CF card format query

I have a new Canon EOS 20D with SanDisk 1.0GB Ultra II CF card. After taking a few experimental shots I re-formatted the card via the camera and now the INFO panel on the camera tells me the card's volume is only 964Mb. Of course my total picture taking capacity has dropped from about 270 to 239 as a reduction of the 40 Megs or so. Is this a fault with the card or is it normal? Some advice would be much appreciated.

Thanks

Adrian

[T0MAT01]

Often new cf cards will come with some bundled software saved onto the card. You wont be able to see it on the camera and you can probably only get at it if you use a card reader instad of using the camera's USB connection but that would be my guess for the reduced storage space.

[md644]

What Tumbletown said....

I might add that with some Sandisk cards, you get a free "file recovery" utility on the card ("File Rescue" or some such name), which could prove VERY useful if you ever have an "accident" with your CF cards, so you might want to check for it using a card reader.

[Zone]

Originally Posted by Tumbletown

Of course my total picture taking capacity has dropped from about 270 to 239 as a reduction of the 40 Megs or so.

I'd also check at what quality you have your (presumably) jpeg settings set at as Large/Fine equates to 3.6MB per capture according to steves digicams.

Thank you all for your replies. I've just been contacted by a colleague who has directed me to several web sites about this 'problem'. It appears to be simply the difference between card manufacturers specs (1MB = 1,000,000 bytes) while operating systems use the binary system (1MB = 1,048,576 Bytes). Also the unformatted capacity and formatted capacity are different due to the way the latter is calculated by cylinders/heads/sectors and bytes per track. All interesting stuff but at least I don't have a fault!