You can use a large SD card for your camera AND your media at the same time.

I tried many ways of formatting in camera, adding files, copying folders manually, using my Mac Air to format, and found a solution.

Last week I tested this and it works perfectly, so long as I did not mix up the steps.
This works fine on my 6D camera, I don't use CF cards of a different camera, but it should also work fine.


1 Place SD card in PC / MAC, and format to EXFAT (single partition)
This is something the camera cannot do.
This allows for large files over 4gigs.

2 Place in camera and AGAIN format in camera (this creates flagged DCIM and MISC folders)

3 Place the card back in PC / MAC and create a new folder (any name) ***Put everything (media docs etc inside this folder ONLY)

4 DO NOT PLACE files on the root, this will cause the camera to not read the card at al!

I have 70+gigs of media on one of my 128gig cards and I have room for over 2,000 more raw files.

*** NEVER FORMAT YOUR CARD IN YOUR CAMERA NOW*** You will lose everything by formatting it, including your other media.

Why?

Always useful in case you forgot your thumbdrive

^ Living in Japan, I commute daily and spend weekends away from home.
I don't use a car, and traveling light is important.

I can take media with me on a trip without needing anything more than a card reader.
While I alway take two cards with me, I don't want to carry around a HDD

Reservoir Dog wrote in post #17813536
Always useful in case you forgot your thumbdrive

Exactly, if you use your camera as normal, you cannot add files to it.

Using my steps and leaving it that way, you always have access to the unwritten space.

Just hope it could be helpful to someone else. It's helpful to me.

InfiniteDivide wrote in post #17813518
I tried many ways of formatting in camera, adding files, copying folders manually, using my Mac Air to format, and found a solution.

Last week I tested this and it works perfectly, so long as I did not mix up the steps.
This works fine on my 6D camera, I don't use CF cards of a different camera, but it should also work fine.


1 Place SD card in PC / MAC, and format to EXFAT (single partition)

2 Place in camera and AGAIN format in camera (this creates flagged DCIM and MISC folders)

3 Place the card back in PC / MAC and create a new folder (any name) ***Put everything (media docs etc inside this folder ONLY)

4 DO NOT PLACE files on the root, this will cause the camera to not read the card at al!

I have 70+gigs of media on one of my 128gig cards and I have room for over 2,000 more raw files.

*** NEVER FORMAT YOUR CARD IN YOUR CAMERA NOW*** You will lose everything by formatting it, including your other media.

Too many step for nothing
You do not need to format the SD card on the computer
I am on a iMac (PC it's the same), take the SD plug it to your computer make the folder you neeed to put your docs, put the SD in the camera just by switching on the camera if the DCIM and MISC folders are not present it will automatically create them, no need to format at all on the computer nor the camera

Reservoir Dog wrote in post #17813540
just by switching on the camera if the DCIM and MISC folders are not present it will automatically create them,

^ When I place a folder on my sd card from my mac, and then place the card in the camera, it displays 'sd card not supported' and requires the camera to format the card, losing my folder from my mac.

I don't get it. You still need a computer, right? Why not just put the files on a USB key?

Scenario Example: you are far from home with your camera and no thumb drive at a friend house, he recall it has some docs to give you, you take your SD card put the doc from his computer on your SD ... Done !!

I've always been able to put media on it with no issues? I also swap between my canon and sony bodies and have magic lantern on the card.

Cameras read them fine, so does the computer.

Only thing it does it put all the picture files in one folder Instead of different ones.


I'll try this method to see if that fixes it. I'd like to have the Sony and Canon ones in different folders.

Thanks for posting this.

maverick75 wrote in post #17813561
I've always been able to put media on it with no issues? I also swap between my canon and sony bodies and have magic lantern on the card.

Cameras read them fine, so does the computer.

Only thing it does it put all the picture files in one folder Instead of different ones.


I'll try this method to see if that fixes it. I'd like to have the Sony and Canon ones in different folders.

Thanks for posting this.

With Canon you can create a folder (with the camera) where the camera will always put the pictures, and i suppose with Sony too

I've also done this without the unnecessary steps of formatting on a computer, etc. Just made a new folder, dumped a few files inside and done. My cameras all work fine. I don't do this on a regular basis, but I have done it to transfer videos from my iMac to a PS3, for example.

I still don't see the real need for a large continuous folder of media on a camera card though. There are too many other easy ways with much larger amounts of storage available such as Dropbox, etc. They require you to literally carry NOTHING with you and still have access to your files, as long as you can access the internet.

EXFAT allows for single files larger than 4gigs if needed.
FAT32 does not allow these large files.
This is how just cards come when new.
The camera cannot change it to EXFAT
(All of my external media is formatted to this)

While having a USB thumb drive is great I don't own any.
I do have 4 SD cards and a couple 3.0 readers.

Internet access is limited to a home, an internet cafe, or my 5gig tethering from my phone.
For me quick cloud access to file is rarely possible when needed.

My situation probably doesn't apply to 99% of you readers.

I found steps that allowed me to do what I wanted.
And I thought I would share them.
If it is not helpful to most, I understand.

Ahh, ok. I understand now. It makes sense if you're carrying large files like that, and it's interesting that the camera can still use a card that's ExFAT formatted. Somehow I missed that in the original post. Makes you wonder why Canon doesn't exploit this for its video files on DSLR's (I understand that there are weird rules for marketing video cameras vs still cameras in some areas, thus the small file size/time limit, but it could be very useful in those areas that don't care, like the US). Heck, they make GPS and non-GPS cameras for different markets... having a bit of different software activated for US vs non-US markets would be super simple compared to that.

OK - so if you don't own a thumb drive and don't have access to the Internet, but do have access to a computer, then you could put files on an SD card and still use that SD card in the camera.

Just looking for some context.

Might be useful for some.