[eandrasi]

Okay, so first off, I havn't slept for a couple of days trying to figure out this problem.
Well me and my wife each got a Vivicam 3603z digital camera for Christmas. I know about Vivitar's reputation but it was a gift and it does take decent pictures of out kids. The only problem is that it only has an internal 8Mb memory however the manual says that it is expandable with an SD card. I have previous experience with some of the higher end Sony Digital SLR cameras so I went off to the store, Wal-Mart, and picked up the cheapest SD card that I could find. 256Mb, Went I brought it home I put it in the camera and it asked me to format the card, I then tried on both cameras and neither camera could format the card. I then poped the card into the card reader on the computer and tries formating it as FAT 16 bit. Neither camera could read it then either, even after trying to reformat it in the camera. I then went to FutureShop and bought a higher end ATP 512Mb card that is guaranteed 100% compatible with all cameras. Guess what? Still won't work. I'm thinking that there is no way that two cameras and two memory sticks are defective. I have even downloaded software for the web to wipe out the SD card. The camera will also recognize that the card is locked if I flick the switch on the side of the card. I have emailed tech support at both Vivitar and and ATP to ask for their advice but no luck yet. Does anyone know if Vivitar uses a proprietary SD card or something stupid like that. I have googled everywhere and can't find out.

Any help with this will be much appreciated. Also sorry for writting a book.

[mason123]

wlee here's what i found.
i picked up one of these cams today and an sd card that i couldn't get to work. after much kabitzing about with other cards i had, i finally put it in another camera that i knew was working. first i used the other cam ( a mercury brand) to format the card.
them connected to my pc and right clicked for a drop down menue. i then selected format. this showed me that it was formatted in fat32 file system.
i then used the drop down to select the old fat file system and formatted the card.
stuffed it into the vivitar and away we go!!
i might howevev suggest that after you use a usb to transfer your pics to your pc that you select move or delete your pics from the cam. if you let the cam or pc do it automatically you may have to use the 2 cam trick all over again
HAPPY SHOOTING!