Format vs Erase Photos

ktownhero wrote in post #12876098
Erase images is perfectly fine and works much faster, and that's why it is there.

Not true with my 7D. The format card erases probably 3-4 times faster than using the erase command. That's why I've always used it, plus as others have mentioned, it replaces some information the card needs to know what's up with the camera and card working together, so having fresh info every time can't be a bad thing, can it?

However, I have taken a cf card that was in a 20D with photos on it, stuck it in my 7D, and continued to add photos to it with the 7D. All were retrievable afterwards, which was a big relief to me as I remembered it's common practice to format a card coming from a different camera before using it.

I believe mine has the original firmware on it.

Try updating the firmware. Mine has 1.1.1 on it which I believe is the latest version.

I used to use format, but after accidentally formatting a card and being unable to recover half the files, I switched over to using the erase function. It's a lot more menu to go through, which keeps it from happening accidentally.

I might switch back in the near future, but for now I'm just too paranoid about it.

CameraMan wrote in post #12876992
Try updating the firmware. Mine has 1.1.1 on it which I believe is the latest version.

But I don't want or need to update the firmware.

Along with formatting, I always check my cards before they go into my traveling camera bag. That way I know that all the cards I have with me can be formatted.

Just an FYI, if you ever send it to Canon for any service work, they will update the firmware. So if it ever comes back from service....and it's magically able to format your larger capacity cards, you'll know why !

I only erase individual images during shooting if I have some obvious blunders...

After I have transferred my files from the CF card to my various hard drives, I always reformat the card before shooting again...

I format every card in camera, every time I put it in the camera. I've added Format as the top item in My Menu in each of my cameras, so can practically do it without looking.

But I am very careful to have all the images copied off the card before I put the card back in the case, ready to be used again.

I will erase some individual image blunders while shooting, but only really obvisous stuff (shots of my toes when I accidentally bumped the shutter release).... The LCD on the camera isn't sufficient to evaluate the image very well. Some I've thought were trash when I saw them on the back of the camera have turned out to be pretty darned good shots.

Thank heaven we don't have to defrag so much any more... I'm sitting here with about 20TB of storage... wonder how long a complete defrag would take?

Ha ! Yeah Alan....I caught myself in the nick of time at a horse show last year. I was off loading the images to the laptop each evening back at the hotel. I forgot to do so with one card at the end of one day. Next morning at the arena, I popped that card in the camera and hit format. Something clicked in my head ( probably loose rocks rolling around ) and made me stop right then and say to myself, "I think I forgot to copy that card onto the computer last night".
I pulled it out, set it aside and was able to recover all the images when I got back home....but man....that was a lesson learned ! I have a better method of moving cards from one place to the next in the bag and thru the workflow now !

Great post was not aware of the need to format vs. delete, love this site!

Numenorean wrote in post #12877010
But I don't want or need to update the firmware.

Any reason for feeling that way?

I use both.

I tend to chimp a lot and delete individual images a lot, so I use delete.

I don't format my card after every transfer to the computer (also I just transfer via camera, instead of taking the card and putting in a card reader (my card reader is only usb 2.0)), but only after it gets full or close to full and after I've backed up my images on my external.

If I'm doing some "test shots" after formatting a card, then if that card only has "test shots" then I'd tend to format after I'm done as it's quicker than erasing every individual image.

I'm lazy and I format

Delija wrote in post #12878265
Any reason for feeling that way?

The camera works fine and does everything I want it to do. Why bother with messing with firmware if it isn't going to fix a specific problem?