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So you’ve just shelled out several hundred dollars for your first digital camera system. You’ve got the camera, the cables, the printer, the paper, the inks. Got everything, right?

Here’s one accessory you shouldn’t overlook: The memory card.

Digital camera memory cards are starting to play a bigger role in all that photography has to offer, now that the ability to print your images has become widespread.

Consumers are increasingly using memory cards to store and transport their images from the camera to home printers and in-store printing kiosks, personal computers, picture viewers, cellphone cameras and a range of other devices or equipment.

In line with that trend, manufacturers are now selling less expensive memory cards aimed at turning the product into the digital equivalent of photographic film.

The cards will let you save fewer pictures. But because they cost less, you’ll be able to buy more of them -- and even make “impulse” purchases should you ever run out of memory away from home.

One of the top brand names in the business is industry giant Eastman
Kodak Co., which now estimates that almost a third of its memory card sales are made up of the lower-cost variety.

Kodak offers a range of memory cards starting at 32 and 64 megabytes of memory. Generally speaking, the higher the resolution of your images, the fewer you can fit on any individual card.

Kodak’s cards, manufactured by Lexar Media of California, are now available in more than 23,000 U.S. retailers, with more being added every day, said Claudio D’Amico, general manager of Kodak’s memory card business.

The idea behind the less-expensive cards is in part to keep up with changing habits. As digital imaging has become more widespread, consumers are saying they need an easy way to carry their pictures from one point to the next. And, “the memory card touches every part of the system,” he said, citing cameras, printers and other equipment.

One example: Kodak and others are starting to market credit-card sized photo viewers -- essentially the digital equivalent of a photo album. Say you meet a friend on the street and want to show them pictures from your recent trip. Pop the memory card in and you can have an instant slideshow, Kodak says.

D’Amico notes that Kodak is not only selling lower-capacity cards. The company also markets larger cards, with as much as 512 megabytes of memory selling for as much as $75.

The pioneer in lower-cost cards was SanDisk Corp. of Sunnyvale, Calif., which in early 2004 unveiled its “Shoot and Store” line of cards.

Shoot and Store is being marketed toward consumers who don’t “have the time or desire to save their pictures on a home computer,” the company said when it released the product.

The cards offer a simple alternative. Instead of spending time uploading to the PC, digital photographers can leave their pictures on Shoot and Store. 
The product comes with stickers that can be attached to the cards to identify the pictures they hold.

SanDisk has also designed and has been selling a notebook that will allow photographers to keep all their memory cards in one place.

The idea of Shoot and Store is to turn memory cards into the digital
equivalent of the film negative. To that end, SanDisk has taken a different approach in marketing. Rather than emphasizing the number of megabytes, SanDisk sells the cards according to the number of pictures they hold. The first two had 50 and 100 picture capacities. On the way: A 200 picture card.

Shoot and Store’s price is not yet as low as film, but it’s getting close. On Amazon.com recently, a 64 megabyte card was selling for about $14.

One of the reasons for creating Shoot and Store was to put memory cards within an arm’s reach of the new digital photographic consumer, said Kent Perry, who manages the product line for SanDisk. Previously, higher-capacity cards were generally found in electronic stores or other specialty stores -- usually behind the counter or in a locked display to prevent against shoplifting.

Now that the price is in a more film-like range, SanDisk has placed its products in a wide cross-section of places, such as discount stores, grocery stores, drug stores and others.

Shoot and Store is now available in more than 20,000 retail locations, Perry said.

“People were telling us they didn’t want to go through the hassle of getting film for their digital camera,” Perry said.

Like Kodak, SanDisk is not abandoning the more expensive, higher-capacity cards. It has a range of products to one gigabyte of memory and beyond.

Consumers ultimately will find a place in their photo toolbox for both the lower end and upper end cards, Perry said.

For instance, say you’re on vacation and you’ve just filled up a
high-memory card. But you don’t have any way to download. Before Shoot and Store, you could either spend $70 to $90 on a new card or skip taking pictures, Perry said.

Safety is another reason. Many photographers “are leery about keeping a lot of images on just one card,” Perry notes.

Kodak and SanDisk are hardly your only choices. Lexar, Kodak’s manufacturing partner, makes and sells memory cards under its own name in a range of capacities as low as 32 megabytes -- and as high as eight
gigabytes.

The 32-megabyte card will hold about 12 pictures captured at five megapixels of resolution; the eight gigabyte will hold about 3,000.

Lexar’s advice about memory: “Buy more than you think you’ll need for a maximum day’s shooting. And remember, more memory means more pictures, so buy more than you think you need.”

Lexar’s 32-megabyte “secure digital” card was selling recently at Amazon.com for $24.99.

Fuji Photo Film Co. of Japan has its own type of memory card, also in a range of capacities. Fuji’s xD-picture cards start at 16 megabytes and go as high as 1 gigabyte. The 32-megabyte card was selling Amazon.com recently for $15.99.

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