Decreasing space on memory card

My son currently is using a Fuji S2500 camera (which has been returned twice to the makers, due to defects, the last time coming back with a replacement lens). Anyway the latest problem is that the memory card (Fujifilm 8GB SD) is suffering from decreasing memory, in that when you take images, then delete, although the card is showing as empty, the space has not been freed up. When the card was first used with the camera, it had space for 1337 images at the highest setting when empty; this is now down to 576 when empty. Have tried reformatting card on the camera and also on my Nikon D90 without any effect.

Any ideas?

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Originally Posted by Anthony Flusk

My son currently is using a Fuji S2500 camera (which has been returned twice to the makers, due to defects, the last time coming back with a replacement lens). Anyway the latest problem is that the memory card (Fujifilm 8GB SD) is suffering from decreasing memory, in that when you take images, then delete, although the card is showing as empty, the space has not been freed up. When the card was first used with the camera, it had space for 1337 images at the highest setting when empty; this is now down to 576 when empty. Have tried reformatting card on the camera and also on my Nikon D90 without any effect.

Any ideas?

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Have you changed the size file you are taking such as in the beging you were taking basic JPEG and now you may be on FINE JPEG or shooting raw and JPEG? That would be my guess, Jeff

Plug the card into a card reader and have your OS check the integrity of the card. You may have a bad sector that is causing the problem. Flash memory and SSD drives do not have unlimited write/rewrite. It is possible that you have a bad sector that can be corrected or at least ignored. Then format the card in the camera and see what you get.

Thanks guys, have checke with my son, no changes made to the quality settings on the camera (always been at JPEG and highest quality setting), and OS check made of card and no defects found.

Giving that the camera itself has given so much trouble since it was purchased, could it be corrupting the card in some way?

Try formatting it with the alternate file system.

Just out of curiosity, what firmware are you running. The latest is 1.04.

If there is nothing of value on the card, you can try formatting it on your computer. Usually one can format a card as FAT 16 (windoze file system) and then reformat it in camera. I do this as regular part of my monthly housekeeping projects. It's entirely possible that the trash files are not being cleaned properly and formatting it in computer ought to take care of that.

Note from Fuji when camera returned from its first repair back in January that the firmware had been updated to the latest version. Have tried formatting card on my PC (using given options of FAT32, ex FAT and NTFS), and then reformatting on camera, but still stuck on 589 images left. Time for a new card perhaps?

Have you verified that you have not changed the type of file your saving as the default. AS a basic JPG file takes up less space than a find JPG file and a TIF or RAW type file is even larger. Also the resolution increase the file size across the board.

At the RAW setting if your camera has one, a 8G card has room for about 666 images (file size 12 mega each).

Example from my 6 mega pixel camera Basic JPG about 1 mega, Fine JPG 2-3 mega, RAW 6 mega.