SD800IS: erase pic, but card space still taken?

First off, this is my first post, so I'd like to say hi to the forum! I've been lurking for the past couple of weeks, and decided to get the SD800 IS based on reviews. Anyway, this is my first digital camera, and I already have a small problem:

When I erase a pic/movie, the card says that the space is still being used up; I have to reformat the card every time I want to clear out the space. Is this the norm, or is something not right? The issue is present on both the supplied Canon 16mb card, and the Sandisk 1gb 133x card. Just wondering if there's a way to clear up the space without formatting. Thanks in advance!

Julia Simmons

hi there.... welcome here

and, no... it's not normal...

what if you want to take another shot??, does the camera allow you even if "there isn't" any space left on the card??.

That's pretty odd, don't know if another sd user can give you a hand, but it's not normal i'd say...

I had 3 digital cameras, one s2 until a month ago and now an s3 and an a620, and they do not do what you're saying the sd is doing....

if the camera is new, i'd take it to the shop where you bought it, and try another new sd800... if both of them do exactly the same thing, maybe, just maybe, it could mean there some kind of bug in the camera's programming... Otherwise, your camera has some kind of flaw...

Good luck

Hi Sandman, thank you for the input--I will go ahead and see if I can get out to the store in a week or two, and see if this is specific to the SD 800 IS. The camera will say that the memory card is full, and I cannot take another pic, even after I've gone to View mode, and erased everything (movies and pics). I thought it was my Canon SD card, but it's doing the same thing with the Sandisk card. Thanks again!

If anybody out there owns an SD800IS, could you please let me know if you have the same issue?

Julia

Quick update: the problem only occurs if I delete a *movie*, but not with pics. If somebody with the same model could shoot a movie, erase it, and see if the space taken up on their card changes, I'd really appreciate it. Thanks again!

Julia

Just a thought. Have you ever done a low level format on either card? My A620 needs this on any card for best video results.

Hi Jon, yes both cards were low-level formatted. I'm going to contact Canon and see what they say. Thanks guys

Julia

Had to try it on my A620, since I just get lots of cards so don't delete individual files. But I checked the estimated frame counter (449), shot a 15" video clip, re-checked the frame counter (440), deleted the video and rechecked the frame counter (449). I gather that's not what you see.

As I said, my practice is to have lots of cards; I then don't need to delete anything until I've downloaded it to the computer and backed it up. Then it gets formatted in the computer and in the camera both.

Hi Julia,
I have an SD800 with 2.9Gb used out of 3.7Gb
I shot a longish movie resulting in 3.2Gb used out of 3.7Gb
Then deleted the movie resulting in 2.9Gb used out of 3.7Gb
This is how it should be, so you have a problem there somewhere... good luck.