Digital cameras take digital photos and store them as digital photo files on a memory storage device. The storage device can be any device that enables storages of digital files. Theoretically digital cameras could use hard disks or even optical CD burners to save files but in practice almost all digital cameras use small solid state memory storage devices like compact flash cards or secured flash disks.



Solid state memory storage is the best choice of almost all digital cameras for many good reasons. First solid state is small and can easily fit in today small and compact digital cameras. Solid state memory storage usage Flash chipset technology to store digital bits that are the building blocks of digital photo files. Modern Flash chipsets are very dense high capacity devices that can store a huge number of bits and bytes which translate to a very large number of digital photos. For example a flash storage device that costs just a few dollars can store hundreds of digital photos.

Solid state memory storage devices are mass produced used by many consumer devices and thus enjoy economy of scales making them low cost and affordable by all. Flash based solid state storage devices are also low in power consumption. In fact Flash based solid state storage only requires energy when actively writing or reading files. Low power consumption is extremely important in battery powered devices like digital cameras since the number of hours the device can be used before needing to recharge the battery is critical.

Flash based solid state storage devices are also very reliable. Because they have no moving parts and no mechanical components they can endure harsh environments a wide range of temperature and can withstand high physical pressure. So if a Flash based solid state storage device is used in a very hot or cold environment or if it falls on the floor from a high height it will easily survive and continue to flawlessly work. This is very important in a mobile device like a digital camera that can be used in extreme environments and that can fall or get abused while in use.

Flash solid state devices used to be slow when writing data but modern Flash devices overcame this problem. Writing and reading is very fast today and some Flash based solid storage devices even go a step further and include RAM based cache memory that even accelerates performance further more making writing digital photos fast and efficient. In fact Flash based devices are fast enough for digital video cameras too where continuous stream of photos needs to be written to the storage in real time.

Flash solid state memory devices can also be used in order to transfer digital photos from the digital camera to other devices like personal computers and digital photo printers. Because flash based storage devices have standard interfaces you can take a storage devices like a compact flash out of your digital camera and insert it into a compact flash slot in a personal computer or a digital photo printer and have those devices read and use the digital photos.