Memory cards

Memory cards are used with lots of digital products, including cameras, camcorders and many mobile phones, to store images and other data.

• The higher the capacity of the card (measured in gigabytes or GB), the more you can store on the card.
  • e.g. if you have a 12MP camera, a 4GB card would store around 1000 high quality photos, but an 8GB card would hold around 2000.
• Read and write speeds show how fast the card is- the higher the number, the faster it will operate.
  • High speed is essential with camcorder use in particular.

• Most cameras work with SDHC cards, and have only extremely limited built-in memory.
  • If you buy a camera from Argos that uses other format memory cards, these are detailed in the description.
• Camcorders generally use SDHC also, and many have inbuilt storage as well.
  • Some HDD models need and use no memory cards at all. Most mobiles use microSD/microSDHC cards with smartphones needing the most storage as a general rule.
  • Mobile phones can have good inbuilt storage capacity: see the description for full details.

• Memory card adaptors enable MicroSD/SDHC cards to be used as normal sized SD/SDHC cards.
  • One card can then fit a camera and a mobile phone.

• Card readers are available to transfer data from any of these cards to your PC or laptop.
  • WiFi or Bluetooth might also be available dependent on the device in question.

Memory card formats explained

There are different memory card formats shown as follows: