Memory stick question

[vawitt]

Hello everyone. Can anyone explain to me the following?

I have an Olympus camera, 6MP, that takes an xD picture card. I have a 1GB card that, when empty and set to its high resolution, tells me I can shoot about 695 pictures.

My boyfriend has a Sony Cybershot, 5MP, that takes a Memory Stick. His 1 GB stick, set to highest res, shows only holding 450 images.

How come? Does the xD have a different (and better) compression? Also, on both cameras, if we select one of the "scene" modes, our picture cards suddenly show fewer available shots - sometimes as many as half the amount.

Any ideas, or someplace I could go read up on this?

Thanks!!

~Val in cloudy IL - but NO RAIN! :)

[TonyW]

I don't have an expert answer but it's the cameras not the cards. A 1GB memory card should be the same whether it's a Memory Stick or an XDi. It's the camera that does the compression not the card and it depends on the firmware how efficient the compression is. The compression will vary depending on the picture so what the camera tells you are the shots remaining are only an estimate. A compressed JPEG of a blank piece of a one colour card will be much smaller than a shot of a multi-coloured detailed scene. You can see the difference in Elements by saving the same size/resolution images at the same JPEG compression - same number of pixels but a single coloured image or a shot with lots of blue sky will give a smaller file size than a detailed image with lots of different colours.

Tony

[vawitt]

Thanks, Tony. That makes sense. Now I can get some sleep tonight :)

~Val in cloudy IL