Bad to use a memory card from another camera?

10 years 9 months ago #289907 by JMunoz
Are memory cards OK to swap out from one camera to another or will that screw up or compromise photos on card or camera? I'm getting mixed signals on this thought yesterday. I hope one of you can set things straight.

Cheers


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10 years 9 months ago #289915 by Tony Imaging
That would be news to me. I don't think so


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10 years 9 months ago #289919 by garyrhook
Think of the memory card as a tiny hard drive. There is nothing keeping you from using it to store any kind of data you wish. It is essentially a USB thumb drive in a flatter package. Memory cards are also the precursor to SSD drives. Same idea.

All that to say, no, there's nothing stopping you from using a single card in more than one device. Cameras will create a vendor-specific directory to store the images.

The only oddity I've seen is some cameras complain about the format of a given card. This is why most photographers recommend formatting your cards in-camera. You can see that putting a card formatted in camera A into camera B might result in B not liking the card.

Which really makes no sense, since they are all supposed to be using FAT32 for a filesystem. Should be portable. Not sure why some devices don't like what should be a very standard filesystem.

If the specifics permit, just reformat the card in each camera.


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10 years 9 months ago #289955 by Josh Jofoto
Good post Gary :goodpost:

Canon 7D | Canon EF-S 18-55 IS | Canon EF 50mm f/1.4 | Canon EF 85mm f/1.8 | Canon EF 100mm f/2.8 macro | CanonEF 17-40 f/4 L | 70-200 f/4 L | 580 EX II
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10 years 9 months ago #289974 by Amanda Davis
I always format my cards each time


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10 years 9 months ago - 10 years 9 months ago #289986 by Joves
Well I also agree with Gary. I think that when the cameras Format they put extra things into it for the specific model, which may be why they do not like it. But if you have say two D300s they would work well. If going from one model to another then Format it in whichever camera you are using.


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10 years 9 months ago #290077 by KZAM
Good post, didn't know this

I don't need no stink'in Signature! ha ha ha
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10 years 9 months ago #290115 by Vahrenkamp
When in question, just format the card before use.


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