Why you shouldn’t …. Buy cheap memory cards

Regardless of what device you use you’ll probably notice that you need storage space to keep all your pictures, songs and general documents that are important to you on this device to make them work for you. In this day and age the more space you have the more data you can store. Buying this storage in many forms E.G micro SD, SD Card, Flash drive or Compact Flash card etc. can be quite expensive and with the biggest decision being how much storage do I need. In photography do I buy many small memory cards so on a day’s shooting I can take the full card out, keep it safe and insert the new card? Or buy one gigantic card to store all the pictures conveniently from the days shoot but if I lose or something happens to that one card, you can imagine how I would feel losing all the pictures from that day and my clients well, they’ll be livid, no? It is a dilemma and one that should have some thought behind your decision basically what works for you?

Of course I bet you’ve had a someone suggest certain companies or websites that have sold them incredibly cheap memory cards and you should buy yours from there too! But how cheap is too cheap? How would you feel buying a cheap memory card loading it full of pictures, music and personal files that at some point a few weeks or months later it fails and you’ve lost everything? This cheap memory card you inserted you wouldn’t feel that it was much of a bargain now would you? I know I’d be full of regret and feel the fool. Another issue of care must be the “fake” cards in huge circulation and to be honest normally found on eBay I’m sad to say? They look like the real deal, the description say they are too…. But a big give away that they’re not, is the too good to be true price and location from around the world that they’re being posted from. Don’t forget eBay offers feedback from others who have bought items from them in the past and any negative feedback with complaints of a previous purchase is more indication not to buy from there. If reliability doesn’t concern you then can I quickly ask you to read this article :HERE: The reason behind an expensive camera falling into the lake to rust away is quite shocking. The photographer fearing the camera and pictures have been lost forever needed a lot of luck for someone happily fishing one day to drag it back to the surface. I’m sure the camera could be repairable not sure it could be cost effective but I’m sure a cheap or fake memory card would not have been able to store and save the 1700 memorable pictures from the bottom of the lake that this photographer had taken on there. If the camera couldn’t be saved at least this photographers memories have been! Im sure anyone would settle for that, memories are part of our lives and photography help us remember key moments and loved ones.

You must realise by now you will need a reliable card and a cards speed should be part of your decision too. A cards reading and writing speed will affect your devices performance. Obviously you live in a modern world and time is all important! You’ll probably want a responsive device and limit waiting time so fast cards able to read your information are always beneficial. A lot of my cards that I use are in my DSLR cameras. It is very frustrating taking a burst of shots filling the buffer too quickly because the camera can’t write the images quickly enough to the memory cards. This results in shutter delay and this lag time where pictures are not getting taken, you guessed it will be the split second I want the picture taken of that match winning goal or incredible celebration.

With the above taken into consideration it doesn’t mean you must buy the most expensive cards out there because that too isn’t value for money, and will seriously dent your pocket. Please do your research and maybe through previous experience stick to what you know. I actually stick to one or two proven brands only!! And for me a good time to buy memory cards too…. Black Friday Amazon sales!! November 26th 2016 I believe it is this year Compact Flash and SD cards are on my list and Micro SD cards for mine and my households mobile phones.