# Digital camera problem **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 13, 2005, 1:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/digital-camera-problem/316857 "2005-08-13T13:42:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Greg\_Charles](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/839c29/32.png) [@Greg\_Charles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Greg_Charles)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2005, 1:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/digital-camera-problem/316857/1 "2005-08-13T13:42:49Z")
I have an old model Olympus digital camera (2.3 megapixels!) that uses what I think is called SmartMedia. That is, it’s a flat square card that looks like a miniture floppy disc. It’s the one that’s thin like a few sheets of paper, not the thicker one. There are metal contacts on one side of the disc. OK, so everything’s working fine, but then I took the disc to a camera shop and had them transfer the images to a CD, since I don’t have any other way to store the pictures while I’m travelling. I also had them wipe out the old images once I had the CD. Rather than deleting the image files directly, the guy did a quick format. I almost stopped him, but I figured a quick format is just erasing the disc. It wipes out the directory structure too, but the camera should be able to restore that. The problem is that it takes about 10 times as long for the camera to write images now, i.e. about 30 seconds per shot. I tried my older card (only 16 Mb) and the images are still recorded quickly, so it’s not the camera. What happened to my card? My two theories are the contacts are dirty or damaged or something was erased that should be there. I’d appreciate any suggestions on how to fix it. Thanks! ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d26b3c/32.png) [@Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Blue_Sky)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2005, 3:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/digital-camera-problem/316857/2 "2005-08-13T15:01:46Z")
Did they erase the card using a computer? See if your camera has a reformat option. If so, try reformating the card that way. ---
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2005, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/digital-camera-problem/316857/3 "2005-08-13T17:59:20Z")
ALWAYS reformat the memory cards in the camera, never on the computer. Do format pass in the camera and that should work to put it back in right condition. ---
**Author:** ![Nanoda](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ce73a5/32.png) [@Nanoda](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nanoda)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2005, 2:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/digital-camera-problem/316857/4 "2005-08-14T02:40:50Z")
What **Telemark** says. Never ever ever ever ever _ever_ format flash-media on a PC. I’m surprised your card works at all, as that action is super likely to [break the card entirely](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=303612). ---
**Author:** ![Greg\_Charles](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/839c29/32.png) [@Greg\_Charles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Greg_Charles)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2005, 4:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/digital-camera-problem/316857/5 "2005-08-14T04:02:13Z")
Yes, but a quick format isn’t really a format, is it? It just erases everything. Anyway, thanks for the advice. I will try to reformat the card with the camera, though I don’t remember seeing an option for doing that. The manual is 187 pages though, so maybe I missed it! ---
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2005, 4:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/digital-camera-problem/316857/6 "2005-08-14T04:07:42Z")
> [@Nanoda](#): > > What **Telemark** says. Never ever ever ever ever _ever_ format flash-media on a PC. I’m surprised your card works at all, as that action is super likely to [break the card entirely](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=303612). Not all flash media. SM is much more susceptible than compact flash since many cameras that use SM do non-FAT formats. Cameras using CF \*generally \* use FAT16 formatting so you can usually safely format a CF card in a card reader via the PC. ---
**Author:** ![Nanoda](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ce73a5/32.png) [@Nanoda](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nanoda)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2005, 11:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/digital-camera-problem/316857/7 "2005-08-14T23:58:49Z")
**Greg Charles** - well that’s true. I’ve always figured a ‘quick format’ replaces the FAT and partition information, but didn’t zero out all the sectors. I’ve found Olympus to be fairly standard - look for a ‘Card Setup’ option, perhaps next to ‘Delete All’. ---
**Author:** ![Greg\_Charles](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/839c29/32.png) [@Greg\_Charles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Greg_Charles)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2005, 4:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/digital-camera-problem/316857/8 "2005-08-18T04:00:36Z")
There is a “Reset” option, but no reformat that I can find. I’d try reset, but I don’t really want to lose the 50 or so pictures on there. The weird thing is while the camera can show them, the card reader I tried shows an empty file structure. The properties of the disc shows 20 Mb used, but they don’t show up in the File Explorer. I can add directories to the disc, but the pictures are still only viewable using the camera. Sigh. ---
**Author:** ![critter42](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/7ba0ec/32.png) [@critter42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/critter42)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2005, 4:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/digital-camera-problem/316857/9 "2005-08-18T04:11:27Z")
What model Olympus is it? I have almost never seen a camera that uses flash media that doesn’t have a format option - I can’t see how any camera maker in their right mind wouldn’t have such a facility.