sd adaptar cards and reformat ?

[jann1033]

1)a few yrs back i ran out of memory on vacation and couldn't find cf cards that were affordable so i bought some sd cards and an adapter so they would work in cf camera(canon xt) . i used them only if my other cf cards were full but had about 5 gb worth and never had a problem using them. yesterday
ran out of cf memory with my 40d and tried to use the adapter and it wouldn't work...anyone know why? is it the speed or something? i figure the adapter has to slow down the card a bunch...
2)i bought a 16gb cf card since the price was better than i expected but now wondering since i won't really fill it every time i shoot is it better to use most of it( like i did with my 2 gb cards) then reformat or just go ahead and use a few gb then reformat....i think i could just keep downloading only new photos but on the other hand don't want to run out of memory sometime and have 14 gbs of downloaded photos, 2 gb of new photos on the card and need more memory. since i don't really get how they work, do they fill up in an orderly arrangement..ie if i fill up 2 gb and reformat would i be using those same bits over and over an maybe damage it somehow?( ok probably a dumb ? but i am picturing reformating over and over after just a little used kind of like wearing out a small portion of a card while the rest is still new)
thanks

 

[jann1033]

bumping up

 

[YesDear]

To be honest I have no clue! But what else is new!!!

 

[seashoreCM]

Your camera has a maximum memory card size it will accept. Putting in a larger card might cause unpredictable and bad* results.

But you should be safe if you don't take more pictures so as to fill the memory card beyond the maximum size your camera is rated for.

Sharing a card between two cameras, particularly cameras not the same make and model, can also cause unpredictable results. Better if all the pictures taken by the other camera are uploaded to a computer and the card formatted in the camera it is next moved to before being used there.

Anecdotal (and unproven) evidence has it that reformatting the card every so often reduces the chances of card problems. Meanwhile, if you leave your favoriate pictures on the card so you can show friends and relatives, obviously you cannot reformat the card. Reformatting the card after every three fillings seems like a good compromise (and you may be able to load back your favorite pictures into the camera from your computer).

I do not think that using a slightly different kind of card plus an adapter makes the camera behave any differently compared with using the correct kind of card, assuming the card is accepted in the first place.

While uploading the pictures and reformatting the card before it is full will result in the first GB's "worth of bits" being used over and over and the last GB getting hardly any use, on average the card starts to get slower as it fills up and you may or may not notice a longer lag before you can take the next picture. It is still a good idea to upload pictures to your computer reasonably often, in small batches if that is all you took. But you can let the card fill up more (to use those bits more uniformly) instead of using the delete picture feature and also let the card nearly fill up before reformatting.

Digital camera hints: http://www.cockam.com/digicam.htm

* For example using a 4 gigabyte card in a 2GB camera, if/when the camera starts taking the third GB worth of pictures, the new pictures start overwriting the first GB's pictures(!)

 

[Steve's Girl]

I don't know the answer to your question. But, I have an SD to CF adapter and it does not work very well. It will not allow me to reformat the cards.

 

[jann1033]

I don't know the answer to your question. But, I have an SD to CF adapter and it does not work very well. It will not allow me to reformat the cards.

which camera is that with? a 50d? i had no trouble formatting or using with my xt except i thought it seemed slower which is why i only used them if i really had to. that is why i was surprised it wouldn't even format the card with the 40d. i just gave them to the kids whose cameras use sd cards so problem solved
the camera numbering stops at 999 on the top lcd but on the big lcd it shows the 1120( or whatever) and it worked fine even though i only used a few hundred. i think i'll just not reformat till it's getting closer to full.
seashorecm got me thinking/ worrying so i found this if anyone is interested http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1019&message=26837143 just skip the middle with the "fat argument"

 

[Steve's Girl]

which camera is that with? a 50d?

No, Nikon D300. The adapter worked great when the cards were empty, but once the cards had photos on them, I was not able to reformat the cards in camera. I could try reformatting them on the computer, but I have always read that you should not format memory cards on the computer. I have a stock pile of sd cards that I was hoping to use, but at this point, it looks like I will have to buy more cf cards.

 

[seashoreCM]

>>> once the card had photos
>>> I have always read that you should not ... in the computer

Can you reformat in the computer and now the card is empty, you immediately format it again in your camera?

If so, this counts as an in-camera formatting.

 

[Steve's Girl]

>>> once the card had photos
>>> I have always read that you should not ... in the computer

Can you reformat in the computer and now the card is empty, you immediately format it again in your camera?

If so, this counts as an in-camera formatting.

I have a Mac that I have no idea how to use. So, I don't know how to do it on my home computer. I may try to take the cards with me to work tomorrow and try it on my PC there.