Thank you very much, Xavier! Between what David, Aram, and Frank had passed
along yesterday and what you added today I’m feeling pretty well educated at
the amateur level on SD cards and their formats. I’m sure at some point the
camera engineers will circle back around to re-making the file systems after
they finish squeezing speed, dynamic range, and capacity out of the sensors,
processors, and memory. What a brilliantly complex and frustratingly interwoven
pastime/enthusiasm that we have all chosen with all it’s hardware variables,
all in pursuit of capturing a moment of light and being able to share that
moment in the shape of an image with others. Thank you all for helping me
understand things a little bit better.
Best regards,
Peter S.
On Aug 23, 2019, at 3:29 AM, Bille Xavier F. <hot_billexf@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Good Day Peter
Sorry for being late in joining the conversation.
Yes, the SD Cards are all in MS DOS FAT32. In the early days, when SD were
smaller and sensor not as good, it was Fat16.
Reason is that the FAT32 is easy to implement, we must remember that cameras
have a dedicated processor (DSP with VHDL micro code) for the Input/output.
Even if it has a firmware upgradable, it has not the power of a PC/MAC.
Beside, the speed for writing the files is a top key issue, the FAT32 file
system is quick to handle.
It brings to the second point. Most Unix/Linux/Mac are using another file
system referd in Linux as ext2 or now ext4.
It offers the possibility to manage better the updates of the files,
especially to avoid corruption.
It is a great disadvantage of the FAT32, it is not well protected against
corruption and does not optimise well the allocation. In a way, for a camera,
it is minor: click then write once. No updates, no mods on the files. If the
image is developped in camera, a new file is written on the SD.
So the Ext4 file system is an overkill of technology for a camera.
You can format your SD card into a different file system.But the camera will
be deaf and blind. It is not destructive.
As long as you don't modify the partition table of the SD card... Else it
will be more difficult to bring it back to FAT32...
And last: for two cameras from the same manufacturer tou can swap the SD
seamless but if the cameras are from different manufacturer, it might jam
either of the cameras until a software reset occurs.
it is a lenghty answer. If you want more detail for the file systems, I can
dig for you, just let me know off list, it is more witchcrafting than
photography, I think.
Enjoy.
#-----------------------------------
From : Xavier F. BILLE
mail : hot_billexf@xxxxxxxxxxx <mailto:hot_billexf@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Maisons Alfort - France
From: leicareflex-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx <leicareflex-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> on
behalf of Peter Stevens <dmarc-noreply@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Thursday, August 22, 2019 2:51 PM
To: leicareflex@xxxxxxxxxxxxx <leicareflex@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: [LRflex] Format Protocols For SD Cards
Good morning to you all. Hey, I have another couple “rookie” questions for
anyone to help me out with, please. SD cards.
Before I go and potentially destroy a few small older cards I thought that
I’d ask. I use Apple/Mac hardware and last night while I was running the Disk
Utility program it occured to me that I had never put an SD card into the
Reader while I had this particular program running. So I plugged one in that
I had used in an Oly EM1 and the format that was on the card was identified
as being MS-DOS (FAT 32). I pulled one out of a Leica M9 and it was
identified as being the same, MS-DOS (FAT 32). My questions are:
1) Do all digital cameras now work exclusively with the MS-DOS (FAT 32)
format, or would re-formating into another protocol such as Ex-FAT or one of
the Mac’s (Mac OS Extended, Journaled or Mac OS Extended, Case-Sensitive,
Journaled) work or render the card useless at least for camera use?
2) If another format would work, what would be the advantage(s), if any?
Thanks.
Best regards,
Peter S------
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