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Luminous Landscape Forum > Equipment & Techniques > Digital Cameras & Shooting Techniques
michaelbiondo
wondering what the conventional wisdom is regarding the lifespan of memory cards, I have a pile of sandisk III and IV cards.
They all seem to be working fine, the threes are a bit slower to download, but not really an issue for my workflow.
Any suggested maintenance regime other that re formatting in camera before using each time?
Thanks,
MB
teddillard
QUOTE (michaelbiondo @ Aug 26 2009, 01:40 PM) *
wondering what the conventional wisdom is regarding the lifespan of memory cards, I have a pile of sandisk III and IV cards.
They all seem to be working fine, the threes are a bit slower to download, but not really an issue for my workflow.
Any suggested maintenance regime other that re formatting in camera before using each time?
Thanks,
MB

Yes, it's a really good idea to "wipe" them regularly, actually fairly often, but if you're not comfortable with that, at least wipe them when they start to act even the least bit wonky. That's technical talk, by the way...

...dammit, I can't find the software that does it... a Secure Erase, however, using Disk Utility on a Mac, will also do the trick. Once you do that to the card, then format it in the camera.

As far as a lifespan goes, for all intents and purposes, it's unlimited. That is, it does have a lifespan, but it's well beyond what a photographer would require...
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