SDHC Memory Card

Camcorders that can fully utilize a removable SDHC memory card are some of the fastest growing marketplaces in electronic products. Before just recently video cameras could only use SDHC storage cards for still photographs. With old models, hard disk drives, DVD player, and tape drives were usually the devices employed to store video.

“SD” refers to Secure Digital. “HC” refers to High Capacity. Aside from Sony, all the other makers make use of a SD or SDHC storage device with their flash memory card video cameras (Sony features its own exclusive design). Sandisk, a big maker of flash memory cards, has even started marketing certain SD and SDHC flash memory cards as “video” cards.

All memory cards aren’t created equal. Regardless of whether it’s branded a video card or an SDHC memory card, there are some distinctions among SDHC memory cards you ought to be familiar with before buying one.

SDHC Memory Card Interoperability

A video camera that claims it functions with SDHC memory cards always works using an SD card too; however, it is not going to apply the other way around. If the video camera states it works with SD cards, then that is all it works with; it cannot be used using a SDHC storage device. That, however, is the exceptional scenario. The majority of modern camcorders can work using both.

Some of the inexpensive camcorders might not work with all SDHC memory card sizes. Just because your current camcorder is SDHC compatible doesn’t suggest it works using capacities in the higher ranges. You’ll need to look at the manual to make certain it functions with 16GB SDHC class 10 or under or 32GB SDHC class 10 or under

SDHC Memory Card Capacities

SD flash memory cards top out at 2GB of storage size. An SDHC storage device can range from 4GB to 32GB in size. Higher capacities mean you are able to store more videos and photographs. If you’ve got a high definition camcorder you’ll want to get an SDHC flash memory card. If you’ve got a standard definition camcorder you could most likely get by using an SD memory card.

SDHC Memory Card Classes

Slower SD or SDHC flash memory cards probably are not able to keep up with the large amount of data a high definition digital camcorder can feed into the flash memory card. If the SDHC memory card is just too slow your camcorder might not be equipped to record a thing.

To understand, an SD or SDHC flash memory card is assigned one of four classes to indicate its nominal speed: class 2, class 4, class 6, and class 10. The higher the class number, the faster the card is. The class number indicates the absolute minimum number ofmegabytes per second (MBps) of the flash memory; the rate it can store video data. Class 4 is rated at 4 MBps, class 6 is rated at 6 MBps, and so on. You can expect to pay a correspondingly high price for a high class numbered SDHC flash memory card.

Quite often the exact speed of a SDHC memory card is higher than its class rating. Moreover, video camera makers, in addition to makers of other SDHC based gadgets, can design devices which require faster rates of speed than the nominal rate indicated by the class. As a result of this it is best to consider class broad category for comparison purposes, however, you should certainly check with the particular specifications of your device before buying a specific SDHC flash card. Don’t rely solely on class.

Some brands list the speed of the video camera prominently outside the box while others might stuff it into the fine print of the manual. Wherever it happens to be, you should consult this essential specification before buying a SDHC memory card.

In case you have a standard definition camcorder, either a SD or SDHC flash memory card of class 2 speed ought to do the job. The highest quality video you can record plays very well with this class of SDHC flash memory card.

Your best choice for a high definition camcorder will probably be a class 6 SDHC flash card. A class 10 SDHC flash card ought to do the job, based on how tolerant to specification limitations your camcorder and SDHC memory card are made. Make certain your video camera can go that fast before paying the extra money it costs for a class 10 card.