Do some brands of flash memory cards use more battery power than others.

[Tinderbox (UK)]

I started think about this after copying a lot of photo`s from my pc to a flash memory card, when i removed the card it was very hot, now heat is wasted energy, i wonder if some brands of flash memory cards used less energy and therefor you get longer battery life, maybe it`s best not to use old flash memory in you camera`s as i suppose flash memory chips get more energy efficient with every new generation not just the capacity of how much data they hold.

I wonder how an full size SDHC and an MicroSDHC in an adapter compare when it comes to power consumption.

People that do sports photography and use continues shooting how hot does the memory card feel when you change it, all that heat is wasted battery power.

I am really thing about people that have compact camera rather than dslr`s as the ammount of photo`s that can be taken can vary considerably and you don`t have any spare battery`s

Anyway this is just a though i have had running around in my head today and i though i would just write it down. :mrgreen:

John.

 

[table1349]

How do you know the heat is generated by the memory card? The memory card could be the recipient of another close buy heat source such as the sensor or other electronics.

Kind of like putting a coffee pot on a cast iron stove. No fire in the box, no hot coffee or pot.

 

[SCraig]

No idea, I seldom take the card out of my camera. Plus, I get about 1500 images to a battery charge and have two battery packs in my camera. Running out of battery power has never been an issue for me.

 

[KmH]

Heat is generated in electrical circuits by resistance. The more resistance an electrical circuit has the more heat is generated.

As mentioned, it is also possible the card was heated by a heat source adjacent to the card slot on your computer.
Your PC was likely writing to the card at a rate faster than your camera writes to the card, which would heat the card more than your camera does.

The power consumed by flash memory cards is minuscule compared to the energy hogs is a DSLR camera - the image sensor, The image stabilization system (if on), the AF system, the metering system, the LCD display(s), and the flash unit if used.

 

[Derrel]

The old IBM Microdrives used to use more power than CF cards did. They were actual miniaturized disk drives, so small they fit inside of a CF card case; the CF card case however was just a little bit thicker than a solid-state memory card. One was called Type 1, the other was Type 2; I cannot recall which was which. I used to have a pair of IBM Microdrives which were, at that time the highest-capacity storage for digital cameras; I had a massive 1-gigabyte microdrive when I started digital photography in 2001, when an average CF card was a 32 megabyte card!!! lol.

BUt like KmH says, the memory card is wayyyy down on the list of energy users in a digital camera!