CF Cards - DPChallenge Forums

Canon EF 17-40mm f/4.0L USM

Canon EF 28mm f/2.8

01/21/2005 11:20:55 AM · #29

There is very little difference in deleting all the photos from a CF card and formatting it. Some cameras formatting is easier and with other deleting all the photos is easier. With the F828 I normally just delete all photos but with the 20D I format, the 20D has a habit of making new directories and formatting the card is the easiest way to get rid of them

In neither case will you end up with fragmented cards, when everything is deleted there is no fragmentation.

If I was putting the card into a different camera I would format the card, why not? Whereas most cameras donâ��t seem to have a problem with odd files on the card some do. My Nikon 995 would not be able to work with a card if I did something as simple as rotate a photo on it. The only way to get the camera working with that card again was to format the card.

In both cases of deleting all photos or formatting the card you are really only changing the directory, most of the card is not being written to even when formatting.

soup

Canon EOS-30D

01/21/2005 11:22:16 AM · #30

i format after downloading the images. they are made to be formatted a ton of times before they are worn out. i see no reason not to format other than losing my custom white balance image...

i don't trust the computer to properly erase things from the card. and actually fear it to be a cause of corruption.

Prof_Fate

01/21/2005 11:23:05 AM · #31

I am still new with my 300D. It makes a new directory every 100 shots. When i 'erase all' the directories go away as well.

Canon EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS

01/21/2005 11:23:06 AM · #32

Originally posted by Spazmo99:

You mean you can DELETE files from CF cards????

I've just been buying new CF cards when the old ones were full.
;-)

hehe...Just make sure not to expose them to sunlight...

Konador

Canon EOS-500D Rebel T1i

01/21/2005 11:23:49 AM · #33

I always use format instead of erase cos it's about 10 times quicker and I'm lazy :P

Canon EF 24-105mm f/4.0L IS

01/21/2005 11:24:45 AM · #34

Originally posted by soup:

they are made to be formatted a ton of times before they are worn out.

Wait...this may be the first legitimate (albeit, accidental) argument against formatting I've heard. Is it true that formatting wears the card?

If so, I might have good reason not to do so all the time...

zeuszen

Canon EOS-1Ds Mark II

01/21/2005 11:39:20 AM · #35

Originally posted by thatcloudthere:

...Wait...this may be the first legitimate (albeit, accidental) argument against formatting I've heard. Is it true that formatting wears the card?

If so, I might have good reason not to do so all the time...

;-/ Pressing the shutter button wears out the shutter mechanism. Would it be better not to do so?

Tamron SP AF 28-75mm f/2.8 XR Di for Canon

01/21/2005 11:41:30 AM · #36

Originally posted by zeuszen:

Originally posted by thatcloudthere:
...Wait...this may be the first legitimate (albeit, accidental) argument against formatting I've heard. Is it true that formatting wears the card?

If so, I might have good reason not to do so all the time...

;-/ Pressing the shutter button wears out the shutter mechanism. Would it be better not to do so?

Unnecessarily, yes... ;0)

BrennanOB

Canon EOS-1D Mark II

01/21/2005 11:43:57 AM · #37

i have decided to keep my camera and CF card in a hermetically sealed lucite box. This should reduce the wear and tear on them.

Sony 24-70mm F4 Vario-Tessar T* FE OSS

01/21/2005 11:49:00 AM · #38

I sure hope you're not intending to wander around outside of your box...

Bear_Music

Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra

01/21/2005 11:49:59 AM · #39

For those who say "formatting is quicker" I can only assume you're downloading directly from camera to computer, which is a real hassle IMO. Decent card readers can be had in the 10-dollar range, and they are way, way faster than the computer at transferring images. Why? 'Cuz they use the computer's cpu, not the camera's, to do the job.

If you do everything in the camera, yeah, reformatting is a HELL of a lot faster than deleting, noi question about it. But with a reader, you can open the card on your computer, select all, and hit the delete button and it's empty in like 3 seconds or so.

I used my cam to download for all of 2 days before it started pissing me off how slow it weas, and I ran to staples and got a cheap reader. Still use it, still works. Though I had to get another one when I went from SmartMedia to CompactFlash in the camera change; I got one that reads all kinds of cards, and it has been great. But it cost more, still not much.

I've never REformatted a card in my 5 years of digital photography, nor have I ever had a problem with one...

Robt.

BrennanOB

Canon EOS-1D Mark II

Tamron SP AF 28-75mm f/2.8 XR Di for Canon

01/21/2005 12:02:40 PM · #40

With the Canon reformatting is faster than deleting since the whole card is wiped and the erasure doen't wipe each frame space seperately. The process is one of five button touches (menu, right arrow, right arrow, up arow, select)and a wait of perhaps 3 seconds(with a 512 card) to 12 (with a 4 gig card). Quite easy.
One word of warning, if you are going to clear the card in the card reader, do not reformat in the reader, erase instead. The camera will not write to a card it has not formatted. I find it fastest to use a reader to download (using Breeze's stuff), soft eject, reslot the card in the camera, then format it.

Message edited by author 2005-01-21 12:08:59.

scottwilson

Canon EF 28mm f/2.8

01/21/2005 12:05:05 PM · #41

Formatting will not wear out a card any faster then deleting the photos, this is not a hard disk we are talking about, it is just flash memory. Formatting doesnâ��t do anything different to the card physically then deleting the photos, it is just a way to get back to a known starting point.

In any event CF cards should last for about forever when being used in a camera.

And I agree with bear that a card reader is a must, if you have a canon camera, canon does a crappy job of interfacing from the camera to the computer. For my Sony it is no big deal, the Sony runs USB 2 and looks just like a card reader to the computer. In fact if I am downloading photos from my wifeâ��s 20D I will use the F828 as a card reader to get the photos, she has a normal card reader.

notonline

Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8L USM

01/21/2005 12:18:38 PM · #42

Originally posted by Jinjit:

Originally posted by notonline:
...ok no need to get angry. ...

I don't think anyone got angry. Sometimes when you read something without hearing the actual tone it was said in, you might think it was anger although it was realy a smile. The disadvantage of the written word.
Anyway, I also like to read the tons of opinions here. I have found other's experience to be extremely varied (is this the proper spelling?) and most important to learn from.

But if you read all of what I said, I said it as a joke ie. "Anger Management" the movie? At the least I hope she knew I was joking. I thought I put enought lol's in there but I guess I could have added a few more.

So, how many photographer's does it take to change a lightblub??? lol

GoldBerry

Canon EOS-5D Mark II

Canon EF 50mm f/1.4 USM

01/21/2005 12:30:27 PM · #43

LOL notonline you funny. I could hardly sit through Anger Management: it made me too angry.

:-)

P.S. If you've never had a problem with a CF card then you're probably not concerned about formatting and probably think it's silly. I just figure it's better safe than sorry.

notonline

Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8L USM

01/21/2005 12:34:40 PM · #44

Originally posted by GoldBerry:

I never have a problem with anything except my area director walking into a strip joint I was at. Life's way to short to give a sh*t what people think and as long as you make someone smile at least once a day the everything is good. :D Keep on truckin Goldberry :D lol

btw: that movie made me laugh so hard I almost had an accident in my pants.

...Sometimes I pee when I laugh...

Keep on truckin. lol

GoldBerry

Canon EOS-5D Mark II

Canon EF 50mm f/1.4 USM

01/21/2005 12:36:50 PM · #45

The scene at the beginning when they're on the plane, infuriating!

notonline

Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8L USM

01/21/2005 12:38:13 PM · #46

lol I thought that was one of the best parts. The ending just killed me.

kirbic

Canon EOS R5

Canon RF 24-70mm f/2.8 L IS

01/21/2005 12:38:35 PM · #47

Originally posted by BrennanOB:

...One word of warning, if you are going to clear the card in the card reader, do not reformat in the reader, erase instead. The camera will not write to a card it has not formatted...

Not true. By chance I was just clearing a card in preparation for a trip, so I reformatted it in my card reader using windows XP, rather than deleting the files. The 10D had absolutely no problem writing to or reading from the card.
The card was formatted as FAT32 with the default allocation unit size. BTW, with my USB 2.0 reader and Sandisk Ultra II card (1GB) it seems slightly faster to format than to delete, but the difference is insignificant.

cghubbell

Nikon D300

Nikon AF-S DX Zoom-Nikkor 17-55mm f/2.8G IF-ED

01/21/2005 12:39:54 PM · #48

The debates here are really not photography specific... They're data specific. So here's some more background.

(1) Formatting does not specifically degrade media other than initiating a write cycle, just like writing a new image does. CD/DVD RW media, floppies, zips, jaz, etc all have this same condition. A compact flash mechanism has a finite number of write cycles. That number is extremely high, but yes, solid state memory has a life span measured in write cycles. This is why there are microdrives. MD is designed for far more write cycles, but is more delicate because of moving parts. Everything has a trade off. In general, the benefits of CF media offset the weknesses.

(2) On many cameras it takes more time to delete a card full of images than it does to format the card. On my Nikon D70 I press two buttons at the same time, and two seconds later the card is empty.

(3) Just because you do something and don't get into trouble doesn't mean that you're off the hook :) The vfat filesystem used by most cameras is not exactly known for its robustness, but rather for its wide compatibility. It's pretty good, but it's not bulletproof. Combine that with the potential to remove a card during a write operation and you have a reasonable probability of introducing latent errors. Reformatting the filesystem is no more destructive or time consuming than deleting images, and in the process you create a clean data structure for accepting data. Technically, a format operation is one write to clear the vtoc while deletes are many individual writes. In this context, it's better to format.

In short, formatting cards is cheap insurance and is a fairly widely used best practice. The first place I saw it noted was the best practices of SI photographers. You won't necessarily get bit by not doing it, but you'll certainly improve your odds of staying clean by taking this simple proactive measure.

Message edited by author 2005-01-21 12:40:15.