PhotoFast manufacture a diverse range of storage products, such as memory cards, external hard disks, hard disk enclosure boxes, multifunctional card readers, plug and play flash drives, CD-R and DVD ROM.

PhotoFast was built by a group of talented R&D engineers who served in SONY Japan. The professional R & D team joined PhotoFast Taiwan (established 1980) and established Head Quarters in Taiwan in 2001.

PhotoFast continues to innovate new technology while keeping to strict quality practises. To promote their exclusive technology of APP (Accident Protection Prevention), PhotoFast used the image of "Protective Charm" to emphasise their information security mechanism.

In Japan, the meaning of the "protective charm" is safe and security. With this memory card patented APP technology, users will not accidentally delete their valuable data, users can keep their data safe as long as they shut off the power of the PC immediately. The APP technology can also recover accidentally deleted data or images. In addition, lifetime warranty and rapid repair services also enhance the concept of "Protective Charm".

Compact Flash Cards

The Compact Flash format was created and produced by SanDisk in 1994 and has become popular for digital cameras. In recent years it has been widely replaced by smaller cards on the consumer end (by Secure Digital in particular), but it is still a preferred format for professional DSLR cameras, for its superior capacity and reliability.

The Type I Compact Flash card is 3.3mm thick. The Type II was created to be a little bigger at 5mm thick so that the storage capacity of the card could be increased by using micro sized hard drives (microdrives).

However, flash memory has now reached such large capacities and has caught up with the capacities offered by such small harddrives, that the need to use harddrives in this manner became redundant, and hence the Type II is generally no longer required within the market.

Compact Flash was a development of the PCMCIA card, these are the long cards for the slot on the side of laptops. Hence Compact flash Type I is the same thickness and width, just shorter.

The technical specifications of Compact Flash allow capacities of upto 137GB and 64GB versions are now readily available in 2009, so it is not longer before this limit is reached. This may be the final nail in the Compact Flash's coffin.

Some digital SLR cameras have switched to the smaller size SDHC card, such as the Nikon D80 foe example. SDHC provides capacity upto 32GB and very fast transfer speeds equal to what Compact Flash can provide.

SDHC was a development of the original SD format, and introduced to overcome that format's 2GB limit. The SDXC specification has already been released to manufacturers by the SD Association, this will allow capacities of up to a massive 2TB (2,000GB). This proves the SD format is being continually developed, whereas the Compact Flash format has remained relatively unchanged since its creation.

Due to the fact its only serious market is digital SLR cameras it is unlikely Compact Flash will be developed past the 128GB level, especially since such cameras are already adopting the SD format.

Memory Stick Duo was introduced in 2003 by Sony Corporation as the second form factor memory card in the Memory Stick family. It is a smaller alternative to the Memory Stick and was developed to be used in small portable electronic devices, mostly mobile phones. It has the size of a postage stamp and has about half the volume of a Memory Stick.

The limitations of the Memory Stick Duo in storage capacity (128 MB max) and transfer speed (2.45 MB/sec) contributed to the introduction of the Memory Stick PRO Duo later in 2003. The PRO platform was developed jointly by Sony and SanDisk. It has the same physical format as the standard Memory Stick Duo but the PRO platform offers higher storage capacity and higher transfer speed.

The Memory Stick Duo can always be used in a Memory Stick PRO Duo slots and in most of the cases a PRO card can be used in a Memory Stick Duo slot. We recommend you to look in the products manual for finding out if a Memory Stick PRO Duo can be used in your products Memory Stick Duo slot. However you will not be able to make use of the higher transfer speed that the Memory Stick PRO Duo has to offer when using it on a standard Memory Stick Duo slot. In cases like that the PRO card will have the same transfer speed as a standard Memory Stick Duo.

Memory Stick Duo and PRO Duo cards used to come with a Memory Stick or a Memory Stick PRO adaptor making them compatible to all Memory Stick slots. Due to the demise of the original Memory Stick format (inc Memory Stick PRO) adapters are no longer included. We no longer sell Memory Stick Pro as it is no longer made, the remaining versions are the ProDuo and Micro(M2). Memory Sticks are almost exclusively used by Sony and Sony Ericsson products.

In 2008 the faster Mark-2 version was released. The Mark 2 designation indicates the Memory Stick is suitable for use with AVCHD recording products or other faster Memory Stick enabled devices by providing appropriate minimum write performance.

In 2006 Sony and Sandisk introduced the third form factor memory card in the Memory Stick family, after Memory Stick PRO and Memory Stick PRO Duo. The new much smaller Memory Stick Micro is about one-fourth the size of Memory Stick Duo. Memory Stick Micro or M2 is aimed at use in mobile phones and ultra small portable devices.

The Memory Stick Micro is based on the PRO platform, which is used by both Memory Stick PRO and Memory Stick PRO Duo cards, meaning that it can offer high storage capacity and high transfer speed in a much smaller physical format. The only difference from the PRO cards will be the fact of having lower operating voltage through being dual-voltage. This will meet the demand from the electronics manufactures for lower power consumption contributing to longer lasting battery life for mobile phones and other portable electronic devices.

Micro Memory Sticks (also known as M2 sticks or simply M2) come in a variety of pack configurations, either with an adapter so it can be used as a ProDuo stick or with a dedicated USB reader so you can access its contents easily on a computer. Some packs come with both, or just the M2 stick on its own if you already have an adapter/USB reader.

The MMC card or MultiMediaCard was introduced in 1997 by SanDisk Corporation and Siemens AG. At that point the MMC card was the smallest memory card, about the size of a postage stamp. The MMC card is very similar to the Secure Digital Memory Card, the SD Memory Card is actually based on the MMC card. They have almost the same form factor the only differences are that the SD Memory Cards are slightly thicker and they have a write protection switch.

Since the MMC card had a slow transfer speed of 2.5 MB/sec a new high performance version of the MMC card was introduced in 2005 by the name of MMCplus. This has a theoretical data transfer speed of up to 52 MB/sec.

The MultiMediaCard Association announced that by the end of 2005 the secureMMC application will be available only for the MMCplus and MMCmobile memory cards. The secureMMC is a copyright protection application that features DRM, Digital Rights Management, and VPN, Virtual Private Network, capabilities.

Since the MMC cards are thinner they can be used in all SD Memory Card slots but not the vice versa. Based on that fact the MMC and MMCplus memory cards can be used in SD Memory Cards slots they are today the most compatible memory cards in the market. It is important to keep in mind that music stored on MMCplus or standard MMC cards my not be able to play back when inserted into a SD Memory Card slot due to the copyright protection features supported by the SD slots.

In 2005 the 4th revision of the MMC standard was released, which introduced the new MMCmobile as well as the MMCplus.

This was to compete with SD cards as the new standard ran at a slightly faster speeds than the current SD card and also much faster than the previous MMC standard.

This new MMC standard is fully backward compatible with the old MMC standard, so an MMCmobile card can be used in a RS-MMC slot (as could a MMCplus card be used in an MMC slot).

The MMCmobile is physically identical to the RS-MMC but faster at up to 52Mhz using an 8 bit wide data bus.

The MMCmobile was primarily introduced however for the mobile phone market, and to make it attractive to mobile phone manufacturers and subsequent content providers so that they’d adopt the format it featured secureMMC, a copyright protection technology. It uses DRM, (Digital Rights Management) similar to MagicGate seen on Sony’s memory sticks.

Therefore its application was pertinent within the mobile phone market, were users would download music from online music stores. DRM provides protection for the copyright holder of the music, so that the end user cannot freely distribute the music they save to their MMCmobile card in their phone.

However, the Secure Digital card had already grasped this market primarily because it was designed with this application in mind from the out set (hence the word “Secure” within its name). Secure Digital features CPRM (Content Protection for Recordable Media), from the very start of it’s existence.

The adoption of such copyright protection by the MultiMediaCard Association in 2005 by introducing MMCplus and MMCmobile to compete with Secure Digital was too late to dominate over Secure Digital, and at the time of writing it looks like MMC is in decline as a choice storage medium for current manufacturers.

ExpressCard is a hardware standard replacing PC cards (also known as PCMCIA cards), both developed by the Personal Computer Memory Card International Association (PCMCIA). The host device supports both PCI Express and USB 2.0 connectivity through the ExpressCard slot, and each card uses whichever the designer feels most appropriate to the task.

The major benefit of ExpressCard technology is a dramatic increase in bandwidth, afforded by the fact that the ExpressCard has a direct connection to the system bus over a PCI Express x1 lane and USB 2.0. The ExpressCard has a maximum throughput of 2.5 Gbit/s through PCI Express and 480 Mbit/s through USB 2.0 dedicated for each slot.

SxS cards and the MxM Card Adapter for use with Sony's EX1 / EX3 and EX1R professional video cameras. use the USB connectivity. SxS is a solid-state memory card implemented as an ExpressCard module. The first camera to use this media was the Sony PMW-EX1. The speed provided by the Expresscard design makes it ideal for professional video capture (e.g. television broadcast quality).

The ExpressCard standard uses lower voltages than the previous CardBus slots (1.5V and 3.3V versus 3.3V and 5.0V). The ExpressCard interface is not backwards-compatible with CardBus devices.

The SD Memory Card or Secure Digital was introduced in 2001 by SanDisk Corporation, Matsushita (Panasonic) and Toshiba. The SD Memory Card was based on the MultiMediaCard, MMC, memory card standard and has almost the same form factor, the size of a postage stamp, the only differences are that the SD memory card is slightly thicker and has a write protection switch. Since MMC cards are thinner than SD Memory Cards they can be used in all SD Memory Card slots but not vice versa.

The SD Memory Card is today the most common used memory card. It can be found in most digital cameras, PDAs and in many other electronic devices. The SD Memory Card slots can be used for more than flash memory cards. The SDIO, Secure Digital In & Out, is the general name for the many expansion modules that can be found in the SD Memory Card's form factor. SDIO modules can be inserted in the slot and be used for other functions like Bluetooth adapters, GPS receivers, digital cameras, TV tuners, etc.

The SD Memory Card was the first memory card to be introduced in the Secure Digital family, which today consists of three members. In 2003 the miniSD format, 60 % smaller than the SD Memory Card, was introduced as the second member in the Secure Digital family. In 2005 the microSD was introduced as the third and the smallest member in the Secure Digital family. miniSD and microSD come with an adaptor, they can be used in all SD Memory Card slots.

The official maximum capacity offered by the original SD format is 2GB. Although when some older devices were made it was not foreseen by the designers that SD cards would reach sizes of up to 2GB and therefore can only address a card upto 1GB, or even 512MB.

When buying a memory card it is important you check which card your device can accept, you should consider the format (e.g. SD), the size (e.g. 1GB) and speed (e.g. 133x). There are various compatibility checkers available, one of which on Transcend's website at this link:- http://www.transcend.nl/Support/Search/index.asp?contain=Brand

You can use Transcend's compatibility checker to see what specifications of card your device will accept, you don't have to buy a Transcend card.

If you buy a card which is too big, a 2GB card for example, and your device was only designed to accept upto 1GB cards, it will either work although the 2GB card appear as a 1GB card, or it won't work at all, or it may appear to work fine until you realise half of the 50 photographs you took have disappeared. This is because your device's filing system can't manage the space on the card so it literally loses them! The pictures will be there but not reference correctly in the File Allocation Table (FAT).

Again this is not necessarily a faulty card but an incompatibility between card and device (e.g. a digital camera).

It should be the responsibility of the buyer to know what kind of card their device can accept. It is difficult for the seller to ascertain this as they do not own, use or have access to the device in question. The buyer can use compatibility checkers like the one described above from Transcend to check which kind of card they should buy, or refer to the instruction manual of their device or to ask the manufacturer direct. It is a little like buying fuel for a car, it should be the responsibility of the driver of the car to know whether the car accepts petrol or diesel. The garage cashier cannot know as it is not their car. If the customer does buy the incorrect fuel would the garage be expected to take the fuel back and provide a refund or swap for the right fuel?

If a card is bought without checking it is the correct one for the device in question and indeed turns out to be incompatible it is not the sellers responsibility to accept the card back, after all the card is now second hand. The supplier/manufacturer will not take the item back unless it is faulty, therefore the original seller would have to sell the item as a used item, which always means at a loss.

However, if a memory card has not been opened and is like new it can be sold as such (not the case with fuel) and therefore can be accepted back as a return and exchanged for the correct item or a refund given. Because there were so many fake memory cards within the market a few years ago manufacturers started to make the packaging so it had to be destroyed to get to the card, i.e. packaging often has to be cut open with a sharp pair of scissors.

Therefore for a buyer not to check which card they need, to buy, open and use the card is not fair on the seller to then expect a refund if the card is found not to be faulty after testing in an appropriate device.

As mentioned earlier the maximum capacity of SD cards was 2GB but some card manufacturers exceeded his limit and created 4GB cards which are not to the official SD specifications, so whether a 4GB SD card will work in your device becomes even more of a concern and using a compatibility checker and doing other research before buying is very important. On the flip side, it can be a helpful way of increasing the useful life of a non SDHC device.

What is SDHC?

To support the higher capacity needs, SD cards are now requiring a different design. The new SD 2.0 specifications - which officially supports 4GB and up - is called Secure Digital High Capacity (SDHC). The SD Association has created and defined 3 speed classes to help you identify speed and performance capabilities/minimum requirements of SDHC cards and their SDHC host products. Details on the SD 2.0 specification can be found at the following link:- http://www.sdcard.org/developers/tech/sdhc/

Cards address data (read and write) at numerous speeds. Many factors impede this performance. SDHC guarantees a minimum read and write speed necessary to handle recording high quality video and audio. The maximum card speed may vary, but you can always depend on SDHC cards to meet your SDHC host product's high quality performance requirements.

Because SDHC works differently (supports the new higher capacity cards) this new card format is not backwards compatible with legacy SD format host devices. To avoid confusion the SD association stipulated to manufacturers using SDHC technology in their devices that the devices must have bare SDHC logo. Therefore when considering a new SD card check that your device shows the SDHC logo, if it does then you can purchase new SDHC card with confidence. If your device does not have a SDHC logo a SDHC card will not work, even though it will physically fit in the slot. The device will function as if it is a faulty card which is not the case.


Look at the SD association website for more details.
http://www.sdcard.org/home/

The miniSD was introduced in 2003 by SanDisk Corporation in cooperation with Matsushita (Panasonic) and Toshiba. Later in that year the miniSD format was adapted by the SD Card Association as the second form factor memory card in the Secure Digital family. MiniSD is a smaller version of the SD memory Card format, about 60% smaller in volume, and offers the same benefits as the SD Memory Card except the write protect switch.

MiniSD was designed specifically to be used in small portable electronic devices like digital cameras and mobile phones and always come with a SD Memory Card adaptor. They are compatible with all SD Memory Card slots when used with the adapter.

TrashFlash, formerly known as T-Flash, was introduced by SanDisk Corporation in 2004 as the world's smallest memory card, approximately the size of a fingernail. TransFlash was specifically designed for being used in mobile phones. Motorola was the first mobile phone manufacturer to adopt the TransFlash memory card standard.

In the 3rd quarter of 2005 TransFlash was adopted by the SD Card Association as the third form factor memory card in the Secure Digital family, after SD Memory Card and miniSD. After the adoption, TransFlash changed name to microSD. The microSD has exactly the same dimensions and specifications as the TransFlash and therefore both memory cards are completely compatible to each other.

Today the microSD is the most common used memory card in mobile phones and the SD Card Association's objective is to make microSD a de facto memory card standard for all mobile phones. All TransFlash and microSD cards always come with a SD Memory Card adaptor, which makes them compatible to all SD Memory Card slots. The microSD is about 10% in volume compared to SD Memory Card.

The USB, (Universal Serial Bus), Flash Drive was introduced as an alternative to floppy disks with the advantage of being more reliable, more durable, much faster and with much larger storage capacity.

Today the USB Flash Drives have completely replaced the aging floppy disks. Since they are mostly used to store and transfer digital files between computers the USB Flash Drives are seen as a complement to memory cards, not a competitive product.

The size of USB Flash Drives and lack of a USB interface on small portable devices like cameras and MP3 players contribute to the fact of them not being a competitive storage format to memory cards.

Considering that every new desktop computer, laptop computer and printer has at least one USB interface the USB Flash Drive standard is the most compatible flash memory device for transferring digital files to and from a computer.

Since USB Flash Drives do not have a standardised form factor they can be found in many different sizes and designs, but in general they are no bigger than a lighter or a pack of gum. The same applies for the USB Flash Drive as a name, since it is not a standardised trademark it can be found under many names. Such as Jump Drive, Pocket Drive and Pen Drive, still the USB Flash Drive name is the most common used when referring to USB based flash memory devices.

They are also called USB Pen Drive, USB Memory Sticks, or just USB Stick. The term USB Flash Drive is the correct term however, because it was created around a drive, as Windows sees the device, i.e. a disk drive, yet it is made of Flash Memory, not disk platters, and it uses the Univerisal Serial Bus as its interface (USB), hence USB Flash Drive.

Flash Memory is the type of memory which retains data even when power is withdrawn.

The industry adopted Windows FAT32 file format as a standard for the USB Flash Drive (an old Windows file format from the Windows 95 and 98 days, which is not a secure file system). Windows now uses the secure NTFS system, but can still access drives formatted as FAT32. Mac and Linux systems can also use FAT32 drives even though they also use the own secure file system on their hard drives. This makes the USB Flash Drive a brilliant cross-platform data sharing device.

USB Flash Drives can be found with two different data transfer speeds. The USB 1.1 standard has a transfer speed of 1.5 MB/second or 8X speed and the USB 2.0 has a transfer speed of 60 MB/second or 40X speed. The speed of the USB 2.0 is the fastest in the memory card industry.

The xD-Picture card was introduced in 2002 by Fuji Film and Olympus as a replacement to the older SmartMedia card. It was originally produced exclusively by Toshiba and can be found branded originally under the name of Fujifilm and Olympus only.

The xD-Picture card format was developed to be used by digital cameras and is more or less used by Fujifilm and Olympus digital cameras. Like the SmartMedia card, the xD-Picture card does not incorporate a controller chip which allows it to have small form factor but at the same time making it dependable to the host device's controller chip.

This memory card is not that popular by digital camera manufactures since they have to incorporate the controller chip into the electronic device, which adds costs and volume. In 2005 a new version of xD-Picture card was introduced called Type M. This uses Multi-Level Cell technology in contrast to the Single-Level Cell technology that standard xD-Picture cards are use. This makes the xD-Picture card Type M less expensive in exchange of being less high performance in terms of lower transfer speeds (read 4 MB/sec and write 2.5 MB/sec), lower cell endurance and higher power consumption.

In late 2005 another version of the xD-Picture card was introduced, Type H, offering higher transfer speeds. Type H is 2 to 3 times faster than the standard or Type M version, the exact transfer speed depends on the digital camera. In most of the cases the different versions of the xD-Picture card are compatible with each other, but not always. We recommend you to look at the digital camera's manual if you want to find out the versions that your digital camera is compatible with.

Some memory card readers may require firmware upgrades for the Type M card, otherwise they will not be able to work with the memory card. Fujifilm branded xD-Picture cards do not support the panoramic mode that can be found on Olympus digital cameras. For being able to use that feature you will need an Olympus branded xD-Picture card.

In 2008 Type H was dropped due to low sales.

Fujifilm and Olympus cameras now also come with either a Compact Flash slot in addition to an xD slot, or with an SD slot, due to the xD card’s low performance in comparison with cameras now available in 2010. Therefore the xD card technology is unlikely to be developed further and the maximum available to be 2GB, even though 8GB is technically possible.

A flash card reader allows you to read from (and write to) your flash card via your PC or Mac.

They come in different shapes and sizes. The cheaper ones usually accommodate only one type of card. As the price increases the capability to access more of the different types of flash card available also increases.

For example, if you only wish to access your photos from your Compact Flash card, a dedicated Compact Flash card reader will do for a few pounds.

If you need to access different types of cards some of the more expensive readers can accept Secure Digital, MMC, Memory Sticks, xD and so on, as well as Compact Flash cards.

Readers either connect via a USB or FireWire port on your computer. You must check which you require.

Some high-end readers are required for the latest fastest cards, such as the SDHC cards and Extreme IV Compact Flash.

The smaller readers can resemble a USB pen drive, with slots on the side for your card(s). While other readers are designed to be desk mounted and connected to your computer via a supplied cable.

Cases are ideal to protect the delicate electrical contacts of your memorycard when not in use.

Check Compatibility to make sure you get the right memory card.

Click to access compatibility databases provided by the memory card manufacturers.

We also sell all our items featured on this website in our Ebay and Amazon stores.

In addition you can find end-of-line bargains and clearance items for auction.

MP3 players and Digital PhotoFrames are also available on our Ebay and Amazon store, as well as products like Negative Scanners, Night Vision Monoculars, Cables (Network, USB etc), Printer Cartridges, Pocket Video Players like the Sansa Fuze and video cameras like the Flip and Kodak Zi6.

So for more products please visit our Ebay or Amazon stores where you can be reassured of our reputation and quality and service.

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