Digital Camera Memory Cards

A Digital Camera Memory card is a solid-state electronic flash memory data storage device. They offer high re-record-ability, power-free storage, small form factor and can withstand rugged environmental conditions.

In the 1990s, a number of memory card formats emerged, including CompactFlash and SmartMedia. From the late 1990s into the early 2000s a host of new formats appeared, including Secure Digital (SD)/Multi Media Cards (MMC), Memory Stick, xD-Picture Card and a number of variants and smaller cards. The desire for compact digital cameras drove a trend toward producing smaller memory cards that left the previous generation of "compact" cards looking huge. In digital cameras, SmartMedia and CompactFlash had been very successful, in 2001 SmartMedia alone captured 50% of the digital camera market and CompactFlash had a strangle hold on professional digital cameras. By 2005 however, Secure Digital (SD)/Multi Media Cards (MMC) had nearly taken over SmartMedia's spot, though not to the same level and with stiff competition coming from Memory Stick variants, xD, as well as CompactFlash. Nowadays, most new PCs have built-in slots for a variety of memory cards; Memory Stick, CompactFlash, SD, etc. Some digital gadgets support more than one memory card to ensure compatibility.