Buyer's Guide: The Best Memory Cards

Data transfer speeds can vary greatly between different makes and models of memory card. Transferring 4 GB of data (photos, HD videos etc.) can take anything from just over a minute to more than five minutes. Plus, it goes without saying that the fastest cards are generally also the most expensive! Here are a few things to look for when shopping for a memory card:

- Type of memory card. After several years of intense competition, only three memory card formats remain on the market today—those are Compact Flash, still used in a few SLRs (though probably not for much longer), SD (called SDHC up to 32 GB and SDXC from 64 GB upwards) and microSD for mobile phones and some other compact devices.

- Write speed. You'll need a card with a good write speed to record HD video and to save photos quickly in continuous shooting modes. A slow memory card increases the time it takes a camera to save a picture, slows down the continuous shooting mode and can fail to record video properly.

- Read speed. Good read speeds make it quicker to transfer files from the card to a computer.

With these factors in mind, here's our pick of the best mice out there right now.

Editor's Choice

Hold onto your hats—this memory card has the fastest write speeds in its category by far, reaching up to 81 MBps. In other words, it won't hold any device back—not even professional cameras and camcorders. The Sandisk Extreme Pro SDHC UHS-1 has excellent read speeds too, running rings around the competition at 94 MBps. This card therefore copies files to a computer four times faster than most regular memory cards!

Two Alternatives

Best of the Rest

Here are a few more of our favourites.