Essential Kit No. 3…

Essential Kit No. 3 - a robust memory card holder

Ever wonder what you'd do if you lost the SD card that you'd just spent all day filling? Those opportunities are probably not going to be there again very soon, if at all! Also, nobody wants to drive three hours and hike for another two, only to find they've forgotten to pack empty cards – so it's a good idea to make some kind of special effort to protect your SD cards and manage a selection of them ready for use.

As a digital photographer, your cards are as precious as a traditional photographer's exposed and un-exposed film rolls and they really need to be treated in the same way. They need to be kept clean and secure, not rattling about in the bottom of your bag, in a pocket, stuck to a fluff covered toffee or ground into powder by loose change. Also, they really need to be dry, as moisture will destroy them and then you'll be putting something contaminated into your camera body, so this is one area where you can't be too anal-retentive!

Also, SD cards are relatively fragile in use and can fail at any time leaving you with nothing, so getting into the habit of rotating several cards in and out of use is a good practice to foster so you avoid an "all the eggs in one basket" catastrophic failure. Ideally you want to have a few cards to spread the risk of loosing one to file corruption, so buying several smaller cards (4 or 8mb) is better than one 32mb card in this respect and they're way cheaper as well.

I've bought this 8 slot carrier and have found it to be ideal. I bought it on Amazon - there were plenty of alternative brand options available and it was only £7.50… 

Like all great products that just work without any fanfare, I've been using this for a couple of months and forgotten that it's there - but I'd really miss it if it was gone.

There are several designs available from a load of manufacturers, hard shell and soft wallet types. I think the hard shell design has the edge as it prevents crushing and some are even water resistant or lockable for added security.

 

They're available with a variety of capacities - I plumped for 8 bays but you can get more or less. I liked the "Samsonite" look of the thing and it will accommodate 3 different card formats, which is nice.

As part of my personal routine, I tend to keep my empty cards in the case and put them into individual plastic holders when they're full, but you could just move the cards from one side to the other when they're full for the same affect.

So, in conclusion - a cheap but really useful product for looking after your precious cards - does it's thing inconspicuously without costing the earth - why haven't you bought one already?