Pentax Optio S50

Hello, one of our members has been on the phone, they have an optio S50 which has randomly decided it has a "Memory Card Error". They have tried different cards at different sizes and still get the same error. My guess is that the camera is broke sadly, anyone have any other ideas what might be wrong?

Many Thanks
Dan

Have they formatted a card in the camera? Fresh batteries? Otherwise, as you say, probably "caput" and in need of replacement or repair.

Hi Dan,

Might be obvious, but make sure the memory cards are not SDHC. We get this a lot...

Chris

Not sure, should they? Is formatting in the camera a good thing or a bad thing?

I suppose it's possible to get the wrong format if the card was done on a PC

It is the only way to format the card, it creates the Pentax folders. A card formatted in a Canon say, wont work in a Pentax until it has been re-formatted there.

You sure?
I mean I've use my SDHC cards cross brand ones while photos or on it without any problem.
Also Formatting does not create the folder onto the card, it's with the first photo the folder gets created, but you're right if you format the card inside the camera that you also see the folder.

Those are my findings but with a different camera though.
Panasonic point and shoot and Pentax K10D.

If you don't format in the camera you might have a problem, but slowly but surely the amount of space available on the card will reduce as it will have unnecessary folders on it.

As sensible housekeeping, it's not much trouble to format a card in camera.

FAT32 is FAT32 by my knowledge and therefore I find it hard to believe it can lead to any problems.
I forgot about cluster size but that's standard 4kb, don't know if that differ with brand?

Well Stefan, it's what the camera manufacturers recommend.

Having said that I've seen people doing all sorts of things that could cause problems, such as removing cards without switching off the camera, and they have got away with it.

It's not a good principle though, and it would be foolish if the images on the card were for a professional job. "I thought it would be OK," is not a viable excuse for not coming up with the goods.

People do have problems with corrupted cards and it makes one wonder why - could it be sometimes due to poor housekeeping?

Guilty as charge
I also do it with USB sticks, every one says you need some kind of action before removing the stick. I did had some corruption because of that because the computer wasn't done with writing
The camera, or at least the K10D as a blinking light that really shows when the camera is actively using the card, if it isn't burning it's safe to remove it and so far never had a problem.
But you're right though, you create your own safety so to say.

Fully agreeing with you there. The thing is FAT32 is a standard, if the brand would not hold on to those standards your computer shouldn't be able to read it either.

I don't know what's the cause, it could be that the one of the sectors broke so you would have a unkown bit so corrupted data besides that write errors corrupt data but reading it shouldn't cause any problems.

About housekeeping, once forgot my USB stick and so used the SD card of the K10D.
Their were some documents on it photos and even a program (.EXE) but the K10D had no problem at all with that and happily kept on shooting.

Maybe the luck is with the fool, who know?

Yes, I'm sure that it doesn't work with Pentax and Canon video cameras at any rate.

Hi John,

I often delete all images/folders on my SDHC card whilst in my notebook, and my K20D reads it OK and displays "no images".

Once formatted in the camera a card should cause no problems, and can be used without any problems, until such time as it will eventually have to be replaced.

Is there a recognised life span for cards?

Regards,

Peter.

By the way John, my Optio S50 works the same, and yes I often take it with me, if I don't want to lug an SLR around.


Peter

SDHC cards will not work!
Card is write protected?
New Battery?

Card formatted in Camera?
If all else fails get repair estimate from Pentax!