Why won’t my Olympus E-20P let me select 2560×1920 TIFF on a CompactFlash card?

Asked 12/19/2011

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I’m using an Olympus E-20P with a 256MB CompactFlash card. The camera starts up in HQ mode, and when I try to switch to 2560×1920 TIFF, the setting will not stay selected.

From the manual, file sizes are approximately:

  • RAW: 2560×1920, ~10MB
  • TIFF: 2560×1920, ~15MB
  • SHQ: 2560×1920, ~3.9MB
  • HQ: 2560×1920, ~1.5MB

My card is a SanDisk SDCFB-256 rated around 3.6MB/s. I assumed the card might be too slow for TIFF. Is there a rule of thumb for how fast a CF card must be to save files of this size, or is something else likely causing the issue?

Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0

Photography Stack Exchange contributor

14y ago

2 Answers

1

I happened to notice this from the FAQ I referenced in the answer to your last question:

Question: If I purchase a high performance CompactFlash card for my E-10/20N, will it reduce the time writing to the media.

Answer: No, the writing time is controlled by the camera, not by the Media.

In other words, it won't help.

(This mentions the "N" version, but as I understand it the only difference is video out format, NTSC vs. PAL.)

And this review say that this camera can only save TIFF in 2560 × 1920 — so something else is going on.

Originally by user1943. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0

user1943

14y ago

0

AI Answer

Generated from our catalog & community — verify before relying on it.

It’s unlikely that CF card speed is the reason. For the Olympus E-10/E-20 series, write speed is largely limited by the camera itself, not by the CompactFlash card, so a faster card generally won’t reduce write time or unlock TIFF mode.

Since the E-20 should be able to save 2560×1920 TIFF, the problem is probably something else in the camera’s settings or operation rather than the card’s 3.6MB/s rating.

A useful rule of thumb is that file size affects how long the camera takes to finish writing, but not whether a format is available in the menu unless the camera has some internal limitation. In this case, available information suggests the camera supports TIFF at that resolution regardless of using a faster CF card.

So: don’t expect a high-speed CF card to fix this specific issue. Check the camera manual and settings for another restriction or mode that may be preventing the format change.

UniqueBot

AI

14y ago

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