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"Do not use card readers". How seriously this warning shoiuld be taken?

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ablack

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That's what manual for my camera (Samsung A40) says. It also advices to re-format card if it was used by another device.

How serious are warnings of that kind?
 
ablack said:
That's what manual for my camera (Samsung A40) says. It also advices
to re-format card if it was used by another device.
How serious are warnings of that kind?
Click to expand...
Strange. I've always used a card reader. For years now. With many different cameras. No probs.

--
Androo
http://Androo.smugmug.com
 
Andrew Butterfield said:
ablack said:
That's what manual for my camera (Samsung A40) says. It also advices
to re-format card if it was used by another device.
How serious are warnings of that kind?
Click to expand...
Strange. I've always used a card reader. For years now. With many
different cameras. No probs.
Click to expand...
Which is why I would guess the warning is not serious. Make sure you don't remove your card as it is being read, and don't write to it with another device. That is probably why they have that warning - to stop those that don't know what they are doing from hurting their selves.

If you know what you're doing, you probably shouldn't have any problems.
 
I often use my cards as mini-hard drives. Why not? Talk about portable storage... :)

I "risk" problems if I try to use one of these cards in my camera without letting the camera format it.

And almost certainly that is what happens. Computers will often write to a card, writing hidden files as a convenience to the computer, not the camera. :(

Just format the card IN CAMERA, and you wont have a problem. Eventually of course we all have problems, but it has nothing to do with the card reader itself.

But this way Samsung can always say, "It ain't my fault."

Dave
Clint Sanders said:
Andrew Butterfield said:
ablack said:
That's what manual for my camera (Samsung A40) says. It also advices
to re-format card if it was used by another device.
How serious are warnings of that kind?
Click to expand...
Strange. I've always used a card reader. For years now. With many
different cameras. No probs.
Click to expand...
Which is why I would guess the warning is not serious. Make sure you
don't remove your card as it is being read, and don't write to it
with another device. That is probably why they have that warning - to
stop those that don't know what they are doing from hurting their
selves.

If you know what you're doing, you probably shouldn't have any problems.
Click to expand...
 
So, it appears to be just as I thought.

As long as you know what yo're doing, do not write to the card files camera does not expect to find there, and format it if you have doubts, there shouldn't be any problems. If you don't know, you were warned :)
 
If your computer uses thumbnails, I believe it will write a thumbnail database file to the card. So you might want to avoid that.

Even then, the camera probably wouldn't have any problems.
 
You can always reformat in your camera which will let you start over with a blank card. The only problem is that you will loose any pictures or data that was there before. If you try the cardreader with only one or two pictures you don't care about, there's nothing to loose .
 
I always format my card in my camera after I upload my photos.

I have also used my card reader numerous times without problems.

--
  • Melissa
 
Brian Sprague said:
If you try the cardreader
with only one or two pictures you don't care about, there's nothing
to loose .
Click to expand...
Except for the price of the reader itself, but they're not that expensive and even if reader indeed does not work with that cam there would be use for one eventually.

In fact, the only problem with not using reader is that uploading pictures seems to drain batteries more than anything else, for that particular camera.

(nearly fresh alkaline duracells ran dry after about 50 shots AND not unplugging camera for an hour because I was distracted. Normally you can take 200-300 shots with worse batteries.)
 
ablack said:
Brian Sprague said:
If you try the cardreader
with only one or two pictures you don't care about, there's nothing
to loose .
Click to expand...
Except for the price of the reader itself, but they're not that
expensive and even if reader indeed does not work with that cam there
would be use for one eventually.
Click to expand...
WRONG! You cannot hurt the cardreader. Don't get misinformed!
ablack said:
In fact, the only problem with not using reader is that uploading
pictures seems to drain batteries more than anything else, for that
particular camera.

(nearly fresh alkaline duracells ran dry after about 50 shots AND not
unplugging camera for an hour because I was distracted. Normally you
can take 200-300 shots with worse batteries.)
Click to expand...
 
Yes, I can't, but since I have no other memcard-using devices it would be kind of useless anyway. And USB sticks are more practical as general purpose portable storage. (not everybode has SD reader yet.)
 
I always use a card reader and I never format the card. If you format on the computer you will eventually find the computer formats it in a way the camera cannot read.

I open the card as a new drive and simply move the files from that drive to my hard disk. This both removes the files from card and copies them to the hard disc. It avoids problems with thumbnails being written to the card, and other irritations.

When you're finished tell the OS you want to remove the drive ( removable storage ) and when it says it's OK - remove it.

Easy peasy.

--
StephenG

Fuji S9600
Fuji S5200
Fuji F30
Fuji E900
Canon A710IS
PCLinuxOS
 
I've heard several stories of people damaging the pins while inserting/removing the memory card from the camera. Using the card reader is not a problem but the fact that i have to frequently remove and put my card back into the camera just makes it a bit risky as one wrong move will break the pins.

I just connect the camera to the computer and download directly from the camera. Its a much safer way than having to go and fix my camera because i push the memory card in just a bit harder than i should have.. :)
 
That pretty much confirms that Samsung placed this warning solely to cover itself from liability if substandard reader they did not manufacture damages something. (or user got careless with it.)

Again, thanks everybody, I learned alot from this thread.
 
--
One more question on this subject;

After uploading all my files to my PC I always place my CF card back in the camera and firstly erase all the files from the card and then I format.

Would it be ok just formatting or should I continue to erase the files first.

Simon.
 
At a guess, you'd rather just format. The less writes to the card, the longer its life. OTOH if card contents was confidentional in some way, and you suspect Gil Grissom is after you, some even more agressive procedures may be needed... ;)
 
Formatting is just fine. Erasing the files does not actually delete the files. Formating does.

Although unless it's a "hard format" the files can still be recovered.

Dave

.
 
In your shoes, I'd put the full card to one side and put another one in the camera and format it. Don't format cads until the pictures on it are backed up on to a CD or two.

Cards are cheap, so are blank CD's but pictures can't be retaken...

Regards, David
 
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