What the hell is formatting and why do I care?
I'll get to formatting later, but you should very much care if you don't want your family vacation pictures lost for eternity because you were too lazy to take care of your shit! Technology helps make our lives easier but it also helps destroy them faster, in more than one way. Let's just stick to memory cards for now....
First of all if your just hitting the "delete" button you're setting yourself up for potential disaster, even if you don't do it that often. When your camera processes an image it organizes it, gives it a name, in a folder, etc. When you delete a file and not format it, you're just telling the camera to replace the image, but there are still traces of the old file left behind. When you format it you basically start from scratch and tell your camera everything is new and let's get to work! I hope you're all following me on this!
As some of you may or may not know I'm a Canon girl so I won't even go into the functions or screen shots of formatting a Nikon, Sony, etc., look it up. :)
Here are the steps to formatting a memory card on a canon...this is taken from the back of my Mark III, but it's very similar to the most basic Canons.
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Step 1 - Click "Format Card" |
Step 2 - Toggle to card you want to format
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Step 3 - Click OK
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Step 4 - DONE
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KEY POINTS TO REMBER ABOUT FORMATTING:
1- Back up your pictures BEFORE you do this because you won't get them back
2- Format the card in your camera NOT your computer!
Now onto which memory cards are the best....drum roll......IT DOESN'T REALLY MATTER! ;)
They really don't but I would generally stick to main brands such as SanDisk, Lexar, PNY, Toshiba, Sony, or Samsung. That doesn't mean there aren't more but for the love of God please don't get some cheap shit from Amazon for $5, if it's cheap, it's cheap! My favorite are Lexar and SanDisk, but I do find Lexar has faster speeds so I lean towards them more, again not sure if it really really matters.
When you're buying memory cards it can kinda be overwhelming and if you're just looking at price there is a reason why the same size memory card has a price difference, it's the speed! I always buy the fastest speed, 95MB/s on an SC card or 120MB/s on a CF card. It makes a difference! Quality not quantity my friends!
TIPS ON MEMORY CARDS:
1-Mark the month and year in sharpie on the back when you buy it! This stuff doesn't last forever so it's best to know when you bought it and replace them after a couple years! Just like that old compact in the back of your makeup drawer!
2-Store them in little cases or an organizer. I will have conflicting views on this because I read an article from a guy who worked at SanDisk and he just threw them around in his bag and said it didn't make a difference. I'm all about taking care of your stuff so do whatever you want!
As you can see below I have a bunch of different kinds and speeds that go about 4 memory cards deep in my little ikea container. The slower ones never get used anymore and those go in my bag as back-ups or are just extra because I fill these little bad boys up in the busy seasons! I do however buy new cards all the time...amazon and best buy always have sales! I snatch 'em up! You should too!
If you guys have any questions please leave a comment below and I'll follow up asap!
Thanks for reading and I hope I saved you from a future panic attack! :)
Michelle