Digital camera memory and batteries are often called digital camera accessories but both are quite necessary to use your digital camera. You should be careful not to overlook the memory or battery when buying a digital camera and both should be included in your budget. Here are some basic things to consider about memory and batteries when buying a digital camera.
Memory
Digital camera memory is an essential and often a very neglected and overlooked section of equipment for digital photography and camera. When buying a digital camera make sure to budget for an additional memory card because most digital cameras come with a very low capacity memory card or internal memory, only capable of holding a few pictures.
How much memory you need directly depends on how many megapixels your digital camera is and the type of pictures you take. There is no fixed number of photos you can put on a memory card because of factors like megapixel, image file types and compression all affect the size of each file. Check out manufacturer’s websites to get an idea of how many images you can save on their memory card. I recommend at least a 256 megabyte card if you’re using a 3-5 megapixel compact digital camera and a 512 megabyte card for higher megapixel digital cameras but, those are minimums, buy as much memory as you can afford, no one ever wished for less memory!
Besides the actual capacity of the memory card you also need to consider the speed of the memory card. Several manufacturers are producing high speed memory cards that lessen the time it takes to save the image to the memory, allowing you to take photos without a pause in between snaps. This high priced upgrade is worth the money to photographers who take action shots in continuous mode, like at a sports event, for instance.
Batteries
Perhaps the most tedious thing about digital cameras is the quest for their battery consumption and thereby finding a suitable battery for any particular camera. Similarly for any digital camera too, a good battery is necessary in order to ensure an excellent performance from it as long as possible.
When you have made yourself a short list of digital cameras meeting your quality requirements, be sure to compare battery capacity. Some digital cameras can consume power at an alarming rate, and you will want to be certain your camera lasts through important events. Having to frequently stop and change or recharge the batteries will definitely put a damper on a photo outing. Buying a camera in which batteries will last for between 200 and 400 pictures is highly recommended by most experts.
When buying a digital camera you should also consider battery types as well as battery capacity. Some digital cameras have batteries that are proprietary and expensive to replace or buy a backup battery. If your camera uses regular AA batteries, you can find those everywhere, but the way a digital camera eats batteries that will start hurting your wallet. Besides, you don’t want to waste time standing in line buying batteries for your camera. You can invest in rechargeable AA batteries, and then the only thing that you have to make sure is ready for the digital camera is that the batteries are fully charged.
About the Author
Find more helpful digital camera articles written by Mel McGee at Digital Camera Help, including memory cards, WiFi digital cameras, digital camera batteries, lenes, and photo editing software.
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While looking for a Memory Card, look for a Class 6 card. Normally we see class 4 card everywhere, they are cheaper than Calss 6, but the latter have higher transfer rates and improves performance :)