There are four SD card branches which come in 3 different forms Standard Capacity (SDSC), High Capacity (SDHC), the eXtended Capacity (SDXC), and SD SDIO, which unites data storage and input and output capabilities. As such, the type has gone on to feature in thousands of photography products. The Secure Digital standard came about in 1999 as a replacement and upgrade to MultiMediaCards (MMC), and is maintained by the SD Card Association (SDA). Like any electronic device, SD cards do well with some maintenance, and with a little, you can improve and prolong the life of your card, and have less detrimental hiccups while shooting. Sure, if you’re shooting with a pro level DSLR, then CF is your staple, but for the majority, SD still is the go-to. No shortage of memory examples have arisen, but SD has triumphed as the primary flash memory format. More specifically, the likelihood is your device will accept and or require a Secure Digital (SD) card.

Teach a man to fish and he'll complain about the withdrawal of his free fish entitlement.Whether you’re shooting with an $80 point and shoot, or a heavy DSLR, flash memory cards are going to be your constant companions and requirements in order to keep your photography and digital life operating effectively. Give a man a fish and he'll eat for a day. I format in the camera, because it's easier to do (I have the 'Format' command at the top of 'My Menu'.įrank Hollis - Retired mass spectroscopist Neither method will be more likely to lead to corruption. A quick format does the same thing, but for the whole FAT. With the former the file's entry in the File Allocation Table (FAT - an index to what's on the card and where it lives) is changed to make the areas of memory that it uses marked as 'free to use'. There is very little difference between deleting individual files and doing a quick format. Indeed, to stop the same blocks being over-used the memory controller spreads the data all over the available blocks - it deliberately fragments the files.

It's just as fast to retreive data from two non-adjacent memory blocks as it it to get it from neighbouring blocks. This is a problem with magnetic storage - Hard Disk Drives - where you want files to be on neighbouring sectors so that the read head didn't have to move across the disk surface too much.īut this isn't a problem with Solid State storage (SSDs and memory cards). It sounds like you're talking about file fragmentation. If you format the card, the files will be more orderly, reducing the risk of corruption and it will be more efficient. When you delete files and add new ones your are filling in the bubbles in swiss cheese.

How to format sd card in canon camera