Most likely, your digital camera connects to your computer through a USB or serial port, but this can be inconvenient. A flash card reader attaches to your PC's USB port and transfers data between your digital camera and your computer without the need to connect the camera itself to the computer. You can transfer data even when you don't have your camera with you.

And, unless you have an AC adapter for your camera, downloading files from your camera to your computer can be a serious drain on your batteries. A flash card reader conserves the battery life of your digital camera or other digital device.

Universal Serial Bus (USB) is a connectivity specification designed to provide an easy, efficient way to attach external peripherals (devices) to a computer. USB connectivity gives computer users an instant, hassle-free way to connect peripherals such as printers, scanners, digital cameras, and more to a computer. USB also lets you connect many peripherals at one time and distributes electrical power to multiple peripherals.

USB replaces all the different kinds of serial and parallel port connectors with one standardized plug-and-play combination. With USB-compliant computers and peripherals, you simply plug them in and turn them on.

With USB, there?s no need to shut down and restart your computer to attach or remove a peripheral. The computer automatically detects the peripheral and configures the software.

Flash memory cards are used in a wide variety of electronic equipment, such as digital cameras, handheld computers, and MP3 players. To see if your device can use Crucial flash memory cards, look up your make and model in our Memory Selector.

We carry a broad selection of flash cards in a range of densities. See our current flash card line.

About the size of a matchbook, a flash memory card is a small, removable storage device used in a variety of electronic devices, including digital cameras, handheld computers, and digital music players. Flash cards are designed with flash technology, a non-volatile storage solution that does not lose its information once power is removed from the card. Flash cards contain no moving parts and are extremely rugged, providing users with much greater protection of their data than conventional magnetic disk drives.

For more information, see our library article on Flash: The Memory Superhero.