I just got my first serious digital camera, a Canon 20D, and the
manual recommends that I format its Compact Flash cards VIA the
camera's format utility before I use them. I've never done this
before and never had a problem and I tend not to fix what ain't broke,
so I wonder what the facts are. I use high quality (Lexar Pro) cards.

I asked this question at the digicam group and got answers ranging
from "Always!" to "Never!" so I thought I'd ask the hardware geeks to
see what they think.

Thanks very much for any help.