The Postulant Photographer - Flash Memory

by
August 31st, 2007

Memory
All alone in my camera
We can smile at the old days
If I took pictures then
I can download and I recall what happiness is
Let my memory live again

Sung to Andrew Lloyd Webber's "Memories," Cats

As promised, and as you may have guessed by my butchering of Mister Webber's song, in this installment I'm going to talk about flash memory.

I think we all understand that the flash memory cards in our DSLRs act as a repository, or digital film roll where the photos we take are stored. Like film rolls, flash memory cards fill as we snap the camera shutter and we have to either download the photos we've taken to a larger repository, like our computers, or swap out the card for an empty one and continue shooting.

The ability to swap out flash memory cards is easily one of the biggest advantages of digital photography as compared to what we had to do with film cameras. Simply flip open a compartment, remove the filled card, put in an empty card, close the compartment, and rock and roll. It couldn't be easier.

What you may not know, however, is that there are good cards, super superior cards, and cards you should avoid. Cards of the latter type may look like a bargain, sometimes costing a small fraction of more expensive cards of comparable size, and they will work in you camera, but, as we will see, you get what you pay for.

I contacted Adam Kaufman, Product Manager at Lexar, one of the premier makers of flash memory products, and asked him to explain to us why we should be concerned about the type and quality of flash memory we put in our new DSLRs.

"If you are going to invest in a quality, expensive entry level DSLR, you should invest in a quality CF or SD card," Mr. Kaufman told me. "DSLR's are high performing cameras that need equally fast cards. Entry level DSLR's need at least 60x rated flash cards."

The speed rating lets you know how fast the card will read and write data. In DSLRs, your photo is first recorded in a high-speed buffer, then processed, then written to your memory card. The transfer from buffer to card is key; if the buffer fills quickly, which happens when you take a series of shots in rapid succession, then your camera won't let you take more photos until the buffer empties.

Unfortunately the 'x' speed rating isn't consistent among flash card makers. To get the best comparison between cards use the rated read/write speeds. Lexar's 'x' rating is equal to 150KB/sec, so their 60x CF card has a read/write time of 9MB/sec.

"For example," Mr. Kaufman explains, "an average picture from a Nikon D40 may take up 8MB to 10MB in high resolution JPG or NEF (Nikon's raw format). If you are taking pictures of your child zipping down a soccer field to score a winning goal, you are taking a lot of these 9MB pictures one right after another. When you do that you are sending a lot of large files through a buffer that then transfers those pictures to the card. If your card is running at 12x (which is less then 2MB/s) or less like many inexpensive memory cards do, the camera shuts down taking pictures because the buffer can't write the data out faster than the data is coming in. To avoid this problem, use a card that is speed rated at 60x (9MB/s) or higher."

So, fast cards mean more fast shots, but that's not all. When you transfer your photos from your card to your computer you want the transfer to happen quickly as well. Again, quick flash cards shine.

Mr. Kaufman says,"If you have 300 pictures that are on average 8MB, and you have a 60x rated card, that is going to take you roughly 4.4 minutes to download. If you are using that 12x rated card, it is going to take you 20 minutes to transfer the same exact content. I would rather use that extra 16 minutes to start editing pictures."

So would we, Mr. Kaufman.

One of the beautiful things about digital photography is that flash memory cards can hold far more photos than a film canister. Remember when you use to buy film in 24 or 36 shot cans? If you were like me you metered out your shots because your film was limited and you were always waiting for that "Kodak Moment," which you often missed because you were waiting for it. I know that sounds like double-speak, but what tends to happen with me was that even though I had my camera dangling around my neck it was seldom on and ready because I was saving film for the moment when I knew I would need to shoot. Consequently I missed literally millions of candid moments that could have been caught had I not been so set on saving what film I had.

With digital photography and flash memory cards, missing that shot you would have otherwise missed with film is just a memory (sorry). A 1 gig Compact Flash memory card on my Olympus E-500 will hold 70 RAW photos or 160 super-high quality JPEGs. A 4 gig card holds 289 RAW shots, or a staggering 8,100 JPEGs! That's shooting for days! (Of course, we DSLR users only shoot in RAW format.)

The problem is that you quickly get use to this abundance of space and you start shooting everything. Before you know it, your card is full. This is why you should have at least two flash cards available (and a fresh set of batteries). In fact, I would strongly urge you to go with three cards if you can afford them: A 4GB or 8GB card, and two 2GB or 4GB cards. And I'd stick with a particular brand as well, that way you know what to expect from the cards.

Speaking of brands, there are many flash card makers out there, each claiming to have a superior product. I asked Mr. Kaufman what separates Lexar cards from the rest.

"Probably the single most import differentiator is how we rate our speed," Mr. Kaufman replied. "When Lexar says 60x, we mean it. Every single memory card that claims a speed like our Platinum II (60x or 80x), Professional (133x), and Professional UDMA (300x) lines is tested to ensure that they hit those speeds.

"When developing our memory cards, Lexar tests a new card on over 600 digital cameras whether they are DSLRs or point and shoot cameras. So when you buy that DSLR you know a Lexar card is going to work."

Lexar also includes three applications with its Platinum II line up. Image Rescue 3 recovers lost images, audio, and video from memory cards; Lexar Backup n Sync remotely backs up data from memory cards to help prevent lost images if a hard drive is lost or stolen; and Corel's Snapfire SE image editing application.

"The last great benefit that Lexar offers on all of its Platinum II cards is a Limited Lifetime warranty," Mr. Kaufman added. "Knowing that your card is safe with Lexar can offer great peace of mind."

When I first got my camera I immediately went out and bought a pair of 1GB Compact Flash cards. I bought Lexar cards because I was somewhat familiar with the brand, and I bought Platinum II cards (Mine are the older 60x variety. 80x Platinum cards are available today.) because I understood that faster equals better, but that was the extent of my understanding. I have been pleased with the Platinum II cards and highly recommend them.

Lexar cards aren't the only quality cards available, however; other brands you should be aware include SanDisk, which offers its Ultra II line of cards that have a minimum of 10MB/s write and 9MB/s read times, and Kingston Technologies has the Elite Pro line of cards offering 10MB/s writes and 8MB/s reads.

Stick with cards from one of these makers and you should have no problems capturing any moment no matter how fast it comes at you.

You'll also find a variety of flash memory types; Compact Flash (CF), Secure Digital (SD), Memory Sticks and so on. The primary difference between these devices is physical, size and construction being the prime factors.

All pro and most entry level DSLRs use CF cards. The reason is that CF cards are, by far, the most ruggedly constructed cards currently available. You can fling the card across a parking, drop it from a two-story window, or use it as a skipping stone at the lake and these cards -- short of burning them -- remain useable. Your camera may not survive a fall, but all of your photos taken beforehand likely will.

Personally, I prefer CF cards because I like cards that have some size and thickness to them; I don't have to be so concerned about handling or losing them.

Another point about CF cards is that they tend to offer larger capacities than the other formats. Currently CF cards offer 16GB of high speed memory (SanDisk Extreme III 16GB CF card) while the maximum capacity other formats offer is 4GB.

Speed in the camera is one thing, speed outside the camera is another. Mr. Kaufman spoke earlier of transfer times from the flash card to your computer and how well constructed cards can reduce this transfer time significantly. Lexar recently introduced flash cards that use technologies similar to those found in high speed hard drives.

"UDMA stands for Ultra Direct Memory Access," Mr. Kaufman informed me. "A technology normally associated with Hard Drives is being introduced in CF cards and higher end DSLRs. This allows for fast-action photography and much faster workflow when you're back in the office."

Unfortunately there are no consumer grade cameras that can take advantage of this technology today, but that doesn't mean you should ignore it.

"UDMA allows for download speeds on the Lexar cards of 45MB/s. That is a dramatic improvement over our already fast 133x (20MB/s) Professional cards. And when paired with our FW800 Professional UDMA CF Card Reader (a FireWire 800 based) you can realize those speeds today. The best thing our Professional Card Readers brings the user of any skill level is the ability to stack up to 4 readers together and daisy-chain them for multiple concurrent downloads," he said. "In fact, when you have two FW800 Readers stacked together, and downloading two 300x cards at the same time, you can download roughly 82MB/s. That's a huge gain in any workflow."

Similar system can be found from other premium flash card makers, but Lexar cards and readers have been shown to be the fastest. Even when you use Platinum or Professional CF cards, the FW800 UDMA Readers will guaranty that you'll download your photos as quickly as the cards allow. So, those of you with the latest iMacs can actually make use of those FireWire 800 ports.

On a slightly different note: There are a growing list of devices available that will let you dump your photos off your filled cards and keep shooting while out in the wild. These portable storage devices are very handy if not entirely necessary, and they come in a broad range of prices and features.

On the low end of the price scale is the SmartDisk PhotoBank. It has a 40GB hard drive, a simple monochrome LCD status screen, and lots and lots of slots to accommodate any flash card type.

The PhotoBank works simply as well: Plug in your full flash card, turn on the PhotoBank, then hit the 'Copy' button your photos are quickly copied to the hard drive inside the PhotoBank. You can watch the progress on the LCD screen. When you get home just connect the PhotoBank to your computer via a USB cable (supplied) and the PhotoBank shows up as an external drive. Copy your photos and you are done.

The only downside of the PhotoBank is that you have no way of knowing for certain that your photos were copied intact. The LCD screen offers no preview capability so you'll have to trust that the device did its job.

Still, it lists for US$149.99, which is the cost of a good 4GB or 8GB CF card, so it's hard to argue the price.

If you want something with more features then check out the JoBo GigaVu Pro. This baby has a 40GB hard drive (there are model with up to 120GB drives available), an absolutely gorgeous 3.8-inch color VGA screen, a rubber ruggedized exterior, a slot for Compact Flash cards, standard and digital video outputs, two USB 2.0 ports (one for input, one for output), joystick control, the ability to show your photos in a slide show, plays MP3 files, plays MPEG2 or MPEG4 video files, and a whole lot more. If you have other types of flash memory cards you can dump them to the GigaVu Pro via an external card reader, which connects to the GigaVu Pro on its input USB port.

In fact, you may find that you can leave your laptop at home. If you just need offline storage and a way to preview your photos while out and about, this puppy will fill in for it nicely.

I've been using the GigaVu Pro for several months and I can see how people can get use to using this device. It's extremely handy if you want to show others the photos you've taken, and the large LCD screen renders colors wonderfully. You can play movies and music on it as well.

Battery life is pretty good, too, for all that the GigaVu does.

The GigaVu Pro is not cheap, however. Even at about US$500 for the 40GB model, this is definitely a case of getting what you pay for.

You might also consider the Epson P-3000, which can be had for about the same price as the 40GB GigaVu Pro. The P-3000 offers a 40GB drive as well as many of the features the GigaVu has, including screen size and resolution. The P-3000 is not a rugged as the GigaVu, however.

These devices are great to have around, but, as I said earlier, they are not a necessary part of your beginner's gear bag.

Well, that's it for this installment. Next time I'll shed some light on external flashes.

Vern Seward is a writer who currently lives in Orlando, FL. He's been a Mac fan since Atari Computers folded, but has worked with computers of nearly every type for 20 years.

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