Procedures to Help Keep you from losing Digital Photos

These tips are writtent by Art Sprague or Art's Photography each year Art and his crew cover dance competitions where they take 150,00 plus pictures in a six month period. Their primary equipment is Canon Mark II cameras. These tips are based upon several years of experience in this kind of environment.

• Unless you are simply backing up your digital memory card in your camera you should format the card in your camera. Don’t use the computer to format the card and don’t simply delete the images. Constant deleting and re-adding images will tend to cause problems with the file systems on the cards. A re-format of the card refreshes the file system.

• Back your images up early and often. Many photographers are shooting the large media cards in a jpg format. One card may have several hours of shooting. Taking a minute to back the card up to another device will buy you some extra assurance that you won't lose your work. Before formatting the card backup the other device and verify whenever possible. Even though it is solid state your media card gets a lot of abuse. Treat it like a computer hard drive. It is not if it will fail but when.
  
  Don't run yourself low on media cards. They are inexpensive and readily available. A surprising source for quality name brand media cards is Amazon.com
  
  If you are still in the research phase of your purchase we also recommend Amazon.com for entry level digital camera purchases. Click on Digital Cameras to learn more.

• There have been some reports of cards that are full overwriting their header information. While I have personally not experienced this it is recommended that you have a good recovery program.
  
  
• Keep your batteries fresh. Letting a camera die in the middle of saving a digital file can cause the file system on the card to corrupt.

• Learn to pay attention to the camera as you shoot. If you have been taking pictures quickly you may be pulling a card before the files are written to the card. This will cause you to lose files and maybe corrupt the card.

• Cameras are electronic devices. Static electricity, too much heat, and too much cold can all cause problems. If you camera is working in open sunlight feel the body to see if it is too hot. If it is, put a hat or some kind of a cover.

• When traveling carry your cards with you and try to have a back up copy. The TSA may say that a cork screw is OK to carry on the airplane but they will not hand inspect your media cards. You should also note that there are increasing reports of TSA personnel stealing from luggage so protect your equipment and your images by having copies.

• When loading the card in the camera be sure to not jam it in. The cards are well made and they are hard to ruin, however, jamming them into the camera can cause the pins on a compact flash to bend.

• Always give your camera a visual examination. Confirm that the settings for quality and color are what you expected them to be.