xD Picture Card Memory

xD Picture Cards - meeting the memory needs of today's performance demanding digital cameras

Coming into being as a direct result of the joint collaboration between three electronics giants, namely Fuji, Olympus & Toshiba, a new flash memory format was launched in late 2002. It's called xD Picture Card and due to its association with these companies it is primarily intended as a storage format for digital cameras. As cameras made by the abovementioned manufacturers are now made to accommodate xD Picture Cards, they are widely considered to be the replacement for the Smartmedia card that was the format previously preferred by them.

The need arose for this new storage format to be introduced as cameras were being developed with ever more features that required better and faster memory storage capabilities. Many cameras now have the ability to make video clips, which can put the performance of a memory card to the test. An xD Picture Card provides the high performance needed to store such clips quickly and efficiently meaning there is less chance of missing that 'once in a lifetime moment'.

Picture this! Higher capacity xD Cards are on the way. They're not only compatible with cameras either!

xD Picture Card is currently available in the following capacities: 16MB, 32MB, 64MB, 128MB, 256MB, 512MB. However, one criteria during the development stage of this increasingly popular format was that the possibility should exist to be able to produce the card with a capacity of up to 8GB. Therefore consumers can expect to see higher capacity cards introduced in the near future as mainstream demand increases. 

Need to use your xD Picture Card in a device that accepts only CF memory cards? No problem, simply buy a purpose made adapter, slip in your xD card and then insert it into your host device and go! 

Similarly, PCMCIA adaptors are available and enable the user to plug an xD-Picture Card into their PC or laptop computer or other compatible device.

A second xD Card. Do you need one?

As most digital devices are sold with a very low capacity card, just to get the user/purchaser started, it is often the case that consumers will have to fork out for a second xD Picture Card with more storage capacity. Fortunately, this is a memory format that is widely available and can be bought at reasonable cost.

Of course, it is handy to have a second card available and usually having bought a higher capacity upgrade, the original card is kept as a back up.