SD Card ?

I have a Vivitar X30 camera (bought in January) and in February I
bought a 1 Gb SD card. For a while all was fine, then one day the
camera would report "Media Error" and not work unless I removed the
memory card.

I called Vivitar for help and they told me it was a defective card (no
big surprise there). I returned the card and got another one. I put
this in and took some pictures. When I tried to connect the camera to
my PC, it wouldn't connect. I removed the card and it connected OK,
but the pictures I had taken were not on the camera's internal memory,
even though I didn't tell it to put them on the card. If I install
the card and turn the camera on, it now says "Media Error."

Given all that, does anyone here have any ideas what the problem might
be and how to correct, without getting yet another memory card?

Thanks for any assistance.

On 19 May 2007 15:57:46 -0700, nr wrote:

> I called Vivitar for help and they told me it was a defective card (no
> big surprise there). I returned the card and got another one. I put
> this in and took some pictures. When I tried to connect the camera to
> my PC, it wouldn't connect. I removed the card and it connected OK,
> but the pictures I had taken were not on the camera's internal memory,
> even though I didn't tell it to put them on the card. If I install
> the card and turn the camera on, it now says "Media Error."
>
> Given all that, does anyone here have any ideas what the problem might
> be and how to correct, without getting yet another memory card?

It's quite unlikely that anyone here will know what the problem is
or how to correct it, but there are several things you can try that
may help. First, you didn't say whether you formatted the SD cards.
Whether you did or didn't, they should be formatted in by the camera
before using them. They should *not* be formatted by the computer
using a card reader. Try to borrow a camera, or bring your SD cards
to a computer store and format them in a camera - any camera that
uses SD cards. Take several shots with each card. Later, assuming
no problems taking pictures, see if you can transfer the shots to
your computer. If so, put one of the cards in the Vivitar X30 and
format it. If you get a media error when the card is placed in the
camera, will the X30 allow you to format it?

If the X30 is able to format either of the cards, take a dozen or
so shots and then try transferring the pictures to the computer both
ways, using the camera with a USB cable, and by using a card reader.
If you're still having problems, consider that the camera may be
defective. Just to be sure, if you don't mind the possibility of
wasting more money, buy or borrow a 256MB or 512MB card and see how
it goes. These should be very inexpensive. If you're still having
problems with the camera, see if Vivitar will replace or fix the
camera. You may be better off just getting a new camera, though.
There are many nice, inexpensive ones available, and they probably
won't have a "Vivitar" label on them.