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It's all so exciting, isn't it? Another mega memory digital camera card is set for release. This one is a whopping - well, we'll get to that in a moment.

The first memory cards seem laughable today. Early digital cameras came complete with cards boasting an entire four megabytes (MB) of memory. Larger cards followed: 16MB, 32MB, 128MB, 256MB, 512MB, and finally 1-gigabyte (GB) cards. Now, professional photographers are eagerly awaiting a 32GB memory card.

Camera salespeople sang the merits of the larger cards; they told new camera users how the remarkable cards could hold hundreds, if not thousands of digital pictures. So much memory, so much space, so many pictures. It all sounds so good, but the massive memory cards have their downsides, too.

MEGA MEMORY CAMERA CARDS THE CONS

There's an adage about putting all your eggs into one basket. That's especially true for memory cards. Memory cards are tiny. Some are so small, like the Olympus xD-picture card, you could pick your teeth with one. Things that are tiny are easily misplaced, and once misplaced they are very difficult to find.

Consider this: you are on vacation. You have had a wonderful time discovering new places, taking lots and lots of photographs. Your new mega memory card still has room. The thought makes you feel warm all over. At some point, you decide to remove your camera's memory card, a sound makes you turn your head, and you inadvertently drop the card. To the ground. In a bunch of tall grass. You search and search, but the card has disappeared - it and all your precious vacation memories.

What to do? There's not much you can do if the card is gone. However, if you plan for this mishap, by purchasing smaller memory cards, you might lose some photos, but you will never again lose ALL your photos.

There's another downside to mega memory cards. Memory cards can develop issues, or bad sectors. You or a family member might have accidentally tried to remove the memory card while the camera was still powered-up, and the card became damaged. Once more, all your pictures could be gone.

There are companies and certain types of software designed to help retrieve photos from a damaged card, but there is no guarantee of success. Here's a better plan.

USE SEVERAL MEMORY CARDS

Spread your pictures around, on several smaller cards. Alternatively, if you must have the larger memory cards, develop a habit whereby you NEVER fill a card. When the card reaches about 75% capacity, remove it from your camera and

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