Fact or Fiction - Memory card life?

Exactly...

Deleting the images simply replaces the first character of the filename which the OS / firmware recognises as the file has been deleted. Formatting clearss the file allocation table (FAT) which removes the pointers to the images and clears the filenames. Formatting is quicker because it changes fewer bytes on the card or disk. Formatting flash memory is less likely to reduce the life of the card than deleting.

Um . . . Formatting the card always clears the File Allocation Tables, which are at a fairly static area on the card; deleting a file changes a byte in a subdirectory which may occur at a random place in the card. If your only concern is getting maximum card life (a dubious exercise in many ways you should always delete files, and periodically (but not every time) delete folders rather than reformat. If you delete the files and folders every time, you're causing the \DCIM\ directory to be rewritten every time, while by letting extra folders build up, you're changing where data's written.

The limited write/erase cycles for flash memory is unlikely to ever be a limiting factor for digital photography.

It's different in the hard drive world though. A few companies are looking at flash as a way of either providing hard drives with a much improved cache, or replacing them all together. Suddenly 100,000 write/erase cycles is something you could be hitting in months. Be interesting to see how they come up with ways around it.

In a Dutch computer magazine flash memory was tested.
After several hundreds of thousands of write/cycles they stopped the test for practical reasons, the deadline for the magazine.
The flash cards all worked as if fresh out of the box and will most certainly outlast the camera and probably it's owner.

I don't care either....all the ones I own are guaranteed for life.

Bones

Jon wrote:
Actually, not quite. Flash memory (CF cards) undergoes a state change when you write to it; DRAM only maintains the signal as long as power's supplied. That's why it's "Dynamic". It's the changes that flash goes through as it's written that are the limiting factors.

Doh... but of course, I know enough about memory that I should have considered that!

Let's see here. If the flash cards are good for 100,000 cycles then if I format my card 5 times a day which of course is very high but let's say I did, then the life of the card would be approx. 54 and 3/4 years if I did that right but either way, that's a very long time and me and my camera and cards and everything else will be history!

So, I'm not worried about formatting my cards which I do every time after I use them!

So, there.........