Are digital photography memory cards interchangeable with video camera memory cards?

Question

Or are there different types? They seem to just say the amount of memory they have so I thought that maybe it didn't matter what kind of data you store on them.

Answer 1

It matters if the camcorder requires a minimum speed of SD card.  This would especially be true of high definition camcorders.   For example the Panasonic HDC-SD9 and Canon HF10 and HF100s require a class 4 SDHC (Secure Digital High Capacity) card.

The SCHC cards conform to the SD 2.0 specifications, which provide for speed classifications class 2, class 4 and class 6 (2,4 and 6 MB/s transfer speeds, respectively - note megabytes per second not megabits).  According to the first source below, most cameras and (external card readers) made before the 3rd quarter of 2006 can NOT support SDHC.

So, they're not completely interchangeable.

If the SD camcorder you are looking at is not a high definition model, or if it was made over 2 years ago, it may be able to use the slower older standard SD cards - but you may want to check the manual.

Answer 2

It depends, if they use SD cards they are very likely to be compatible with each other.

Answer 3

If the camcorder uses, for instance, SD, and the camera uses SD, then yes.

The cards are just storage media and are independent of the device. If the device has the right slot, the it will work in it even if it didn't come with it when you bought it.

It doesn't matter what kind of data you store on them, but be careful to back up cause who knows what the device will do to the data when you put it in there if the device didn't create it.