Memory cards

[sirhc55]

Fozzie - my friend is a local IT guy and that’s his buy price locally in $AU. He also told me about prices (to him) on monitors that reflect the way they have dropped in price in the last year.

[birddog114]

I could not see any 4Gb card at AU$275.00 yet!, I'm looking for 10 of them and wish I can find them at that price, the Transcend/ Astone 2Gb card is still AU$220.00 my cost price.

If anyone can buy the 4Gb card 45x at AU$275.00, pls. let me know. I'm interested in them.

[Hlop]

Chris,

I don't know all the situation but this price seems to be for a 4Gb microdrive. Prices for Sandisk or similar CF cards still around AU$400

[johnd]

Chris and Gary have both mentioned that you should reformat the card in camera after downloading.

I take card out of camera, put in reader, copy files to PC, then delete files from card, then put card back in camera. I figure the card is just a memory device, so why would reformatting it in camera make any difference to the life of the card.

Don't get me wrong, if there is a reason then I'll change my workflow, but I can't think of why deleting files ex camera should be any different than reformatting in camera.

Very curious.

Cheers
John

[tsanglabs]

I would be clamoring for a 4GB card at that price.

I have also seen 8GB cards on ebay and at http://www.ow.com.au (http://www.ow.com.au/shop/product_info.php/cPath/24_58/products_id/130). The ebay prices have been $800 while organiser world is $1200.

[sirhc55]

What has to be considered is that the price I quoted was the buy price (wholesale) for someone dealing directly with the supplier. There is a substantial profit shown on cards as can be seen by checking out ebay and then local retailers.

I will investigate this further as my friend is notorious for quoting one thing but meaning something else.

[gstark]

John,

Chris and Gary have both mentioned that you should reformat the card in camera after downloading.

I take card out of camera, put in reader, copy files to PC, then delete files from card, then put card back in camera. I figure the card is just a memory device, so why would reformatting it in camera make any difference to the life of the card.

The cards are formatted using FAT32. That means that if you simply delete images, the first new image written will occupy the first truly free space on the card, rather than the first available space on the card. This permits later recovery of the delted files should you so wish: deletion is merely flagging the file for deletion, rather than physical removal of the file.

But it gets worse: if you delete a dud shot in-camera, again, that space remains, and leads to fragmentation of the space on your card. Just as fragmentation of your PC's HDD is not a good thing - and slows down performance - so it is with your CF card.

The simple, 5 second task of formatting your card anew, in the camera, every time, avoids all of that, leaving your card defragged and provides the best possible performance at all times.

[johnd]

Thanks for the explanation Gary. Sounds like a good use of 5 secs.
Cheers
John

[marcus]

Great tip Gary, I would never have thought of that but now it seems obvious. Perhaps thats why you drive the car that you do and I drive mine!

Reformatting tonight (and evermore).

Many thanks for that one!

[gstark]

John, Marcus,

My pleasure, and you're both welcome.