The Smart Media cards and Cheltons are notorious for having issues.  Try cleaning the contacts and make sure that the card is in fully, reformat it on a PC and sprinkle holy water on it.  In general it is good to have a few around.  There is a limit on the size so 16 meg is good (forgot what the limit is).  You can still find smart media cards online- ebay and olympus still sells them, but another option is to get an adapter that uses xD cards which are more readily available.  Look through the Chelton list http://www.cheltonefispilots.com.  There is a lot of information about the smart media issue.

Dan Ballin LEG2 #286