[TerminusVox]

Hello, I'm new here! I used to know a couple things about basic 35mm SLR with a basic Minolta but I haven't used a "serious" camera in decades. Recently, in cleaning out a house for my employer, I found a Pentax *ist DL.

The hourly rate is small but being allowed to keep discarded or abandoned property is a nice perk! Just have to let the owner of the company know what you'd like to keep to make sure he doesn't want or need it since actually he bought the house and contents.

So now I have this Pentax *ist DL, used in an 'as-is' condition. I ordered and received new rechargeable batteries and the camera does power up. No memory card was present so I did a quick search for what it would support and ended up with a 32 GB "SanDisk Extreme PRO SDHC UHS-I Card"

With no memory card present it shows "Memory card error". With brand new card installed it still shows "Memory card error". Walking through the menu to format the card and it comes back to "Memory card error". Using another computer to format the card and it comes up "Memory card error". I'm getting the idea that what I have here is a Memory card error.

After a brief search here I checked for what version of the firmware is running on the camera and in case it helps the camera has VER: 1.00.

So my question now is what's my next step? Is the card I bought too big? Something I saw suggested It might be with the ver 1.00 firmware.

Suggestions? Thank you in advance!

[dantonvb]

Originally the *ist DL only supports up to 2GB cards. You need the last firmware to read high capacity cards. Press menu buttom when powering up the camera and firmware version will be shown. The firmware version to read high capacity cards is 1.03.
To update the firmware you will need a card with up to 2GB capacity.

[Adam]

Is the card I bought too big?

You will need to update the firmware (using a standard SD, not SDHC card) before SDHC cards up to 32Gb will be supported. Most standard SD cards are 2Gb or smaller, with some at 4Gb. Here's one option:

Amazon.com: Transcend 2 GB SD Flash Memory Card (TS2GSDC): Electronics

Once you've updated the firmware, the card you currently have should work just fine. Note that the DL produces very small files, so even a 2Gb memory card will get you plenty of shots.

[dantonvb]

The firmware download page is Software Downloads : Support & Service | RICOH IMAGING

[E-man]

One thing. If and when you decide to upgrade the firmware, make sure you have a FRESH set of batteries in the camera. The last thing on earth you want to have happen is for the batteries to die and your camera to get bricked. The first Pentax DSLR I had was a pristine *istDL that I picked up about eight years ago. I had it for a little over a week when I tried to upgrade the firmware and that was the result. Good luck with the camera. It's a great place to start get started with digital photography.

[TerminusVox]

Thank you so much, everyone! I ordered the card recommended here, downloaded the firmware at the link found here, fully charged the batteries as recommended here, and it seems to be a success. Now I need to read the operators manual which luckily I found with the camera! Thanks again to everyone who responded with exactly what I needed to know!

[MXLX]

Thanks to Google and this thread. I rescued *istDL today, and got the same error. I vaguely remembered this discussion, et voila!

[Lord Lucan]

I vaguely remembered this discussion, et voila!

A good example of why it is not a good idea to delete old "zombie" threads as someone suggested recently.

[MXLX]

Well...
I'll be searching, but if someone has a hint...
The file for Mac comes as a Stuffit file (.sit). Stuffit Expander no longer exists, and the file won't self-extract.

Here's how I managed. (Old thread conservation again...)