I'm afraid of the answer..... Memory card ?

[Camerajunkie]

So, I decided that I wanted more room for pictures since I upped my resolution and the like on the D50. I bought a Sandisk Ultra II HC 4GB card and loaded it into my camera and it flashes "CHA". What does that mean? Because it's not working and now after looking a bit, I'm worried that the card isn't compatible, though that would be SOOO stupid.

Thanks.

CJ

[Classic96]

Technically the D50 isn't compatible with SDHC cards. Back when I had the D50 though, I was able to find a 4gb SD card that wasn't HC and it worked just fine.

Have you tried formatting the card in the camera just in case?

FYI the card I was using in the D50 was a RiData 4gb Pro 150x. A quick google search shows out of stock on every site I checked. I still have mine if you're interested in buying it.

[Camerajunkie]

Yeah, I tried formatting and it still says "Cha". I wondered if it would be the HC more than the size. Grrrr.

I'm trying to convince hubby this means I need a more expensive camera but he's not biting, lol.

[David Metsky]

If the camera doesn't support SDHC no amount of formatting is going to make it work. The cards look the same, but they aren't.

[Visual Reality]

You will need a non-HC 4GB card. I use Transcend 150x 4GB cards and they work perfect.

[Camerajunkie]

Good news is that my sister wants a back-up card for her D80, so she's buying it off of me at cost, woohoo! So at least I'm not out the $$.

[Wowzer]

Check out DealRAM.com for good prices on SD cards. I'm sure there are other price checking places, but I've always used dealram.com to search for me.

[jcon]

Back when I was buying cards I found NewEgg.com was the cheapest. Great place to buy from.

[K1W1]

Good news is that my sister wants a back-up card for her D80, so she's buying it off of me at cost, woohoo! So at least I'm not out the $$.

Don't muck around with cards greater than 2GB on a D50.
Yes, they can be made to work but you are using smoke and mirrors and one day, one really important day when you get that once in a lifetime shot it is guaranteed that the smoke will escape or the mirrors will break.
Buy 2 x 2GB plain old ordinary SD cards instead.
On a D50 you get 350 RAW images on a 2GB card so how many do you actually want on one card anyway? (Don't believe it when the camera tells you that you only get 135 RAW images per GB, it's being conservative).

[Visual Reality]

What? Am I the only one confused by K1W1's last post?

They "can be made to work"? They work just fine, what't the problem?

[David Metsky]

The SD card format is designed to support 2G of addressable space. By playing games with the last bit, you can double the addressable space to 4G. But, that makes the card more susceptible to parity errors and data corruption.

So, while it works when nothing goes wrong, a 4G SD card is not as robust as a 2G SD card. It's up to you if it is worth the risk for the convenience of having a 4G card versus two 2G cards.

[Visual Reality]

Everyone says this, and I still have yet to see it actually happen. I think it's all hearsay.

[K1W1]

Everyone says this, and I still have yet to see it actually happen. I think it's all hearsay.

If you search hard enough you will find plenty of posts on forums from people who have destroyed 4GB SD cards when they have tried to use them in D50's.
The point is that you are asking the camera to do something it was never designed to do and whilst it might work fine for you that does not mean it will work fine for everybody else who may not be as lucky or as computer literate as you are. There is no way I would trust a 4GB SD card in my D50 for important (or any for that matter) photos the risk that they may me corrupted or lost is many times greater than if you simply use a couple of 1 or 2 GB cards.

[Camerajunkie]

Thanks guys, I really appreciate all the pointers and clarifications. I've found 2-2GB cards at a very reasonable price and may go that route. Then I can have those and my 2-1GB cards and I should be set for memory, lol. I just know that during DD's basketball games I was going through 400 shots at a lower rez, and now I want to up it. I don't want to have to trade cards all the time but a 2GB should do me fine. I'd rather be safe when it comes to my pictures. I'm kind of...... well, I never saw baby pictures of me until I was married so I tend to be overly protective of pictures.

[K1W1]

At around 280 large/fine jpegs per GB you now have storage for over 1700 photos. That should last one basketball game especially as you will probably need to change the battery twice to shoot 1700 photos. :D

[Camerajunkie]

I keep a spare battery on me too, lol.