From the book
From the book
From the book
Keep from Accidentally Erasing Memory Cards
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This is a small tip, but one that can save your hide when you’re out shooting in the field. If you keep your spare memory cards in a card holder (and for the sake of your cards, I hope you do), there’s a simple routine the pros use to keep track of which cards are full and which cards are empty and available for quick use. They turn the full cards backward in the case (with the labels facing inward), so they can instantly tell which cards are available for use (the ones with the labels visible) and which ones are full. The next time you’re shooting in a fast-paced environment (like a wedding shoot or a sporting event), you’ll be glad you adopted this system. Also, if your camera uses SD memory cards, there’s a small switch on the cards themselves that keeps them from being erased, or reformatted, or...well...anything. So, if you know you’ve got a card of shots that you want to protect, just pop the card out, slide the switch to Lock, and you’re set.
How to Rescue a Damaged Memory Card
Memory cards go bad. It happens. So, if the unthinkable happens (you put your memory card into your card reader, and it appears to be blank when you know it’s not), there are downloadable software recovery programs (some free) that do a pretty amazing job, so all is usually not lost. However, if this happens, stop what you’re doing, and start your recovery process immediately for the best chance of getting your images back (don’t put the card back in the camera and keep shooting. Don’t reformat the card. Don’t do anything—just launch your recovery software right away). I’ve used SanDisk RescuePro software (there’s a free demo), and it has worked well (even on non-SanDisk cards), but my favorite is Klix, and maybe only because it’s rescued the images on every card that’s ever died on me.