Camera Memory Stick - Mystery?

Chip Fossa · Post by **Chip Fossa** » 1 Mar 2010 8:04 pm

The camera is a Sony DSC-P1. Purchased 5/2001.

My sister gave it to me about 6 months ago. In excellent condition and with all the accrutements.

I started getting used to it, and recently took it with me to a vacation in Florida.

Before all this, I used this very camera to take pics of a Martin DXM guitar that I posted on the forum, to sell.

I have my PC set-up to upload images from the memory stick, and then immediately erase all images on the memory stick.

Well.

I took about 15-20 pictures on the next day down there.

A day later, we plugged the memstick into my friends "viao"/"vaio" laptop. (Florida)

All (new) photos were there.

But, and this is the mystery. All my Martin Guitar images showed-up. And there are more dated images on this memory stick than the 'Martins'.

Early today, I put the memstick in my PC, uploaded images, and erased[?] the stick; as usual.

I don't get it.

The Martin images did not upload. My PC said that the memstick was cleared, and all images were filed to 'My Pictures'.

After the PC upload, I pulled the memstick, shut down the PC, rebooted. Inserted the memstk, and PC said the memstck was, still, clear. EMPTY.

What's with this?

Hey, I'm not making this stuff up!

Cal Sharp · Post by **Cal Sharp** » 1 Mar 2010 8:50 pm

To clear the memory stick, put it in your camera and format it. Until you do that, some of the old images may or may not show up on your comp.

Dale Gray · Post by **Dale Gray** » 2 Mar 2010 5:43 pm

If I understand this could some of your pics be on the cameras internal memory?

Storm Rosson · Post by **Storm Rosson** » 2 Mar 2010 6:27 pm

are u takin the mem stick out of the cam and reading it via a cardreader? If yes, then what Cal said, if u are using the cam as the reader then check the internal cam memory like Dale said

Chip Fossa · Post by **Chip Fossa** » 3 Mar 2010 5:20 am

I'll check the camera's internal memory [if I can find out how to do this in the manual].

I don't believe I use any kind of cardreader.

I just take the stick out of the camera, plug it into the provided slot on the front of the PC. The PC automatically senses it, uploads the images to an-on-the-spot DATED folder, located in Users/My Pictures. Then the images are erased from the stick after uploading has completed.[automatically]

Do images left behind in the camera's memory eventually bog things down and/or affect image capacity on the memory stick?

Thanks - Cal, Dale, and Storm

Storm Rosson · Post by **Storm Rosson** » 3 Mar 2010 5:56 am

Chip, that slot on the pc is the card reader of which I spoke

Cal Sharp · Post by **Cal Sharp** » 3 Mar 2010 7:07 am

Then the images are erased from the stick after uploading has completed.[automatically]

Not reliable. You have use the camera to format (erase) the card

Greg Cutshaw · Post by **Greg Cutshaw** » 3 Mar 2010 8:02 am

I've had the same experience as Cal just a few days ago. Couldn't get old files to erase or new ones to display properly until I reformatted (erased) the stick in a camera. This was driving me crazy!

Greg

Storm Rosson · Post by **Storm Rosson** » 3 Mar 2010 9:10 am

again....what Cal said. Flash ram used in mem sticks ,usb flash drives, etc. is not structured like a file system on a pc hard drive, formatting in the camera is the best and sometimes the only way to wipe the mem stick clean. Over time the cells in the flash memory wear out and even tho flash mem is made with considerable amount of extra cells that are used as the primary cells die. This is called wear leveling, so after a period of time and all the extra wear leveling cells have been used then u can see actually see shrinking amount of usable memory as remaining flash cells go bad and there are no more extra cells to employ.....hope this helps

Chip Fossa · Post by **Chip Fossa** » 3 Mar 2010 11:24 am

OK fellas,

Much thanks again. I'm getting the picture [NPI] now.

So erasing the memstick using the camera is the best way to go. I didn't know this. I am no photgrapher, least of all, a digital one; by any stretch. But eyes a-learnin'.

I'm pretty sure erasing the memstick is covered in the manual.

The memstick is brand new and is 64MB. This particular Sony will only see up to 64MB. I don't use the camera much [haven't had it that long], so just how long it will be before the memstick starts to lose cells is anyone's guess, I guess.

So I actually learned something, yet again, here on the Forum.
What a wealth of knowledge this place is.

Chip Fossa · Post by **Chip Fossa** » 9 Mar 2010 6:32 am

I went and figured out how to format the camera and the memstick, because after formatting the camera said "no files". The Martin pics were now deleted.

But when I put a charge on it, the indicator window showed the battery progress, but also "memory stick remaining indicator". This number started at 61 and about 1/2 hour later is up to 79.

I looked all over the web to try and find out what this is [MSRI]. It doesn't seem to explain it in the Sony manual.

Just what is the Memory Stick Remaining Indicator?

Cal Sharp · Post by **Cal Sharp** » 9 Mar 2010 7:19 am

I'd say it's the number of shots you can take before the stick fills up. The higher the quality you have the camera set for, the fewer number of shots you'll have left. On this Canon I have here there's a number in the lower right of the screen that reads 9999. That's with the quality set for small. If I set the quality for large, the number changes to 632. This is with a 2GB mem card.

Chip Fossa · Post by **Chip Fossa** » 9 Mar 2010 10:32 am

OK, Cal

That explains it, I guess. I'm just getting back, now, and the camera has charged at least 1 hour beyond "charged", which means it's now FULLY charged. 'Full" is blinking with 75 [it was actually 75 and not 79] as the MSRI #.
I have the quality setting set to the highest which reads 2048. Once again, it's only a 64MB stick.

Thanks again for the helping hand.

Storm Rosson · Post by **Storm Rosson** » 9 Mar 2010 3:38 pm

yep sounds like you got 'er figured out Chip. And what u said about how long the cells will last is indeed anyones guess. The technology ,esp in solid state hard drives (ssd),but apparently manufacturers like OCZ and a few others are shipping ssd's with a 10 yr warranty, so their early, speculative data is giving them pretty high hopes

Chip Fossa · Post by **Chip Fossa** » 9 Mar 2010 6:57 pm

Thanks Storm [just love that name] for your input, once agin'.

I can't figure why these manuals don't go into more in-depth info.

"Hey look, I spent all this dinaro on your camera; and you can't EXPLAIN what MEMORY STICK REMAINING INDICATOR means? Just don't tell me in your "selling" specs that the camera has MSRI - that info is useless. You may as well tell me the camera comes with 20 shots of Bridget Bardot."

Storm Rosson · Post by **Storm Rosson** » 10 Mar 2010 3:05 pm

hell Chip I mite buy one if they did errrr include the pics of Bridget