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Memory Card Best Practices

hairy_moth
Apprentice

In order to minimize errors due to memory card failures, I am curious whether or not Canon recommends:

 

Formatting cards in the camera or on a computer?

 

Deleting images or formatting the card after a shoot?

 

Some models include a "Low level format"  Is this really ever needed?

2 REPLIES 2

Twilightscapes
Contributor
I am not sure there is an official statement, but in my experience, I only format in the camera, never on the computer.

Unique Night Time Photography | Twilightscapes.com

Way back when digital started becoming popular I took a 2 day seminar put on by Olympus. At that time we were instructed to ALWAYS format in camera because some computers were using FAT 16 while others used FAT 32 as the filing system but the cameras of the day used FAT 16. As things progressed pretty much all operating systems (PC based) went to FAT 32 & so did the cameras. I've formated countless times on the PC since buying my 20D when they first became available without any problems. One primary reason to do that years ago (may have changed since) was that if you used a card in 2 or more cameras it would  change the shutter count on the camera it the card had higher file numbers..

When I'm going to travel I format all my cards on my computer, use my email address as the volume label (it's short enough to do that) & add a photo of my business card so that IF I loose a card or camera it's possible for the finder to contact me. There isn't much chance a thief would return them but I'm a diver & cameras are often lost while diving & because I dive in a very popular spot the chances of my dive camera being recovered are good.

"A skill is developed through constant practice with a passion to improve, not bought."
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