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The sunset over Lake Tahoe was beautiful, the deep red of the sky reflecting off the crystal clear blue water. I couldn't wait to get home to download the almost 1000 photos that I had taken on my weekend trip.

The photos from my three memory cards downloaded easily. Then came the shock. As I browsed all those photos on my computer, I realized that about half of the photos on the third memory card were corrupted. Not all of them, just those photos beginning with that beautiful red sunset. Although I tried multiple programs that were designed to rescue digital images, none of them worked. The good news was that not all images on that third card were corrupted, only about half.

That third memory card was the first time I had purchased a card with a capacity of over a gigabyte. Granted, it was a card manufactured by a company I had never heard of. Would I purchase a large-capacity card again?

Pros of mega memory cards
Shooting with a memory card with a seemingly obscene capacity has its benefits. While quantity is not necessarily quality, most photographers take multiple shots of the same scene, using different camera settings, and these high-capacity cards have enough space to store all those extra photos. Gone are the days of running out of memory just as the sun hits the water at sunset, of having to switch to a new card just in time to see the sun disappear beyond the horizon. Large capacity cards are also ideal for continuous shooting modes, where two to three images are captured per second.

Not only can mega memory cards hold more photos, with the advent of 8-megapixel and more cameras, those photos are larger. Setting the camera to save photos at the highest quality JPG setting means never regretting a low-quality, grainy photo when that perfect shot comes along. With the extra capacity available on these cards, more non-professional photographers are beginning to save photos in the larger RAW format for more control of the shot.

The other advantage of large capacity cards is that there are fewer separate pieces to keep track of. No more stomach-dropping moments while searching each compartment of the camera bag for that last memory card with those special photos.

Cons of mega memory cards
With all images on one card, there is the danger that this one memory card can be lost, or that the entire card is corrupted. Without spreading images over several cards, those precious images may be gone. To mitigate this risk, download the images each evening, and back them up immediately.

With so many different mega memory cards on the market, there are countless choices to be made, which often causes confusion. Many of the high-capacity cards are more expensive than purchasing a series of lower-capacity cards. The higher price is not only for the convenience of having one large card; many of these high-capacity cards have accelerated speeds for saving the photos to the card, which mitigates the lag that was a constant complaint when digital cameras first hit the market. An 80x speed card can save a 12-megapixel shot in about one second, while a 40x card takes two seconds for the same-sized photo.

As for me, yes, I have continued to purchase high-capacity cards of 4 and 8 gigabytes, but I have now stayed with the most recognizable name brands. With 32- and 64-gigabyte cards on the market, an 8-gigabyte card is a happy medium between having to change cards often, and depending too much on that single card.

I will now return to Lake Tahoe, hoping to find an even better and more spectacular sunset!

Learn more about this author, Birgit Starmanns.
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