A Photographic Memory

Author's Rating:

Pros: Easy to use, tons of storage space, reliable.

Cons: That proprietary-Sony-camera issue, maybe.

The Bottom Line: 
The Bottom Line loves using these to take extra-special home movies.

Author's Review
A memory card may not be the most exciting thing to write about, but it’s something that I depend on regularly and get a lot of use from. The Sony memory sticks are probably best known for their use with PSP systems, but I’ll be reviewing it from the point of view of a digital camera owner – specifically an older-model but dependable Sony Cybershot.

In the years that I’ve had my camera, memory has become amazingly cheap and compact. If 4GB cards were even available back when I purchased my camera, they would have been prohibitively expensive, but this card cost me about $20 when I purchased it a year ago on Amazon, and now they’re even cheaper (I just bought an updated version for additional storage for an upcoming trip). Since 4GB will hold hundreds and hundreds of hi-res photos, and minutes of (non-HD) video, this is more than enough storage for your everyday needs and probably enough for most people’s vacations.

This particular card has 4 GB storage capacity (with 3.66 GB available), minimum write speeds of 15 Mbps, and transfer speed up to 160 Mbps. It includes an adapter for use with Memory Stick PRO (the older format) compatible devices, although I’ve never had to use mine. It works for compact digital cameras, portable audio devices, or PSPs, but is not meant for DCR-series camcorders.

The card uses MagicGate technology, and here’s what Wikipedia has to say about that: it is “a copy-protection technology introduced by Sony in 1999 as part of the Secure Digital Music Initiative (SDMI). It works by encrypting the content on the device and using MagicGate chips in both the storage device and the reader to enforce control over how files are copied. All Memory Stick Duo cards equipped with MagicGate can be identified by a notch located on the rear end of the card.” To be honest, that doesn’t mean much to me, but if you care, there it is.

The card is very small and compact, about the dimensions of one of those melt-on-your-tongue breath strips. It’s shaped so that it can only go into your camera one way, so there’s no possibility of accidentally jamming it in wrong and breaking it. Once the card is properly inserted, the camera will automatically save pictures to the card’s memory rather than internal memory, so you’re good to go. You do need a card reader with a USB port to download the pictures onto your computer, and because this is a Sony proprietary product, you’ll have to make sure you’re getting a compatible reader.

Indeed, that’s the main complaint I hear about Sony cameras: they require proprietary memory cards, so you can’t just go to a store and pick up an SD card. Well, okay, but how often have you honestly needed to do that? I know I never have, and with 4GB of memory, I can’t imagine you would either. In fact, there is a non-Sony memory stick available, made by Sandisk, and while that’s considered a reputable brand, the Sony memory stick was only a few dollars cheaper at the time and I felt safer with an official product. Both Sony and Sandisk products are widely available, however, and I just don’t think this is a dealbreaker for not getting a Sony camera.

One thing I will note is that you need to periodically reformat your memory stick, because (as I’m sure you know) “deleting” a file doesn’t truly mean it has been wiped clean from memory. In fact, some people recommend reformatting the card EVERY time you delete out a batch of pictures. After about a year of lazily not reformatting the memory card, I noticed that the card always seemed to be showing that it was almost full, even when there were only a handful of photos on there. Eventually I got a sinister-looking error message claiming that the camera had no available memory, but as soon as I reformatted the card (through the camera’s setup menu), the message vanished and my memory card once again showed the full 3.66 GB of storage as free. I’ve learned my lesson now and vow to reformat the card regularly to maximize its performance.

Overall, this has been an inexpensive, reliable, and problem-free memory card that has gone on many trips with me and never let me down. As long as you treat it carefully, like any other sensitive piece of electronic equipment, you should get years of dependable performance out of it, and I’ve been extremely pleased with the amount of data I can pack onto it. If you’re considering a Sony digital camera, ignore the proprietary-memory-card haters – this is an affordable and good-quality product that you can trust to store your pictures and video for you.