Today’s photography tips relate to equipment and purchasing more than actually composing or capturing your shots, but this element can be just as important. If you are going to take one of our London Digital Photography Courses and capture a selection of stunning photographs then you will need a way to store them and for that you will need a memory card. Here is our guide to memory cards:
Don’t skimp on the cost:
Speed is everything with memory cards, so you will want to buy the fastest cards that you can afford. This will cut down the time your camera takes to write each shot to the card, thus cutting down the waiting time before your next shot. If you don’t want that perfect moment to pass you by because your memory wasn’t ready then make sure you have fast memory cards. Faster cards are more expensive but at the end of the day it is worth paying the extra.
Check the class:
Memory cards use a simple class ranking system. The class number dictates the number of megabytes that the card can store per second. Meaning that, if you use a Class 5 card, your camera will be able to write at up to 5MBps, and a Class 10 card can be written to at up to 10MBps. The Class 10 card is the fastest available, minimising waiting time most effectively.
More is more:
You would think that capacity wise buying the highest capacity memory cards would be best, giving you the convenience of carrying fewer cards and swapping the cards out less often. Many photographers however chose to carry a number of smaller cards as if you happen to lose a large card or if it corrupts then you could risk losing a great deal of pictures, possibly all of your pictures from one session or trip. We would advise buying a number of medium sized fast memory cards for speed and security.
Out with the old:
Memory cards are not indestructible and like most things they do wear out. Every time you write an image to a card or even delete or read from a card you are slowly wearing it out. Our last piece of advice is to look to renew your memory cards every couple of years, this will seriously cut down the risk of your card corrupting and losing or ruining your hard work.
We will bring you more photography tips over the coming weeks, if you have a particular subject or question you would like to see some tips or hints on, then please head to our facebook page and let us know. To see our full range of London based photography courses please click HERE
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