Problem with Coolpix P1000's card reading

[Booted Cat]

Thank all you guys for all your comments. We have to admit that we live in a world of new features and new bugs, as the saying goes:

"So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past."

 

[jshen808]

Thank all you guys for all your comments. We have to admit that we live in a world of new features and new bugs, as the saying goes:

"So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past."

..Cheers..

 

[Booted Cat]

Here is a record of my problem's occurrences since it deteriorated to a daily basis on October 1:

Date Card Number of Turn-Ons to Get the Card Recognized

Oct 1 Newer Card 4

Oct 2 Newer Card 7

Oct 3 Newer Card 2

Oct 4 Newer Card 3

Oct 5 Newer Card 2

Oct 6 Older Card 2

Oct 7 Older Card 5

Oct 8 Older Card 4

I'm a Coolpix P1000 customer in China who has a problem with P1000's card reading and found difficulty getting this problem recognized by Nikon's Shanghai Service Center. I'm trying to elevate this problem to a higher authority at Nikon. If anyone can help, thank you in advance!

My problem concerns with P1000's difficulty recognizing two SanDisk Ultra 16GB UHS-I Class 10 48MB/s cards at the first time it is turned on every day. I have to turn it on several times to get it to recognize these cards.

Detailed problem history:
I had a P900 for 5 months this year (April to August). The P900 came with an SD card (see specs above) which I had used with the P900 during these 5 months successfully. Then, in this September, I sold my P900 and bought a P1000, which came with a new SD card (in the same specs). At first, I continued to use the 5-month-old card with the P1000. After only a couple of days, my P1000 started to fail to recognize this card at the first time it was turned on every day. I formatted this card with P1000 and the problem persisted. I then swapped in the brand new card that came with this P1000, and initially the new card worked fine. After about 10 days, P1000 started to show the same problem with the new card. I then realized that this is not a card-specific problem, but a problem with my P1000's card reading function. I sent my P1000 to Nikon's Shanghai Service Center, and they tested the P1000 with a new card and found no problem, and they decided that my P1000 had no problem. Actually, my P1000 (or all P1000s) might be problematic with any new card after 10 days of use or so.

I hope a higher authority from Nikon can pay attention to this problem and order the Shanghai Service Center to provide a new card reading component for my P1000. If the new component also produces the problem, it would mean that all P1000 card reading components have a design/manufacturing flaw that needs to be addressed. The above-mentioned 16GB 48MB/s card type is a very popular type of card (at least in China) - almost all camera stores will provide one such card as a gift that accompanies each camera they sell, so not supporting such a mainstream card could be a serious problem with P1000.

Regards,
Booted Cat

 

[Booted Cat]

I'm having a card problem on a different scale. I bought a SanDisk V3 along with P1000 from a reputable sealer in the US. From time to time my machine will claim "card read error". I have to resit it. I suspect P1000 has a boot-up sequence timing problem, it reports the card status when the machine has not completely booted up. Well, just my quess based on my experiences dealing with electronics.

I see what you mean by "on a different scale" now - your problem (with a SanDisk Extreme Pro card) happens less frequently ("from time to time") than mine (with a SanDisk Ultra, "every day").

 

[Booted Cat]

The problem occurred again with my replacement P1000 (I received the new machine on October 31 and witnessed the problem on November 1 and 2).

I have ordered a 64GB SanDisk Extreme Pro (95MB/s), hoping it can alleviate the symptom.

Now, the problem has been produced by 2 P1000s and 2 16GB SanDisk Ultra (48MB/s) cards, so we can say with certain confidence that all P1000s have poor support for all 16GB SanDisk Ultra cards.

I will report this to Nikon after trying out the Extreme Pro card.

I'm a Coolpix P1000 customer in China who has a problem with P1000's card reading and found difficulty getting this problem recognized by Nikon's Shanghai Service Center. I'm trying to elevate this problem to a higher authority at Nikon. If anyone can help, thank you in advance!

My problem concerns with P1000's difficulty recognizing two SanDisk Ultra 16GB UHS-I Class 10 48MB/s cards at the first time it is turned on every day. I have to turn it on several times to get it to recognize these cards.

Detailed problem history:
I had a P900 for 5 months this year (April to August). The P900 came with an SD card (see specs above) which I had used with the P900 during these 5 months successfully. Then, in this September, I sold my P900 and bought a P1000, which came with a new SD card (in the same specs). At first, I continued to use the 5-month-old card with the P1000. After only a couple of days, my P1000 started to fail to recognize this card at the first time it was turned on every day. I formatted this card with P1000 and the problem persisted. I then swapped in the brand new card that came with this P1000, and initially the new card worked fine. After about 10 days, P1000 started to show the same problem with the new card. I then realized that this is not a card-specific problem, but a problem with my P1000's card reading function. I sent my P1000 to Nikon's Shanghai Service Center, and they tested the P1000 with a new card and found no problem, and they decided that my P1000 had no problem. Actually, my P1000 (or all P1000s) might be problematic with any new card after 10 days of use or so.

I hope a higher authority from Nikon can pay attention to this problem and order the Shanghai Service Center to provide a new card reading component for my P1000. If the new component also produces the problem, it would mean that all P1000 card reading components have a design/manufacturing flaw that needs to be addressed. The above-mentioned 16GB 48MB/s card type is a very popular type of card (at least in China) - almost all camera stores will provide one such card as a gift that accompanies each camera they sell, so not supporting such a mainstream card could be a serious problem with P1000.

Regards,
Booted Cat

 

[jshen808]

The problem occurred again with my replacement P1000 (I received the new machine on October 31 and witnessed the problem on November 1 and 2).

I have ordered a 64GB SanDisk Extreme Pro (95MB/s), hoping it can alleviate the symptom.

Now, the problem has been produced by 2 P1000s and 2 16GB SanDisk Ultra (48MB/s) cards, so we can say with certain confidence that all P1000s have poor support for all 16GB SanDisk Ultra cards.

I will report this to Nikon after trying out the Extreme Pro card.

I'm a Coolpix P1000 customer in China who has a problem with P1000's card reading and found difficulty getting this problem recognized by Nikon's Shanghai Service Center. I'm trying to elevate this problem to a higher authority at Nikon. If anyone can help, thank you in advance!

My problem concerns with P1000's difficulty recognizing two SanDisk Ultra 16GB UHS-I Class 10 48MB/s cards at the first time it is turned on every day. I have to turn it on several times to get it to recognize these cards.

Detailed problem history:
I had a P900 for 5 months this year (April to August). The P900 came with an SD card (see specs above) which I had used with the P900 during these 5 months successfully. Then, in this September, I sold my P900 and bought a P1000, which came with a new SD card (in the same specs). At first, I continued to use the 5-month-old card with the P1000. After only a couple of days, my P1000 started to fail to recognize this card at the first time it was turned on every day. I formatted this card with P1000 and the problem persisted. I then swapped in the brand new card that came with this P1000, and initially the new card worked fine. After about 10 days, P1000 started to show the same problem with the new card. I then realized that this is not a card-specific problem, but a problem with my P1000's card reading function. I sent my P1000 to Nikon's Shanghai Service Center, and they tested the P1000 with a new card and found no problem, and they decided that my P1000 had no problem. Actually, my P1000 (or all P1000s) might be problematic with any new card after 10 days of use or so.

I hope a higher authority from Nikon can pay attention to this problem and order the Shanghai Service Center to provide a new card reading component for my P1000. If the new component also produces the problem, it would mean that all P1000 card reading components have a design/manufacturing flaw that needs to be addressed. The above-mentioned 16GB 48MB/s card type is a very popular type of card (at least in China) - almost all camera stores will provide one such card as a gift that accompanies each camera they sell, so not supporting such a mainstream card could be a serious problem with P1000.

Regards,
Booted Cat

..Sorry to hear about this!

..but sounds like a compatibility issue..

..as I've mentioned previously, have been using the SanDisk Extreme Pro 32GB cards on my recent cameras without any problems..

..be sure to get the version with "V30", which has better support for 4K videos..

************

..Cheers..

 

[Booted Cat]

..as I've mentioned previously, have been using the SanDisk Extreme Pro 32GB cards on my recent cameras without any problems..

..be sure to get the version with "V30", which has better support for 4K videos..

Yes, V30 U3, 95MB/s.

************

..Cheers..

 

[Rocca]

I'm a Coolpix P1000 customer in China who has a problem with P1000's card reading and found difficulty getting this problem recognized by Nikon's Shanghai Service Center. I'm trying to elevate this problem to a higher authority at Nikon. If anyone can help, thank you in advance!

My problem concerns with P1000's difficulty recognizing two SanDisk Ultra 16GB UHS-I Class 10 48MB/s cards at the first time it is turned on every day. I have to turn it on several times to get it to recognize these cards.

Detailed problem history:
I had a P900 for 5 months this year (April to August). The P900 came with an SD card (see specs above) which I had used with the P900 during these 5 months successfully. Then, in this September, I sold my P900 and bought a P1000, which came with a new SD card (in the same specs). At first, I continued to use the 5-month-old card with the P1000. After only a couple of days, my P1000 started to fail to recognize this card at the first time it was turned on every day. I formatted this card with P1000 and the problem persisted. I then swapped in the brand new card that came with this P1000, and initially the new card worked fine. After about 10 days, P1000 started to show the same problem with the new card. I then realized that this is not a card-specific problem, but a problem with my P1000's card reading function. I sent my P1000 to Nikon's Shanghai Service Center, and they tested the P1000 with a new card and found no problem, and they decided that my P1000 had no problem. Actually, my P1000 (or all P1000s) might be problematic with any new card after 10 days of use or so.

I hope a higher authority from Nikon can pay attention to this problem and order the Shanghai Service Center to provide a new card reading component for my P1000. If the new component also produces the problem, it would mean that all P1000 card reading components have a design/manufacturing flaw that needs to be addressed. The above-mentioned 16GB 48MB/s card type is a very popular type of card (at least in China) - almost all camera stores will provide one such card as a gift that accompanies each camera they sell, so not supporting such a mainstream card could be a serious problem with P1000.

Regards,
Booted Cat

Hello Booted Cat,

I had the same issue with the same type of card SanDisk Ultra 16GB UHS-I Class 10 48MB/s card (card was new, I got this with P1000). But definitely not so frequent as you stated. In my camera it happened 5 times during 5 weeks, randomly. Switching off and on again helped. Anyway, this was really annoying so I bought card SanDisk Extreme Pro reccommended in this thread below and issue disappeared . Best regards, Zdenka

 

[P10004K]

It's amazing how far people will go to be a cheapskate then complain about card problems. They get a $1,000 camera and put an old slow $5 card in it and when it has problems they blame the camera. I use this card because I shoot 4K videos with my P1000 and it is fast and has tons of space (8x as much as a mickey mouse 16GB card) for 4K videos.

--
Nikon Coolpix P1000 4K 125x Superzoom

 

[jshen808]

I'm a Coolpix P1000 customer in China who has a problem with P1000's card reading and found difficulty getting this problem recognized by Nikon's Shanghai Service Center. I'm trying to elevate this problem to a higher authority at Nikon. If anyone can help, thank you in advance!

My problem concerns with P1000's difficulty recognizing two SanDisk Ultra 16GB UHS-I Class 10 48MB/s cards at the first time it is turned on every day. I have to turn it on several times to get it to recognize these cards.

Detailed problem history:
I had a P900 for 5 months this year (April to August). The P900 came with an SD card (see specs above) which I had used with the P900 during these 5 months successfully. Then, in this September, I sold my P900 and bought a P1000, which came with a new SD card (in the same specs). At first, I continued to use the 5-month-old card with the P1000. After only a couple of days, my P1000 started to fail to recognize this card at the first time it was turned on every day. I formatted this card with P1000 and the problem persisted. I then swapped in the brand new card that came with this P1000, and initially the new card worked fine. After about 10 days, P1000 started to show the same problem with the new card. I then realized that this is not a card-specific problem, but a problem with my P1000's card reading function. I sent my P1000 to Nikon's Shanghai Service Center, and they tested the P1000 with a new card and found no problem, and they decided that my P1000 had no problem. Actually, my P1000 (or all P1000s) might be problematic with any new card after 10 days of use or so.

I hope a higher authority from Nikon can pay attention to this problem and order the Shanghai Service Center to provide a new card reading component for my P1000. If the new component also produces the problem, it would mean that all P1000 card reading components have a design/manufacturing flaw that needs to be addressed. The above-mentioned 16GB 48MB/s card type is a very popular type of card (at least in China) - almost all camera stores will provide one such card as a gift that accompanies each camera they sell, so not supporting such a mainstream card could be a serious problem with P1000.

Regards,
Booted Cat

Hello Booted Cat,

I had the same issue with the same type of card SanDisk Ultra 16GB UHS-I Class 10 48MB/s card (card was new, I got this with P1000). But definitely not so frequent as you stated. In my camera it happened 5 times during 5 weeks, randomly. Switching off and on again helped. Anyway, this was really annoying so I bought card SanDisk Extreme Pro reccommended in this thread below and issue disappeared . Best regards, Zdenka

..Thanks for sharing your experiences!

..glad to hear the Extreme Pro works well..

..Cheers..

 

[Booted Cat]

I'm a Coolpix P1000 customer in China who has a problem with P1000's card reading and found difficulty getting this problem recognized by Nikon's Shanghai Service Center. I'm trying to elevate this problem to a higher authority at Nikon. If anyone can help, thank you in advance!

My problem concerns with P1000's difficulty recognizing two SanDisk Ultra 16GB UHS-I Class 10 48MB/s cards at the first time it is turned on every day. I have to turn it on several times to get it to recognize these cards.

Detailed problem history:
I had a P900 for 5 months this year (April to August). The P900 came with an SD card (see specs above) which I had used with the P900 during these 5 months successfully. Then, in this September, I sold my P900 and bought a P1000, which came with a new SD card (in the same specs). At first, I continued to use the 5-month-old card with the P1000. After only a couple of days, my P1000 started to fail to recognize this card at the first time it was turned on every day. I formatted this card with P1000 and the problem persisted. I then swapped in the brand new card that came with this P1000, and initially the new card worked fine. After about 10 days, P1000 started to show the same problem with the new card. I then realized that this is not a card-specific problem, but a problem with my P1000's card reading function. I sent my P1000 to Nikon's Shanghai Service Center, and they tested the P1000 with a new card and found no problem, and they decided that my P1000 had no problem. Actually, my P1000 (or all P1000s) might be problematic with any new card after 10 days of use or so.

I hope a higher authority from Nikon can pay attention to this problem and order the Shanghai Service Center to provide a new card reading component for my P1000. If the new component also produces the problem, it would mean that all P1000 card reading components have a design/manufacturing flaw that needs to be addressed. The above-mentioned 16GB 48MB/s card type is a very popular type of card (at least in China) - almost all camera stores will provide one such card as a gift that accompanies each camera they sell, so not supporting such a mainstream card could be a serious problem with P1000.

Regards,
Booted Cat

Hello Booted Cat,

I had the same issue with the same type of card SanDisk Ultra 16GB UHS-I Class 10 48MB/s card (card was new, I got this with P1000). But definitely not so frequent as you stated. In my camera it happened 5 times during 5 weeks, randomly. Switching off and on again helped. Anyway, this was really annoying so I bought card SanDisk Extreme Pro reccommended in this thread below and issue disappeared . Best regards, Zdenka

My second SanDisk Ultra this year was also new and didn't produce this problem until 10+ days of use.

Anyway I have started using an Extreme Pro too.

 

[PaPeRo]

Counterfeit cards...;-)

 

[Tugela]

I doubt very much anyone from Nikon will be reading here.

It could even be your computer card reader corrupting your cards making it hard for the camera to read.

Not likely. Computers and card readers are usually more capable of reading cards than cameras. This related post regarding P1000's card reading is an example: https://www.dpreview.com/forums/post/61726772

Make sure the cards you are using are genuine and not fakes ( sadly there are a lot around).

They're likely to be genuine, as the two stores that give away these cards are tier-1 licensed sellers listed on Nikon China's official website, and this type of 16GB 48MB/s SanDisk Ultra card is widely used as gifts that accompany every new camera they sell primarily because they're cheap.

make sure your using cards with a high enough specification as well.

I suspect my problem is indeed caused by P1000's varying support for cards of different speed levels. A friend who has P1000 and a 128GB SanDisk Extreme Pro (95MB/s) has no problem so far. Nikon's Shanghai Service Center tested my P1000 with their own cards (new and old) without problems, probably because their card formats and speed levels are different than mine.

Take a video of what is happening or a photo of the lcd displaying the error message.

My P1000 is currently at Nikon Shanghai, therefore not available for video.

I’ve had a Nikon D3300 with this issue and discovered it was a disliking for Sandisk extreme with a gold label .

I switched over to Sandisk pro with black label and all was well again.

This is evidence that my problem might also be caused by P1000's disliking for certain card formats. A friend told me that new cameras like P1000 tend to support latest card formats best. My current cards are only SanDisk Ultras, not even Extremes. I will buy an Extreme Pro as a last resort.

Before that last resort, I will explore two options:

- Buy a new P1000 card-reading component at my own cost, if it's affordable.

- Let Nikon Shanghai send my P1000 and 16GB card to Nikon's Japan headquarters for checkup.

You probably have a fake card. Unless you are ordering directly from the manufacturer or an authorized dealer (even that might be unreliable in a place like China) you have have a good chance of buying a fake.

 

[DonnaleePrima]

I’ve had the Nikon P1000 for about a month. I’m using a Sandisk 64MG 170mbps. Suddenly, after performing flawlessly, the camera stopped reading the card and told me it was not formatted when, of course, it was. I thought I lost everything because it only handles one disk, unlike my other Nikons which are DLSRs. Then it started reading the disk and all was okay. However, today, I was using a Lexor 64GB 150mps disk and it never recovered with the disk and I removed it and took a sandisk from my Nikon D850 and it read that just fine. BUT, my laptop read the Lexor okay and what I thought I had lost (a couple little videos) I didn’t. This is a weird issue It’s a real bummer because I cannot trust the camera. I will say that I was working outside in the heat and while the camera was never in the sun, it was very hot outside, about 95 degrees Fahrenheit.

 

[Labe]

I’ve had the Nikon P1000 for about a month. I’m using a Sandisk 64MG 170mbps. Suddenly, after performing flawlessly, the camera stopped reading the card and told me it was not formatted when, of course, it was. I thought I lost everything because it only handles one disk, unlike my other Nikons which are DLSRs. Then it started reading the disk and all was okay. However, today, I was using a Lexor 64GB 150mps disk and it never recovered with the disk and I removed it and took a sandisk from my Nikon D850 and it read that just fine. BUT, my laptop read the Lexor okay and what I thought I had lost (a couple little videos) I didn’t. This is a weird issue It’s a real bummer because I cannot trust the camera. I will say that I was working outside in the heat and while the camera was never in the sun, it was very hot outside, about 95 degrees Fahrenheit.

First thing to do is empty all images and videos of the cards .

place the card back in the camera and select format . Formatting should reset the card to work in your P900 . Do not use it in any other camera without first emptying the card and then reformatting to whatever camera you put it in .

Switching cards between different cameras can cause issues that your having.

 

[Booted Cat]

SanDisk Extreme Pro 64GB 95MB/s should work well with P1000. I've been using it since last November without any problem. Otherwise, the camera must have a faulty card reading component and needs to be sent to a Nikon service center for free component replacement.

I’ve had the Nikon P1000 for about a month. I’m using a Sandisk 64MG 170mbps. Suddenly, after performing flawlessly, the camera stopped reading the card and told me it was not formatted when, of course, it was. I thought I lost everything because it only handles one disk, unlike my other Nikons which are DLSRs. Then it started reading the disk and all was okay. However, today, I was using a Lexor 64GB 150mps disk and it never recovered with the disk and I removed it and took a sandisk from my Nikon D850 and it read that just fine. BUT, my laptop read the Lexor okay and what I thought I had lost (a couple little videos) I didn’t. This is a weird issue It’s a real bummer because I cannot trust the camera. I will say that I was working outside in the heat and while the camera was never in the sun, it was very hot outside, about 95 degrees Fahrenheit.

 

[jshen808]

I’ve had the Nikon P1000 for about a month. I’m using a Sandisk 64MG 170mbps. Suddenly, after performing flawlessly, the camera stopped reading the card and told me it was not formatted when, of course, it was. I thought I lost everything because it only handles one disk, unlike my other Nikons which are DLSRs. Then it started reading the disk and all was okay. However, today, I was using a Lexor 64GB 150mps disk and it never recovered with the disk and I removed it and took a sandisk from my Nikon D850 and it read that just fine. BUT, my laptop read the Lexor okay and what I thought I had lost (a couple little videos) I didn’t. This is a weird issue It’s a real bummer because I cannot trust the camera. I will say that I was working outside in the heat and while the camera was never in the sun, it was very hot outside, about 95 degrees Fahrenheit.

..Just as Labe said..

..if you are going to share memory cards between different cameras..

..before doing so, first download all the pictures & videos to the computer..

..then place the memory card to the camera that is going to be using it..

..and format the memory card in the camera before start taking pictures..

..formating the memory card each time before using (after downloading into the computer first) is a good practice, to make sure the camera & memory card is "talking" to each other..

..thanks for sharing & happy shooting..

..Cheers, John..

 

[DAP MV]

I believe that the camera is okay, but the card is not compatible.

I had to deal with a similar problem on P1000. I bought Gigastone 128GB card (the same type I had been using for P900 in the past). I used a card in incremental mode, i.e., I did not erase anything, but kept adding files (pictures) to it. After a couple of months I got an error that the card could not be read by the camera. The same card was perfectly readable in the PC.

Long story short, after checking physical integrity of the card, I copied all files to the PC, reformatted the card, copied the files back to the card, and the camera recognized the card and the files. But after a few weeks of using it the error happened again.

I tried it several times (over a couple of months) switching between two identical Gigastone cards. I observed the same behavior.

I switched to SanDisk Extreme Pro (also 128GB), and for last 1/2 year there was no single error.

I have some suspicions on what may be happening, but they are way too technical. They belong to an electronics forum, not to a photography forum.

Bottom line: some of the SD cards are not compatible with P1000. (Duh... ) P1000 has different SD card interface than P900, and the fact that the card did work with P900 does not constitute the fact that the same card will work with P1000.

A comment about formatting SD cards: SD Card Association recommends not to format SD cards using computer built-in formatting procedures, but to use dedicated SD cards formatter developed by them (or rather for them). You can find the tool and the explanation why in their web site:

SD Memory Card Formatter for Windows/Mac - SD Association

Watch our video on how to use the SD Memory Card Formatter SD Memory Card Formatter 5.0.3 for SD/SDHC/SDXC/SDUC The SD Memory Card Formatter formats SD Memory Card, SDHC Memory Card, SDXC Memory Card and SDUC Memory Card (respectively SD/SDHC/SDXC/SDUC Cards) complying with the SD File System...

www.sdcard.org

 

[Labe]

I believe that the camera is okay, but the card is not compatible.

I had to deal with a similar problem on P1000. I bought Gigastone 128GB card (the same type I had been using for P900 in the past). I used a card in incremental mode, i.e., I did not erase anything, but kept adding files (pictures) to it. After a couple of months I got an error that the card could not be read by the camera. The same card was perfectly readable in the PC.

Long story short, after checking physical integrity of the card, I copied all files to the PC, reformatted the card, copied the files back to the card, and the camera recognized the card and the files. But after a few weeks of using it the error happened again.

I tried it several times (over a couple of months) switching between two identical Gigastone cards. I observed the same behavior.

I switched to SanDisk Extreme Pro (also 128GB), and for last 1/2 year there was no single error.

I have some suspicions on what may be happening, but they are way too technical. They belong to an electronics forum, not to a photography forum.

Bottom line: some of the SD cards are not compatible with P1000. (Duh... ) P1000 has different SD card interface than P900, and the fact that the card did work with P900 does not constitute the fact that the same card will work with P1000.

A comment about formatting SD cards: SD Card Association recommends not to format SD cards using computer built-in formatting procedures, but to use dedicated SD cards formatter developed by them (or rather for them). You can find the tool and the explanation why in their web site:

https://www.sdcard.org/downloads/formatter/index.html

Well I was talking about actually formatting the SD card in camera itself as recommended by Nikon and not on a pc .

 

[DAP MV]

Well I was talking about actually formatting the SD card in camera itself as recommended by Nikon and not on a pc .

A question is what does Nikon's "formatting" consist of.

During this process the camera puts some extra files on the card. They are specific to how the camera accesses the files, and have nothing to do with low level formatting. Those files are also created if you put a blank formatted card into the camera and take a picture.

The low level formatting process consists of overwriting FAT. SDCA states that in order to achieve maximum performance it has to be done in certain way. SDCA will share the details with developer (not for free, by the way). Nikon is a big boy in this business, so one might think that they treated the problem seriously and did not attempt to shave off a few dollars risking potential problems with later SD card protocol incompatibilities.

That said, my tests indicated that Gigastone was causing errors regardless whether the card was formatted by Windows built-in tools, SDCA tool, or Nikon tools built in P1000. So, technically, it's a moot point... ;-)

But let's not pollute this forum with technicalities not related to photography. If you feel like continuing this discussion, let's switch to private messaging.

--
Darius