Memory card formating

Do any deleting and formatting On my pc, quick re-format on canon to accept. That's the way it should be done.

I download to the computer and always format in camera. This is the way that I have always been taught.

I have set "Format" as the first item in my cameras' personalized menus and always format in-camera whenever I insert a fresh card. It takes me about 2 or 3 seconds.

I don't format in my computer at all. I simple move or copy my images from card (in card reader) to computer. Most of the time I just move the images.... If I'm feeling paranoid about it and/or the images are particularly critical for some reason, I'll just copy them, leaving the originals on the card until I'm certain that all has transfered safely to the computer and has been backed up.

led hed wrote in post #11748818
^, yep, i download my images to pc, then reformat IN camera, done!

This.

amfoto1 wrote in post #12509732
I have set "Format" as the first item in my cameras' personalized menus and always format in-camera whenever I insert a fresh card. It takes me about 2 or 3 seconds.

I have thought of doing that, but I don't have the nerve.. It seems like an accident waiting to happen.

But when I spin the main dial to the 'first setup menu' format is almost always selected by default. That is quick enough for me, it seems a little safer and leaves one extra slot on the personalized menus for something a little safer..

prozshot wrote in post #12508533
Do any deleting and formatting On my pc, quick re-format on canon to accept. That's the way it should be done.

Why the heck are you guys taking the card out to put it in the PC/Mac? Why not just connect the camera to the computer, download and then reformat "in camera"? The only time that I'd use out of camera download is if I filled up one card (hasn't happened yet) and replaced it with my spare. For me, I'd worry more about the mechanism used to eject the card than I would the flash somehow getting corrupted.

CanonZealot wrote in post #12515732
Why the heck are you guys taking the card out to put it in the PC/Mac? Why not just connect the camera to the computer, download and then reformat "in camera"? The only time that I'd use out of camera download is if I filled up one card (hasn't happened yet) and replaced it with my spare. For me, I'd worry more about the mechanism used to eject the card than I would the flash somehow getting corrupted.

Moreso the question should be why are you downloading straight from the camera?
It's much quicker and you're less likely to have download issues (data corruption etc) if you remove the card from the camera and use a card reader.
Your fears about the ejection mechanism are totally unfounded.
You will find that most people on here remove the card and use a card reader.
I've never seen or heard of there being any problems with it.

I didn't realize downloading/formatting memory cards involved such voodoo rituals? LOL.

I'm a download pics from camera via USB cable, then re-format CF memory card via in-camera format. My logic is it saves wear/tear on the CF memory card slot, certainly a lot of tiny pins to be bent/broken.

But hey, that's my ritual/logic.

CanonZealot wrote in post #12515732
Why the heck are you guys taking the card out to put it in the PC/Mac? Why not just connect the camera to the computer, download and then reformat "in camera"? The only time that I'd use out of camera download is if I filled up one card (hasn't happened yet) and replaced it with my spare. For me, I'd worry more about the mechanism used to eject the card than I would the flash somehow getting corrupted.

why not, why would you want to plug your camera to your pc with a usb cord
The proper way to format a sd card is through your pc,,,,then, format in whatever electonic device your using it for this is only done so it will work for that specfic device without issue. Also when i formate i do not use quick option, it takes about 3 min for me to formate my card, longer at times...
sd cards are solid state memory so doing it this way makes sense
excuse me for my grammer i just type and post/////
when I say the proper way= Means my proper way

Is it the consensus of you knowledgeable folks that, after downloading SDHC images to computer, it is best to simply put the card into the camera and reformat it? Is there any value in deleting images from the card before reformatting? Also, is regular format better than quick format when you first use a new card? How about when you are simply "emptying" a full card to use again? This is my first ever post, and I am a very amateur photographer. With those two strikes, please bear with me, thank you.

I prefer a quick format in the camera to help reduce the likelihood of read errors. This is a fast and easy method to clear the card of images.

Since memory cards have a limited write life I avoid low level (full format) which is a much slower process.

CanonZealot wrote in post #12515732
Why the heck are you guys taking the card out to put it in the PC/Mac? Why not just connect the camera to the computer, download and then reformat "in camera"? The only time that I'd use out of camera download is if I filled up one card (hasn't happened yet) and replaced it with my spare. For me, I'd worry more about the mechanism used to eject the card than I would the flash somehow getting corrupted.

ThreeSixty wrote in post #12517954
I didn't realize downloading/formatting memory cards involved such voodoo rituals? LOL.

I'm a download pics from camera via USB cable, then re-format CF memory card via in-camera format. My logic is it saves wear/tear on the CF memory card slot, certainly a lot of tiny pins to be bent/broken.

But hey, that's my ritual/logic.

You're more likely to break the camera by knocking if off your desk than "wear out" the card slot or eject mechanism. You won't bend the pins either if you pay attention and avoid forcing the card in the wrong way.

CanonZealot wrote in post #12515732
Why not just connect the camera to the computer, download and then reformat "in camera"?

I hate the idea of hooking my camera up with a cable and leaving it on the desktop while it downloads.

Way too much chance of catching the lead and yanking the camera onto the floor. I know two people who have done that, and I have done it myself with an exernal USB hard drive (which was destroyed in the fall).

I uses several cards on most shoots, I don't want to risk losing everything on one card, besides the bigger the card, the slower it gets as it fills up. You have to be really hamfisted to damage the pins with CF card, it only fits one way round and to put it in wrong you have to really force it (which should be the clue that you are bending pins). Don't force it and you are fine.

As to the OPs question. Download via card reader, then format in camera ready for the next shoot.

uOpt wrote in post #11748859
It's useless. The format only writes to an insignificant percentage of total sectors on the card. To make things worse, by doing this you wear out those sectors, and they are the most import sectors. You don't want the sectors holding important filesystem metadata first.

And then there is the problem that your camera is probably least able to notify you of errors that it did encounter during formatting.

IMHO you should either do nothing, or else if you want to test the card then you write to all sectors and read them all back. On a PC with good error reporting.

Two things. Formatting an already formatted card, just to erase pictures is the same as erasing pictures. All either choice does is eliminate the reference to the beginning sector of each file from the file allocation table (FAT). Format writes the entire FAT, delete just writes where there are references to active files. Format is a tad better because it does give you a fresh FAT. And, while it is true that constantly writing/erasing/format​ting data to a card will wear it out, it will take several of your lifetimes to do that. Sandisk rates their better cards at 2,000,000 hours of read/write activity. If you plan on writing to and reading from, formatting and erasing your card CONTINUOUSLY for over 200 years, you may begin to worry about wearing it out. Assuming it takes 1 second to write a file (big fat lie) and one second to read a file (big fat lie) and one second to format over a file (big fat lie) and you take 1000 pictures a day, your card can be expected to last about 6,500 years. I am willing to be you won't need it that long. Format away, you are not hurting anything.

uOpt wrote in post #11748859
It's useless. The format only writes to an insignificant percentage of total sectors on the card. To make things worse, by doing this you wear out those sectors, and they are the most import sectors. You don't want the sectors holding important filesystem metadata [wearing out] first.

This advice is bogus.

Erasing all pictures on the card will write to each of those sectors -- and a lot more.