Photo-Related Media. Copyright Dan Feildman 1

Transcription

1 Copyright Dan Feildman 1

2 Photo-Related Media Storage Cards, Memory Sticks, CDs For Archiving And More Brought to you by Copyright Dan Feildman 2

3 This is NOT a free report. You do NOT have the right either to sell this report or to give it free. This report is for your own use. You cannot sell or share the content herein. DISCLAIMER AND/OR LEGAL NOTICES: The information presented in this report represents the views of the publisher as of the date of publication. The publisher reserves the rights to alter and update their opinions based on new conditions. This report is for informational purposes only. The author and the publisher do not accept any responsibilities for any liabilities resulting from the use of this information. While every attempt has been made to verify the information provided here, the author and the publisher cannot assume any responsibility for errors, inaccuracies or omissions. Any similarities with people or facts are unintentional. No part of this report may be reproduced or transmitted in any form, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any informational storage or retrieval system without expressed written, dated and signed permission from the publisher. Copyright Dan Feildman 3

4 Table of Contents What Is Photo-related Media?... 5 Different Kinds Of Photo-related Media... 6 Digital Camera Accessories & Things That Go With Your Camera Prices Of Photo-related Media How Many Pictures Can A Memory Card Hold? Printing Your Pictures Archiving Your Photos And Videos Resources Copyright Dan Feildman 4

5 What Is Photo-related Media? Photo-related media is anything portable that comes with your camera or that you can buy for your camera for memory storage. Memory sticks, storage cards, and CDs will all allow you to store your videos and images to places other than your computer. There are dozens of supply stores both in your city and online where you can purchase storage cards and memory sticks and other photo-related media for prices that range from inexpensive to a little more pricy. Photo-related media can also be flash card readers to read your camera s memory cards, camera storage bags and straps, camera lens kits, and any other accessories you may find that go along with your digital camera. Copyright Dan Feildman 5

6 Different Kinds Of Photo-related Media Memory cards for your digital camera; the more you have, the better. Memory cards are tiny disk-like objects that have tons of storage on them so you can save your photographs. Just like a traditional 35mm camera needs film, a digital camera needs memory to store your photographs. As far as media cards go, you need to make sure that you are buying the proper card for your particular camera, as there are different types. SD cards are smaller that CF cards, and most cameras will only take one or the other. Very few accept both. Also, you may need to invest in a memory card reader as well, which is basically a USB attachment that you can stick your memory card into and upload your pictures to your computer. But nowadays, many computers come equipped with slots for all types of media cards. The majority of digital cameras that you can buy in stores or online will come with a memory or storage card, normally 128mb megabytes or even up to 2 gigabytes (GB) of storage. The more megabytes or gigabytes your card has, the more photos that you can store on the card. This memory card can be removed and put into a card reader that plugs into your computer so you can transfer the images over to your computer and delete them from your memory card to have more storage, if you choose to do so. Almost all, but the most inexpensive, digital cameras have some sort of removable storage device. However, the digital camera memory cards are supposed to be used as a temporary device to store your photos until you can transfer them to your computer and save them Copyright Dan Feildman 6

7 onto your hard drive or other storage folders. The number of photos on your storage device cannot exceed the limit, so when your storage card becomes full, you will have to delete some photographs, stop taking photos, use another card, or transfer the pictures to your computer. Currently, there are a few types of flash memory cards on the market: the Compact Flash (CF), Secure Digital (SD), xd Picture Card, and Sony Memory Stick, which can store your pictures or videos on flash chips like the RAM chips inside your computer. A CF, developed by SanDisk Corp, is about the size of a matchbook, while the SD cards are smaller than CF cards. The compact flash was the first memory card widely used in consumer-level digital cameras, as well as some of the early professional cameras. They are used in over half of all digital cameras made between 1999 and 2008 and many manufacturers still use them to this day. Some of the high-end newer model cards can store up to 6gigs of photos on a single card. The CF card reader, and professional cameras that have CF card slots, can also use Microdrives to store and transfer photos. A Microdrive is a 42.8mm x 36.4mm x 5mm hard drive that has the same physical dimensions as a Compact Flash (CF) card. The Microdrive has a much larger capacity than flash memory and is available in sizes larger than 8 gigs by a wide range of manufacturers from Hitachi to Seagate. The downside of the Microdrive is the increased power consumption and slower read and write times. These drives can greatly reduce your battery life, and are generally only used by professional photographers using specific cameras suited for microdrive use. Most professional Copyright Dan Feildman 7

8 camera manufacturers, such as Nikon, Sony, and Minolta, no longer support these drives and now use Flash-based memory cards. The second memory card to enter the market for digital cameras was the MultiMediaCard (MMC) developed by Siemens. The early models did not have a lot of available storage, so they were mostly used in lower-end cameras in the late 90 s. Today, the cards are still used in many camera phones and small portable devices. Sony introduced the memory stick in The cards are 50mm x 21.5mm x 2.8mm, which is roughly the size and shape of a stick of gum. Almost all Sony and Minolta digital cameras use memory sticks to store photos. Sony has built memory stick ports into all of its computers and laptops, making it very easy to transfer your images from a Sony camera to a Sony computer or laptop. Sony also makes a Magic Gate card reader that can be used to transfer photos from Memory Sticks to any PC or Mac that has a USB port. There is also a multitude of multi-card readers that support the memory card. Just look on the packaging for the Sony Memory card logo to find a compatible card reader. Sony has released several versions of the memory stick. The original memory stick had a limited storage size, and the needs of professional digital cameras required more storage than that stick could provide. In 2003, Sony refreshed its format with a new PRO model that could hold up to 8 gigs on a single memory stick. They soon followed that with Duo models that were ½ the size, but held up to twice the amount (16 gigs) of information. Since the new Duo cards are too small for many of the original memory stick readers, Sony has developed an adapter. You just insert the Duo card Copyright Dan Feildman 8

9 in the adapter, and you can use any memory stick reader to transfer your photos to your computer. Fuji Film and Olympus introduced the xd memory cards in 2002, which are widely used to this day in Olympus FujiFilm and in some Panasonic digital cameras. The xd cards are 20mm x 25mm x 1.78mm, making them very small and compact memory cards. The Type M cards were released in 2005 and were capable of supporting file sizes of up to 2 gigs; they were soon followed by the Type H xd memory cards that had faster read times and more storage. The Secure Digital (SD) card is the most common memory card used in digital cameras today. Panasonic, SanDisk, and Toshiba created the format, with countless other manufacturers also producing SD cards. The SD card is small (32mm x 24mm x 2.1mm) and also comes in two smaller versions - the minisd (21.5mm x 20mm x 1.4mm) and the microsd (11mm x 15mm x 1.4 mm). They do have adapters for the microsd and minisd cards so that they can be accessed using a SD card reader. In 2006, the SDHC format was introduced that supports larger files and faster transfer speeds. These cards can hold up to 64 gigs of information on a single card, with larger cards released on a regular basis. Some of the first consumer digital cameras stored information directly onto 3.5 floppy discs. Sony, the leader in these models of cameras, has discontinued these models due to the limited storage capacity and slow read/write times on 3.5 media. They were replaced by a newer generation that saves images directly onto CD media. Copyright Dan Feildman 9

10 Recently, a brand new type of SD card was introduced called the EyeFi. This is a CD card that works with most name-brand digital cameras that connects to a wi-fi connection to transfer your photos wirelessly directly from your camera to the Internet or from your computer onto your network. These cards also utilize standard Flash media so that you can save images taken when there is no wi-fi available. These cards can also be utilized with many of the top photo-sharing websites to automatically upload your photos to an online photo storage or sharing account. CDs, or CD-Rs, are another source of image storage. Sony has produced a line of cameras that save your image directly onto Mini-CD disks, and some manufacturers produce cameras that write your images directly to a regular CD-R disk. You can purchase them in bundles at the store, like 25 CDs for $10, for example. One inexpensive CD-R can store more than 600 megabytes of information. However, this isn t nearly as much as it sounds like, as one disk can normally store 700 megabytes of data. A word of warning: CD-R discs can deteriorate over time, and some low-end CDs can lose data in as little as 5 years. If you want to store or archive your photos on CD-R media, be sure to buy quality archival or storage quality discs. Some older professional SLR digital cameras actually had small hard drives called PC Cards or PCMCIA cards. These cards were basically laptop computer hard drives that were used as removable storage devices on professional cameras that produced very large images. This media has been replaced by Flash-based memory cards and is no longer used in digital cameras. Copyright Dan Feildman 10

11 Most of the newer digital cameras also have onboard Flash memory. This is memory inside your camera that can t be removed. To get images off of your internal memory, you will need to use the image transfer cable that came with your camera. Copyright Dan Feildman 11

12 Digital Camera Accessories & Things That Go With Your Camera After you purchase your digital camera, you may find that you are missing some items that you d like to carry with your camera. These are, for example, a car adapter, battery charger, AC adapter, case, screen protector, light, battery, camera strap, or more. Remember to shop for your specific brand of camera or the new items you buy won t be able to work with your digital camera. The brands of digital cameras are Belkin, Canon, Epson, Compaq, Fujitsu, HP, IBM, Kodak, Lexmark, Minolta, Samsung, Panasonic, Sony, Toshiba, and more. A memory card reader will allow you to plug in your Flash memory card or smart card and transfer your images or videos to the computer. The device has to be plugged into the correct plug-in on your computer in order for it to work correctly. It will most likely be on the back panel of your computer not the screen or monitor near where the power cord comes in. Some printers and personal computers have a built-in card reader instead of a floppy disk drive. Some memory card readers offer space for only one type of card, while others have four types of card holes. For example, the Lexar Flash memory card reader (USB 2.0 Multi-Card Reader) offers versatility by reading and writing CompactFlash, SmartMedia, and USB card readers. Copyright Dan Feildman 12

13 As far as media cards go, you need to make sure that you are buying the proper card for your particular camera, as there are different types. SD cards are smaller that CF cards, and most cameras will only take one or the other. Very few accept both. Also, you may need to invest in a memory card reader as well, which is basically a USB attachment that you can stick your memory card in and upload your pictures to your computer. But nowadays, most computers come equipped with slots for all types of media cards If you buy an Advanced Digital or DSLR camera, you may want to invest in more of a quality carrying case because you ve probably invested a good amount of money, so you don't want anything to happen to it! A bigger bag may be necessary for extra lenses and gear, like external flashes, tripods, extra batteries, and filters. Battery chargers are important for when your digital camera battery runs out. Most digital cameras come with a small battery charger that plugs into your wall, where you can insert your dead or low battery and it will charge within hours. A red light will be there when your battery is charging, and the light will turn green when your battery is fully charged. The camera battery is stored, normally, in the same place where your memory card is located, and can be accessed by sliding over a small panel. Look for the arrows to tell you which way to slide the panel off. Car adapters let you charge your camera while driving in your car by plugging the adapter into the cigarette lighter, or, on newer model cars, into a small wattage power plug in the front of the vehicle, either in the console or near the dashboard. Copyright Dan Feildman 13

14 Digital camera cases allow you to protect your camera from scratches or harm in the case that you drop it on the hard ground somewhere. Accidents happen all of the time, and a camera case is the best protection you can have from damaging your camera. There are dozens of options available, from leather to canvas, with or without shoulder straps, and with spaces and pockets to store your digital camera accessories like extra memory cards, card readers, or other accessories. You can find them in any shape, size, and color, and even being waterproof for those digital camera addicts who like to take their camera waterside. They range from soft to hard, with backpack-type straps and carrying cases with handles and foam interior. Prices are anywhere from under $20 for the most inexpensive versions to up to $150 for a rolling carry-on case and up. Copyright Dan Feildman 14

15 Prices Of Photo-related Media You can find memory cards for your digital camera at a vast range of stores and online websites. Most big-box retailers like Wal-Mart and Target carry memory cards in the electronics area. Electronics stores such as Best Buy, Radio Shack, and others also carry memory cards for most brand-name digital cameras. Today, almost all of the camera shops like Wolf Camera also carry a wide range of memory cards for almost any digital camera. Often, the best deals can be found online. Inexpensive brand-name memory cards can be found on hundreds of websites ranging from Newegg.com, Amazon.com, etc., and even at camera-specific retailers such as Calumet.com and WolfCamera.com. Beware of low-priced generic memory cards that may not be of the best quality. There are good deals to be found on brand-name memory cards. There is no reason to risk losing your images due to a memory card problem, when you can purchase quality memory cards from a manufacturer that you can trust. Compact Flash cards are available online for under $15 for 1-2 gig models, while on the high-end, you can get 16 gigs for around $150. There are several sizes and prices available from a wide variety of manufacturers to choose from. Memory Stick cards are available online for under $12 for 1 gig sticks to around $50 for 8 gig sticks. Sony manufactures most memory Copyright Dan Feildman 15

16 cards; however, there are some other brands, such as SanDisk, from some retailers Secure Digital /SD cards can be found online for under $6 for 2 gig cards to up to around $150 for 16 gig cards. There are countless manufacturers producing SD media. The leading brands include SanDisk, Kingston, Transcend, FujiFilm, and Panasonic. There is even an SD card called the Eye-Fi that transfers photos wirelessly to your computer or website. It can be found for $120 or less at several online websites. XD memory cards are available for under $25 at most online retailers. The largest cards on the market are 2 gigs. SanDisk, Olympus, and Edge are the top brands that produce xd memory cards. Prices vary widely from store to store and are often more expensive in retail stores than at online and camera specialty shops. Before purchasing a memory card, make sure you take the time to shop around and check prices. Copyright Dan Feildman 16

17 How Many Pictures Can A Memory Card Hold? How many pictures your memory card will hold depends on the size of images your camera takes and the size of the memory card itself. Most consumer-level point-and-shoot digital cameras will have options to take small, medium, or large photos. With the low cost of memory card storage today, it is best to take the highest quality images that your camera will allow. If you are limited on space and you know that you will be taking a lot of photos before you can transfer them to your computer, you can choose a smaller image size to save space on your memory cards. Some digital cameras, and virtually all professional DSLR cameras, allow you to choose from several image formats and compression levels. The Nikon and Sony DSLR cameras can save the files in the following formats: RAW, TIFF, JPEG fine, JPEG standard, and JPEG small. RAW creates the largest file size, but it is the preferred format for professional photographers. This format saves a huge amount of image information so that adjustments and corrections can be made without losing any resolution. TIFF files are much smaller than RAW files and can still save the images in the very high quality format that s ideal for print applications. JPEG is the standard format for virtually all digital cameras. The standard JPEG files uses compression to safely shrink the file size without compromising quality. JPEG fine or high quality saves a larger file, but does not use compression so that the image quality is preserved. The JPEG small files are highly Copyright Dan Feildman 17

18 compressed to make the smallest file size; however, the quality of the picture can be compromised using JPEG small. If you have a 5-Megapixel camera that saves photos in the JPEG format, the images will be around 2.5MB. On a 1-Gigabyte memory card, you could hold around 400 of these images. Four-Gigabyte cards could hold over 1600 photos of this size, while a 16-Gigabyte memory card could hold over 6500 photos. Some of the higher-quality point-and-shoot cameras take images that are 10 Megapixels. With a 10-Megapixel camera taking images in the JPEG format, the images will be around 3.8MB each. On a 1-Gigabyte memory card, you can hold up to 260 photos. Four-Gigabyte cards can hold over 1072 photos, while a 16-Gigabyte memory card can hold over 4280 photos. There are professional DSLR cameras on the market that can take 21- Megapixel images. These large files, even when saved in JPEG format, are almost 14MB each. With a 1-Gigabyte memory card you can only hold 70 images. Using a 4-Gigabyte card, you can hold around 280 photos, while a 16-Gigabyte card will allow you to hold over 1100 photos of this size. Copyright Dan Feildman 18

19 Printing Your Pictures Many people who want to print their digital photos have color printers in their homes or home offices where they can do just that. A few cameras actually have their own color printer and software that comes with that specific camera where you can simply set your digital camera on a dock, choose the picture you want to print, and hit a few buttons to print your image within seconds. Some also allow you to use your storage memory card from your camera to do the same thing. However, when it comes to printing photos at home, there is one thing to note: the ink for home color printers is often more expensive than printing your photos through a photo-sharing service or a business like Walgreen s or Wal-Mart that have photo labs that can process prints from your digital camera s media card. It is often a cheaper way to go by having your photos printed online on sites like Shutterfly, Winkflash, and Snapfish that offer a range of print sizes with great quality. Plus, all of your photos can be mailed to your front door or mailbox with just a few clicks of your mouse. Sites like these often have tons of extras and photo gifts, like key chains, photo books, and coffee mugs, among other things. If you sign up for the site s announcements, you can get great deals for cheap and free prints with your account sent right to your address. Copyright Dan Feildman 19

20 Archiving Your Photos And Videos When it comes to saving the photos and movies you ve taken on your digital camera s flash memory drives, there are several ways to go. You can transfer your files to your computer s hard drive or specific folders you ve set up for photos and movies or you can save them to a CD-R to file them away. CD-Rs are Compact Disc-Recordables, a play on the compact disc invented by Sony and Philips. You can write or save your files to a CD-R in different sessions or move different photos over to save them at different times until the disc is full. CD-Rs are highly compatible with standard computers that have CD drives. You can save media files to CD-Rs at the following speeds: 1X Drive Speed=150 KiB/s for 80 minutes writing time on a 700MB CD-R 4X = 600 KiB/s data rate for 20 minutes of write time 8X 1200 KiB/s for 10 minutes of write time 12X = 1800 KiB/s for 6.7 minutes of writing time 32X = 4800 KiB/s for 2.5 minutes write time 52X 7800 KiB/s for 1.5 minutes of write time Your files and tracks are processed more quickly with a higher write speed. Copyright Dan Feildman 20

21 Basically, the blank disc has a pre-groove track to write data into, and your CD recorder writes the data to the CD-R by using a laser to heat the areas of the disc s organic dye layer. It permanently dyes the layers of the CD-R with your information. The expected lifespan of a CD-R is only estimated at this time and is based on accelerated aging tests. If you take proper care of your CD-R, it should be readable 1,000 times or even more, and it should be able to sit on your shelf for three, four, or even five years. Sometimes. if you handle your disc too often, it can reduce its shelf life down to one or two years, which is why it is important to keep your discs stored properly if the information on the CD-R is important to you. Real-life tests have revealed that some CD-Rs lose quality even if stored properly, unfortunately. The quality of a CD-R has a direct influence on its longevity and shelf life ultimately, the amount of time you ll be able to read the information off of that specific disc. Unfortunately, CD-Rs are not the best way to store your photo images, especially if the discs are cheap and won t last very long. Brands don t matter in this selection, though, because even the best brands make cheap CD-Rs you have to look at the components of the CD-R itself. Colors of the CDs give off hints to its longevity. A white silver that is less expensive and widely used is more prone to oxidation due to its reflective surface, therefore resulting in a nonreflective surface. Gold is more expensive in CD-Rs and do not suffer from this problem. Some paper paste-on labels have been linked to degradation of the CD-R s recording quality and surface, so permanent markers should be used Copyright Dan Feildman 21

22 to write on the top of your CDs to label them. Often, there are lines already there to be filled in with your information. For data archiving, the techie geeks in the CD-freaks forums voted the best quality CD-R media to be the gold Mitsui discs and Plextor premium discs. The MAM-A Gold on Gold Archival, rated for 300 years, tested to be the best CD-R archival method because it s the most resistant to accelerated aging according to the Journal of Research of the National Institute of Standards. The CD-R must be gold on gold, not gold studio, gold medical, or other variants of gold, because it s resistant to temperature, humidity, and UV changes. The combination of the layer bonding, lacquer quality, and reflective layer corrosion resistance make this the best disc there is for archiving your information. However, they are very expensive, and there could be flaws in MAM-A discs just like there are in other discs. Another way to keep from losing your memory is to burn two copies of each file on two separate CDs; that way you can keep one stored securely, while referring to the other one when you need the files stored on it. You should keep your files stored in a cool, dark place that is dry doing this, they could last 100 years or more. CD-R prices do correlate with quality, and some cheaper ones fail within a few months, never even making that 1-3 year range you expected to get from the CD-R. Perhaps the best thing you can do is to conduct your own online research about quality CD-Rs. Researchers use tests to determine accelerated aging, so they aren t exactly perfect, but they do provide a pretty good example as a good basis for comparison. Some websites you may want to check out are Copyright Dan Feildman 22

23 which covers frequently asked questions about CD-Rs, and which is a specific section on how long CD-Rs last. Another tip is, don t bother with CD-RWs because these will soon become unreadable, and therefore, unusable; this will likely happen right in the middle of something important you are trying to save. The companies that manufacture CD-Rs are trying to extend the capacity of the discs, which started out at 650MB or 70 minutes and are now 700MB or 80 minutes. It may not be the disc quality that is the problem when it comes to your CD-Rs, though; always check your CD-R drive to see what came with your computer. You may not even be aware that you can install better ones into your computer, like Yamaha, Sony, TDK, Plextor, and Ricoh. CD Media World names the best brands of CDs to be the following brands: HP Mitsui Philips Sony KAO Ricoh Pioneer BASF Kodak 3M Copyright Dan Feildman 23

24 Pioneer TDK Yamaha 3M Sony Philips Boeder & Imation Taiyo Yuden These brands are manufactured by the following companies, in no particular order: Ricoh Pioneer Video Kodak Japan TDK Taiyo Yuden Mitsui Chemicals Dan Feildman Copyright Dan Feildman 24

25 Resources Computer And Internet Basics For Digital Photographers - A Simple Guide That Shows Digital Photographers How To Use Their Computer, And The Internet, To Get The Most Out Of Their Camera This fantastic guide covers all the basics like how to get photos off your camera, how to make simple edits to them, how to store them securely for safekeeping, how to them to friends and family, how to share and store photos online, how to set up your own family photo blog, even how to use Youtube to share simple videos with friends... plus much more like how to keep your computer running quickly, securely and virus free etc. This highly acclaimed guide is ideal for anyone who wants to learn all the simple (yet often confusing) tasks that really help you get the most out of your computer the Internet and your digital camera. Learn Digitial Photography Now - How To Quickly And Easily Take Better Digital Photos And Create Beautiful, Lasting Memories Turn Your Photos Into Cash - How To Make Money With Digital Photography By Following A Simple Step-By-Step System Anyone Can Do Learn Elements Now - Master The Basics Of Adobe Elements In Just 2 Hours With These Instantly Accessible Copyright Dan Feildman 25

26 Online Video Tutorials Learn Photoshop Now - Master The Basics Of Photoshop In Just 2 Hours With These Instantly Accessible Online Video Tutorials Edit Your Digital Photos - How To Use Adobe Photoshop To Quickly And Easily Edit Your Digital Photos Like The Professionals Copyright Dan Feildman 26