DSLR memory cards are not an accessory when it comes to taking photographs, but rather they are a necessity. You cannot take photographs with a DSLR camera unless you have a compatible memory card, and memory cards are never actually included when you make the initial purchase of the camera. Because you can buy a wide variety of different memory cards, it is important to know which ones are best going to benefit you. The two basic types of memory cards that you can choose from are Compact Flash memory cards and SD memory cards. The type of camera that you buy is going to influence the memory that you need.

Compact Flash DSLR memory cards are small square-sized memory cards that are approximately half of the size of a regular credit card but around five times as thick. For many years, Compact Flash memory cards were the only type of memory card that you could use for a DSLR camera. This was quite beneficial when it came to consumers because the tough competition within the market greatly lowered the price of the memory cards, increasing their storage capacities significantly. At the time, 1 GB DSLR cards were impressive, but today these cards are also available in 64 GB versions.

Manufacturers are now moving toward DLSR cameras that are lighter and smaller, and as such, they are trying to reduce the weights of their cameras in any way possible. Compact Flash cards may not weigh a lot, but SD memory cards are significantly smaller and lighter. SD DSLR memory cards are approximately the size of postage stamps and they are nearly as thin as postage stamps as well. The biggest advantage is that many compact cameras and many other portable devices are capable of using SD cards as their source of memory, meaning that a user can use the same SD card for digital cameras, MP3 players and other devices as well.

DSLR memory cards have storage capacities that are measured in terms of megabytes. Cameras with more megapixels require more megabytes of storage space in order to store the photographs that you take. The common capacities for memory cards range from 256 MB to several gigabytes. Today's memory cards easily span to 32 GB and 64 GB depending on the needs of the photographer. Photographers can choose from numerous different memory cards to suit their needs.

SDHC cards are Secure Digital High Capacity memory cards. Of the various types of secure digital high capacity cards that are available, one option that is available to consumers is known as Sandisk Extreme SDHC memory cards. These cards were originally introduced in June 2009. The 32GB Extreme Secure Digital High Capacity memory card offers read and write speeds of up to 300MB or 200x. It offers several different capacities beyond the 32GB, including 16GB, 8GB and 4GB. This memory card offers "extreme performance" according to the manufacturer, because it uses ESP or enhanced super-parallel processing technologies.

As far as SDHC cards go the Extreme line of memory cards offer Class 10 performance. When the card was released it was purported to be the fastest of all 32 gigabyte cards on the market. It offers the storage for as many as 2500 RAW images on a single card and they can be operated at extreme temperatures including 13 degrees Fahrenheit to up to 185 degrees Fahrenheit. This Sandisk Extreme SDHC has been marketed to help digital photographers stretch the boundaries of their DSLR cameras even further, because high capacity like 32 MB cards are required for HD video and photography shooting.

SDHC cards are capable of offering a wide variety of different performance levels. Sometimes the best way to determine what SDHC card is right is simply to test out different models and find the one that best suits your needs. If you want to test the Sandisk Extreme SDHC, you can use an Sandisk ImageMate reader and writer. This will give you a feel for what the performance is like using different file types and sizes depending on how you intend to use the card. Test driving the memory card in this manner will give you a good indicator of whether or not it is going to meet your needs.

With this and other SDHC cards, performance tends to increase when the file size increases. All cards in the Sandisk Extreme SDHC line offer similar performance. Benchmark tests have been positive, showing that these cards offer excellent speed and performance, just as the name states. These cards offer solid performance for DSLR cameras and the photographers that use them. Photographers that are looking for a solid SDHC memory card that offers fast read and write speed will likely benefit from this line of memory cards and the advantages that they offer.