I can't get my Canon Camcorder to read a 4GB or 8GB SD card. Is it limited to 2GB?

Question

Can the firmware be upgraded to read beyond 2GB? Or is it a SD card issue?

Answer 1

probably a format problem.

if it uses fat32 as its file system, then it has a 2gb file limitation.

put your 2gb card in a card reader and see what format it says it is.

Answer 2

That's the same as the Canon Optura 600 in the USA. I own the Canon HV10, which is a HDV version of this, without the ability (far as I know) to record MJPEG to SD cards.

Anyway, as far as I know, these are both limited to SD cards (in fact, the HV10 anyway uses a mini-SD, not the full-sized card), which are officially limited to 2GB and below. There is a weird pseudo-legal 4GB SD card which some devices support and some don't. But most of the 4GB+ cards are SDHC, not SD.

Electrically, they're the same, but the camera needs a FAT32 filesystem and a different logical protocol to support SDHC. The difference is that SD cards are accessed by byte, like a memory device, while the SDHC cards are accessed by sector, like a hard disc drive. All devices that handle SDHC handle SD, but not the other way around.

It's technically possible to update some devices from SD-only to SDHC in firmware, but it's pretty rarely done (I have one PDA that didn't get the update, and a smart phone that did). However, the Canon web site lists no firmware updates at all, so my guess is, like me, you're stuck to 2GB in that camera.