Durability of flash memory cards

N

N_Cook

Guest
/
A COUPLE have been reunited with pictures from a camera they dropped
overboard on an Atlantic cruise, thanks to an Oxfordshire woman.

South Africans Barbara and Dennis Gregory were en route from New York to
Southampton on the Queen Mary 2 in 2008 when they dropped their camera in
the ocean.

But 16 months later Spanish fisherman Benito Estevez found the camera in his
nets with the photos still on the memory card.
/

Mrs Gregory, 53, said: "I remember the camera getting lost. We were about a
day out from Southampton sitting on deck when somebody shouted out there
were dolphins.

"We jumped up and rushed to the side and it happened - Dennis didn't have
the camera strapped round his neck and it slipped out of his hands.

"It literally bounced off his lap, across the deck and into the water with
hardly a splash and it was gone.
/
http://www.oxfordmail.co.uk/news/headlines/5006204.Friends_get_reunited_with
_lost_photos/
 
On Sat, 13 Feb 2010 08:53:27 -0000, "N_Cook" <diverse@tcp.co.uk>wrote:

/
A COUPLE have been reunited with pictures from a camera they dropped
overboard on an Atlantic cruise, thanks to an Oxfordshire woman.

South Africans Barbara and Dennis Gregory were en route from New York to
Southampton on the Queen Mary 2 in 2008 when they dropped their camera in
the ocean.

But 16 months later Spanish fisherman Benito Estevez found the camera in his
nets with the photos still on the memory card.
/

Mrs Gregory, 53, said: "I remember the camera getting lost. We were about a
day out from Southampton sitting on deck when somebody shouted out there
were dolphins.

"We jumped up and rushed to the side and it happened - Dennis didn't have
the camera strapped round his neck and it slipped out of his hands.

"It literally bounced off his lap, across the deck and into the water with
hardly a splash and it was gone.
/
http://www.oxfordmail.co.uk/news/headlines/5006204.Friends_get_reunited_with
_lost_photos/
Click to expand...
That's interesting. I haven't had an SD card fail that I recall. Still
have a 32 megabyte SD card in my Palm Tungsten and a 512 in a camera
I bought back in 2003.
 
That's interesting. I haven't had an SD card fail that I recall.
Click to expand...
How do you define "failure"? Malfunction after abuse? A well-sealed card
might continue to operate even after a salt-water dunking, and a
poorly-sealed card after same, followed by a thorough rinsing in fresh water
(then by a drying).

Of course, the memory cells can only be written to and erased a finite
number of times. Each card supposedly has its own internal OS that handles
"leveling" -- seeing to it that the cells are written to and erased evenly.
Even so, I let my camera cards fill up before transferring their contents to
a hard drive or Zip disk. Then I erase and reformat the card.
 
On Sat, 13 Feb 2010 07:07:54 -0800, "William Sommerwerck"
<grizzledgeezer@comcast.net>wrote:

How do you define "failure"? Malfunction after abuse? A well-sealed card
might continue to operate even after a salt-water dunking, and a
poorly-sealed card after same, followed by a thorough rinsing in fresh water
(then by a drying).
Click to expand...
Failure as in failing to write to or read data from or for the card to
be recognized.
 
"William Sommerwerck" <grizzledgeezer@comcast.net> wrote in message
news:hl6f8n$j69$1@news.eternal-september.org...
That's interesting. I haven't had an SD card fail that I recall.

How do you define "failure"? Malfunction after abuse? A well-sealed card
might continue to operate even after a salt-water dunking, and a
poorly-sealed card after same, followed by a thorough rinsing in fresh
water
(then by a drying).

Of course, the memory cells can only be written to and erased a finite
number of times. Each card supposedly has its own internal OS that handles
"leveling" -- seeing to it that the cells are written to and erased
evenly.
Even so, I let my camera cards fill up before transferring their contents
to
a hard drive or Zip disk. Then I erase and reformat the card.
Click to expand...
Interesting that you reuse the cards. Although I transfer my images to the
computer for display and manipulation, I let my SD cards fill right up, and
then just archive them. They thus become the electronic equivalent of all my
old 'negs' from when I used a 35mm SLR. SD cards are now so cheap that it
seems pointless to reuse them, when they can serve as the primary backup for
all of your photos.

Arfa
 
On Sun, 14 Feb 2010 01:27:29 -0000, "Arfa Daily"
<arfa.daily@ntlworld.com>wrote:

"William Sommerwerck" <grizzledgeezer@comcast.net> wrote in message
news:hl6f8n$j69$1@news.eternal-september.org...
That's interesting. I haven't had an SD card fail that I recall.

How do you define "failure"? Malfunction after abuse? A well-sealed card
might continue to operate even after a salt-water dunking, and a
poorly-sealed card after same, followed by a thorough rinsing in fresh
water
(then by a drying).

Of course, the memory cells can only be written to and erased a finite
number of times. Each card supposedly has its own internal OS that handles
"leveling" -- seeing to it that the cells are written to and erased
evenly.
Even so, I let my camera cards fill up before transferring their contents
to
a hard drive or Zip disk. Then I erase and reformat the card.



Interesting that you reuse the cards. Although I transfer my images to the
computer for display and manipulation, I let my SD cards fill right up, and
then just archive them. They thus become the electronic equivalent of all my
old 'negs' from when I used a 35mm SLR. SD cards are now so cheap that it
seems pointless to reuse them, when they can serve as the primary backup for
all of your photos.

Arfa
Click to expand...
I reuse mine also. However with a 4 gig card I can take 600 -
3648x2736 (10MP) photos. Or an hour of HQ 25FPS video.
Hell I don't know if I've even taken 600 photos with this camera
in the 3 years I've had it :)

One thing that I won't do with my SD cards is reformat them. I don't
see any need for it if nothing is wrong. I did howerver repartition a
1 gig card to 512 mb for my old 5MP camera that cannot use a card
above 512. Worked like a charm using Acronis Disk Director.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Welcome to EDABoard.com

Sponsor

Back
Top