Photography techniques

[loripo]

I've been reading thru this with interest. Can I ask how often you use the same card? At first I used to reformat after each batch of photos I uploaded onto my PC. then wondered if I was recording over the same are of the card each time, so I now fill the card and then reformat. Do they have a shelf life so to speak?

[pressld2]

I always reformat my cards after every shoot and so far, touch wood, it's never been a problem. I don't think it hurts to continually re-use the same area of memory on a card.

Dave P.

[Jason Green]

Well, I haven't re-formatted in two years! I'm still on my first 1gb XD card with some 45,000 photos taken. Only a tiny minority are kept mind you! I just cut them from the card an paste onto my hard-drive.

[PMG]

Originally Posted by Jason Green

Well, I haven't re-formatted in two years! I'm still on my first 1gb XD card with some 45,000 photos taken. Only a tiny minority are kept mind you! I just cut them from the card an paste onto my hard-drive.

Now thats an interesting way to do it - I hadn't thought of that - I fill or partially fill cards then download to a programme specifically for downloads and where stuff 'sits' until I choose and keep originals elsewhere prior to web or print prep ........ I'm a nightmare for keeping almost everything - I keep trying to catch up with keeping and deleting - its a winter job which has been going on for a couple of years and I think I'm losing ground rather than gaining.....

I always format cards and up to now haven't had any bother (boy is that tempting fate just before a major hol ....) I seem to think we had one card with an image in the middle somewhere which gave trouble - half an image and half blackout - it took a bit of fiddling to delete just the one ruined image but we had to get rid of it before the rest afterwards would download.

Ians card even survived the dunking in the River Hayle - not an image was lost - tho the camera and lens died - funnily enough the electronic remote cable release also survived and continued to work

Pauline

[Jason Green]

Originally Posted by PMG

I always format cards and up to now haven't had any bother (boy is that tempting fate just before a major hol ....) I seem to think we had one card with an image in the middle somewhere which gave trouble - half an image and half blackout - it took a bit of fiddling to delete just the one ruined image but we had to get rid of it before the rest afterwards would download.

Were you using a programme to obtain the images from your camera, such as Photoshop's importing application? If so, I think you may have been able to get around it by navigating to the camera's image folder through My Computer, and 'Cutting' those either side.

Anyway, it sounds like an image was corrupted half-way through being written to the card - did the batteries die at about that point? Very difficult to delete, these corruptions. I've tried on images on my PDA and when you try deleting it it says 'Image not found' or similar!

Enjoy your holiday...

[PMG]

Yes Jason something like that - I've forgotten what I did at the finish but as you say very difficult and poss due to battery demise!

Third visit to the Western Isles looming now - packing almost finished - getting excited now that the worst of the work involved is over!!

Pauline

[Mike Jackson]

Another formatter here. First thing I do when I turn the camera on is to format the card (as long as I've previously downloaded the images). It's the quickest way of erasing the images on the card.

[Hedera]

Another novice digitalist here, very interested in this thread as it answers some of my questions. I use Picasa 3 and download everything to it and erase the images from the card each time. Wasn't sure if the same 'patch' got used each time. The most shots at a time was about 80.
Have a lovely holiday PMG, more scenic views and birds galore! Thanks.