Storage Media

How much storage media is enough? Some beginners wonder why people get so hung up with large storage media when we previously could at most capture 36 exposures on film? They're wrong, of course, because we were never satisfied with 36 exposures and carrying all those rolls of film in our pockets were a real bother. Pros attach a film back to their SLR, giving them hundreds of exposures. Wonder why they would do such a thing? :)

Anyway, a good rule of thumb is the following: at least 128MB for a 3 megapixel digital camera and at least 256MB for a 4 megapixel digital camera. The reason that 'bigger is better' is because it's a real bother to change film or memory card (it usually happens when things just start to get interesting around you) and you risk missing a good picture. After all we are talking digital here, so forget the past. There's just no good reason to change memory cards. Having said that, it is always a good idea to have a spare memory card with you in the odd and rarest of unlucky chance that the first one should stop working for any reason (when this kind of rarest of event happens to you, it is a good time to go out and purchase a lottery ticket ).

You also want to shoot at the highest resolution at all times, which means that you need all the storage space you can get. Shooting at the highest resolution allows you to print a nice sized 8x10 in. photograph to hang on your wall or to crop a smaller part of the picture and blow it up without loss of quality.