Canon Powershot A490 Memory Card

My Memory Card Choices for Canon Powershot A490

With the Canon Powershot A490, there are so many different types of memory card options available. For those of you who are looking for good deals or just a clearer understanding on these memory cards for the computer, then you are definitely in the right place. No longer will you be confused and those deal hunters will also be able to save themselves some money.

For those of you who you who want to save money and already know what card you want and would like, then click here for low prices.

Canon Powershot A490 Memory Card Types

The Canon Powershot A490 can take a variety of memory card formats. To help clarify things, I will explain the differences between the different versions.

SD Cards – This memory card format can hold up to 4GB of images and video.
SDHC Cards – This memory card format can hold up to 32GB of images and video.
SDXC Cards – This memory card format can upwards of 48GB of images and video.
Micro SD (With SD Adapter) – This memory card format can hold up to 4GB of images and video.
Micro SDHC (With SD Adapter) – This memory card that can hold up to 32GB of images and video.

We always get a lot of questions as people are generally confused with differences of SD and SDHC formats. The most basic thing you should know about these two cards is that they are essentially the same thing. They have the same size and shape, the only real difference is they have different maximum capacity sizes.

SD cards can hold up to 4GB worth of pictures and video.

SDHC cards can hold up to 32GB worth of pictures and video.

SDXC cards can hold 48GB – 2TB worth of pictures and video.

Other Vital Memory Card Information

For those of you who are thinking about getting memory card for the A490, you should realize that aside from storage capacities, memory cards also have different speed ratings. These speed ratings on the memory cards are there to show the speed at which data can be read or written directly to the card. SD and SDHC cards have speed ratings of 2, 4, 6 and 10. SDXC cards speed ratings go from Class 4, 6 and 10. SDXC cards also have another speed rating known as Ultra High Speed (UHS)

Class 2 – Minimum of 2 MB/s performance. (Slowest)
Class 4 – Minimum of 4 MB/s performance. (Average)
Class 6 – Minimum of 6 MB/s performance. (Above Average)
Class 10 – Minimum of 10 MB/s performance. (Fastest)
UHS-1 (SDXC CARDS) – Speeds up to 104 MB/s.

Our speed class rating for the Canon A490 would be to get either a Class 4, 6 or 10. The best choice would be to go with a Class 10, as the prices are so cheap now. My experience with the slower cards has been nothing but frustration. When taking pictures on the high settings, the camera takes a while to write the data to the memory card. If I had owned a faster speed class card, I would not have to wait as long. The same can be said about transferring video and pictures from the camera to the computer. With a slower card, it can be a painstakingly slow process.

What Size Canon A490 SD/SDHC/SDXC Card Should I Get?

When you’re thinking about getting SD, SDHC or SDXC memory cards for the A490, you definitely need to think about how much storage space you really need. SD Cards come in sizes from 1GB, 2GB and 4GB. SDHC cards are available in 8GB, 16GB and 32GB sizes. SDXC cards come in 48GB, 64GB and 128GB sizes.

Based off our experience, we always tell people that if they are considering buying a memory card for their Powershot A490, they should spend the money and get one of the cards that has a lot of storage space. There is nothing worse than going out on a trip and realizing that your memory card is almost full and there is no computer around to dump the images and video. Good memory cards options for this particular camera are 16GB and 32GB SDHC cards. If you have the money and want more storage space, then the 48GB and 64GB SDXC card is the way to go.

How Much Data Can Hold on a Canon A490 Memory Card?

Now that you have a clearer picture as to the different types of cards that can be used in the Canon Powershot A490, it is now time for you to find out how much data these memory cards can hold.

**just so that you know, the data that we have in the tables below are all based on ESTIMATED file sizes. Memory cards will be able to hold more or less pictures and video, depending on a variety of factors, one being the cameras settings. This table is here just to visualize the storage capacity of these cards.

	Images	Raw	Video: 640X480	Video: 1280X720
4GB	1,946	268	43 min	25 min
8GB	3,892	536	1 hr 26 min	50 min
16GB	7,784	1072	2 hr 52 min	1hr 40 min
32GB	15,568	2144	5 hr 42 min	3 hr 20 min
48GB	23,352	3216	8 hr 32 min	5 hr
64GB	31,136	4288	11 hr 22 min	6 hr 40 min

Best Memory Card for the Canon Powershot A490

Below are my best memory card picks for the Canon Powershot A490.

If you are thinking about getting a memory card for the Canon Powershot A490, then you HAVE to consider the Transcend 32GB SDHC Card. This is an amazing card as it has everything going for it. It is fast (Class 10), has ample storage space and the best thing about this card is that it is not expensive. Transcend is known for making quality products and the performance that you will get from this particular card is top notch. If you want the best memory card for your A490, this is the way to go.

Another good memory card option is the 16GB Transcend SDHC. Even though this has less storage space than the 32 GB card, it should be enough for you to save all your pictures and videos without worrying about the card filling up. This is a cheaper option if the 32 GB is too expensive, but one thing that I am certain of is that you will be getting a quality product.

*Compatibility Issues

Now that you have identified the memory card that you want, if it is a SDHC or SDXC card, then you need to check your computer or laptop’s card reader. Many of the older computers/laptops have SD card readers and as such they will not be able to read the SDHC or SDXC card formats. If you look and see it can only read SD, then you need to get a card reader that can read SDHC and SDXC cards. The good thing is that these products are not that expensive. If you are looking at getting one, you can get one here.