Rotten luck: how my test shots got wiped

David Lee

20/8/2021

Translation: Veronica Bielawski

Recently, I got to test two of the cheapest and one of the most expensive cameras on the market – the perfect opportunity for a direct comparison. Unfortunately, it seems the cheap cameras suspected they would lose. Here’s how they sabotaged my review.

This is one of those «what I wanted to do» stories.

What I wanted to do is a special kind of camera review: the worst vs. the best. Or something along those lines. Every picture I took with the two cheap cameras – the Agfa DC5200 and Sony W830 – I also took with the Fujifilm GFX 100S.

But nothing came of this planned comparison. I lost most of the test shots. No, not because I’m such a scatterbrain, but due to the unacceptable behaviour of the cheap cameras.

Russian roulette with memory cards

The first odd thing I noticed while testing the cameras were the constant reading errors. The Fujifilm GFX 100S didn’t recognise my memory cards correctly. Sure, card errors can happen. But with this frequency? I was confused.

After checking and reformatting the memory cards at home, they worked again. Off I went again to take more test shots. This time, everything seemed to work smoothly.

But I went back home only to find that the images I had taken with the Fujifilm were gone. And, once again, the Fujifilm couldn’t read the memory cards.

Rinse, repeat. It took me a while to understand the root of the issue, but I did finally get to the bottom of it.

The problem

The Fujifilm GFX 100S and the two cheap point-and-shoot cameras use different memory card formats. The Fujifilm uses ExFAT, the point-and-shoots use FAT32. Unlike most cameras, which can handle both formats, these only work with either or.

But that in and of itself wouldn’t be so tragic. If I had known this, I would have used separate cards. There’s usually also a warning before the camera reformats the memory card.

Not so on the cheap point-and-shoots. They reformat any memory card that’s not in FAT32 as soon as the camera is turned on – without any prompt or warning. The process is very quick, too. So quick I don’t notice it.

This means that every time I insert an ExFAT memory card into these cameras, it gets wiped clean without my knowledge. Not to mention that ExFAT has become the standard format for memory cards – it’s the only way to store video recordings larger than 4 GB.

A loss and disqualification

Despite all the trouble and turmoil, I got lucky and did get a few comparison images. Here's how the three cameras fare in semi-darkness:

Agfa DC5200: way too dark

Sony CyberShot W830: brighter, but blurry

Fujifilm GFX 100S: the reference shot

Of course, the comparison is unfair given the vast differences in price. The Fujifilm is a hundred times more expensive than the cheapest point-and-shoot. But the sabotage enacted by the cheap compact cameras is even more unfair. For that reason, they fail this test on two counts: firstly because of image quality, and secondly due to unsportsmanlike conduct.

David Lee

Senior Editor

David.Lee@digitecgalaxus.ch

My interest in IT and writing landed me in tech journalism early on (2000). I want to know how we can use technology without being used. Outside of the office, I’m a keen musician who makes up for lacking talent with excessive enthusiasm.

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