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Fresh Lesson... Of Things We All Know..... Empty your SD Card.

VenomXts

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I let my 64 gig SD card get full.. I tend to take pics off my Air2 via phone for use and it had been a few weeks since I pulled the SD card... Well today I was mid flight lining up a Pano shot I wanted and bam, SD card full... However I still have 35 pic capacity left so at least got a pic of what I wanted...

Would of been a better pano....
 
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While this is more of a "commercial" tip it could apply to anyone who is flying and wants to ensure you're likely to get that shot..... After every battery change put in a fresh (freshly formatted) SD card. Change Battery = SD Swap! This way you are always FRESH with the SD card and should you have a card/aircraft failure (this is how I learned this valuable lesson) you don't have more than ONE flight lost. We lost 4 HORS of irreplaceable footage in 2016 of Commercial Footage (lost revenue) while taking a quick "Scenic Flight" between jobs. In-Flight battery failure, of course over water, and BAM! $1,000 of footage was in the bottom of the lake entertaining the fishes :)

At the very least make it a habit of changing out the card after every flying session/day.
 
I am only a hobbyist flyer so I only change my card after flying for the day, however if I was shooting in a very scenic area (ie., on vacation), I would likely change my card after every flight for the reasons mentioned above.

Also, I only use cards large enough for my needs or purposes (panos and occasional 2.7K video) so my largest card is only 32GB. I follow the same rule with my DSLRs.

Chris
 
In addition to the comments, I recommend formatting the card via the drone. Also don’t fill your card to capacity, if anything goes wrong your card may become corrupted.
 
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In addition to the comments, I recommend formatting the card via the drone. Also don’t fill your card to capacity, if anything goes wrong your card may become corrupted.


Why ONLY format with the aircraft?

I've got literally dozens of cards and I format them regularly with my Windows based laptop. This allows me to add my simple text file "If found" with contact information etc.
 
Since most all I do is commercial work, I remove all images and videos to the PC into folders labeled for the client
 
I trf my files to a portable ssd.
Then once i have confirmed that fikes are good, i erase all but the last file from card. This keeps file name sequence working properly. Otherwise i end up with lots of repeating names/numbers
 
Why ONLY format with the aircraft?

I've got literally dozens of cards and I format them regularly with my Windows based laptop. This allows me to add my simple text file "If found" with contact information etc.
If that works for you, great. As a professional photographer I format the card in the camera I’m using. It reduces the risk of corruption.
 
If that works for you, great. As a professional photographer I format the card in the camera I’m using. It reduces the risk of corruption.
What makes you think it reduces the risk of corruption? Microsoft invented the FAT32/exFAT filesystem, I'd expect their implementation to be at least as reliable as DJI's.

Format on your computer or in the drone or camera, it doesn't matter. All the ones and zeros will end up in the right places either way.
 
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I've got literally dozens of cards and I format them regularly with my Windows based laptop. This allows me to add my simple text file "If found" with contact information etc.
When I format the cards I do it in the drone, take it out then add the "If Found" information from the computer or hook up the drone to the computer and transfer the file.
 
I let my 64 gig SD card get full.. I tend to take pics off my Air2 via phone for use and it had been a few weeks since I pulled the SD card... Well today I was mid flight lining up a Pano shot I wanted and bam, SD card full... However I still have 35 pic capacity left so at least got a pic of what I wanted...

Would of been a better pano....
OK, please excuse my ignorance but i am computer/technologically illiterate. Retired and was always busy in other areas of life. That being said, just bought a drone for the first time and although i have an SD card installed in it, I never take it out as all my pics/vids are automatically(i don't even know IF it's automatic or if there's a setting) sent to my phone. Do I still have to "format" the card? And if so, other than watching more videos to learn what that is, how do you know when to do this? My drone is a mini2. Thx
 
OK, please excuse my ignorance but i am computer/technologically illiterate. Retired and was always busy in other areas of life. That being said, just bought a drone for the first time and although i have an SD card installed in it, I never take it out as all my pics/vids are automatically(i don't even know IF it's automatic or if there's a setting) sent to my phone. Do I still have to "format" the card? And if so, other than watching more videos to learn what that is, how do you know when to do this? My drone is a mini2. Thx
Think of it this way, even if you are getting pics on your phone via download the drone is saving to that card to do so. IF you don't clean it off the drone cant write to it.

I know all these people say format but i just take my card out cut/paste the stuff I have to my computer and stick it back in.
 
OK, please excuse my ignorance but i am computer/technologically illiterate. Retired and was always busy in other areas of life. That being said, just bought a drone for the first time and although i have an SD card installed in it, I never take it out as all my pics/vids are automatically(i don't even know IF it's automatic or if there's a setting) sent to my phone. Do I still have to "format" the card? And if so, other than watching more videos to learn what that is, how do you know when to do this? My drone is a mini2. Thx
Make sure you're getting the High Resolution images and not "just thumbnails". Compare the images on the card to the ones stored on your phone to be sure.
 
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Ya just to reflect my camera knowledge, I'm not even sure what thumbnails are!! ? I will look it up tho and take your advice. TY
Thumbnails are small low resolution copies of an image. They are quick to load and take up minimal storage space as opposed to Full Resolution images.
 
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