Houdenbako Blog

My Camera Killed Another Memory Card

I should have learned my lesson last time. On the other hand, my camera is supposed to warn me about low battery and turn itself off.

But I found out how to push it

My concern here was to squeeze as much out of the batteries as I could. (The irony here was the case of fresh batteries in my bag.) I was taking pictures in Meridian Hill park. Botanical close-ups. Some interesting plants were in bloom. After the first low battery warning, I turned off the camera to let it rest. Batteries usually rebound a little, letting me take a few more pictures later. I was still relying on another warning, though.

At some point, I took those pictures. Just a few. I wasn't being greedy.

When I turned the camera off again, it threw a fit. It takes power to retract the lens, and it decided that it didn't have that much power. It went into an infinite loop, making the bell sound it makes powering on, then clicking and tweaking the lens mechanism. It takes power just to turn off. It won't just give up.

So what could I do?

Pop out the batteries. Maybe I should have taken out the memory card, but I wasn't expecting to fry it. When I put new batteries in, the camera was back to normal... Except, it asked me if it should format the memory card.

Well... No.

I believe throwing the fit must have screwed up the card. So that's two that I've killed. I don't have any spares. On the bright side, they probably cost less now than they did two years ago.