canon dslr question

Autonomous

hi i have an xti and every time i turn on my camera it always says " files folder full".
i dont know what to do and is it bad?
thanks

Allen

Autonomous wrote:

hi i have an xti and every time i turn on my camera it always says " files folder full".
i dont know what to do and is it bad?
thanks

Have you transferred the photos to your pc? After I copy them I format the
card in the camera.

Autonomous

um but i still have about 1.5 GB left on the compact flash card so i don't plan to transfer all the picture yet until i fill up all the memory.

aj986s

I discovered an interesting problem with a CF card recently, that I was using to load pictures onto for a digital photo frame. I was using a 2GB card, but couldn't get all the pics to save to it, although I knew their space was much less than 2GB. It was a lot of pics I was trying to save; about 700 at approx 1MB each. So needed less than 1GB of storage. However, the card stopped accepting at around 450 pictures.

I think the problem was that the FATT formating on the card has limitations in terms of how many files it'll keep track of. I reformatted the card to FATT32 specs, and everything then worked great. All files downloaded to it, space used was showing correctly, and the frame didn't have trouble with it either.

How many pics are on the card? If well over 400 or so, you may have a file handling problem that's preventing more being added. I suggest moving the pics to a PC now (before any graver problems arise....), and then reformat the card as suggested. Best is probably to let the camera reformat the card. But I might be worth an experiment to let the PC reformat to FATT32 and see if the camera likes it. Having now discussed this, I'm going to pull the card from my digital frame tonite, and see how the camera handles it.

ziggy53

Autonomous wrote:

um but i still have about 1.5 GB left on the compact flash card so i don't plan to transfer all the picture yet until i fill up all the memory.

Never "wait until your card is full" until you transfer into the computer. My father had a card fail last year practicing that technique and lost quite a few images forever.

sherijohnson

I can't see why you would want to wait to save them. it's not like you are shooting film and have to wait. Me, I can't wait to get on the computer and check them out at full size and see how I did on a shoot or with my practicing. then from there I want to play around with editing or correcting images. I save often and reformat all of the time.

Make sure you are formatting your cards in the camera before using them.

aj986s

I, too, agree with moving them onto the PC sooner rather than later. In fact, I now find it easier to simply copy the files into a folder(s) at the end of the day, in order to keep them somewhat organized. I used a folder scheme where I start with a folder for the Year. Within each Year, I have a folder for each Month. Then within the Month, I setup folders for each event, or a Misc sometimes as a catchall. I do this now via the import process in LR, but just as easy to setup manually. This scheme also helps me with backups; I try to copy an entire month at a time, so it's easy to keep track of what's backed up.

divamum

Have you been deleting pictures individually from time to time, or even all of them but without formatting the card?

I don't know if this is the answer in your case, but I do know that when using cards for sound gear, if files are individually deleted (without a format) the card sometimes does not see that as "free" space. The space is *there*, but the deleted files leave behind some rubble and thus the card doesn't "see" the space. Since in this case, the card's opinion is the only one that matters, it won't let you store any more data.

Get all your pix off the card and onto your computer, then format the card - in camera (ie not via the computer) - and then see how it behaves. This has fixed many a problem with digital soundgear, so it seems worth a try if nothing else!

HTH.

Scott_Quier

FAT16 (16-bit File Allocation Table) has a limit to the number of files that can be stored in the root folder and, I believe, in each sub-folder. But, I don't see how this is the cause of the issue. Does not the camera start a new folder when the file number (not count) reaches 100 - or some such thing and insert the next photo into that new folder?

At any rate, the advice above is good:

1. It's never a good idea to fill up a CF card. The FAT16 is notorious .... in the old days .... of corrupting itself when the storage device starts to get full. FAT32 isn't much better as the basic technology isn't changed. That's why MS-DOS had utilities to fix such weird things like "cross-linked" files (I could tell you what that is, but then I'd have to shoot you).
2. Getting photos off the card as soon as possible is a good idea - you never know which "photo save operation" is going to corrupt the FAT. Even worse, you probably won't find out about it until you attempt to download the photos to your computer.
3. Seeing your work sooner rather than later makes it a whole lot easier to learn from what you've done - both good (so you can repeat that) and bad (so you know sooner not to do that again).
4. Another reason to download those photos - you can share all that goodness with others so much sooner!

All that having been said, are you sure of the error message and it's not "Folder number full"? If so, then you have a different issue and one that is covered in your manual. Short answer, take your card out, put in a new card, format the new card in the camera, take your next photo.

Autonomous

wait, I've only taken about 450+ photos, think this could be the problem?
and did you guys just said that I have to format the CF card first before using it? because when I bought this CF I didn't do anything or format it, I just plug it in and started shootin' around.
and I was just kinda hopin' if I could keep the original version rather than transferring them all to computer where they might lose some of the original color and stuff y'know.
I should've used raw file shouldn't i? its just that this CF only stores like 100 pic with Large RAW+JPEG files. shame.
and I would've love to buy another CF better ones if I had the money, for I'm only a H.S. student. (poor as hell)

aj986s

Autonomous wrote:

wait, I've only taken about 450+ photos, think this could be the problem?
and did you guys just said that I have to format the CF card first before using it? because when I bought this CF I didn't do anything or format it, I just plug it in and started shootin' around.
and I was just kinda hopin' if I could keep the original version rather than transferring them all to computer where they might lose some of the original color and stuff y'know.
I should've used raw file shouldn't i? its just that this CF only stores like 100 pic with Large RAW+JPEG files. shame.
and I would've love to buy another CF better ones if I had the money, for I'm only a H.S. student. (poor as hell)

Hey, not to worry....everyone's got to start somewhere. Whatever's on the card should save fine to the computer. RAW would have been better in the long run, but don't worry at this point. Camera has saved them as JPG, and when downloaded to the PC, it should be the same file, you should not lose anything in the picture. Once the card is empty, try to reformat it in the camera, should be a menu option. If you have a RAW viewer/editor (software with the camera?), you can save in RAW only. Once its on the PC, you can edit as necessary, and THEN save finished work as JPG's, too (for sharing, uploading to web service, etc.). This should give you room for a bit more photos on the card. Get in the habit of emptying the card every day or so.

Watch for sales and budget to add some additional cards when you can.

Autonomous

Thanks
Y'all are the best!
I'll try to make it my habit to store the pic in the cpu.

now moving on! I need a lot of photography tipzz
my teacher accidentally signed me up for a statewide photography contests.
me (total beginner) - against they (pros); statewide.
whoo!

ziggy53

Autonomous wrote:

... I was just kinda hopin' if I could keep the original version rather than transferring them all to computer where they might lose some of the original color and stuff y'know.
I should've used raw file shouldn't i? its just that this CF only stores like 100 pic with Large RAW+JPEG files. shame.
and I would've love to buy another CF better ones if I had the money, for I'm only a H.S. student. (poor as hell)

If you "copy" the files off of the card and onto your computer, they are still the same, byte for byte, as the original. You lose nothing in a copy process.

If you open a JPG file in software and then make changes and save the image out as a new file, it will lose information in the process because JPG is a "lossy" file type that throws out information during compression.

Yes, many people do use RAW files because that stores as much of the original image data that is possible from the original camera capture.

Do use a card reader and copy (not move) the files onto a computer and then "backup" the files onto a DVD R or RW media before you format the card in the camera.

If you have been deleting files on the card using the delete feature of the camera that could be the problem, as could using the card directly from the package. Next time, format any new cards in the destination camera.

I do not recommend deleting files from the card while the card is in the camera. I have suffered too many problems that way.

Candid Arts

Yeah. You should re-format your card often, after you unload your pictures to your computer, and before you start shooting again. It clears the memory card of all the junk that is not needed.

I ALWAYS shoot in RAW. 99.99999999% of the time. Why you ask? Because you never know when that perfect situation comes around and you snap the perfect picture. but oh wait, it's only in jpeg, and you gotta do some editing, now the picture is degraded. sad panda.

Autonomous

but the thing is shooting in RAW takes a long time to process even in-camera.
and wait, did you just actually said that deleting pictures directly on the camera is bad? what? because I must've done it like a thousand times.

and I don't feel like shelling out money because I'm kinda financially unstable right now (unless if y'all wants to donate to me ).

Thanks for the answer y'all, and sorry for my noobness

Candid Arts

Autonomous wrote:

but the thing is shooting in RAW takes a long time to process even in-camera.
and wait, did you just actually said that deleting pictures directly on the camera is bad? what? because I must've done it like a thousand times.

and I don't feel like shelling out money because I'm kinda financially unstable right now (unless if y'all wants to donate to me ).

Thanks for the answer y'all, and sorry for my noobness

Shooting in RAW takes more time to process (although I think there's something in the menu that can bring that processing time down quite a bit), and it takes up way more space on the card. But...it is WAY worth it for when you get that one shot, that one shot that blows your mind, but oh wait, a couple small things aren't JUUUSST right, with it in RAW, bam, edit, no degradation, in jpeg, anything over tiny adjustments you start to degrade the photo.

I've never heard that deleting photos in camera is bad. Viewing them on the screen (and I'm sure deleting them as well) takes up more battery juice, but I haven't heard it being bad for anything. Just make sure to format your card frequently, and you should be good to go.

ziggy53

Scott already mentioned it but if you delete image files and then record new images, if the new images are a different file size (and they always are) then the card will become "fragmented". Cards are not like hard drives in that they only "emulate" the file storage system and index commonly called the "File Allocation Table" or "FAT".

Cameras cannot do a sophisticated assessment of remaining space and if you try to fill the card, the card's FAT can get confused and write to space that isn't really there. The result is lost images. Sometimes new files will even overwrite existing files.

Sometimes, some of the images can be recovered using a computer and specialized recovery software, but sometimes files are lost forever.

Just don't do in-camera deletions for anything super important. It's just asking for trouble.

More reading (some good information and some bad):

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&safe=off&q=%2Bcorrupted+%2Bfiles+%2B%22in+camera%22+%2Bdelete+%2Bfragmented&btnG=Search