Do you delete or re-format your CF cards

[Octarine]

there are 2 types of formatting for my camera
one is normal, the other is low level formatting
any comments for them?

Low level formatting is hardly used these days. HDD technology has advanced so that low level formatting has become obsolete. But I haven't heard of any camera that's capable of doing this. I doubts there is one, it requires a direct access to the storage media, bypassing certain functions that the storage controller in the card performs.

 

[SVG84R]

i think when we format, we meant format the cf card in camera...its generally the preferred way

 

[huggable]

My Canon A700 is able to do low-level format. But I don't use it, unless the card still cannot be read after normal formatting. Normal format just overwrite the FAT (file allocation table).

I sort my pictures according to date in my external drive, hence I'd cut and paste the files most of the time. "Cut & paste" is actually a copy followed by delete.

Oh ya, I'd definitely format the card if it's previously used on a different camera.

there are 2 types of formatting for my camera

one is normal, the other is low level formatting
any comments for them?

 

[CS TAN]

Low level formatting is hardly used these days. HDD technology has advanced so that low level formatting has become obsolete. But I haven't heard of any camera that's capable of doing this. I doubts there is one, it requires a direct access to the storage media, bypassing certain functions that the storage controller in the card performs.

some of the Canon prosumer camera such as S5IS has two different types of format. The quick format is to clear out the FAT table or in this case FAT32 table. With this type of format, you can still recover photos if you did not over write any new images onto it.

The other type I doubt is low level format, I think the camera just write a pre-determined pattern to the memory. In doing so, the camera can tell whether there are bad sectors and therefore can mark those areas up and not write to them. This will avoid the potential having corrupted images later on.

 

[yyD70S]

To maintain maximum compatibility between the DSLR and the CF card, I format my CF card before every shoot; after downloading them to the computer of course.

 

[Pablo]

I download, then check the download. Then format (format takes 2sec or so).

I think of it the same as why it is good to defragment a hard drive.

Cheers

 

[Blur Shadow]

Just format. It's the fastest.

 

[hongjone]

I always format too.

 

[n0eln0el]

Low level formatting is hardly used these days. HDD technology has advanced so that low level formatting has become obsolete. But I haven't heard of any camera that's capable of doing this. I doubts there is one, it requires a direct access to the storage media, bypassing certain functions that the storage controller in the card performs.

my 450D can do it though

thanks all for the explaination

 

[whizzard]

Thanks for all your feedback! Looks like re-formatting is the way to go.

 

[coinfucious888]

As advocated by my sensei....reformat and then reset...after each day's shooting.

 

[SilentWave]

I always reformat my memory cards.