twrama 1990_final oc.. - AMA WA

PHOTOGRAPHY
Come up trumps with your camera card
by Denis Glennon
What is the difference between deleting and formatting a
card? There is a crucial difference between these two
methods of image removal from your memory card, be it an SD,
microSD or Compact Flash card. When erasing a card, individual
images are deleted from their files on the card. You can erase one
or more images at one time. If you have selected images to be
‘protected’ through a menu option on your camera, these will not
be removed by erasing.
Formatting, on the other hand, deletes all images from the card,
even the ones that may have been ‘protected’. It recreates the file
system including new directories and folders where images are
saved on the card. Unlike erasing, formatting has the benefit of
improving the overall performance of a card. I never use the ‘delete
all’ function on my camera or computer to clear a card; I always
use the ‘format’ function in my camera. But, there are a few very
important steps to complete before you hit the ‘format’ button.
Foolproof method to avoid losing your
images:
• Download your images to your computer.
• Confirm they have made it successfully to the chosen place on
the computer.
• Back them up to a second location, either when downloading or
as a separate back-up step.
• Only then, format the card, in the camera used to take the
images and never in your computer or in a different camera.
The main reason for not using the computer or another camera
is that it helps prevent data loss caused by corruption that
propagates across multiple user of the card. Using the computer
opens the possibility of formatting the card with a different file
system than is supported by your camera, which would then
require you to reformat the card in your camera again anyway.
To me, it is just simpler to format cards in the camera from
which they were taken.
Formatting the card in the camera just gives you a clean start for
that card and, assuming everything works as it is supposed to, you
will have a card ready for capture with that particular camera.
In other words, a camera can certainly read a card formatted by
that camera, but cannot necessarily read cards formatted by other
devices.
Whenever I start a shoot that I know is likely to result in several
hundreds of images, I always start off by formatting the card in the
camera I will be using. If the card hits an error during formatting, I
know to immediately retire it. I’d rather find out I have a card at the
start of a shoot than midway through it, or worse, when I’m trying
to read the images later.
What if you accidentally format a card full of your best images?
If this happens, you are not an orphan; it happens to the best of us.
62 MEDICUS October