Time Changes Our Perceptions On Memory: FujiFilm xD-Picture Card (16MB) Flops!
Written: Jan 03 '09
Product Rating:
Pros: Easy to use, Durable, Inexpensive enough
Cons: Not great capacity at all, Minimal warranty, Easily lost when out of camera.
The Bottom Line: Years ago, 16MB might have been impressive for camera memory, but now it is not and virtually every consumer will want more than this!
wlswarts's Full Review: FUJIFILM XD-Picture Card (16 MB) (N072980A)
They say time heals all things. Time certainly changes our perceptions of things, that is for sure. I was fairly unsurprised when I went to review my Fujifilm xD-Picture Card with the sixteen megabyte capacity that they had not been reviewed by others yet. I am largely unsurprised because this is a difficult item to write anything about. But it is worth noting, as I take on this challenge, that I am writing this in 2009, and had I written it five years ago, my perception would be almost entirely different because memory for computers, portable storage media and especially camera picture cards/discs has changed drastically in the last five years. And this is definitely change for the better for consumers: memory has become vastly less expensive and far greater as far as storage capacity.
This past summer, as I crossed the country for my annual Las Vegas excursion, I found myself in need of a new Picture Card for my Fuji Finepix Digital Camera (reviewed at: http://www.epinions.com/content_359969623684 ), so I picked up the standard I was familiar with, a Fujifilm xD-Picture Card with the 16 MB capacity. This is like the 20mg. dosage of Zoloft: it's what the minimum standard is now and almost no one uses this little memory anymore. I was lucky to find it when I did, I suppose.
Basics
The Fujifilm xD-Picture Card with the 16MB capacity is a tiny chip designed to store digital images on compatible cameras. This picture card is a small, flat storage device that fits into virtually any Fuji digital camera and any other camera that uses an eighteen pin connection to a camera. If you are unsure of whether or not that applies to your camera, either consult the camera's manual or carefully remove your current memory card and count the pins. "Pins" in this case are the flat leads (usually a gold-color) that conduct the information, they are separated by faint nonmetallic bars. If your memory card has eighteen little bars (they look almost like piano keys!) then it is considered an eighteen pin lead and this product would be instantly compatible with your camera.
The Fujifilm xD-Picture card is approximately one inch wide, three-quarters inches deep and only 1/16" thick! This is small and easily lost. I suppose, though, if one is a spy and one needs to quickly conceal the picture disc, it makes it easy to swallow to conceal to get spy photos where they are going. This is very small and because most people never remove them from their cameras, that ought not to be much of an issue.
Capacity
As one might guess, the 16MB Fujifilm xD-Picture Card holds sixteen megabytes worth of visual information. As mentioned before, this is the smallest capacity I know of and it is what comes standard in such cameras as my FinePix. What does this mean in practical terms? That largely (honestly) depends on your camera. However, the FinePix offers four quality levels based upon the resolution of the shot taken.
At the minimum resolution (.3M) the 16MB card will hold 121 photographs, but they will be the most grainy that the camera takes. Conversely, a 16MB chip will only hold 24 of the highest resolution images possible. My experiences have been that I do not like the result of the lowest resolution images and I burn through batteries and memory far too quick with the highest capacity ones. I keep my camera set to the 1M quality, which provides images that are X with a resolution of Y and this picture card holds 48 pictures at that quality. My average day of photography is about forty-eight pictures (I don't like holding a lot of images on a picture card without uploading them, so this is a good amount), so I end up with 48 JPG files that are 6.40 inches (162.2 mm, 1280 pixels) X 4.80 inches (121.9mm, 960 pixels) with a 200 X 200 DPI resolution (though, honestly, that might just be the imaging program I open the pictures in) and True Color (24 Bits).
For those who can live with 48 great pictures between reloads or 121 crappy ones, this is a great memory card for you. The thing is, I can completely recognize that this is not enough capacity for most people (and on my last trip, it ended up not being enough for me, either!) and as a result, this lowers the overall usefulness of this product. Virtually everyone who wants to be taking serious amounts of photographs and EVERYONE doing photography professionally will need greater capacity than this!
Durability
The Fujifilm xD-Picture card is essentially a tiny piece of plastic with little metal strips on it. The metal strips (or leads, as they are properly called) plug into a slot in one's camera (consult your camera manual for how to do that). As well, there are chip readers that may be plugged into computers to read the chips directly. It is important to note that software support for extracting information from this card is entirely dependent upon the user's camera or computer! This picture card comes with no software support, nor does it require any to use. It simply plugs into a compatible camera and is as easy to use as batteries.
However, this is a small device and is easily lost. As a result, users must be very careful while handling it. I have NEVER had this Picture card lose a file and until I actually lost my original one, I cannot imagine I would have been taking it out of the camera for anything. However, proper care indicates that one should ground themselves (eliminate static electricity from the body) by touching something metal before touching the card. The only other way I can imagine to damage this is step on it (it is mostly plastic, so it will break) or swallowing it.
This is a durable card that most people will never need to take out of their camera.
Warranty
Fujifilm tends to have a five-year warranty on a lot of their picture cards, but the 16MB card has only a one-year warranty. In all honesty, I had my first 16MB card in the camera for approximately four years (or more) before I ever needed to replace it and I replaced it for loss/upgrade reasons. I never had any experience that would have forced me to exercise this warranty, but it is worth noting that I also had fairly light use of my camera for years.
This product has only a one-year warranty and I cannot speak to how responsive the company is to replacing them when needed.
Overview
The Fujifilm 16MB xD-Picture card is good, but not adequate as far as capacity (or warranty) for professional photographers. For us amateurs, one still is likely to enjoy the flexibility and capacity of more storage than this.
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