Making the move to digital photography is more than just changing the kind of camera you use. At the risk of sounding too hokey, it really is a “life-changing experience”. Now, I’m certainly not equating digital photography to a personal spiritual awakening that really means something in the “big picture” of your life (yep, got a camera metaphor in there nicely). However, there are some significant changes awaiting you once you step “into the light” of digital photography (OK, OK, I’ll stop).

First, there’s the matter of your memory. Memory in your camera. Memory in your computer. Memory in your head. (Hang with me). You’re going to want/need/thirst for higher capacity memory cards for your camera. There’s nothing more frustrating than lining up that “cover of National Geographic, heron-on-the-pond-at-sunset” shot, pressing the button, hearing a “beep”, and reading the “Out of Memory” message on the viewscreen. By the time you try to go back and delete some “not-so-good” photos to make room for the shot, the heron’s gone, it’s dark, and you have 200 new mosquito bites.

So, how much memory do you need? If you have a 3 MP (megapixel) camera, photos taken at the highest JPEG resolution will result in a file size of about 1.5 MB (megabytes). A 5 MP camera yields images in the 2.5 MB range. So, the 64 MB memory card that came with your camera will fill up quickly. A quick on-line check of memory card prices today revealed 256 MB cards for $25, 512 MB cards for around $50 and 1 GB (gigabyte) cards for $75. I mention “today” because memory prices can differ drastically based on wholesale prices, special rebate offers, and the retail outlet you choose. My advice: get as much camera memory as you can afford.

Next, all those images need to go onto a computer to be catalogued, adjusted, shared, and stored. This, of course, requires memory in the form of RAM and hard drive space. This may be a moot point if you’ve recently purchased a new computer. But, if you have an older system and have been limping along on the absolute bare-bones minimum RAM required by your operating system, “going digital” probably requires adding some more RAM to your computer. 512 MB oughta do it. If your burgeoning digital music collection hasn’t already filled up your older computer’s original 20 or 40 GB hard drive, your digital photo collection will probably push it over the edge. Even though the drive may not be completely full in a literal sense, it may be full in a practical sense, and may be slowing down your computer as well.

Why? Modern operating systems use what’s called “virtual memory”. When you ask your computer’s operating system to perform an operation that requires the use of more RAM than is physically available to it, the operating system goes to the hard drive and uses memory there to augment its physical RAM. However, once the computer starts using virtual memory from the hard drive, the system slows somewhat, because the access time to/from a hard drive is slower than access time to RAM, which has no moving parts. If there’s little or no room on your hard drive for virtual memory (as well as other files the operating system generates for speedy operation), you’re in for “molasses computing”. Bottom line: max out your RAM and hard drive space to the limits of affordability.

Trust me, I could feel you shudder from here when I even obliquely suggested moving all your stuff to a newer, bigger hard drive. And what about the “memory in your head”? I didn’t forget. More next week.

© 2005 Peter F. Zimowski