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  1. #1
    News & Rum-or-ator opus's Avatar
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    Question about Compact Flash cards

    When I first got my digital camera, my first pictures off it were fantastically sharp, with crisp, bright colors. But as time went on, I felt my picture quality was deteriorating, and I couldn't figure out why. I thougth maybe I had messed up the white point on my camera or something. All my pictures seemed dull and grey.

    Well, just last week I bought a brand new flash card, and the shots off that card are, again, fantastically sharp and colorful.

    I'm thinking that rather than blaming the camera, I should be blaming the flash card! I have been erasing images by choosing "delete all" on my camera, but would it be better to reformat the card each time instead?
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  2. #2
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    Kelly there has been some discussions on the forums in the past and some say that it is a good idea to reformat everytime you want to use the CF card and others say it makes no difference.

    Try it on the old one, won't make any difference to the frame count.

    Let us know.

    What was the old card and what is the new one you have bought.

  3. #3
    News & Rum-or-ator opus's Avatar
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    Hi Peter!

    First I bought a 128. Within an hour I realized its limitations (48 images at fine/jpeg resolution) and went out and bought a 512. I've been using that 512 over and over, with the 128 as a backup, meaning: when I fill the 512 and can't get to my computer to download, I'll put in the 128.

    Now that I'm shooting RAW, I just bought a 1 GB card. They are all exactly the same brand, SanDisk.


    The reason I came up with my theory is because I was reading about Digital Wallets, and they said that by choosing "delete all", you're still leaving the Root Directory on the card. I was thinking that over time, perhaps the disk gets fragmented? or at least, maybe some old info remaining on the card confuse the settings.

    Just a theory at this point, though. Maybe the problem truly is --*gasp!*-- my technique.
    Drink Coffee. Do stupid things faster with more energy.


  4. #4
    Sitting in a Leaky Dingy Michael Fanelli's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by kellybean
    When I first got my digital camera, my first pictures off it were fantastically sharp, with crisp, bright colors. But as time went on, I felt my picture quality was deteriorating, and I couldn't figure out why. I thougth maybe I had messed up the white point on my camera or something. All my pictures seemed dull and grey.

    Well, just last week I bought a brand new flash card, and the shots off that card are, again, fantastically sharp and colorful.

    I'm thinking that rather than blaming the camera, I should be blaming the flash card! I have been erasing images by choosing "delete all" on my camera, but would it be better to reformat the card each time instead?
    I find it difficult to believe that the card is changing your images. The card is just writing bytes, it doesn't even know that these are photographs. It would be like blaming an old word processor because your writing is not as good anymore!

    Do I have an answer for the problem? Well, uh.... no!
    "Every great decision creates ripples--like a huge boulder dropped in a lake. The ripples merge and rebound off the banks in unforseeable ways.

  5. #5
    Panarus biarmicus Moderator (Sports) SmartWombat's Avatar
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    At this level, the digital camera is more like a computer.

    I can't see how the card makes a difference. It's not like an image sensor, where you measure the (very tiny) voltage on the pixel to determine brighness.

    >> or at least, maybe some old info remaining on the card confuse the settings. <<
    Yeah, most likely thing in my opinion.
    I wonder if it's due to a camera control data file being on the CF card?
    In that case a format would delete everything including that file.

    But if you put the card into a computer and erase everything, that's functionally the same as a format. So again that ought to remove everything including the control files.

    >> I have been erasing images by choosing "delete all" on my camera <<
    That deletes the pointers to the images, and marks the space as free to be used.
    The difference is that it may leave the control files on the disk, which might change camera settings.

    >> you're still leaving the Root Directory on the card <<
    The fact the root directory is still there, but marked as empty, shouldn't matter.
    Images aren't usually stored in the root directory anyway, but in a DCIM subdirectory.
    It might concern you if you are worried about other people recovering your images from a lost card, because programs like Image Rescue will be able to get pictures back even after they're erased.

    >> time, perhaps the disk gets fragmented <<
    Fragmentation just affects where information is stored, not what is stored. On a solid state disk (not a Microdrive) there is little difference whether it's contiguous or fragmented. It definitely matters on a microdrive, as to move the heads from track to track of the disk drive takes time. But a normal SanDisk card shouldn't show much slow down with fragmentation as there is nothing physical moving about.
    PAul

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