robert-photos Loc: Chicago

My personal preference is to do my culling on my computer where I have a better monitor (view) than my little screen on the camera. Easier and faster for me.

Not only that, but I shoot only RAW and the view on my camera is a processed JPEG. I'd rather see the RAW file data and the quality of sharpness. It is a hassel to do that on the camera by zooming in.

I then format my card in the camera AFTER making my backups of the photos I kept.

In any case you should do what works for you. Deleting photos on your card in camera does not really erase them but only changes their name so the files are not recognized.
If you made a mistake there is software out there which will recover your files. Formating instead of erasing refreshes the card compared to just deleting the files.

GTinSoCal Loc: Palmdale, CA

This is a holdover from the "old" days :-)
I never personally knew anybody tat had an issue with it, but the myth continues.
You Canon is designed to be used thethered to the computer with the supplied Canon software. I've never done it, my office is not my favorite place to take pictures :-D

GT

LoneRangeFinder Loc: Left field

I had forgotten about tethering the camera to the computer during the creation of images. I don't use them, but there are programs through which the computer interacts with the camera to create images. If this is safe, then I would think that tethering to download would be safe as well. But again, I'll check it out at the pro shop where I live.

Major Photo Loc: Jeffersonville, Indiana

"Them that can. does. Them that can't teaches". BEWARE of the salesman that does neither, yet bears false witness!!

kintekobo Loc: Maidenhead, England

I would vote for tethering via USB every time. Most cameras and computers can use USB2 so it doesn't take a lot longer to transfer than it would by removing the card and inserting it into a card reader. It does however remove the need to take the card out of the camera and put it back in again. Every time you do that you increase the wear on the card mechanism, and don't forget the ever present opportunity to damage the connector inside the camera. As has been previously stated this could be very expensive to repair.

Cappy Loc: Wildwood, NJ

I shoot several thousand shots per year and if I'm in the field or event and have free time, I look at the pics I took & cull those that I definitly don't like. Back my mancave I pull the memory card put it into the computer slot download the pics and the next time I put that card back into the camera I do a format of the card.

I never format the card in the computer, It can cause problems for the card & if not careful you coulf format your hardrive.

flshutterbug Loc: FloriDUH

1. Memory cards are, compared to other drives, relatively fragile. They do not handle constant write/rewrite cycles as well as hard drives (for example). I have seen pros who know better quickly scroll through in the camera and render the card inoperable. While it may be possible to salvage some info it's still a pain.

2. You don't want to edit in camera anyway because even the best viewing screens still don't give all the detail, color, contrast and other elements you can see on a monitor. Memory is cheap enough to keep on shooting. Besides, how many pictures have you missed because you were looking at ones you already took?

3. Invest in a card reader. Transferring from the camera is slower and drains bettery power. It takes more power to transfer the image to a computer than record it in the camera; you shorten your effective battery life and if, like most of us, you're using expensive Lithium Ions, it adds up.

Mickey88 Loc: Central Florida

I personally think the odds of dropping your camera and damaging it are greater than the odds of bending a pin if you take your time and insert the card carefully.
I often shoot all day events, and change cards in the field, I've never had issues with a bent pin.

that said I have seen a camera with bent pins, a friend of mine brought his p&s camera to me, after his wife had borrowed it and returned it with the card partially inserted. I removed the card, looked inside with a flashlight and saw the bent pins.

the cost of repair was more than the cost of replacing the camera, so I removed the battery,took a jewelers screwdriver,
and very carefully straightened the pins, I then carefully reinserted the card, replaced the battery and handed him a working camera.
I always use a card reader, rather than connecting my cameras, if for no other reason, the reduced wear on my batteries..

Sunrisepano Loc: West Sub of Chicago

There is a photo school teacher in the Chicago area led by Will Crockett called Shoot Smarter Not Harder, www.shootsmarter.com. Several years ago while teaching a class, students were editing and erasing individual images as they shot. When they tried downloading into the computer, the entire card was corrupted and everything was lost. In fact the card was worthless and had to be thrown out.

Personally, I have not experienced this problem and occasionally have erased individual images as I shot.

I still do not recommend erasing on site and prefer to wait until all are loaded onto the computer and erase on the computer. I shoot for a studio and I manage the files on the computer. Some of the other photographers have been at a dance photographing couples. As they shoot, they may notice someone blinked and take another shot and then erase.

Unfortunately, I find that the photographer has erased both images of the one couple leaving me with nothing. Or, they the other person blinked on the second shot and he/she did not catch it. If I had both, I could have transferred the open eyes from one photo to the other.

Sometimes, on the tiny screen of the camera (even though they may magnify the vue) they miss something, or due to the pressure of time while trying to shoot many couples in a short amount of time at a dance, mistakes are made.

Then there is the story of a famous wedding photographer who was givin a digital camera by a major camera maufacturer to test out before going to production. He found two problems; one with the camera and one with himself. He went to erase a photo by pushing the button and nothing happened. He pushed the button a second time. Well, this was one of the first pro cameras and it had a slowere processor. If he had waited it would have eventually erased the photo. But, pushing the erase button the second time told the camera to erase ALL the photos. Thanks to his testing, this is no longer a problem with cameras today.

The other problem is that he spent so much time looking at the photos and editing that he was missing many other photo opportunities.

My conclusion, with the large cards available today, the speed of cameras and computers, and the possiblility of human error, it is better to do the editing after downloading onto the computer. If you edit after downloading and accidentally erase the wrong image, it is still on the camera card.

molsonice Loc: Grand Blanc, MI

Delete at you hearts content, that is what digital is all about. I have been doing it for 11 years now and have never had a problem with a CF or SD card to date.

kintekobo Loc: Maidenhead, England

There is of course a third option for transferring files which doesn't require any plugging in or card removal and that is to use an EyeFi card. They are reasonably inexpensive and if you set them up correctly they don't drain the battery when not in use.

I use mine in my D7000 in combination with my iPad. You can take a picture and save the RAW file to the SD card in slot one and save a JPG file to the EyeFi card in slot two. About 5 seconds later it appears on the screen on the iPad. That can be really handy if you are doing a shoot for a client when you can give them the iPad so they can see what each shot will look like without waiting for them to be transferred to the PC.

Hando Rei Loc: Long Island New York

I download via card reader to the computer. I do not erase photos in the camera . Often what looks like a poor photo when posted on the full screen looks better than I though and I keep the photo. Everyone has their own little way of doing what works for them. Do not worry...just do it !

kintekobo Loc: Maidenhead, England

A further thought re deleting on the camera vs. downloading everything. Hard disk space is so cheap now why not keep everything? If you use some sort of cataloguing software you can just tag any poor shots as such and they don't appear. They are still there on the computer though so if for some reason you do want to look at them you can pull them up again. OK, I can hear you say, Why would I want to do that? Well I'm sure we have all seen the demo of the Adobe software addition to Photoshop which can remove camera shake? That can take what was a pretty poor image and bring it back to life. And what does the future hold? If you don't have the picture you can't re-process it. Personally I never erase anything other than the ones where I accidentally shot with the totally wrong settings and it is either totally black or totally white. Anything else is on there somewhere just waiting for the day when Adobe find a way to recover it! :-D

JohnnyRottenNJ Loc: Northern New Jersey

Compact Flash cards are nearly indestructible. I saw a guy drop one while crossing the street, and it got run over by several cars before the guy could go back out and retrieve it. It got a little scuffed up, but STILL WORKED. The fastest way to transfer photos onto your computer is through an external card reader. I make the transfer, and use Windows to delete all of the photos on the card. I then put the card back into the camera and format the card. I have NEVER had a problem following that procedure.

One Jughead Loc: Greene County, OH

This is my first message in UHH, have been looking for several months.
I do delete photos in camera when I know they are not keepers.
I also remember reading that the CF card for the Cannon can only be formatted about 1000 times, so I don't re-format my card on a frequent basis.
I do download the pictures to the pc using the USB cord and then use the "erase all" function to delete the pictures on the card. I have not experienced a reduction in the number of shots that the card holds after the erasure.
Just my 2 cents worth.