASTER's Professional High Speed SDHC Secure Digital memory cards are designed to give you the fastest performance SDHC enabled camera or device . Our best selling SD card (a 4GB SDHC) has a 155x write speed & is class 10, easily able to handle the increased demands of these new cameras. For only $14.99, you'll be assured you have the best possible memory device available & they feature a LIFETIME warranty. And we've just received the new batch of  16 & 32 GB "Class 10" cards for even faster performance! Please note that The Secure Digital 2.0 standard (SDHC) is NOT backwards compatible and requires SDHC compatible devices in order to function. So, you can't use these cards on your 6 year old digital camera that previously used a 128mb card. Look in your camera's  instruction manual to ensure that your camera is SDHC compliant. It'll be a matter of time (fall, as a matter of fact) before a 64GB card will be readily available and a TERABYTE will not be far behind. So, while size matters (where have we heard that before?) write and transfer speeds are equally important. When you see an memory card for a ridiculously cheap price, make sure that it can handle what your device demands. Or even better, come see us for the best memory devices available. Remember, all memory cards are NOT the same!  We'll have a followup article on the innovations of CF cards soon. (SD memory card photo courtesy of PROMASTER) DSLR Basics Class tomorrow (Thursday) at 7 at the store. See You Then!

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