My memory card said full after shooting only 8 shots.

[Tamthom]

Shooting with an SL1, I inserted a reformatted 64 memory card (used it before, but deleted photos and reformatted). It said full after only 8 shots. I inserted a brand new 16 memory card, formatted it, and started shooting. It said full after 4 shots! Am I doing something wrong or does the camera need to be repaired?

[ebiggs1]

Any and all info you can provide will help determine your cause. What you are actually doing, shooting. Video or stills?

 What type card you use? How you are shooting? RAW or jpeg? Stuff like that.

[hsbn]

Also you said "format" but did you format the card in the camera or on your computer? Make sure to format the card in camera and turn on Low Level Formatting, then try again.

[amfoto1]

64GB... or 64MB?

Hopefully 64GB...

Assuming so, what brand of memory card? Some off brand cards aren't worth a **bleep**.

I agree about the formatting... if it was done in the computer, it must be redone in the camera before using the card.

***********
Alan Myers

San Jose, Calif., USA
"Walk softly and carry a big lens."
GEAR: 5DII, 7D(x2), 50D(x3), some other cameras, various lenses & accessories
FLICKR & PRINTROOM 

[Tamthom]

Okay, to answer your questions:

I formatted the cards in my camera. I didn't even know you could format them on the computer. Low level formatting was turned on.

I was shooting stills, jpeg. In fact, I was in a photography class at the time and we were working on different metering. But I am sure the metering has nothing to do with it. My instructor said I may need to take the camera in, but I wanted to check around to see if it was something I could correct before having to take it somewhere for a repair.

The first card was a 64MB SimpleTech; okay, maybe that is an off-brand. The second was a Canon 32MB. Maybe it is the brand, but still you would think it would allow more than 4 or 8 shots.

Any help is appreciated. Thanks!

[MikeSowsun]

Where did you get your memory cards from? They are MUCH too small for your camera.  In the early days of digital photography, many cameras only had 2 Megapixels and the file sizes were very small.

64MB will only hold 6 photos if the file size is 10MB.  If you shoot Jpeg, you need to get at least a 4GB or 8GB card for a digital camera today.  If you shoot RAW, you will need even larger cards.

[ebiggs1]

Go out and buy a 16 GB Sandisk or Lexar Sd card. Format it in your camera and all will be as it should.

"My instructor said I may need to take the camera in ..." 

What? Is this a real photographer or just a guy?

[Tamthom]

Thanks! I will get new, much bigger Sandisk cards and use them. I know I must appear so stupid to you experts, but I really appreciate your answers.

[amfoto1]

There are no stupid questions, only stupid answers! I'm sure we've all mixed up MB with GB at one time or another.

Your SL1 is an 18MP camera. Same size as my 7Ds. The chart above shows you can get about 290 RAW files on an 8GB card and that holds pretty true from my experience. It also shows you can get up to 1140 JPEGs on the same card, at the highest quality setting. I don't shoot JPEGs very much, so can't confirm that, but the math makes sense.  

I also don't use many SD memory cards, but I know there are different grades. You should check to see what "speed" or grade of card is the best for your camera, so it will not slow down when shooting. This can also effect the download speed. The chart above refers to "UHS-1", which might be a designation of card speed.

Often you'll find two packs of memory cards at nicely discounted prices. You can never have enough memory cards! I've seen sales on memory cards at Adorama and B&H Photo recently, but really haven't paid attention to the SD card prices.

Actually you might try to sell those small memory cards on eBay... It's almost impossible to find 32MB and 64MB cards any more. People still using old digitals are sometimes looking for them. Their cameras, in some cases, can't use modern high capacity cards! I gave a 1998 vintage 1.2MP Oly camera that I was no longer using to my sister and brother-in-law a few years ago.... the largest card it can use is 32MB. More recently I picked up an older 3.2MP point n shoot camera and needed an SD card for it, was looking for something in the 256MB or smaller size, though it could use larger.. Turned out that one of those was more expensive than two 1GB memory cards. Seemed silly not to, so I went ahead and bought the bigger cards. Now I can shoot something like 10,000 images with that camera before I need to stop and download it!

***********
Alan Myers

San Jose, Calif., USA
"Walk softly and carry a big lens."
GEAR: 5DII, 7D(x2), 50D(x3), some other cameras, various lenses & accessories
FLICKR & PRINTROOM