NEWS & TIPS
NEWS AND TIPS TAKE A CLOSER LOOK
These days, digital cameras support various types of memory cards such as CompactFlash, CFAST, XQD, Sony MemoryStick and – the focus of today's article – the ultra-popular Secure Digital (SD/SDHC/SDXC).
If you have ever been shopping for SD memory cards, you likely noticed a lot of different numbers of symbols on the cards' labels. Although seemingly cryptic, those numbers and symbols reveal important information about a card's performance, and whether or not that memory card is right for your intended use. So let's take a closer look at a typical SD card's label to see what information is available.
Format
In 1999, SanDisk, Panasonic and Toshiba jointly introduced the Secure Digital memory card format (later referred to as Secure Digital Standard Capacity, or SDSC) in an attempt to improve upon the existing MultiMediaCard (MMC). The following year, those same companies formed the SD Card Association to develop SD standards and promote the new memory card format. In 2006, the SD Card Association outlined the SDHC (Secure Digital High Capacity) format in the second version of its SD specifications with support for memory cards up to 32 GB and speeds up to 25 MB/s. Later, the development of Ultra High Speed bus systems would increase the speeds available for SDHC memory cards. Three years later, the SDXC (Secure Digital eXtended Capacity) format was introduced supporting capacities of 2 TB and speeds of 104 MB/s with the addition of the UHS-I (Ultra High Speed) bus standard. When UHS-II was introduced in 2011, speeds up to 312 MB/s became possible. In 2018, The SD Card Association developed the SDUC (Secure Digital Ultra Capacity) format with support for 128 TB and speeds up to 985 MB/s.
Max Read Speed
The max read speed indicates how fast the data from the memory card can be read under ideal circumstances. On some cards, an x-rating value is displayed. The x-rating is based on the original data transfer speed of CD-ROMs (150 KB/s). Because there may be a significant discrepancy between read speeds and write speeds, max read speeds (and x-ratings) are not truly indicative of the kind of performance you can expect from a memory card when used in your camera (where write speeds are significantly more important). Note that some manufacturers list separate max Read/Write data specs to clarify their card's performance, and the SD Association's introduction of Speed Classes (and Video Speed Classes) also help to clarify SD memory cards' performance (more on that later).
UHS Class Speed
UHS-I and UHS-II cards (more on these later) may list a UHS class rating to designate the minimum write performance for the card, with U1 indicating 10 MB/s and U3 indicating 30 MB/s or more.
Capacity
Listed big and bold, and probably what most consumers pay the most attention to, is the memory card's capacity. Of course, a larger capacity means more images/videos can be saved before running out of room.
Video Speed Class
In order to cater to the needs of videographers, the SD Association created a Video Class Speed to designate the minimum sequential writing speed of the card. The number following the "V" indicates the minimum number of MB/s the card is capable of sequentially writing. In the example above, the card is minimally capable of writing 30 MBs of data to the card every second.
Bus Interface
An SD memory card's UHS (Ultra High Speed) rating indicates the maximum amount of data that can physically move into and out of the card. Along with the SDXC standard released in the SD Association's v.3.01 specification standards (2009), the UHS-I standard was also introduced. UHS-II and UHS-III soon followed allowing for even greater bus speeds, but these technologies required a second row of pins to be added to memory cards. The latest UHS bus iteration is dubbed "UHS Express" and has a theoretical limit of 985 MB/s.
Speed Class
Speed Classes 2, 4 and 6 support write speeds to a fragmented card of 2, 4 and 6 MB/s respectively. Class 10 cards, on the other hand, support a minimum of 10 MB/s sequential writing to a non fragmented card in addition to utilizing a high speed bus mode. As you can see, there's a lot of room for a Class 10 memory card to exceed the minimum spec, which is probably why the other class ratings (such as UHS/Video) were implemented.
Which memory card should I get for my camera?
In short, the memory card that has a sufficient capacity, the performance necessary to meet your most data-hungry needs and falls within your budget range. Keep in mind that SD memory cards are backward compatible; even if a memory card maxes out the capabilities of your camera to record data to it, you may find the extra performance useful when a) transferring images or video to other devices via a card reader or b) when your next camera offers features such as higher resolution images and/or video.
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If you are planning a trip to Hawaii, contact O'ahu Photography Tours, you will not be disappointed. They offer sunrise, sunset and night photo tours. I did the sunrise tour and took some beautiful pictures and had a great experience. 808-679-1938
http://www.oahuphotographytours.com/?gclid=CO3kyc6Lj8oCFU86gQodP9oGyw
Polarizing Filters
Using a polarizing filter in your landscape photography is a great way to darken skies and create images with real impact. These 4 tips for using a polarizing filter will help get you started right.
Polarizing filters have a number of uses, but one of the most basic is to darken blue skies. This can help to enhance the contrast between sky and cloud, making it ideal for landscape or architecture shots.
Using a polarizing filter is also perfect for removing reflections and glare from non-metallic surfaces. This enables you to improve the color and definition in your waterfall, sea and river photos, but it’s also effective for darkening windows in buildings and helping to remove unwanted reflections on still-life subjects.
Using a polarizing filter also reduces the amount of light reaching your camera’s sensor by around two stops, which can either be a benefit or a hindrance, depending on what you’re shooting and the effect you’re trying to achieve.
On the plus side it will allow you to use wide apertures for shallow depth of field effects, or longer shutter speeds for creative blur, in bright conditions. But this reduced light can make it difficult to get sharp results, especially in low light, without using either a tripod or increasing the ISO to compensate.
Choose your mount
Polarizing filters are available for both screw-in and square filter systems. The screw-in ones are great if you only want to use the filter on one lens (or each of your lenses has the same filter thread), but the square systems are convenient if you have lenses with different size threads.
Rotate the filter
All polarizing filters need to be rotated to alter the effect they have on the sky and reflections. Slowly rotate the filter while looking through the viewfinder or at the Live View screen, and stop rotating when the blue sky has darkened or the reflections have disappeared.
Check your shutter speed
Using a polarizing filter will reduce the light reaching your camera’s sensor by around two stops, so you need to make sure that the shutter speed doesn’t become too slow to hold the camera steady. The best option is to use a tripod to ensure sharp results in this situation.
Watch the sky
A polarizer is great for darkening blue skies, but when shooting with wide-angle lenses it can affect some areas of the sky more than others. This uneven polarization will produce unnatural-looking results, so you should rotate the filter to minimise it, or remove the filter completely.
WHATEVER IT TAKES TO GET THE SHOT...........
