SD cards are physically small, but they can store thousands of image files.
Measuring roughly the size of a postage stamp and smaller, SD cards look tiny, but don't let size fool you. The storage capacities of SD -- secure digital -- cards range from the meager 8MB starter cards initially sold with digital cameras to sizable 2TB cards, as of 2011. Whether you're a casual point-and-shooter or hope to document an extended vacation, there's an SD card created with enough storage capacity for your photo adventures.
Standard Card Types
Three types of cards dominate the standard SD format as of 2011. These include standard SD, microSD and miniSD. All three have the capability to store up to 2GB of data. The cards range in physical size to fit inside electronic devices of varying sizes, including digital cameras and cellphones. The largest of the three -- the standard SD card -- measures 24mm x 32mm x 2.1mm. A miniSD card measures just 37 percent of the size of a standard SD card, while a microSD card comes in at approximately 25 percent of the standard card's size.
High-Capacity Series
As manufacturers develop cameras with increasing resolution options, digital media storage cards follow suit. The SD Association's high-capacity line of SD cards offer digital photographers up to 32GB of storage space without increasing the physical card size. The high capacity cards carry the "HC" distinction, making the abbreviation for a standard-size high-capacity SD card SDHC. The two physically smaller cards carry the names miniSDHC and microSDHC. HC series cards only work with devices designed to handle the card's increased storage capabilities.
Massive SD Storage
If your photo storage needs exceed 32GB per card, the "XC" series of SD cards provide even larger storage solutions. SDXC, MiniSDXC and MicroSDXC cards store a maximum of 2TB of data in the same physical card sizes as those of the previous series. As of 2011, the XC series of SD cards store the largest quantity of data in the SD card lineup. XC-series cards only function in devices labeled for compatibility with XC technology.
Image Quality and Storage
Image quality settings -- including resolution and compression -- on your photo capturing device determine how many actual photos you can store on your SD card. If you're capturing high resolution photos with very little compression applied you will fit fewer images on your SD card than you can using lower image quality settings. For example, if you use a 10MP compact digital camera set to the highest resolution and lowest compression settings, you can record approximately 750 photos on a standard 2GB SD card. Other factors such as amount of image detail, colors, exposure and lighting also affect a photo's file size, making SD card storage capacity numbers estimates, not exact numbers.
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