Danger lending your camera

[Philipa Jane]

Recently a work mate was talking about going away to play softball in another state and would be away for the week.
He talked about buying a new digital camera for the trip.
Without hesitation I said not to buy one as I had two and could lend him one.
The following day I gave him the camera and all the accessories to go with it.
The first thing he did was to plug it into his computer to look for the operating manual.
He let me know the next day that there was still some photo's on the memory stick which were now on his pc.
OMG did I leave any pictures of Philipa on that camera?
That thought brought me out in a hot hot sweat.
I guess not as he has not mentioned anything about the woman who looks decidedly like my sister.LOL He is the type of guy to have a lot of fun at my expense.
There will not be a next time but I do strongly advise anybody thinking of lending a camera to clear the memory first.
PJ

[Phyliss]

OOOOOPPPPSSS

RULE Number ONE when lending anything, STERILIZE it first.

[Marcyme]

OOOOOPPPPSSS

RULE Number ONE when lending anything, STERILIZE it first.

But just deleting pics from a memory card is not enough. Unless they have been written over they can still be easily recovered. CCleaner is a good free program that deletes and overwrites data.

[Karren H]

My son and wife just go into my briefcase and borrow my cybershot... So I always move my photos to a flash drive or external drive after taken... But then again all my 6 flash drives are in my briefcase too.... I have a dedicated 250 gig usb drive for my fem photos and movies...

[sherri]

But just deleting pics from a memory card is not enough. Unless they have been written over they can still be easily recovered. CCleaner is a good free program that deletes and overwrites data.

Wait a second. I just recently acquired my first digital camera, so I'm still learning. Are you saying that software on my computer can write data to the camera's memory card? I thought it was a one-way street - i.e., I could only retrieve data from the camera. And I had no idea third-party software could interface with the camera.

[jenna_woods]

that was close a lesson well learned.

[Angelofsomekind]

I can't tell you how many times that goes through my head when I'm showing someone pictures on my camera.

[Marcyme]

Wait a second. I just recently acquired my first digital camera, so I'm still learning. Are you saying that software on my computer can write data to the camera's memory card? I thought it was a one-way street - i.e., I could only retrieve data from the camera. And I had no idea third-party software could interface with the camera.

If you are using a card reader the card is just another memory device. Data can be transfered both ways. Some cameras will allow this too.

[Jessinthesprings]

I never lent my camera befor but I did have my nephew go through mine. He asked who the girl was and my wife told him. He's not comfortable with it but he still treats me with respect and that's the best we can hope for... Does not matter the family will all have to find out sometime and that was an easy way to tell him lol

[Taylor186]

My rule number 1? Don't loan any memory laden device. But, that's just me.

[sherri]

If you are using a card reader the card is just another memory device. Data can be transfered both ways. Some cameras will allow this too.

Okay, I gotcha. I guess I assumed the cards were way more proprietary than that. Thanks so much for the tip.

*****

Btw, I use two memory cards -- one for Sherri, the other for everything else. But I'd prolly go buy a new 2gig card -- or suggest that the loanee get one -- if I was gonna loan my camera.

[SuzanneBender]

Outed myself that way to a good friend. I was showing pics of my wife and kids on the Iphone and whoops, a pic of Suzanne hoisting a martini on the deck. I flipped right past it but she asked me to go back. Trust me the twin sister lie didn't work either.

[sherri52]

I erase my pics as I download into the camera. Every once in awhile I notice a pic or two that didn't make the cut. I haven't been embarassed yet!

[Fab Karen]

If you've got such secrets, think before you do such things. You don't want to end up like in the movie "European Vacation" where their video camera gets stolen with a naughty video still on it. The next day there's a poster up advertising a movie: "the American sl*t"

[IngeInCO]

I can't tell you how many times that goes through my head when I'm showing someone pictures on my camera.

Totally!

[Tess]

I guess those old film cameras had a least one advantage.

[trannie T]

I guess those old film cameras had a least one advantage.

Not necessarily true Tess.

Some years ago I took a roll of film to my local minilab to be developed. When I returned to pick up my photos the owner gave me a stern look and said that her technician did not like the photos. I quickly panicked trying to think of what had been on that roll. I had taken a few nude photos of myself months before but was sure they were on another roll. As I was wondering how much I was going to need to apologise she showed me the offending photos. I had been on the desert and had several photos of a tarantula. The photo technician did not care for spiders.

[SuzanneBender]

I guess those old film cameras had a least one advantage.

Not really think about all the unknown copies of the pics those folks in the photo lab have made. I always wondered why the young man in the photo mat drive through winked as he gave me my pics.

[rachel_rachel]

My first reaction when i saw the title of the thread was OHH NO! There's a lesson learned.

I have one simple rule.. I do not lend anything out, if i do, i go with it. That goes for anything, Tools, electrical equipment.. oh and i charge $45 an hour for the privilage.

[sandra-leigh]

Okay, I gotcha. I guess I assumed the cards were way more proprietary than that. Thanks so much for the tip.

Camera (and cell-phone) memory cards up to 2 Gb are written in DOS FAT16 format; above that size, they are written in DOS FAT32 format. (If your camera is old enough, it will not be able to accept a memory card larger than 2 Gb.) This is true for Sony Memory Sticks, for SD and Compact SD, for xD, and for Compact Flash, and probably for anything else you are likely to encounter -- with the possible exception of the "disposable" digital cameras that are sold with "film processing" included and do not have their memory accessible: those could potentially have a different format just to discourage "reuse".

[Karren H]

Actually.... When my son takes the camera.... I'm more scared at what he might leave on there for me to see than visa versa... Especially when he and his friends go to a "Furrie" convention.. Lol.

[sherri]

above that size, they are written in DOS FAT32 format ... This is true for ... SD and Compact SD ...

I have no idea what this means to me in practical terms, but I believe ya baby!

I am interested in checking out one of those card readers that Marcy mentioned tho. I wouldn't mind being able to massage a pic on my computer, then copy it back to my camera card, just for show and tell purposes.

[Karen__Starr]

Although I never loan my camera out when I think that I someone else might gain access to it and scroll through the pictures I change out the memory card and (just to be safe) remove the batteries so that there is no chance of anything left in memory. I have several memory cards, the naughty/fun one is marked while the others are not. This gives me a clear indication of which one is which. The best thing to do is once finished taking pictures is to download them to your computer followed by erasing them from the memory card immediately.

Just about all Windows based computers running XP, Vista or Windows 7 will auto open your cameras memory card in Windows Explorer upon inserting into a USB port.

[docrobbysherry]

When my daughter stumbled across pictures of Sherry years ago on our computer, she said," Why do these ladies look so weird?"


I said, " If they bother u, don't look at them!" And she hasn't since! ( To my knowledge).

PS: They were mixed in with pictures of models, movie stars, etc.
NOT any more!

[5150 Girl]

Well, anyone I would trust enough to lend such a high dollar item to, allready knows, so if they would sytumble on to a pic,,, No big deal