Sometimes working smarter costs a lot. But sometimes it costs hardly anything.

I was working a large convention and knew I'd be taking a lot of pictures over several days, so I wanted an SD memory chip that would easily hold everything without having to clean the chip every night. I went to the local Frye's Electronics store (this was in Las Vegas) and found a Polaroid 8 GB SDHC chip for just $15, and that was a quantity of memory that I would NEVER fill at the convention.

What it is

The Polaroid 8 GB SDHC memory chip is apparently made by PNY, a large and well-known manufacturer of computer memory products. I say that because the label on the chip says "Polaroid" at the top and has "PNY" in smaller letters on the lower left. It conforms to the SDHC standard (Secure Digital-High Capacity), which means it will only work in devices that meet the SDHC standard. I have an older Canon digital camera (from 2005) that will not work with SDHC chips and a newer Canon digital camera (from 2007) that will work with SDHC chips. Be sure you check your device to confirm it will work with SDHC chips before getting the Polaroid 8 GB SDHC memory chip.

Otherwise, the Polaroid 8 GB SDHC chip is the same size/shape as any other SD memory chip, and has the same number of contacts (nine) on the back. It always amazes me that so much memory can be held in such a small space. On one edge is a little slide switch that can be used to "lock" the memory against accidental erasure.

The Polaroid 8 GB SDHC memory is rated at "Class 4" for speed. This means that it can store and recall data at a speed of at least 4 MBps (megabytes per second). In bits, that's 32 Mbps (megabits per second). That's easily fast enough to work with my consumer-grade HD camcorder, which has a maximum data rate of 24 Mbps. There is a faster speed for SDHC memory, called Class 6, which is rated for at least 48 Mbps. I don't need that for my use but it could be important to you.

Since it is in the SDHC format, this Polaroid 8 GB memory will work in a wide range of digital cameras, camcorders, MP3 players, photo frames, cell phones, computers and many other devices.

How it works

I popped the Polaroid 8 GB SDHC chip into my Canon G7 digital camera and it has worked perfectly. It formatted with no fuss and has since been in and out of the camera many times to be read in a variety of card readers. It seems to work quickly and there has not been one problem with reading or writing. I have only used it for pictures and have not yet used it for video, although I don't anticipate any issues using it for video.

As for the pictures at the convention, I scarcely put a dent in the capacity of the Polaroid 8 GB SDHC chip. I think I came home with about 2 GB of unprocessed pictures... perhaps 500 shots. With this 10 megapixel camera set for highest quality, I can store more than 2,000 photos on the Polaroid 8 GB SDHC chip.

Summary

The Polaroid 8 GB SDHC chip is a good SD memory card and an amazing value for 8 GB. I keep telling myself that I should have bought two, although I have no idea what I'd use a second chip for. For $15, this is a chip that can last most people for a year's worth of soccer games, vacations and holidays before you'll need to empty the card. For a semi-pro photographer like me, it's more than big enough to hold all the pictures for a large and complex event, and it costs only $15.

I recommend the Polaroid 8 GB SDHC memory chip.

Recommended: Yes