Gosh, now this one is going back a bit. From what I can remember, I think this particular Fujifilm SD memory card was one that I bought off eBay about six or seven years ago, for some ridiculously inflated price like £20. Even then that was pushing it a bit, but I didn't really know what I was doing then (yes, yes, or now, I know) and just went with an advert from an established company that sold a lot on straightforward Buy It Now terms. These days I'd have laughed in their face, but you live and learn.

Actually, back then it came as something of a surprise to me to realise that Fujifilm even made SD cards, since they were still pushing the now-moribund xD format with their erstwhile partners in crime, Olympus. The market for SD cards was still getting into top gear in 2004/5, with (for example) Canon just making the switch from CompactFlash for their successful A-series compacts, but perhaps even at that stage Olympus could see which way the wind was blowing, even if they couldn't really say so publicly.

256 MB is a capacity that is not of much interest to those with brand new, 14-megapixel cameras, since you could only shoot for about ten minutes before filling one up. However, it's of a great deal more use to those of us who are into vintage models. The reason for that is that a surprisingly large number of earlier cameras, even SD-format ones, were not certified to be compatible above that size - and quite a few of them really aren't. For a 3 mp unit, a 256 MB card makes a lot more sense, perhaps even more than a newer 2 GB card even if you do have the choice.

This particular card operates as you'd expect one with the Fujifilm brand to do: straightforwardly and without fuss, but with no particular features of note. You can simply slide it into the appropriate slot and get going. It's by no means a fast card, and even some relatively old cameras will struggle if you try to use it for continuous shooting, but that said a lot of those models are quite slow anyway! Even at top quality you can get several hundred 3-mp pictures on one of these cards, so as long as you train your mind to forget how "small" it is you should get decent use out of it.

And really, that's about all there is to say. I'm not entirely struck on the visual design, with its somewhat clashing greens and pinks, but then how many cameras do you own with transparent memory card compartments? (Actually, it would be a fun gimmick, but I've never seen one.) These cards don't come along every day on eBay, but when they do they're usually extremely cheap - a couple of pounds should be sufficient - and despite their age they seem still to be very reliable. A niche product these days, but it fills that niche well enough.