Frame counter question

If you were to take a CF card from a camera and put it into another and the frame number dropped from 7500 to 1500, would this signify that one camera had taken 7500 shots and the other 1500?

The frame number won't drop (or shouldn't). The camera will pick up the highest count from the card.

Mark

You can reset the internal camera frame count to zero though. Then when you plugged in the new card, it would go to 1500.

What are you trying to do?

I took the card out of my 350D where it was reading 7500ish, then put it into my new to me 30D and it dropped to 1500ish. Just wondered if it bore any resemblence to the actual no. of actuations. It would be too good to be true if it was!

I have this problem too. The frame count increase!

I sent in my 30D to Canon for AF calibrating recently. Before sending in, the frame count was 3000+. When return, the frame count became 9000+!

I was shock! I thought they have done 6000 shots just for calibrating. After I did some research on this issue. I found out what Mark Cohran said is true. The camera will pick up the highest count from the card.

From now on, I don't mix the cards with 2 camera. I don't want to mess up the frame count. Each camera will have dedicated card. If I really need to mix the cards, I will format it before use.

Liang wrote in post #4187995
.... I don't want to mess up the frame count. Each camera will have dedicated card. If I really need to mix the cards, I will format it before use.

Make sure you format in the PC, not the camera. The pic number is adjusted on the insertion of the card before any other activity is performed.

gjl711 wrote in post #4188741
Make sure you format in the PC, not the camera. The pic number is adjusted on the insertion of the card before any other activity is performed.

gjl711 - I tried this and I can't get it to work. I'm using Vista and it says it cannot format this card. Tried both a Lexar and a Sandisk. Not sure the exact error message - will have to check when I get home.

Maybe I'll try it on my laptop that has XP.

WaltA wrote in post #4189113
gjl711 - I tried this and I can't get it to work. I'm using Vista and it says it cannot format this card. Tried both a Lexar and a Sandisk. Not sure the exact error message - will have to check when I get home.

Maybe I'll try it on my laptop that has XP.

Just a guess as I do not have Vista, but is Vista maybe trying to format using NTFS instead of FAT32?

Mr B Snappy wrote in post #4187736
I took the card out of my 350D where it was reading 7500ish, then put it into my new to me 30D and it dropped to 1500ish. Just wondered if it bore any resemblence to the actual no. of actuations. It would be too good to be true if it was!

IIRC the 350D still used 100 frames/folder; the 30D puts 9999 frames/folder. So the "7500" frame in a 350D represents folder 175 and no shots; the 1500 in a 30D is folder 100 and 1500 shots; I suspect that if you look at the folder numbers on the card you'd find that you've had a folder increment in the 30D and your photos are now going into folder 175. Yes, numbering in these things is screwy if you mix cards. I always format mine in the computer after I've downloaded the images (to at least 2 hard disks and 2 DVDs).

gjl711 wrote in post #4189152
Just a guess as I do not have Vista, but is Vista maybe trying to format using NTFS instead of FAT32?

Don't think so. There was a thread a few months back about this and I specifically remember trying FAT32

I'll make a test tonight on Vista and XP and see what results I get.