Memory Card degradation

[StellaG]

Not sure if this is the right place to ask this or not,..sorry if it's not.

Do memory cards degrade over time? Specifically Compact Flash cards. And by degrade I mean the quality of the image. The reason I ask, is this morning I went to use my Oympus E100-RS, and it wouldn't fire up, I finally ended up calling Olympus (they were VERY nice and helpful) she suggested it might have been a bad card. I put in a smart media card and it worked fine. I then got another Compact Flash, and it worked fine as well. There were some old shots on the card, and I took a few more this morning, and what I noticed was a vast improvment on color quality, vibrance, contrast...Although I love this camera, I've always been a little disappointed in the color qualtity when compared to my other Olympus cameras. Thinking back, I've had/used this same card forever, and I wonder if that's been the problem all the time. Any thoughts?

Thanks,

Betty

[OsmosisStudios]

Unless the old card had corrupted files, memory cards have NO affect on image quality. Even then, though, it wouldnt be that the card itself had modified the images but that when they were written, they werent properly recorded.

All things being equal, yes, your files will eventually corrupt to the point of being totally useless if left on a memory card too long, but we're talking decades at least.

[StellaG]

So the color etc..improvement was just my imagination then ;-) So if the memory card has no affect on image quality, does that mean all mem. cards are the same, no matter the name on the card? I understand you can get cards that are faster? process faster? is that correct? But once again that would not affect image...

Let me ask you this, I was told the other day that every time you copy a pic. say, from the original to lets say your desktop or any place really, that those subsequent copies are degraded, and won't be as good a quality as the original, slight though it may be. Is this true?

Betty

[kirbinster]

Yup the cards are digital -- they either work or they don't work. Its not like a negative which is analog and can degrade.

[WooD]

Sometimes I think their indestructible, I forgot and left a leather case full of SD cards in my jeans once. My wife came in, and held her hand out asking me if I had wanted them washed. Everything was soaked. I let them dry a few days, and am still using them.

I haven't tried it with my CF cards........yet.

[Jim Bryant]

Same with the CF cards, once a one gig went through the washer and 1/2 through the dry cycle until I heard something thumping around. Once it was cool enough to load into a camera I fired off a few frames. Still works, when I upgraded to the 2 gig cards I gave them to my daughter. She still uses it to this day and not a problem. The card is about six years old and not a problem.

Originally Posted by WooD

Sometimes I think their indestructible, I forgot and left a leather case full of SD cards in my jeans once. My wife came in, and held her hand out asking me if I had wanted them washed. Everything was soaked. I let them dry a few days, and am still using them.

I haven't tried it with my CF cards........yet.

[LoveDSLR]

Originally Posted by StellaG

Do memory cards degrade over time? Specifically Compact Flash cards.

Yes, ~100,000 write cycles.

Originally Posted by StellaG

And by degrade I mean the quality of the image.

No! Photo images are just files. It is the same as a word document stored ten years ago did not degrade over time.

Originally Posted by StellaG

The reason I ask, is this morning I went to use my Oympus E100-RS, and it wouldn't fire up, I finally ended up calling Olympus (they were VERY nice and helpful) she suggested it might have been a bad card. I put in a smart media card and it worked fine. I then got another Compact Flash, and it worked fine as well. There were some old shots on the card, and I took a few more this morning, and what I noticed was a vast improvment on color quality, vibrance, contrast..

Check the EXIF from both old and new images to see why you take better pictures now than before.

Originally Posted by StellaG

So if the memory card has no affect on image quality, does that mean all mem. cards are the same, no matter the name on the card?

You should buy them just as you would buy DVD blanks. Good brands have lesser chance of failure than bad or unknown brands.

Originally Posted by StellaG

I understand you can get cards that are faster? process faster? is that correct? But once again that would not affect image...

The speed stated on memory card is the maximum transfer speed between memory card with another device such as camera or computer. Since the image is just a file, nothing will change during transfer.

Let me ask you this, I was told the other day that every time you copy a pic. say, from the original to lets say your desktop or any place really, that those subsequent copies are degraded, and won't be as good a quality as the original, slight though it may be. Is this true?

Since images are files (same as files of health records and bank statements), copies are identical. You may be confused with opening a JPEG image and save it again in JPEG format again. Here, the subsequent JPEG may not be as good as the previous copy.