I have a Sony Cyber Shot, 5.1 mega pixel digital camera and I use a 256 MB memory stick that we have had for three years. Does anyone know if memory sticks go bad? Ever since I had my son six months ago, I have only been able to store 13 pictures on the stick at a time which is not very convenient. The picture resolution looks good on my screen, but when I order them from Kodak or Shutterfly, they come back with horrible resolution. THis is a new problem because we used the same camera, same memory stick, and same photo service for our vacation pictures in March 2007 and they look beautiful. The only difference that I can think of is that we started using an Apple Computer rather than a PC in between the time of our last vacation and our son's birth.
If you do not get any advice from this site I would either call the Sony company, email them, or try Wolf camera, they are good at that sort of thing.
W.
Are you using Iphoto on your mac? Thats what I use and when you save your pictures to a disk, (if you do it from the Iphoto program) it saves them twice... the first set is thumbnails and the second set is the larger, acutal image. I did the same thing and went to get pictures printed at wal-mart and had selected the thumbnails to be printed. Of course on the cd you cant tell the difference.... until you print them. My advice would be to save the pictures you want in a separate folder before you get them printed.... that way you could make sure they are actual size and not the little ones! hope this helps some... good luck!
Yes, they are a temporary storage media and can and do go bad. I would recommend getting a 1 gig card for your camera. It should give you the capacity of getting about 250 pics or so depending on the resolution settings you have. With the prices as low as they are nowadays it would be well worth the money. Also, I would recommended on getting an extra one in the event that one goes bad or fills up and you don't have time to download them. They are usually on sale between $9.99 - $14.99 at the after Thanksgiving day sales - buy the maximum amt of memory you can afford. I'm not familiar with Apple computers and don't know why that would make any difference in your photo prints. They should be stored in the format & resolution that you took them in. Try a new card and see if that helps.
you might want to check the settings. . . you may have the picture size (i don't know all the correct terminology) too big. that usually makes it hard to store very many pictures. hope this helps. . .
K.
I would take the memory stick straight to a photo place and stick it in the machine and see. Also, are the batteries charged well? Do you know someone who has a pc you can try it on? If you are looking for a new camera I recommend the Cannon Rebel-Digital!
Hi K.
It sounds like maybe the settings in your camera got changed. Check the amount of pixels your camera is saving the photos at. The more pixels, the larger the file size, the fewer photos will fit on the card. That may be why you can only save 13 photos at a time. Also, how long have you had your current memory card? It might need replacing or re-formatting as well, although I've had mine for three years and taken over 10,000 pictures on it and have never replaced or re-formatted it. But that could just be a lucky fluke for me. At any rate, you can get a 1G card for around $20 nowadays so it's probably not a bad idea to try that first. I really don't think it's your camera anyway. Good Luck!
Ro
Yes, actually they do get worn out. I don't know if your camera offers you 'reformatting' but that may help you use it a little while longer. Believe me as a professional photographer I take many images on my memory systems, reformatting after images have been safely stored else where, keeps old images from corrupting new ones. Other wise yep, time for a new one. ;o)
13 images on a 256 mb memory stick is not good, unless you're camera settings are on RAW. It should hold a LOT more if you're shooting jpg. If you're shooting RAW, your camera also saves little xmp files that are like thumbnails. Your new Mac's i-photo can't read RAW files, so it will open up the thumbnails. If you're printing from the thumbnails then this could be the problem. Check the settings on your camera to see if this is the case.
Other issue -- Are you reformatting it every time you use it? This helps preserve memory sticks a little bit longer. Old files can corrupt the new ones.
Memory sticks do go bad. As a professional photographer I replace my cards (I use cards, not sticks) every year. I would recommend the same to anyone. I do it as prevention -- I can't afford ANY corrupt images. I do have cards I use for personal use that are three years old.
If your camera settings are not the issue and if you really want to put a lot of time and effort into it I suggest going to your Mac store or calling Mac and seeing if they can help you troubleshoot.
But if you've had your stick for more than a year, and you have used it a lot then I would replace it.
Maybe you need a new card. Try that! Also there is a place you can select good, better and best on the camera. Maybe it has gotten switched and is not allowing you to store as many pictures.
K.,
Have you tried reformatting your memory card? There should be a setting on the camera for performing this function. Over time, all the deleting and writing to the card can cause some issues. I would refer to your manual to find out how to do this before getting another memory card. Hopefully, that will help.
I have been told that they do go bad. Especially after you have taken lots of pictures and deleted them over a period of time. I would get a new one and try it out.
It could be that the memory card has gone bad. I would definitely consider getting another card before getting a new camera to see where the problem lies. They are not that costly and, if it does turn out to be the camera, you would have two cards. There is nothing more frustrating than losing pictures, I know. hope that helps.
