SDHC memory question / Formating

[Wummy]

Hi Everyone - I am a newbie.

my course instructor said we should always reformat our memory card from event to event; instead of erasing images on camera or on lap top... and should always reformat when we know we would use the card on a different camera.

On the other hand, my techie IT guy is telling me SD card has a limited amount of format/reuse cycle. If I reformat it too many times my SDHC card will not last as long...

Can anyone comment? Thanks!!! :D

[Jon]

The "limited" life cycle for your card is far more than you'll likely put on it in a lifetime, even erasing every day or so.

[Mocows]

The writing to the card (aka taking pictures) also counts towards that life cycle so given a card can generally have about 10,000 cycles (estimate, it's not a claimed number by any means and i'm sure higher quality cards are beyond that by wide margins), a format is almost irrelevant as Jon says.

Edit: Sandisk rates it as 1,000,000 hours Mean Time Between Failures. I doubt you'd run a card that long.

[Jon]

Oh, and erasing files counts as write cycles too . . . So go ahead and format. I format twice - first in the computer and then in the camera. I figure they'll be too small to bother with long before they wear out, as cameras get more and more MP.

[Mocows]

I figure they'll be too small to bother with long before they wear out, as cameras get more and more MP.

Or lose before it dies.

[Joshua14321]

Format it as much as you want ;)

You will probably never see the end of its life,

Joshh

[Premgenius]

I carry out a low format before each shoot in the camera.

[Wummy]

Thanks guys, I will go ahead and format it everytime I use it before a new event!!! awesome.

[rklepper]

Oh, and erasing files counts as write cycles too . . . So go ahead and format. I format twice - first in the computer and then in the camera. I figure they'll be too small to bother with long before they wear out, as cameras get more and more MP.

That is too true. My 256 MB cards, which I paid an arm and a leg for, are worthless for most things (in fact I am at a loss to remember when I used them last). Still working, but not useful as they are too small. :(

[Methodical]

Thanks guys, I will go ahead and format it everytime I use it before a new event!!! awesome.

Why do you format before each event? Just curious