Sarah Latour

With amateur photography gaining in popularity, digital cameras are becoming the norm. The convenience of digital cameras over traditional film cameras coupled with recent advancements in picture quality have meant more pictures conveying happy holiday memories than ever before.

Back in 2003 12.8 million digital cameras were owned, a marginally larger number than film cameras, 33% of households were seen to own a digital camera by the end of the year.

Cameras such as these in combination with other digital products such as Personal Digital Assistants (PDA) and MP3 players all require media on which to store the digital data. Flash media, memory cards and microdrives were designed in combination with these digital products. Unfortunately, as with computers, digital media does occasionally suffer from corruption which in turn can cause stored information to become locked away in the storage media, supposedly inaccessible.

A wide variety of digital storage media forms exist today, all with varying storage capacities dependant upon make and model. 8MB through to larger 6GB microdrives are now possible.

First placed into this market by SanDisk Corporation in 1994, CompactFlash Memory has become the most popular storage media of late. This media uses flash memory semiconductor technology able to house audio, text, video and images on flash chips. Being non-volatile and also solid state (no battery is required to keep the data stored and no moving parts exist) has made this technology tough and reliable, just right for portable digital products.

Sony and Toshiba created Memory Sticks and SmartMedia cards, respectively, which also turned out to be very popular. Memory Sticks have become the dominant storage media type for their own products, digital cameras, Clie’ handhelds and computers. Other manufacturers also use Memory Sticks, in particular Konica. SmartMedia cards tend to be rather thin and fragile, and have a top capacity of 128MB. Similar to solid state technology, no moving parts and a small size are perfect for active and constant transfers between digital devices.

Initially introduced in 1998 with a capacity of 170MB, IBM Microdrives are also now popular and have grown in storage size to be able to cope with 2GB. Although solid state memory cards like CompactFlash are more impact resistant, microdrives have been seen as reliable and very economic with regards to digital devices.

Whatever format you use, be it one of the afore mentioned, or some of the other varieties e.g. SecureDigital, xD Picture Card, MultiMedia Card, Mini CD-R/CD-RW, more and more people are relying on digital media and its associated problems, rather than traditional film.

Gone are the cases of film overexposure and damaged film rolls, in come the hardware failures and data corruption. Data organization and storage now uses the FAT file system. Corruption of this filing system results in the digital device that houses the memory card not being able to locate the data, whatever is stored being ‘lost’, although still remaining on the memory card.

Corruption typically occurs when a device is low on power or when memory cards are removed whilst the power is still on. Such circumstances result in the file systems not pointing to the data. Hardware failure tends to come from damage, e.g. by rough handling or accidental breakage, to the digital media so that it is unable to properly connect with the associated device which needs to read the data.

Various data recovery companies, such as Vogon, MJM, Storagesearch, CBL-Tech and Ontrack, are readily available for any of the data recovery difficulties you may encounter with digital storage medias and their associated devices. A wealth of experience and data recovery innovations mean that most data that is ‘lost’ is in fact retrievable with the right techniques.

Alex Rider
http://www.articlesbase.com/gps-articles/memory-saving-in-what-is-now-a-digital-age-73187.html

Today there are many choices available when it comes to digital camcorders. The shelfs are full of brands and models each unique in their features and capabilities. Here is a list of the top digital camcorders.

Canon Vixia HF10: This is Canon’s first flash memory media digital camcorder. It delivers excellent High Definition quality video and performance while remaining compact and user-friendly.

For more information on top digital camcorder click here

Now there are most possibilities on the market when it comes to digital camcorders. The shelfs are full of brands and models every single exceptional in their characteristics and capabilities. Here is a list of the best digital camcorders.

Canon Vixia HF10: This is Canons initially flash memory media digital camcorder. It delivers wonderful High Definition excellent video and performance when remaining compact and user-friendly.

Specifications: High Definition Digital Camcorder, 16 GB Internal Flash Drive, full 1920×1080 capture and recording High Definition Video, 12 x optical/200x digital zoom lens. Retail: $1099.00

Sony Handycam HDR-SR11: This 60GB Challenging Drive based High Definition Video digital camcorder characteristics superb image excellent and best notch performance. Specifications: 60GB Challenging-Drive Digital Camcorder, full 1920×1080 capture and recording High Definition Video, 12 x optical zoom. Retail: $1199.00

CANON VIXIA HF100: Canons second Flash Media digital camcorder, similar smaller package and continues to deliver wonderful High Definition video excellent. With it is advanced Video Codec High Definition, the picture never ever fails to deliver a supreme high-def viewing expertise. Specifications: Digital Camcorder, Flash Card memory, full 1920×1080 capture and recording High Definition Video, 12 x high definition video zoom lens. Retail: $899.00

Canon DC230: A really good spending budget model. When it has couple of frills, the lengthy lens and high-quality video excellent makes the Canon DC230 stand above the rest of the other not so highly-priced DVD camcorders. Specifications: DVD Digital Camcorder, 1.07 megapixels, 35 x optical zoom, DVD-R (8cm), DVD-RW (8 cm), DVD-R DL (8 cm). Retail: $449.00

Canon DC-50 Digital Camcorder: Good and straight forward. Canon delivers a straight forward DVD camcorder that produces really good video. Specifications: DVD Digital Camcorder, five.39 megapixels, 10 x optical zoom, DVD-R (8cm), DVD-RW (8 cm), DVD-R DL (8 cm). Retail: $799.00

JVC GR-D250: When JVC gives a lot of varieties of digital camcorders the GR-D250 stands out due to a good spending budget cost and a major zoom range. Specifications: MiniDV Digital Camcorder, 25 x optical zoom/800 x digital zoom. Retail: $279.00

Flip Ultra: You can not write about best digital camcorders and not mention the Flip Ultra, the second and superior version of the original Flip from Pure Digital. An innovation in video recording the Flip hit the market place by storm and accounts for over 15% of all digital camcorder sales. Key producers are all ready mimicking the Flip by coming out with comparable versions. The Flip Ultra can unquestionably be dubbed as the simplist digital camcorder.

When it comes to specifications there are not most to mention. The screen is tiny (1.five inches) and does not swing out for self-portraits. There are no settings, menu buttons, no light, no lens cap and no memory card. No optical zoom, only a two x digital zoom. No nonetheless shots. The whole unit is pocket size, has 3 buttons, play, quit and trash. No battery pack, works with AA batteries, (alkalines last about two hours and rechargeables about five hours).

No tapes or disks, all footage is downloaded via attached USB plug, which pops out at 90 degrees to the camera body, plug that into the computer system and download the footage. Then you save it to your challenging drive and burn to DVD and edit in most common editing programs. You can also use a particular cable to plug it into the Television and watch footage.

The whole filming method is, press the red button when to record and when to quit. Press play to assessment the video and then trash to delete scene. Thats it

Yes that is it! It is the most straight forward of digital camcorders that fits anyplace and everywhere, and is light sufficient for a baby to hold. It is size makes it possible for it to go anyplace, and everywhere where a regular camcorder might possibly not, like a purse, beach bag, or pocket. It is rugged so you can take it skiing, to the playground, when playing a sport and practically anyplace where you could possibly have to have to shoot some clips. And if you get the acrylic accessory case (retails: $50) you can even take it UNDERWATER!

With all this simplicity, the Flip delivers an amazingly high-quality picture excellent. It has Television resolution, which yields, 640 x 480 pixels and 30 frames per second. The picture is surprisingly high-quality, not as high-quality as high definition or tape digital camcorders but for the cost and simplicity the Flip unquestionably earns a spot on the best digital camcorders list. The most spectacular feature is the Flips low-light capacity, which trumps even the most highly-priced of digital camcorders. The recorded dim scenes essentially appear brighter than they looked to the naked eye. Retail Cost: $149.99 with max 60 minutes of footage.

Retail rates of digital camcorders can be steep. It is a major investment and an fundamental truth to think of is that in a planet with Online where most sellers compete for your home business important savings are on the market by avoiding retail merchants and buying camcorders at discounted rates.