Nikon D3200 Digital Field Guide

Memory Cards

The Nikon D3200 uses Secure Digital (SD) memory cards. These cards are small, light, and can hold a great deal of information. The Nikon D3200 can use regular SD cards, SDHC (Secure Digital High Capacity) cards, and SDXC (Secure Digital eXtended Capacity) cards. The SD card format holds up to 2GB of data, and is not used much anymore. The SDHC format can support capacities up to 32GB, while the SDXC format can support up to 2TB.

The capacity of the card you use is important because it determines how many photos and videos you can take before running out of space. For example, if you are using an 8GB SDHC card, you can get approximately 171 RAW+JPEG images on the card. If you shoot only RAW files, that jumps to 259 images. If you shoot only large JPEGs, you can get 509 images in the fine image quality, 1000 images when using normal image quality, and 1900 images when using basic image quality. Always buy the best memory card available. They are going to hold your precious memories, and a good memory card can be used over and over again without fear of losing any images.

AB.1 SDHC memory cards are about the same size as a stamp, and only a bit bigger than a quarter.