Can someone explain to me what formatting on a camera is?

Question

What happened is that I got curious and clicked the formatting button on the menu (luckily no important pictures were on it). Before I clicked it, it said I had 2 GB (which is how much the new memory card I got holds) but afterwards, it says 956 MB. The camera is a few years old so could it be that 1 GB is the capacity on this camera or did formatting the memory card cause it to mess it up and make it hold fewer pictures?

Answer 1

In simplistic terms, it erases you memory card.

It also specifies how the space in the memory card will be utilized by the camera and your computer. If you want more technical info on formatting, see

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disk_format...

I'm guessing that your camera firmware thinks the maximum memory size that exists in the world is 1GB. This would have been true a few years back. When you formatted the memory, it set up the memory card to look like a 1GB partition.

I wouldn't say that your camera messed up your memory card. If you look in the manual, it will probably state that the largest memory card it can utilize is 1GB. I would say that you were lucky that the camera knew what to do with a memory card formatted as a 2GB partition.

Many camera manufacturers offer firmware updates for their cameras. You can check on your camera manufacturer's web site to see if they have updates for your model. An update may allow you to format your memory card to the full 2GB.

If you are technically inclined, you can format your memory card via your computer to get the full 2GB back. I would guess that it would expect a FAT32 partition. I would do that as a last resort as it may cause more problems than it's worth. Much better to depend on the camera formatting your memory card.

Answer 2

formatting on a camera is when you change a pic around to the way you like it

hope this helps!!!!