Instruction manual

9
have two memory cards for your camera. Using two cards instead of one gives
you more flexibility; you give the card you just used to the mission staff, load the
fresh card into your camera, and launch on your next sortie while the staff
processes your photos.
Fortunately, memory cards are not very expensive. For low megapixel
cameras, two 64MB cards should be sufficient for your needs; for large megapixel
cameras such as the D200, you should have two 2GB cards (at least).
Secure Digital (SD) cards currently range in size from 16MB up to 4GB. As
with other flash media, SD cards come in different transfer speed ratings. Most
SD cards (not marked "High Speed" or "Ultra High Speed") transfer photos at
approximately 2Mb/s, whereas the latest cards are capable of transferring data at
up to 20Mb/s. Transfer speed is an important factor if you record high frame rate
motion video or high quality audio tracks. [Many digital camera makers only
certify their 30fps VGA motion video capability when using "high speed" SD
cards.]
xD cards are touted as the SD card’s successor but offer few advantages
over SD. It is currently the smallest media card on the market, but carries quite a
price premium.
CompactFlash (CF) cards contain both memory chips and a controller. Most
digicams that use CF cards can use any capacity card up to 1GB (and probably
2GB) with no problems. CF cards above 2GB use the FAT32 file system, the
camera must be able to read this format or it won't work.
There are two types of CompactFlash cards: Type I (3.3mm thick) and Type II
(5mm thick). Cameras with Type I slots cannot use Type II cards, but cameras
with Type II slots can use either. These cards currently range from 8MB to 8GB.
Some digicams are equipped with a CompactFlash Type II card slot which
can hold either a Type I or II CF card, or memory devices like the IBM/Hitachi
Microdrive (rated at 340MB, 512MB, 1GB, 2GB, 4GB, or 6GB).
1.3.2 Formatting a Media Card
Digital cameras provide two ways of deleting photos from a memory card:
erasing and formatting. Erasing deletes photo and video files, but not other data
on the card. It does not remove photos that have been protected.
Formatting (also known as initializing) overwrites everything on the card,
including protected photos, directories and camera data. Formatting also sets up
new folders and data on the card. To help ensure the integrity of the folders and
data, it's important to format the card using your camera, not a computer.
When a card is formatted, files can still be recovered until they are
overwritten. To ensure no one will be able to read deleted photos, format the card
in your camera and then shoot random photos until the card is filled again; the
earlier photos will be thus rewritten by the new photos. Some digital cameras
have a “Low Level Format” option that completely erases data on a card, but this
type of formatting takes longer than regular formatting.
[Note: In the rare case where you have deleted a very important photo from a
media card, there is a software program that can recover the photo –
Photorecovery, a $40 utility that can be downloaded from
www.lc-tech.com. If
you do delete a file you must recover, don’t add new photos to the card before
running the recover software.]