Re: [tlug] Tip of the Day: Repairing a corrupted DCIM card

["Lyle H Saxon" <llletters@example.com>]

On 7/16/07, Josh Glover <jmglov@example.com> wrote:
> On 16/07/07, Curt Sampson <cjs@example.com> wrote:
> > Actually, you can just stick it in your camera and use the camera's menu
> > option to format it.
>
> I should have mentioned that this did not work.....
>
> > My understanding is that [snip]
> > after you've dumped all your pics onto a PC or whatever, it's best always
> > to reformat the card in your camera before going out to your next shoot.
> > This goes for any kind of card.
>
> I've never once done this, in the five-plus years I've been playing
> with digital cameras.
>
> Lyle, you are pretty trigger-happy (in the sense that photography pays
> most of your bills, I suppose you'd better be); where do you stand on
> this issue?

Actually, my main bill payer is text manipulation, and along with
that, machine part photography, and then some freelance work that is
again based on the text, with the photos for backup.  I would prefer
photography to be the main thing, but that honor goes to text.

That out of the way - with all of my cameras, from a Kodak DC215, to
an Olympus 4040, an Olympus 5050, Pentax models, Ricoh models, Casio,
Lumix, etc., I have done exactly what Curt wrote.  With my first
Olympus camera, I put a data folder on the card and let it double as a
removable drive, but I had some problems with that - the nature of
which I don't remember in detail, but it had to do with trouble in the
camera.  Soon thereafter I read the on-line version of an article in a
photography magazine about this, and they said that it depends on the
camera model and the manufacturer, but they recommended not deleting
or adding things to camera memory cards.

Putting together the trouble I had with that advice, I've since then
always just uploaded pictures from my cameras to my computer and then
reformatted the memory card in the camera with the camera.  I haven't
lost any memory cards, but I've lost several cameras that died before
something went wrong with the cards!  Typically most consumer digital
cameras seem to only be good for from 30,000 to 40,000 pictures before
something goes wrong - typically bad contacts in the switches.  None
of my working cameras are older than about two years, so I don't know
how the dead ones would have held up over four.  But in any case, the
one memory card used in each camera has been good for from 30,000 to
40,000 pictures, with it being reformatted in-camera after each day's
use.

One other thing - I've heard from some other users of those very thin
"Smart Media" cards that they are easily damaged.  Do you pull yours
in and out of the camera?  I've always just left memory cards in the
camera and uploaded the photos via a USB cable.

One more thing.  Camera manufacturers are forever making ever more
types of USB cables!  I have (I think) eight different types of USB
cables now!  It's really insane!  In fact I have three different
Olympus cables and two different Pentax cables!  You'd think the same
manufacturer would stick to the same type of cable, but most don't.
My Ricoh cameras (R4, R5, & GR) all use the same standard cable, but
that's rare.  I've sometimes wondered if the companies do that as a
way of deliberately making it more difficult to connect their cameras
to computers - to prevent people from using them as data storage
devices?  Naw... it must be some other reason.  I hope they're not
trying to make money off of selling cables.  When people don't have a
cable, they just pull the card out and use a card reader.

Don't know if that helps, but that's my experience with formatting
camera memory cards.

Lyle