why is it bad to use a memory card in another camera?

[bc_steve]

My brother was traveling in Asia last year and was having troubles with his camera. I think the auto-focus stopped working on his lens for some reason. Not totally sure, but the point is that he was not getting very good results with his camera and he wanted to get some good shots when he was at the top of some volcano in Indonesia at sunrise and he borrowed someone else's camera and used it with his own memory card. He said that after he put the memory card back in his own camera it wouldn't even turn on.

I have heard before that that is something that you shouldn't do, and I think my brother even knew that but I've never known why. Anyone care to enlighten me? Also is this something that is fixable?

I haven't seen my brother yet since he got home so I haven't had a chance to look at the camera myself, but I was wondering if there is any advice I should give him. I told him to bring it into a camera shop but I don't think he has gotten around to it yet.

 

[tirediron]

If you're going to use a memory card from a different camera, especially a different model or make, then you MUST format it before you use it. Other than that, there should be no issues. I have a pile of memory cards that I use, and I don't pay any attention to which card goes in which body, but I always make sure I format the card before I do anything else. My guess (and it's only a guess) is that in your brother's case, he may have used a card which had formatting errors already on it, and his camera body wasn't able to deal with them, 'though not turning on seems a little extreme to me.

 

[Overread]

When a camera uses a memory card it has its own method of allocating the space on that card for the purposes of saving photos onto it. If you start swapping the card between cameras without formatting the card in the camera that you are using it in then the resulting attempt by the camera to use the card can corrupt data already on the card and might even mess up the cameras ability to save to that card as well.

In short you can't take a card and use it in multiple cameras and expect to get photos off all the cameras on that single card. What you can do is use a card in different cameras provided that when you put it into the camera for Format the card using the cameras built in menu. That wipes the cards memory allocation clean so that the camera can then use the card as it wishes (in effect this removes all previous data on the card*)




*in actuality the data is still stored, its just the memory allocation that is removed. However if you wished to restore data from a formatted card you can only do so if you use data restoration software BEFORE saving any new data to the card, since new data saved will likely write over the old data and thus corrupt the old data

 

[Garbz]

Woooow ok holdup people. Cameras don't magically start placing data around the card. If they did then we couldn't simply take a memory card out and put it in the computer. They all typically implement FAT32 as a filesystem. That filesystem is what prevents files from overwriting each other and provides a standard system for reading and writing files to the card. If your camera is corrupting files already existing on the card I'd be complaining to the manufacturer. I actually used my camera to cart data back and forth from uni because I didn't want to carry a memory stick and always had a camera with me anyway.

The file structure also has some standard methodology (which is why folders are typically called DCIM\100NIKON DCIM\100CANON DCIM\100OLYMP etc). This allows you to use cards from different cameras together without them overwriting each other. I've never had a problem using my card between several Nikon and Olympus cameras. I've also once shared it with a Canon, no issue. Between two of the same model cameras it can get a bit convoluted especially if you swapping cards back and forth during a shooting session, i.e. one camera is naming DSC_1232.NEF sequentially and the other is naming DSC_9998.NEF then after two photos a new folder is made called 101NIKON and when you slot it in the other camera the new pictures end up in the old folder splitting any shooting session. Anyway sidetracked...

I would be very suspect of a camera that would fail to turn on due to what's on the memory card. The camera shouldn't care. There's also no rule saying you need to format the card in the camera when you use it unless you have an incompatible filesystem on the card (would be very rare).

Honestly I think your brother's camera is suspect. On the other hand I have heard of several and have even owned a camera that failed to turn on when some part of it was damaged, and in my case it was an intermittent autofocus fault which appeared after the camera was dropped.

 

[SquarePeg]

I very recently took a card out of my Nikon (it was full) and tried to switch it with the card in my Sony (which was empty) and the camera would not recognize the card. I kept getting an error that there was no card. When I switched them back, all was well. I did not do any formatting on either card.

 

[tirediron]

Woooow ok holdup people. Cameras don't magically start placing data around the card. If they did then we couldn't simply take a memory card out and put it in the computer. They all typically implement FAT32 as a filesystem. That filesystem is what prevents files from overwriting each other and provides a standard system for reading and writing files to the card. If your camera is corrupting files already existing on the card I'd be complaining to the manufacturer. I actually used my camera to cart data back and forth from uni because I didn't want to carry a memory stick and always had a camera with me anyway.

The file structure also has some standard methodology (which is why folders are typically called DCIM\100NIKON DCIM\100CANON DCIM\100OLYMP etc). This allows you to use cards from different cameras together without them overwriting each other. I've never had a problem using my card between several Nikon and Olympus cameras. I've also once shared it with a Canon, no issue. Between two of the same model cameras it can get a bit convoluted especially if you swapping cards back and forth during a shooting session, i.e. one camera is naming DSC_1232.NEF sequentially and the other is naming DSC_9998.NEF then after two photos a new folder is made called 101NIKON and when you slot it in the other camera the new pictures end up in the old folder splitting any shooting session. Anyway sidetracked...

I would be very suspect of a camera that would fail to turn on due to what's on the memory card. The camera shouldn't care. There's also no rule saying you need to format the card in the camera when you use it unless you have an incompatible filesystem on the card (would be very rare).

Honestly I think your brother's camera is suspect. On the other hand I have heard of several and have even owned a camera that failed to turn on when some part of it was damaged, and in my case it was an intermittent autofocus fault which appeared after the camera was dropped.

You're right. Based purely on theory, it shouldn't care. However, I've seen enough cases where it does care, even between two bodies of the same brand, that I am 100% certain theory does not always apply, and again you are correct that there is no rule that says you need to format the card before each use, however, almost every manufacturer's manual I've seen recommends it. I make it a habit to format the card(s) after they've been emptied and before their next use and have never had a problem. Another photographer I know doesn't, and has had numerous issues with corrupt files, etc. Coincendence? Perhaps...

 

[enzodm]

Woooow ok holdup people. Cameras don't magically start placing data around the card. If they did then we couldn't simply take a memory card out and put it in the computer. They all typically implement FAT32 as a filesystem. That filesystem is what prevents files from overwriting each other and provides a standard system for reading and writing files to the card. If your camera is corrupting files already existing on the card I'd be complaining to the manufacturer. I actually used my camera to cart data back and forth from uni because I didn't want to carry a memory stick and always had a camera with me anyway.

I too share between Canon and Olympus, no problems. It might be easier to have problems with same brand bodies due to the same naming conventions (this to justify other reports on corrupt files), but not for strange allocations issues that is what a filesystem is aimed at avoiding.

 

[Dao]

I usually format the card in camera. But sometimes, either I forgot or I do not want to and so far I had not have any issues with card not working nor had any camera issue with same card use with different Canon camera bodies (XTi and 40D before and 40D and 7D now).

 

[bratkinson]

There was a lengthy discussion this past week on another forum about the exact same subject, just asked in a different way.

Some of the respondents said that the cards should work in any camera 100% of the time and the camera must be at fault if it doesn't work that way.

Others, including myself, replied that due to the proprietary nature of the memory-writing software used by each manufacturer, (and perhaps model dependent!), absolutely no guarantee of interchangeability is presented, or even suggested by the manufacturer. While I don't recall any mention of memory card interchangability in the users manual of the 5 digital cameras I have owned, they all recommend formatting the memory card on the first time it is put into the camera. Then, and ONLY THEN, is the user/photographer assured that the pictures will be properly recorded and accessible, per manufacturer specifications.

I even format the card when I put it back in the camera and have completed all processing of what was on the card. I don't know if there are any fragmentation issues on memory cards as can happen with hard drives. There may be software to 'even out' memory utilization like SSDs do. But, if not, then fragmentation could become a problem as a card gets used over and over without reformatting. And yes, I am extremely familiar with FAT-32 allocation structures etc.

Bottom line, in my opinion, NOT formatting a memory card first time in the camera is asking for problems. I once loaned a large card to a friend who formatted it in his Nikon and used it successfully. When I got it back, the first thing I did was format it in my Canon. I never had problems with that card...nor has the friend I sold the camera and cards to 5-6 years ago.

 

[amolitor]

Most digital cameras follow this:

Design rule for Camera File system - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

but there's no *guarantee* that any given camera will. It's also possible that one camera might support only FAT32, while another would only use exFAT, or similar.

Cameras may also be at fault, potentially. I can readily imaging physical flaws in the way the card slots in which would damage the card in such a way as to prevent it being reliably read in any camera EXCEPT the damaged one, for instance.

 

[Ilovemycam]

I swap them all the time partial used. No problems. But the cams don't read each others files.

 

[bc_steve]

Thanks for the replies everyone!

Honestly I think your brother's camera is suspect. On the other hand I have heard of several and have even owned a camera that failed to turn on when some part of it was damaged, and in my case it was an intermittent autofocus fault which appeared after the camera was dropped.

I have a feeling that you are right. It seems a little extreme that a camera would stop working entirely because you used a memory card that had been in another camera, and the timing is probably just coincidence.

 

[Garbz]

Others, including myself, replied that due to the proprietary nature of the memory-writing software used by each manufacturer, (and perhaps model dependent!), absolutely no guarantee of interchangeability is presented, or even suggested by the manufacturer.

I would look at a different theory to match what you see. There is nothing proprietary about writing or reading from a memory card. Heck I can tell you how to do it in this short post. On an SD card any writing too and from the card is done via a bog standard Serial Peripheral Interface Bus or SPI. Ever $1 microcontroller is capable of talking to them. The specification is entirely open and you can download it in full (113 pages for Sandisk's document) and while it's a long document the spec can be implemented in its entirety in under 3kilobytes of code. CF cards are even easier to talk to but harder to wire up as the data is sent in parallel.

So that only leaves gross incompetence or wilful attempts at implementing open standards in incompatible ways i.e. making the camera look for evidence of other cameras on the card and throwing an error.

I very recently took a card out of my Nikon (it was full) and tried to switch it with the card in my Sony (which was empty) and the camera would not recognize the card.

Well I'm not surprised with that result. Honestly I'm surprised it even has a memory card slot and not restrict you to a Sony Memory Stick, UMD, or some other Sony proprietary method, just like they've done with their selection of flash hotshoe, which on every other camera is defined by the published standard ISO-518