do you DL from the Camera or take out CF and DL from it?

Vetteography wrote in post #5781812
When I transfer images from my CF cards to my PC, I use Cut and Paste. The images are gone from the card without any further steps.

I suppose you could copy & paste then go back and delete the images, but why go through the extra steps? It doesn't take any longer to cut than it does to copy.

Of course I could be totally missing the point again....

You have Rebel XT..
If you cut and paste, images are gone, but folders are not.
You probably have a whole bunch of empty folders on your CF card by now.
Format the card and they will be gone too..

Vetteography wrote in post #5781812
When I transfer images from my CF cards to my PC, I use Cut and Paste. The images are gone from the card without any further steps.

I suppose you could copy & paste then go back and delete the images, but why go through the extra steps? It doesn't take any longer to cut than it does to copy.

Of course I could be totally missing the point again....

I use lightroom to copy from the CF card reader - it won't erase the card after importing the images.

As the majority here I also use an external card reader, it's quick and easy and won't drain your battery. Thinking about getting a FireWire 800 card reader instead though to speed things up even more.

Hermeto wrote in post #5781829
You have Rebel XT..
If you cut and paste, images are gone, but folders are not.
You probably have a whole bunch of empty folders on your CF card by now.
Format the card and they will be gone too..

Ahh... I see where you are going.

I cut at the folder level (including the folders) because it is just easier that way. If I retain any of the pictures in that folder after examining them, I just rename the folder to the date or subject rather than having to create a new folder. (I like to keep my photos organized so I can find them later.)

No empty folders on my cards.

I can see where, like Pete, if you use a third party software there could be issues.

Thanks for clearing up my confusion.

I have read on many occasions that CF cards have a life expectancy. You get so many write cycles before they die.

With that in mind, I understand that a format is one write cycle, and an individual erase is one write cycle. So, if you delete 100 images, you have used 100 of your write cycles. If you format over 100 images, you have used only 1 write cycle.

Therefore, re-formatting extends the life of the card.

Personally, I have never transferred any images via camera. If I were going to do that on site, I would just as soon connect to my computer and shoot to both the card and the hard drive real time.

Vetteography wrote in post #5781881
Ahh... I see where you are going.

I cut at the folder level (including the folders) because it is just easier that way. If I retain any of the pictures in that folder after examining them, I just rename the folder to the date or subject rather than having to create a new folder. (I like to keep my photos organized so I can find them later.)

No empty folders on my cards.

I can see where, like Pete, if you use a third party software there could be issues.

Thanks for clearing up my confusion.

Yes, your way will work, but it’s too complicated..
I’ve set my computer to open EOS Utilities automatically, whenever either the camera or the card reader is detected.
I just have to click once, and download begins.

When I am done, when download is confirmed, I just hit Format on the camera and I know that card is clean.

mattograph wrote in post #5781924
With that in mind, I understand that a format is one write cycle, and an individual erase is one write cycle. So, if you delete 100 images, you have used 100 of your write cycles. If you format over 100 images, you have used only 1 write cycle.

That's simply not true. Deleting a photo (via computer) will not overwrite it, so the photo is still left on the card until you've overwritten that part of the memory with new photographs.

Molnies wrote in post #5781953
That's simply not true. Deleting a photo (via computer) will not overwrite it, so the photo is still left on the card until you've overwritten that part of the memory with new photographs.

Hmmm........ Well, I have been misled! Man, I hate that!!!

Man, I love this site...alwasy learn new things!

Unfortunately...

The dealer either is mistaken in his advice or he has some reason for preferring to sell Nikon equipment over Canon.

When I was a young man, I worked in a camera store part time. The owner would occasionally give the salesmen a bonus for selling certain cameras. Of course, we pushed those items.

It has been reported that Nikon has a nice spiff program for employees of its authorized resellers. Good for them -- not always the best for the consumer.

For me it just depends on what I need to download. If it's a single card from a single camera then I'll likely just go direct from the camera. If it's multiple cards and/or multiple bodies then I'm likely to use a reader.

I don't have any concerns about bent pins or running down the battery. I actually don't even get the concerns with the battery unless perhaps you're on location in the field. All the cameras I have provide an adequate download speed since I'm not downloading on site and so don't need it as quick as possible to return to shooting.

Vetteography wrote in post #5781812
When I transfer images from my CF cards to my PC, I use Cut and Paste. The images are gone from the card without any further steps.

I suppose you could copy & paste then go back and delete the images, but why go through the extra steps? It doesn't take any longer to cut than it does to copy.

Of course I could be totally missing the point again....

Be careful with cut and paste.

One time, I cut a lot of files from a flash card, and accidentally hit "copy" when I went to paste them.

This removed all of the cut files from the clipboard, and they were just gone. I had to find some flash drive recovery software, and I wasn't able to recover them all.

Much better to use something safer, such as using the "move" command, or copying and then deleting/formatting.

NEVER trust small time or non-camera companies to tell you what you need to hear rather what they want to sell you. Nikon cameras (except the d40(x) i think) all use CF, hell, D3 uses two CF slots. No, CF is not a better format, it was just that CF had larger, faster, cheaper cards for the last 8 or so years, but now SD actually gets the job done just as well if not better for a lower cost (8gb extreme III is 100 for cf but 80 for sd, and sd writes at about 15mb/s on a mkiii, while cf it's only 13mb/s). and use a card reader, there's actually less chance of missing files

Well I have done both. my laptop has a card slot for SD, I have had a few card readers that I have seen the pins get bent, I have had one friend that bent the pins on his rebel.

I ususally dump to laptop and then I take the pics I want to print to SD because most of the time the CF slot at the places I use to print are "not working correctly" but SD usually do.