Formatting through the Menu System: Lately, I've been formatting my SD cards through the Menu of my D750. It seems faster, and it's easier to read. With the red buttons, it seems iffy...

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

Lately, I've been formatting my SD cards through the Menu of my D750. It seems faster, and it's easier to read. With the red buttons, it seems iffy, and selecting card 1 or card 2 makes me read tiny letters. Do any of you use the Menu system to format. Aside from Nikon, I don't know of other cameras that have buttons to format cards.

BlueMorel Loc: Southwest Michigan

I have a Canon EOs t2i. Most times when i press the menu button it goes right to the selection screen with format highlited and all i have to do is select that and OK. Easy to see and i don't have to squint, or even think much. Just have to make sure I've already upkoaded the images to my computer.

fotostory

I think it is best to format your card in the camera each time you need to erase the old images.

Quixdraw Loc: x

I think this is what he's talking about. Interesting, thanks!
https://havecamerawilltravel.com/photographer/nikon-dslr-format-memory-card/

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

fotostory wrote:

I think it is best to format your card in the camera each time you need to erase the old images.

Formatting doesn't "erase" the images, just marks the space as being available. (A Low Level Format may.)
The "erase" button does the same thing, it does not "remove" the image, it only removes the directory entry for the image. Data remains.

BTW - I've been deleting images on cards via the computer for ten years with no problems. This too only removes the directory entry for the image(s). I only format NEW cards in the camera.

photog11 Loc: San Francisco

I use the menu system in both my D750 and D7100. It's all by rote now; no need to read. Menu>format>card1>yes>ok.

dsmeltz Loc: Philadelphia

BlueMorel wrote:

I have a Canon EOs t2i. Most times when i press the menu button it goes right to the selection screen with format highlited and all i have to do is select that and OK. Easy to see and i don't have to squint, or even think much. Just have to make sure I've already upkoaded the images to my computer.

i also use Canon. The menu defaults to the last operation used and, since format is the most frequently used menu item for me, it is usually already on format.

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

dsmeltz wrote:

i also use Canon. The menu defaults to the last operation used and, since format is the most frequently used menu item for me, it is usually already on format.

Ditto for the camera, but my menu comes up all over the place, not that I use them a lot.

Gene51 Loc: Yonkers, NY, now in LSD (LowerSlowerDelaware)

jerryc41 wrote:

Lately, I've been formatting my SD cards through the Menu of my D750. It seems faster, and it's easier to read. With the red buttons, it seems iffy, and selecting card 1 or card 2 makes me read tiny letters. Do any of you use the Menu system to format. Aside from Nikon, I don't know of other cameras that have buttons to format cards.

I stopped using in camera formatting a while ago when I discovered this:

https://www.sdcard.org/downloads/formatter/

Gene51 Loc: Yonkers, NY, now in LSD (LowerSlowerDelaware)

fotostory wrote:

I think it is best to format your card in the camera each time you need to erase the old images.

Quick format, what is done in the camera, erases nothing but the first letter of the filename. Use the overwrite option in:

https://www.sdcard.org/downloads/formatter/

To erase old images.

saxman71 Loc: Wenatchee

So that's what that "format" word means on my D810. I had no idea. I have always done my formatting through the menu screen. Learned something new. Thanks Jerry.

JD750 Loc: SoCal

You can use the red buttons to format a card? I did not know that.

I use the menu system to format a card.

JD750 Loc: SoCal

Longshadow wrote:

Formatting doesn't "erase" the images, just marks the space as being available. (A Low Level Format may.)
The "erase" button does the same thing, it does not "remove" the image, it only removes the directory entry for the image. Data remains.

BTW - I've been deleting images on cards via the computer for ten years with no problems. This too only removes the directory entry for the image(s). I only format NEW cards in the camera.

Why bother with that? It wastes time and puts needless write cycles on your flash drive.

The camera will rewrite the data.

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

JD750 wrote:

Why bother with that? It wastes time and puts needless write cycles on your flash drive.

The camera will rewrite the data.

Why bother with what?
Either will delete the directory entries.
Same number of write cycles either way?

Highlight all images, delete.
OR
Format in camera, deletes.
No extra work.
I don't do both.

rook2c4 Loc: Philadelphia, PA USA

I'm not sure why anyone would need a dedicated formatting button on the camera.