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[OM] Re: formatting

Subject: [OM] Re: formatting
From: Manuel Viet <oly@xxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Wed, 12 Jul 2006 15:25:58 +0200
Le mercredi 12 Juillet 2006 14:46, John Hermanson a écrit :
> Would someone explain why formatting a cf or xd card with a computer
> would render it unrecognizable when put into the camera?  A third party
> wants to know.

That's pure marketing consumer lock-in from Olympus (boooooooooh !!) ; the 
formater must digitaly "sign" the card for the camera to recognize it, and 
the camera use various flags located in (usualy) free spots of the medium for 
various purposes (signal a panoramic picture). Olympus, in a gesture of 
mercy, made the card pc readable (understand : the olympus format is FAT 
compatible for reading purposes on a computer), but don't even dare thinking 
of writing anything on it from a computer : you could destroy any "special 
bits" at any time, and that would kill the card (the firmware would refuse to 
recognize it as olympus original). It seems that sandisks readers may be 
compatible though, because sandisk makes the xD for olympus and have a 
license to make proper read / write devices. But check for claims of 
compatibility.

On the other hand, this behaviour helps greatly in simplifying the firmware of 
the camera which is only a tailor crafted subset of a true FAT compatible 
software.

But the main purpose is to compel the user into buying olympus branded cards 
only (booooooooooh again !!) ; it would be like using a 23 mm wide film in a 
conventional camera : that would be mostly compatible with enlargers, but you 
wouldn't be able to put "unauthorized" films in it.
-- 
Manuel Viet
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