The irony is that most of the people look at memory card as not more than a piece of metal or plastic. But they leave the very important insights of the card. From flash memory to a controller, there are a lot of things to understand! And it is the quality of the memory and controller often responsible for the speed and well-being of your card. So there will be a need to take care of your memory card by considering some Dos and Don’ts.
Here we go…
#1 Deleting images from memory card on the camera is not a good idea!
It means, do not erase photos or videos on camera keeping the memory card inserted into it. We can see most of the people doing it, but it is a great way to mess up with File Allocation Table. You shouldn’t do it.
However, memory cards are so cheap nowadays. You can switch to the new one once the card is filled up. There is no need to delete files to make space.
#2 It is suggested not to format the memory card on computer, but do in your camera itself
You’ll have to format the card on the camera, and you should do it on the camera you are shooting with. Also, it is a very bad idea to get the card out of the camera of one model and use that card into another without formatting. Shooting on Canon camera, pulling out the card and start using it with Nikon is not at all a healthy way of managing the memory card. Cards need to be formatted in a dedicated way and each company will do it in their own way.
#3 Cleaning a card before each shoot is a good concept
Once you transfer all the images and videos from your card to computer or some other place, it is recommended to format the card before you use it for another shoot. A clean memory card will work better!
#4 Never fill the card completely
Even though memory cards have a great working mechanism, they may suffer from performance issues if you fill it with lots of loads. Just fill them up to 90% and start using another one. And it is a good idea to use large memory cards so that you can take more and more pictures and don’t worry about the space so soon.
#5 Always choose a good card reader
Most of the memory card surveys say that cards get damaged in a reader than in a camera. So if your card and its data is precious to you, invest on some noble card readers.
#6 Don’t try to pull out the card during the data transfer process
Chances are, your photos or some other media files may go missing if you interrupt the process of data transfer from the card or to the card. Also, it is better to wait for an extra couple of seconds after the data has been transferred. Don’t interrupt immediately!
#7 If you are smart enough and have two card slots, then write the images to both the cards
By doing so, you can save files when something wrong say corruption happens to one card. You can get the files off the other card.
#8 Buy memory cards of popular brands
Nothing is more unprofessional than using an expensive camera with a creepy memory card that has no name! If you want your data to be safe and secure, then spending few dollars more to bet a good product is not a big deal.
Remember you are handing your precious images to the card. So think and act!
Apart from these, one more important thing that should strike your mind after you purchase the card is testing its writing or transfer capacity. Meaning, how fast the card is!
You can determine the transferring speed by considering two memory cards (to compare) and a high-definition video. Transfer the HD video and record the time of transfer of each memory card.
“If at all you have not backed up your HD video file and something went wrong during the above test, then there may be chances of video file loss. But no worries, the lost HD video can be easily recovered using Hi5 Photo Recovery Software”
Well, the information on this article could save you from disasters. By now, hope you have a better understanding of what to do and for which to say no about memory cards.
