Photo card question

[dirtmistress]

In the El Prieto ride report VTVic mentioned some of his photo's got corrupted. Kanga said an old card can cause a problem.
Can you explain that in more detail please? How long do cards generally last? Are they all the same? Can they be cleaned with a soft cloth? Should you just automatically replace them after a certain amount of time or use?
Thanks

[Jordansrealm]

I take it you mean Memory Cards like Compact Flash and Memory Stick, etc? There isnt much cleaning you can do with them aside from cleaning them off if you get some dirt on them. You cannot clean the internals. I have heard of some photogs accidentally washing CF cards and they still worked but I wouldnt try it on purpose. Memory cards are only going to last so long, basically the quality of your images will degrade over time but for most consumers a typical memory card will last as long as they own the camera. You should be able to take thousands and thousands of shots on a card before you will notice any significant change in picture quality.

To keep your cards working their best I would recommend you use a good memory card reader to transfer pictures from your card to the computer. I do not recommend the USB cable they provide with your camera. This has been known to cause corruptions problems with various camera models.

I would also recommend formatting your memory card when you want to delete everything on it. Usually thats a simple process just put the card in, pull up your Menu screen and find Format. Then hit okay. This will assure the camera that you card is not only clean but also ready and formatted for that model camera.

Do both of those and your cards should last you a long time.

Jordan

[Burner]

Originally Posted by Jordansrealm

Memory cards are only going to last so long, basically the quality of your images will degrade over time

I don't see how that's possible... if the card degrades it's probably with how fast it can be written to, so you could see a performance decrease of speed.... but the data (image) being sent to it and stored is going to be the same no matter what.

[Jordansrealm]

Originally Posted by Burner

I don't see how that's possible... if the card degrades it's probably with how fast it can be written to, so you could see a performance decrease of speed.... but the data (image) being sent to it and stored is going to be the same no matter what.

I have noticed a quality change in my RAW images on older cards. Keep in mind I take ALOT of images per year and replace all of my CF cards on an annual basis. The image quality does degrade though, it is slight and most would NEVER EVER notice but those of us that do it for a living need it to look flawless always.

[El Salt]

Also, just an FYI...

Do NOT format the cards with your computer, only format them in your camera.

[kanga]

I have about 3 dead SD cards from the past five years. Some of them are physically bad (chipped cases) and they start getting data errors that will cause corruptions like the ones your camera showed, or the camera won't recognize there's a card inserted. They're so cheap I just replace them right away.

You can try doing a "low level format" in the camera to "clean" the existing data off then do a read-write test in a computer to test it. The low level format should restore any data errors, but once you start getting those errors, IMO it's time to get a new card.

[Trizz]

Why is this, in some instances until recently, The Canon 5D didnt reconize a card more then 8 Gigs and if you formated in Camera you lose 8 Gigs of space and its a pain in the butt to get it back,

for a 16 gig card you would have to format in the computer,

can you give any reasons as to why you say this.

Originally Posted by El Salt

Also, just an FYI...

Do NOT format the cards with your computer, only format them in your camera.

[Jordansrealm]

Originally Posted by Trizz

Why is this, in some instances until recently, The Canon 5D didnt reconize a card more then 8 Gigs and if you formated in Camera you lose 8 Gigs of space and its a pain in the butt to get it back,

for a 16 gig card you would have to format in the computer,

can you give any reasons as to why you say this.

Certain camera models were not made to use CF cards over a certain size. I had a 20D that would not take a card over 2GB. I have a backup 30D right now that does not like 4GB cards depending on the brand. My friends 40D seems to have everything up to 8GB so far. I know my 1DMarkIIn takes everything I have thrown at it so far though. Not sure why Canon limited the CF card size but I do know from research and forums that its a well known fact that certain bodies were meant to work with only up to a certain size CF card.

[Trizz]

I understand this, my 5D until just last week didnt format cards more then 8Gigs so i would have to format my 16gig card in computer,

someone said that its bad to format in the computer...
why? iv been shooting weddings for 3 years and never heard such a thing.

Originally Posted by Jordansrealm

Certain camera models were not made to use CF cards over a certain size. I had a 20D that would not take a card over 2GB. I have a backup 30D right now that does not like 4GB cards depending on the brand. My friends 40D seems to have everything up to 8GB so far. I know my 1DMarkIIn takes everything I have thrown at it so far though. Not sure why Canon limited the CF card size but I do know from research and forums that its a well known fact that certain bodies were meant to work with only up to a certain size CF card.

[El Salt]

If I remember correctly, my 20D and my D1 don't seem to mind, but my little Canon point-and-shoot (can't think of the model off the top of my head) does not like it at all (format via PC).

[Abui]

From Wikipedia ..

In practice, flash file systems are only used for "Memory Technology Devices" ("MTD"), which are embedded flash memories that do not have a controller. Removable flash memory cards and USB flash drives have built-in controllers to perform wear-levelling and error correction so use of a specific flash file system does not add any benefit. These removable flash memory devices use the FAT file system to allow universal compatibility with computers, cameras, PDAs and other portable devices with memory card slots or ports.

Error corrections and wear-leveling so errors in the photos are very unlikely. The article does state that SD memory life cycle is 10 times that of (old-versions) of CF. With a life cycle of 1,000,000 writes (per bit?) you'd have to shoot one huge pile of photos, fill the memory a million times.

[jeffj]

Jordan, my 20D uses the two 4Gb CF cards I have with no problems. Bought it in Dec. 06 and have not updated the firmware. Weird.

I sometimes get corrupted files, but I have figured out that it is my hard drive that has the issue. If I go back to the card and download the file again, it usually comes out right the second time around.