What are the different ways of storing digital photos?
Just getting started with digital photography? Our comprehensive guide covers the ins and outs of your digital camera in the first instalment of our Learning Centre series.
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Once you understand how a digital camera makes an image, the next step is to determine how your camera captures and stores the photograph.
Most compact cameras will use one of two file types to store an image, either JPEG or RAW.
JPEG
Stands for Joint Photographic Experts Group and is universally acknowledged as the standard file type for storing digital images. All cameras will be able to save images as JPEG, which are compressed files — that is, some information is lost from the final image in order to keep file sizes smaller.
RAW
RAW files capture the image "as the camera sees it", without any compression or post-processing. This means the final image has the most amount of detail possible, resulting in large file sizes. However, photographers who want the maximum amount of control will shoot in RAW as it gives them flexibility in altering and adjusting the image in post-processing.
Some compact cameras (like a number in Panasonic's range) come with the ability to take the same image as a JPEG and RAW and store both on the memory card. This is good if you want the instant gratification from a JPEG when reviewing it on your computer, but want the extra tweaks and information that a RAW file can give you.
Memory cards
With so many different types of memory cards available, how do you know which one to choose? More often than not this will be dictated by your camera, as it will only use one type of card. The main formats you need to be aware of are:
 | SD/SDHC/SDXC SDHC is the high capacity variant of a normal SD card and just means it supports faster read/write speeds and can store more. SDXC is eXtended Capacity which is currently in development, allowing for (theoretical) storage amounts going into the terabytes. |
 | Compact Flash As many professional-grade cameras use Compact Flash, you can also find CF cards denoted with UDMA, which stands for Ultra Direct Memory Access. This is just another way of writing data to the card which allows for very fast transfer times. |
 | Memory Stick Generally, proprietary formats are more expensive than their standardised counterparts. |
 | xD cards |
