Jessops Secure Digital 1024 MB

Background

I'm really not sure how much of a background a memory card needs, but just for the sake of it: very few digital cameras have any more than a tiny internal memory, and some have none at all. That being so, a memory card (preferably several) is an absolute necessity if you're going to be able to exploit one of the very features that makes digital photography so attractive and snap away time and time again without a care. Yes, some purists/old fogeys (delete according to personal prejudice) will tell you that the old "36 exposures and you're out" days produced more thoughtful photography, but for most of us getting 50 great snaps from 300 shots with a card is better than getting 36 from 36 with film.

This card

The one-gigabyte (1024-megabyte) card under review here is in the standard SD format, which few people now know (much less care) stands for "Secure Digital". It is not an SDHC card – those don't exist in smaller capacities than 2 GB – but backwards compatibility should ensure that it will work in just about any SD-compatible camera, with the exception of some very old models which can't handle capacities that high! Although branded as a Jessops card, it is actually produced by SanDisk, and indeed the industry giant's logo can be seen on the rear, just above the phrase which defines modern consumer electronics. (That's right – the phrase I mean is of course: "Made in China".)

SD cards are a little over 3 cm long and 2 cm wide, and a matter of a few mm thick, so they're hardly a burden to carry. Like most flash-memory cards, they're also not very susceptible to damage, and can stand up to fairly rough treatment without too much difficulty. I do store mine in a case, but that's more for convenience and to prevent their loss than for their actual protection. I won't ramble on too much about the design of the card, since there's not much to say beyond the fact that it's dark blue and has a Jessops logo on the (also dark blue) label. Gosh; you must feel your horizons expanding by the moment...

On test

In my Canon PowerShot A710 IS, which is a seven-megapixel camera, a freshly-formatted card had enough space for 322 photos, pretty much what I'd expect. In continuous (burst) shooting mode, slightly to my surprise the card showed no signs of having to stop and buffer even after 50 or more shots had been taken. However, don't count on this: in the Canon PowerShot S2 IS, which is only a 5mp camera (there's space for 391 photos on this card) but which has a faster burst mode (2.3 fps v 1.7 fps for the A710) buffering was needed after around 15 shots, whereas the SanDisk Ultra II card I generally use in that camera could keep going until the card was full.

The conclusion to be drawn from this is unsurprising: the Jessops card is not going to be able to keep up if you try pushing it beyond ordinary snapshot photography. For that, you'll need to invest in a faster card. However, this card has proved itself to be very well suited for those occasions when speed is not of the essence, and where casual snapping is likely to be all you want to do. It's very reliable, it does its job without any fuss, and although you'll probably only find it second-hand these days (2 GB is the smallest size now easily available new) there's no reason to baulk at such a purchase if it's cheap enough – say, under a fiver.