Digital Home Thoughts: Kingston 8GB SDHC Memory Card Reviewed

There's two things you can never get enough of with digital cameras: battery life, and storage. For the last couple of months I've been using Kingston's 8GB SDHC Memory Card [Low Price Search] in my digital cameras. I'd always used 512MB or 1GB SD cards before, but having this much storage changed a few things.

First, I found myself taking more photos, as I never have to worry about running out of space again. This card holds over 2000 7 MP photos at the highest quality settings on my camera. Second, I never deleted anything. Third, I find myself syncing my camera to my PC much less frequently.

Now, this is good and bad. More pictures means more culling to do later. Since I don't delete photos from my memory card, and don't sync as often, if I lose my camera, or if someone steals it, they'll have access to many more of my photos than before, and I'll potentially lose more pictures than I would have otherwise.

So, is 8GB of memory card storage really useful? Yes, but only if you remember to sync your camera on a regular basis, and delete photos after you've uploaded them. As with any small memory card, make sure you protect sensitive files with encryption and/or password protection.

If you've got a Portable Media Player that uses SD cards, this would be great for taking several movies on the go, or for carrying around over 1000 songs. With prices for flash memory as low as they are these days, there's no good reason not to. Just make sure you get a device that is SDHC compatible (i.e. just about any digital camera released in the last year or so), or you won't be able to use a high capacity SD card. Most manufacturers put the SDHC logo right on the device if it's compatible, so look for that first.

How about performance? The particular card I tested is rated as Class 6, with a 6 MB/sec minimum data transfer rate. I ran this card through the Windows Vista ReadyBoost compatibility tests, and got the following results:

"The device is suitable for a ReadyBoost cache...The random read speed is 3904 KB/sec. The sequential write speed is 2513 KB/sec."

The differences between the rated speed and actual test results are likely due variations in test and measurement techniques, and the type of card reader used. That said, this card is plenty fast for taking a few high-speed shots with a digital camera, or playing back a large movie file on a PMP. Subjectively, I noticed that the cycle time on my camera was noticeably faster with this SDHC card than with an older 512MB Kingston SD card. Importing my photos into Picasa, the speed was incredible. Gone are the days of waiting 5-10 minutes for photos to transfer. I can import 100+ photos now in under 60 seconds.

If you have a digital camera, invest in a bigger, faster storage card. The benefits are huge, and cost is low and dropping lower by the day. It won't give you whiter, brighter teeth, or make you more attractive to the opposite sex; but it will make your life just that much easier.

Jeremy Charette is a Contributing Editor at Digital Media Thoughts, and also works in Procurement for one of the world’s largest banks. He enjoys reading, cooking, and racing in the SpecForza league. He lives in Brooklyn, NY, USA. He's STILL tired from the Halo 3 launch.