Do i need to "eject" my camera before unplugging it ?

Question

I have a canon power shot SD800 IS

I know with products like the IPOD you have to click eject on the desktop before unplugging it to ensure no damage is done to your ipod

I went through the manual for my cyber shot and didnt see ANYTHING that told me I had to eject it before unplugging. Usually they highlight these tips if it runs the risk of damaging the camera so i assumed i didn't have to..

Digital camera owners- Am i suppoused to eject it? i couldn't even find the icon to eject it, no options, nothing, but maybe i missed it

Thanks

Answer 1

No need to eject. I never eject my various cameras, and nothing bad has ever happened.  

Answer 2

Yes.  It's not to protect the camera.  It's to keep your computer's operating system from getting confused.  If you unplug it without ejecting it your computer might give you some nasty error messages.  

Answer 3

Yes you do need to eject before disconnecting.

Answer 4

On my D40, the settings menu offers two types of mounts: as a mass storage and as MPX or something like that. Apparently, if it is mounted as a mass storage, ejecting is the prudent thing to do.

If your manual does not offer any such option, then perhaps play it safe?

Answer 5

No, as long as it is not transferring any files at that moment.

Better yet, use a card reader. You won't wear out the camera's battery (which can be recharged for so many times before you have to replace it).  No driver (software) is necessary to install one, unlike the camera.

A card reader can be used with any camera--as most will read all types of cards.

Answer 6

Generally you don't. But it never hurts to.

Here is why you may need to eject to be safe:

1. Sometimes, when you copy files, your computer will report that copying is complete, but in fact it will still be doing some reading/writing of the last bits of information that it already stored in its buffers, but hasn't physically written yet.

2. If you are messing with the card (deleting, renaming, moving, etc) files on it - you will REALLY want to eject first. Because if you unplug it at just the right moment, which is a bit hard to do, but it's been done - you may lose the content of the entire card. That's if you interrupt writing to the cards file allocation table - a place where all file names and references to physical file locations are stored. It will be possible to later recover images with different kinds of recovery software, but do you want to go through the hassle?

So, if you were not writing to the card, all you are risking is losing or corrupting the last image copied on your PC (it will still be intact on a camera). And there's very low chance of that. If you were performing any writing to the card - you risk a lot more.

By the way, for that very reason, it is not advisable to write to the card at all, when connecting camera to a PC. You better off copying all the images, then formatting the card in camera.

LEM.